Best Blog Hosting: 7 Sites Reviewed (for 2023)
In blogging, every single decision you make — from start to finish — counts.
Your hosting service of choice, in particular, could either lead to steady growth or countless headaches.
There are truckloads of reviews out there that will help you decide which hosting provider to choose. Unfortunately, this could take hours and hours of head-scratching — thanks to all the conflicting opinions and data across the web.
If you’re part of the Master Blogging family, there’s no way I’ll let you go through all that trouble.
This post covers 9 of the absolute best web hosting services for bloggers. We’ll take a close look at their features and how they can help accelerate your blogging career.
1. Bluehost
If you’ve been reading up on web hosting services for a while, chances are you’re already familiar with Bluehost.
It is trusted by millions of websites across the globe and has the track record to justify its reputation.
Bluehost highlights
- Reliable uptime and performance — Many bloggers regard Bluehost as the most consistent web hosting company when talking about performance and uptime. That’s impressive considering the massive number of websites that Bluehost supports.
- Low introductory pricing for WordPress websites — Most web hosts offer significantly lower introductory prices, which should increase after a few renewals. Bluehost matches their WordPress introductory plan with unmetered bandwidth, 50GB SSD storage, and more.
- Plenty of third-party integrations — Thanks to its popularity, Bluehost works incredibly well with a long list of third-party integrations. This includes CMS like WordPress and Joomla along with eCommerce platforms like WooCommerce.
What are its hosting packages?
Bluehost’s regular web hosting packages aren’t as affordable as the vast majority of hosting companies on the web.
What they do have is a great deal for customers who plan to build their website with WordPress.
WordPress Hosting for new WordPress users
With Bluehost’s WordPress Hosting plan, you can register your own domain for free. That should remain registered under your account for a period of one year.
You can also get standard features like automated WordPress installation, free SSL certificate, and built-in site analytics.
- Basic — $2.95 per month for one website with 50GB SSD storage space
- Plus — $5.45 per month for unlimited websites with unmetered website storage space
- Choice Plus — $5.45 per month (higher renewal cost than “Plus”) for unlimited websites with unmetered website storage space, domain privacy, and automated backups
WP Pro
Bluehost’s WP Pro package is just like its WordPress Hosting plan — only better.
Its robust feature set includes a comprehensive marketing center, free WordPress theme bundle, and daily scheduled backups. It also has tools for SEO, email marketing, and social media marketing.
- Build — $19.95 per month for unlimited websites and unlimited website storage space
- Grow — $29.95 per month for everything in “Build” plan plus Jetpack Premium, business review tools, SEO tools, and 10GB video compression
- Scale — $49.95 per month for everything in “Grow” plan plus Jetpack Pro, PayPal integration, unlimited backups, and unlimited video compression
eCommerce Hosting
Do you want to monetize your blog by selling products?
Bluehost’s “eCommerce” plan can show you the fastest route to getting a digital storefront up and running.
All plans in this hosting solution come with a free domain, automatic WooCommerce installation, and unmetered bandwidth. If you spend $25 on either Microsoft Advertising or Google Ads, you’ll also get $100 in marketing credits for free.
- Starter — $6.95 per month for one online store, 100GB of SSD storage space, and a pre-installed storefront theme
- Plus — $8.95 per month for unlimited online stores, unmetered SSD storage space, and CodeGuard Backup Basic plan
- Pro — $12.95 per month for everything in “Plus” plan with Bluehost SEO Tools
Shared Web Hosting
Bluehost’s shared hosting solution is good for aspiring website owners who are after flexibility and affordability.
Regardless of the pricing plan you choose, you get integrated domain management, free SSL, and unmetered bandwidth.
What’s great about Bluehost’s shared hosting solution is the proactive “Resource Protection” system. This works by temporarily isolating resource-hungry websites from the server and preventing them from affecting the performance of other sites.
- Basic — $2.95 per month for one website, 50GB of SSD storage space, and unmetered bandwidth
- Plus — $5.45 per month for unlimited websites, unlimited website storage space, and unmetered bandwidth
- Choice Plus — $5.45 per month (higher renewal cost than “Plus”) for everything in “Plus” plan with CodeGuard Basic, and domain privacy
- Pro — $13.95 per month for everything in “Choice Plus” plan with higher server resource allocation and dedicated IP
VPS Hosting
Want something a tad more powerful than a shared host, but don’t have the budget for dedicated hosting?
You may want to take a look at Bluehost’s VPS hosting service.
- Standard — $18.99 per month for 30GB SSD storage space, 2GB memory, and 1TB bandwidth
- Enhanced — $29.99 per month for 60GB SSD storage space, 4GB memory, and 2TB bandwidth
- Ultimate — $59.99 per month for 120GB SSD storage space, 8GB memory, and 3TB bandwidth
Dedicated Hosting
Bluehost’s dedicated hosting makes sure your high-traffic website has enough resources to keep running smoothly and reliably.
To help you manage your server, your dedicated hosting service will include Bluehost’s advanced cPanel interface. This lets you control everything in one place — from your professional email accounts to your databases.
- Standard — $79.99 per month for 500GB website storage space, 5TB bandwidth, and 4GB memory
- Enhanced — $99.99 per month for 1TB website storage space, 10TB bandwidth, and 8GB memory
- Premium — $119.99 per month for 15TB website storage space, 15TB bandwidth, and 16GB memory
Performance and uptime
There’s no question that Bluehost is one of the most dependable web hosting companies around. It’s definitely worth considering if you want to enjoy maximum uptime and consistent page loading speeds.
I’ll just let data from various sources do the talking.
- Average Uptime — 99.98%
- Lowest Monthly Uptime (Past 12 Months) — 99.96%
- Highest Monthly Uptime (Past 12 Months) — 100%
- Loading Speed — 0.56 seconds
User-friendliness
Bluehost uses a clutter-free visual interface to make sure beginners don’t lose their way around the platform.
You can also have your website live on day one — thanks to Bluehost’s assisted hosting setup process. You just need to specify details like your site’s name, tagline, starting theme, and so on.
Generally, the settings you specify during the initial setup of your Bluehost account won’t have any long-term effects.
Other benefits
- Free domain name registration for your first year
- Free SSL certificates
- Package extras like domain privacy and protection, SiteLock security, CodeGuard Basic, and so on
- Free marketing credits for Microsoft Advertising and Google Ads
- Inclusion of domain parking and subdomain allowance
2. A2 Hosting
In my search for the best web hosting service, one brand is mentioned repeatedly in communities like Web Hosting Talk.
A2 Hosting is another popular web hosting company that’s often compared to SiteGround.
While A2 Hosting can provide faster loading speeds for shared hosting, its uptime is less reliable by a noticeable margin.
A2 Hosting highlights
- Fastest shared hosting around — The most impressive quality of A2 Hosting is speed, specifically for shared hosting plans. You can skip ahead to the “Performance and uptime” section for the hard numbers.
- High storage space allocation — Even the cheapest A2 Hosting package provides up to 100 GB of SSD storage space. That’s way more than what most other hosting companies can provide you even with more expensive plans.
- HackScan — As part of A2 Hosting’s “Perpetual Security” initiative, customers are protected by exclusive features like HackScan. It’s a 24/7 malware protection service that can protect your website from cyber-attacks before they cause harm.
What are its hosting packages?
A2 Hosting has a straightforward pricing model that scales based on server speed.
All hosting packages come with free website migration. Hosting plans from “Drive” and higher also come with free automatic backups and unlimited storage.
- Startup — $2.99 per month for one website and 100GB of SSD storage space
- Drive — $4.99 per month for unlimited websites and unlimited SSD storage space
- Turbo Boost — $9.99 per month for unlimited websites, 2GB memory, and unlimited NVMe storage space
- Turbo Max — $14.99 per month for unlimited websites, 4GB memory, and unlimited NVMe storage space
Performance and uptime
The main reason why A2 Hosting is so well-known in the web hosting community is its shared hosting performance. Server uptime, however, can suffer from occasional dips during certain months.
- Average Uptime — 99.93%
- Lowest Monthly Uptime (Past 12 Months) — 99.70%
- Highest Monthly Uptime (Past 12 Months) — 100%
- Loading Speed — 0.52 seconds
User-friendliness
What I like about A2 Hosting is the seamless support for popular content management systems and website builders.
If you want to use software like WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla, installing them barely requires any setup at all. You can actually integrate them right off the bat by enabling the “auto-install” option while you purchase a hosting plan.
However, bear in mind that the majority of web hosting platforms in this list also have the same feature. The bottom line is, A2 Hosting will help you build a fully functional website even with zero development experience.
Additional benefits
- Free SSL certificates
- Automatic backups for “Drive” plans and higher
- Free CDN powered by Cloudflare
- A2 Optimized Site Accelerator for pre-configured website caching
3. Hostinger
Hostinger is a highly rated web hosting company with surprisingly low prices.
Its core hosting services include eCommerce hosting, cloud hosting, shared hosting, and managed WordPress hosting. There’s also a “Minecraft Server” hosting solution in case you’re into that kind of stuff.
Hostinger highlights
- Great value for long-term customers — Hostinger offers prices as low as $0.99 for a shared hosting account. That is, if you’re willing to commit to them for 48 months.
- Fast page loading speeds — If your website’s performance is your top priority, Hostinger is definitely a strong choice. Performance analysis from multiple sources put it near the top of the fastest web hosting solutions money can buy.
- LiteSpeed Cache — Using Hostinger’s WordPress auto-installer integrates the LiteSpeed Cache plugin into your CMS ecosystem. LiteSpeed is a powerful web server with built-in security features and a robust cache engine for maximum performance and stability.
What are its hosting packages?
Hostinger’s vision is to make great web hosting accessible to everyone — regardless of budget — with its range of hosting solutions.
Shared Web Hosting
It’s hard to top Hostinger’s shared hosting packages due to their amazingly low prices.
Each shared hosting plan includes benefits like the LiteSpeed Cache, Cloudflare, free SSL certificate, and a free professional email account.
Take note that you can get a huge discount on your Hostinger plan by choosing a 48-month term.
- Single Shared Hosting — $2.99 per month ($0.99 per month for 48 months) for one website, and100GB bandwidth
- Premium Shared Hosting — $5.99 per month ($2.89 per month for 48 months) for 2x server resource allocation, unlimited websites, unlimited bandwidth, and free domain registration
- Business Shared Hosting — $6.99 per month ($3.99 per month for 48 months) for 4x server resource allocation, unlimited websites, unlimited bandwidth, free domain, and daily backups
Cloud Hosting
Hostinger offers cloud hosting solutions that even brand new website owners can afford. Even the basic plan comes with a sizeable SSD storage capacity, support for unlimited websites, and a 99.99% uptime guarantee.
- Startup — $12.95 per month ($7.45 per month for 48 months) for unlimited websites, unlimited bandwidth, 3GB memory, 100GB SSD storage space, and 1x speed boost
- Professional — $22.95 per month ($14.95 per month for 48 months) for unlimited websites, unlimited bandwidth, 6GB memory, 140GB SSD storage space, and 2x speed boost
- Global — $60 per month ($37 per month for 48 months) for unlimited websites, unlimited bandwidth, 16GB memory, 200GB SSD storage space, and 4x speed boost
Managed WordPress Hosting
Managed WordPress hosting is as good as it gets with Hostinger’s affordable price ranges.
Some of the key features of their WordPress hosting packages include a collection of themes, plugins, and advanced security features. You will also be supported by a dedicated support team to get expert advice on everything WordPress-related.
- WordPress Starter — $3.75 per month ($2.15 per month for 48 months) for unlimited websites, 20GB website storage space, unlimited bandwidth, and weekly automated backups
- WordPress Premium — $12.95 per month ($7.45 per month for 48 months) for unlimited websites, 100GB website storage space, unlimited bandwidth, and daily automated backups
- WordPress Business — $22.95 per month ($14.95 per month for 48 months) for unlimited websites, 140GB website storage space, unlimited bandwidth, and daily automated backups
Cloud VPS Hosting
Hostinger’s Cloud VPS plans combine the cost-effectiveness of VPS and the reliability of cloud hosting.
You can get dedicated server resources, SSD storage, and full root access — all for the price of a shared host.
There’s also a good variety of specs to allow Hostinger’s cloud VPS solutions to fit different budgets.
- 1 vCPU — $4.95 per month ($3.95 per month for 48 months) for 1GB memory, 20GB SSD storage space, and 1TB bandwidth
- 2 vCPU — $12.45 per month ($8.95 per month for 48 months) for 2GB memory, 40GB SSD storage space, and 2TB bandwidth
- 3 vCPU — $18.95 per month ($12.95 per month for 48 months) for 3GB memory, 60GB SSD storage space, and 3TB bandwidth
- 4 vCPU — $23.95 per month ($15.95 per month for 48 months) for 4GB memory, 80GB SSD storage space, and 4TB bandwidth
- 6 vCPU — $37.95 per month ($23.95 per month for 48 months) for 6GB memory, 120GB SSD storage space, and 6TB bandwidth
- 8 vCPU — $45.95 per month ($29.95 per month for 48 months) for 8GB memory, 160GB SSD storage space, and 8TB bandwidth
Performance and uptime
Hostinger’s reputation isn’t just earned with the cheap pricing of their web hosting packages. The company also consistently delivers superb page loading speed and solid uptime.
- Average Uptime — 99.93%
- Lowest Monthly Uptime (Past 12 Months) — 99.65%
- Highest Monthly Uptime (Past 12 Months) — 100%
- Loading Speed — 0.455 seconds
User-friendliness
Beginners won’t have any problems getting things done with Hostinger’s user interface — that’s for sure.
To help them get up to speed, Hostinger also has a comprehensive library of tutorials and useful resources. Most of these articles contain step-by-step instructions so you can focus on content creation as soon as possible.
Hostinger customers can also take advantage of the Zyro website builder. It lets users drag and drop elements into place while utilizing AI-powered tools to speed up website development.
Other benefits
- Free lifetime SSL certificates
- Elaborate learning resources for beginners
- Github integration
- Multilingual customer support for non-native English speakers
Click here to get your Hostinger account!
4. Cloudways
Cloudways is a company that’s not on everybody’s “top hosting services” list. But when I learned about their web hosting solution, I immediately knew that it deserves to be mentioned.
Put simply, Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform with plenty of standout features.
What makes Cloudways different is that they don’t have ownership of the servers you’ll use with their hosting services. They’re more accurately described as an intermediary service that connects you and other cloud platforms.
These third-party providers include Google Cloud, Vultr, Linode, and Amazon Web Services.
Aside from being reliable, the “managed” aspect of Cloudways’s hosting solution allows website owners to focus more on their business.
Cloudways highlights
- Solid uptime — A key advantage of cloud hosting services like Cloudways is the uptime guarantee. Since your website is essentially hosted on a network of servers, the chances of experiencing downtimes are little to none.
- “Auto-Healing” servers — Issues with Cloudways’s servers are automatically and rapidly resolved with the “Auto-Healing” feature. This allows you to focus on the marketing and creative aspects of blogging with peace of mind.
- Flexible pricing — Cloudways’s “Pay As You Go” policy is one of the reasons why their cloud hosting services are made so affordable. With this system in place, you only have to pay for the resources your website consumes.
What are its hosting packages?
Cloudways’s Pay As You Go system has different options for website owners big and small. You can also choose to be billed monthly or hourly.
It is, however, important to note that the pricing levels scale based on the data centers you wish to use.
DigitalOcean data centers
- $10 per month — Comes with 1GB memory, 25GB SSD storage space, and 1TB bandwidth
- $22 per month — Comes with 2GB memory, 50GB SSD storage space, and 2TB bandwidth
- $42 per month — Comes with 4GB memory, 80GB SSD storage space, and 4TB bandwidth
- $80 per month — Comes with 8GB memory, 160GB SSD storage space, and 5TB bandwidth
Linode data centers
- $12 per month — Comes with 1GB memory, 25GB SSD storage space, and 1TB bandwidth
- $24 per month — Comes with 2GB memory, 50GB SSD storage space, and 2TB bandwidth
- $50 per month — Comes with 4GB memory, 80GB SSD storage space, and 4TB bandwidth
- $90 per month — Comes with 8GB memory, 160GB SSD storage space, and 5TB bandwidth
Vultr data centers
- $11 per month — Comes with 1GB memory, 25GB SSD storage space, and 1TB bandwidth
- $23 per month — Comes with 2GB memory, 55GB SSD storage space, and 2TB bandwidth
- $44 per month — Comes with 4GB memory, 80GB SSD storage space, and 3TB bandwidth
- $84 per month — Comes with 8GB memory, 160GB SSD storage space, and 4TB bandwidth
AWS data centers
- $36.51 per month — Comes with 1.75GB memory, configurable SSD storage space, and pay as you go bandwidth
- $86.77 per month — Comes with 3.75GB memory, configurable SSD storage space, and pay as you go bandwidth
- $176.26 per month — Comes with 8GB memory, configurable SSD storage space, and pay as you go bandwidth
- $274.33 per month — Comes with 16GB memory, configurable SSD storage space, and pay as you go bandwidth
Google Cloud data centers
- $33.30 per month — Comes with 1.70GB memory, configurable SSD storage space, and pay as you go bandwidth
- $73.62 per month — Comes with 3.75GB memory, configurable SSD storage space, and pay as you go bandwidth
- $138.64 per month — Comes with 7.5GB memory, configurable SSD storage space, and pay as you go bandwidth
- $226.05 per month — Comes with 15GB memory, configurable SSD storage space, and pay as you go bandwidth
Performance and uptime
This is what a managed cloud hosting plan can do for your website:
- Average Uptime — 100% with a few minor outages and connectivity issues reported
- Lowest Monthly Uptime (Past 12 Months) — 100%
- Highest Monthly Uptime (Past 12 Months) — 100%
- Loading Speed — 0.54 seconds
User-friendliness
As far as user-friendliness is concerned, Cloudways does not disappoint.
Right after creating your Cloudways account, you can immediately deploy applications like WordPress in a few simple steps. You just need to choose the app, select your preferred data center, and pick a server location.
The sleek and clean user interface pretty much eliminates the learning curve of using the Cloudways platform.
Other benefits
- Easy site cloning
- Proactive and transparent reporting of network issues
- Free SSL
- Real-time server health alerts through CloudwaysBot
- Unlimited application installation
- Automated backups
- Dedicated firewalls for added security
5. WPX Hosting
WPX Hosting is another web hosting company that you won’t find in a lot of hosting-related blog posts.
They only offer WordPress hosting solutions on top of their domain registration services.
Other than faster load times, WPX Hosting also ensures consistent performance and uptime regardless of where users are located.
I highly recommend it for aspiring bloggers who want to use WordPress to bring their ideas to life.
Master Blogging readers can also get a 50% discount on their first month with WPX Hosting.
WPX Hosting highlights
- 37-second live chat customer support — As a WPX Hosting customer for a while, I can confirm that they live up to their “37-second support” promise. You can test this yourself right now by contacting one of their 24/7/365 live chat agents.
- WPX Cloud CDN — To ensure fast loading speeds, all plans include their custom WPX Cloud CDN or Content Delivery Network. A CDN works by leveraging resources from a wide network of servers to deliver web content to users.
- Simplified hosting for WordPress websites — WPX Hosting gets rid of traditional, clunky cPanel interfaces in favor of a one-page hosting management dashboard. This allows the installation of WordPress, the creation of staging sites, and migration requests to be a few clicks away.
What are its hosting packages?
WPX Hosting offers specialized WordPress hosting packages that are good for multiple websites, even with their entry-level plan. They’re not really as affordable as others, but remember that you’re paying for their commitment to excellent customer service.
Customers of all plans also get free unlimited site migrations, unlimited SSL certificates, and a handful of security and performance features.
- Business — $24.99 per month for five websites, 10GB SSD storage space, and 100GB bandwidth
- Professional — $49.99 per month for 15 websites, 20GB SSD storage space, and 200GB bandwidth
- Elite — $99 per month for 35 websites, 40GB SSD storage space, and unlimited bandwidth
Performance and uptime
Granted, WPX Hosting doesn’t have the best reputation in terms of uptime. But it still sits at an impressive 99.95% throughout the year — that’s their guarantee.
WPX Hosting also showed faster loading speeds than other web hosting services in real-world tests.
- Average Uptime — 99.95%
- Lowest Monthly Uptime (Past 12 Months) — Not available
- Highest Monthly Uptime (Past 12 Months) — Not available
- Loading Speed — 0.35 seconds
User-friendliness
WPX Hosting’s principal belief is that managed WordPress hosting doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, the process can be made as easy as creating a social media account.
After registering and hosting your domain, there are clearly labeled, color-coded buttons you can use for important tasks. This includes WordPress installations, site migrations, website creations, and SSL certificate management.
Other benefits
- Free SSL certificates
- Free manual and 28-day automatic site backups
- DDoS protection
- Built-in malware scanner and remover
- Unlimited professional email addresses
- A percentage of WPX Hosting profits helps thousands of homeless and shelter dogs and cats through EveryDogMatters.eu
6. HostGator
To me personally, I always remember a certain video ad whenever I think of HostGator.
If you’re wondering what I’m referring to, the ad starts with the question: “problems with your website?”
HostGator is a mighty popular web hosting service that has been around for a long time. Though the company is founded way back in 2002, their hosting service still continues to make improvements to this day.
HostGator highlights
- Great customer support — While companies like WPX Hosting offer super-fast live chat support, HostGator offers everything. You can reach them via live chat, email, and their 24/7 phone support.
- User-friendly interface — The HostGator platform is littered with mini tutorials and tooltips in every corner to help beginners know what they’re doing. They also have a free drag-and-drop page builder that can match premium tools like Elementor and WPBakery.
- Wide range of hosting options — Whether you need shared hosting for a new blog or dedicated hosting for an online store, HostGator has them all. They even have application and Windows hosting for ASP.NET web applications.
What are its hosting packages?
HostGator’s lineup of plans has varying price ranges adjusted for customers who need specific features.
Plans include free one-year domain registration, free SSL certificate, and access to ease-of-use features like WordPress Quick Install.
Gator Website Builder hosting
Never built a website before?
You can get everything you need in a single package through the Gator Website Builder hosting plan.
The centerpiece of these plans is the Gator Website Builder, which allows you to visually create web pages without coding.
- Starter — $3.84 per month with free hosting, domain registration, customizable templates, and built-in website analytics
- Premium — $5.99 per month for everything in “Starter” plan plus priority customer support
- eCommerce — $9.22 per month for everything in “Premium” plan plus support for eCommerce functionality
Shared Hosting
I personally find the names of HostGator’s shared hosting plans quite amusing. While they’re clearly meant to be lighthearted, they also describe the phase where customers who avail these plans are in.
In any case, HostGator’s shared hosting solutions are definitely equipped to help beginners kickstart their blogging careers. They all offer unmetered bandwidth, easy app installation, and scalable storage.
- Hatchling Plan — $2.75 per month for a single domain and unmetered bandwidth
- Baby Plan — $3.95 per month for everything in “Hatchling” plan plus unlimited domains
- Business Plan — $5.95 per month for everything in “Baby” plan plus free dedicated IP, SEO tools, and upgrade to positive SSL
WordPress Hosting
HostGator has, of course, a selection of WordPress hosting packages for those who prefer using the world-renowned CMS.
What’s particularly noteworthy in these hosting packages is the unmetered storage space allocation. Websites created with these plans will also be protected with a free SSL certificate from the get-go.
- Starter — $5.95 per month for one website with 100,000 average monthly visits, and 1GB automatic daily backups
- Standard — $7.95 per month for two websites with 200,000 average monthly visits, and 2GB automatic daily backups
- Business — $9.95 per month for three websites with 500,000 average monthly visits, and 3GB automatic daily backups
VPS Hosting
HostGator’s VPS hosting packages are designed for website owners who need complete control of their hosting environment on the cheap. Plans are equipped with generous storage spaces and various network security tools to protect against cyber-attacks.
- Snappy 2000 — $19.95 per month for 2GB memory, 80GB website storage space, and 1.5TB bandwidth
- Snappy 4000 — $29.95 per month for 4GB memory, 100GB website storage space, and 2TB bandwidth
- Snappy 8000 — $39.95 per month for 8GB memory, 160GB website storage space, and 3Tb bandwidth
Dedicated Hosting
Naturally, HostGator’s dedicated hosting plans provide the fastest and most secure solutions for website owners.
It is, however, important to know that their cheapest dedicated hosting plan only uses HDD storage. This will have a noticeable impact on your website’s performance, especially under heavy load.
On the plus side, their dedicated hosting solutions all have unmetered bandwidth allocation.
- Value Server — $89.98 per month for 8GB memory, 4-Core/8-Thread CPU, and 1TB HDD storage space
- Power Server — $119.89 per month for 16GB memory, 8-Core/8-Thread CPU, and 2TB HDD storage space or 512GB SSD storage space
- Enterprise Server — $139.99 per month for 30GB memory, 8-Core/16-Thread CPU, and 1TB SSD storage space
Performance and uptime
HostGator is a reputable web hosting company with a respectable track record in terms of speed and uptime.
Be mindful, however, that there have been reports of slowdowns in their backend. This doesn’t affect the performance of your web visitors, but it can make your cPanel visits a tad bit cumbersome.
- Average Uptime — 99.985%
- Lowest Monthly Uptime (Past 12 Months) — 99.89%
- Highest Monthly Uptime (Past 12 Months) — 100%
- Loading Speed — 1.03 seconds
User-friendliness
The best thing to come out of HostGator’s years in the business is their mastery of UX design.
Their dashboard interface is a top contender in terms of user-friendliness. That’s besides the fact that the platform contains a chockful of tutorials that can guide new users.
HostGator also has learning resources accessible through a unified search platform. And for tasks like WordPress installation, they can be completed in a heartbeat on the modernized control panel.
Other benefits
- Free SSL certificates
- Unmetered bandwidth and storage for most hosting plans
- Homemade website builder
- Website analytics
- Mobile-friendly templates
- $100 Google AdWords and Bing Ads credits (each)
7. GreenGeeks
I mentioned that SiteGround’s hosting service runs on 100% renewable energy, right?
Well, there are more web hosting companies like that on the market.
GreenGeeks is a web hosting company with a strong eco-friendly brand messaging.
Now, I know that most website owners don’t really care about the kind of energy their hosting service provider uses. They may even have some doubts on the capacity of “green” web hosting companies to meet their growing demands.
But remember that going eco-friendly and spreading a positive message will do wonders for your brand. It helps you attract the growing environment-conscious crowd, which just might be your chance to stand out from the competition.
GreenGeeks highlights
- Comprehensive knowledge base topped with responsive support — If you have questions regarding your web hosting, you can count on their responsive support team to answer them. Alternatively, you can check out their knowledge base to get step-by-step instructions for all essential tasks.
- Surprisingly powerful — Despite using clean energy, GreenGeeks is more than capable of delivering world-class performance. Multiple tests have shown they’re more than able to maintain high uptimes and fast page loading speeds.
- Hosting account isolation — One of the problems with shared hosting is the possibility of malware spillovers from other websites on the same server. This won’t happen with GreenGeeks and their hosting account isolation system.
What are its hosting packages?
GreenGeeks has four different web hosting solutions — each with different pricing plans.
WordPress Hosting
Before we talk about GreenGeeks’s web hosting packages, know that their basic web hosting and WordPress hosting plans are similar.
The main difference is, WordPress hosting will help you prepare your CMS environment as soon as you create your account. It’s also fine-tuned to achieve maximum performance and stability for WordPress-powered sites.
- Lite — $2.95 per month for one website with unlimited website storage space, unlimited data transfer, free domain registration, and standard performance optimization
- Pro — $5.95 per month for everything in “Lite” plan plus unlimited websites and 2x performance optimization
- Premium — $11.95 per month for everything in “Pro” plan plus 4X performance optimization and free dedicated IP
Green Hosting
GreenGeeks’s green hosting plan is the easiest and fastest way to be an eco-friendly blogger.
The company makes this happen by generating renewable energy credits three times the amount of energy they consume. In other words, your website will be essentially 300% running on renewable energy with GreenGeeks.
- Lite — $2.95 per month for one website with unlimited website storage space, unlimited data transfer, free domain registration, and standard performance optimization
- Pro — $5.95 per month for everything in “Lite” plan plus unlimited websites and 2x performance optimization
- Premium — $11.95 per month for everything in “Pro” plan plus 4X performance optimization and free dedicated IP
VPS Hosting
If you want to go with a VPS hosting plan, GreenGeeks will help you do so — the eco-friendly way.
- 2GB — $39.95 per month for 50GB SSD storage space, four virtual CPU, and 10TB bandwidth
- 4GB — $59.95 per month for 75GB SSD storage space, four virtual CPU, and 10TB bandwidth
- 8GB — $109.95 per month for 150GB SSD storage space, six virtual CPU, and 10TB bandwidth
Performance and uptime
GreenGeeks is living proof that going green doesn’t have to involve compromises. It has consistently delivered great results when it comes to speed and uptime.
- Average Uptime — 99.92%
- Lowest Monthly Uptime (Past 12 Months) — 99.87%
- Highest Monthly Uptime (Past 12 Months) — 100%
- Loading Speed — 0.6025 seconds
User-friendliness
GreenGeeks has a simple and minimalistic user interface that’ll take you where you need to go within a few clicks.
The cPanel, of course, looks and functions the same as what you’ll get with a different host. But GreenGeeks’s dashboard takes the cake when talking about user-friendliness.
Other benefits
- Free Wildcard SSL certificate
- Custom-built caching technology “PowerCacher”
- Daily backups
- Free CDN powered by Cloudflare
- Real-time security scanning
8. DreamHost
If a web hosting company stands the test of time, you know they have reliable service.
DreamHost is one of the very few hosting companies founded before the year 2000. In fact, the company has been hosting websites since 1996.
DreamHost highlights
- Great managed WordPress hosting packages — DreamHost has two different managed WordPress hosting plans: WordPress Basic and DreamPress. Both are within budget and packed with tools and features to make your blogging life tremendously easier.
- Great basic plan — Despite starting at $2.59 per month, DreamHost’s entry-level hosting solutions pack a lot of punch. Some of the most remarkable features include unlimited website storage, pre-installed WordPress, and a free website builder.
- Renewals don’t cost more than the initial price — Unlike most companies that hook you with a low introductory fee, DreamHost offers fixed monthly rates that are always low. The catch is, you need to be subscribed for three years to get the best deal.
What are its hosting packages?
With decades under their belt, DreamHost has hosting solutions for every kind of website owner.
Shared Hosting
Love them or hate them, you can’t deny that DreamHost does provide exceptional value with their hosting packages. They also offer a generous, 97-day money back guarantee, which is as risk-free as you can get with web hosting.
- Shared Starter — $2.59 per month (3 years) for one website, unlimited traffic, and unlimited SSD storage space
- Shared Unlimited — $4.95 per month (3 years) for unlimited websites, unlimited traffic, unlimited professional email accounts, and unlimited SSD storage space
WordPress Basic Hosting
The pricing structure of DreamHost’s WordPress Basic hosting is similar to their shared hosting. Just like with other web hosting companies, the difference makers are the services specifically designed for running a WordPress website.
DreamHost’s WordPress hosting also doesn’t offer unlimited website storage with the entry-level plan.
- WordPress Starter — $2.59 per month (3 years) for one website, unlimited traffic, and 50GB SSD storage space
- WordPress Unlimited — $4.95 per month (3 years) for unlimited websites, unlimited traffic, and unlimited SSD storage space
DreamPress
Bloggers may be interested in DreamHost’s “DreamPress” plan — a specialized solution with features like caching, server optimization, and free plugins.
Additional features include automated WordPress migrations and the WP Website Builder.
- DreamPress — $16.95 per month for one WordPress website, 100,000 monthly visitors, unmetered bandwidth, and 30GB SSD storage space
- DreamPress Plus — $24.95 per month for one WordPress website, 300,000 monthly visitors, unmetered bandwidth, and 60GB SSD storage space
- DreamPress Pro — $71.95 per month for one WordPress website, over 1,000,000 monthly visitors, unmetered bandwidth, and 120GB SSD storage space
WooCommerce Hosting
DreamHost’s WooCommerce hosting will have your eCommerce site pre-configured with a storefront theme installed.
To create a smooth shopping experience for your customers, all plans are equipped with server-level caching. DreamHost also guarantees 100% uptime for WooCommerce hosting clients to prevent lost profits due to downtimes.
As for the pricing structure, DreamHost uses DreamPress plans with all the works included.
- DreamPress — $16.95 per month for one WordPress website, 100,000 monthly visitors, unmetered bandwidth, and 30GB SSD storage space
- DreamPress Plus — $24.95 per month for one WordPress website, 300,000 monthly visitors, unmetered bandwidth, and 60GB SSD storage space
- DreamPress Pro — $71.95 per month for one WordPress website, over 1,000,000 monthly visitors, unmetered bandwidth, and 120GB SSD storage space
VPS Hosting
You can assume that the DreamHost team are veterans in the web hosting industry. But even with their increased basic plan limits, they can’t perform miracles with their shared hosting plans.
On a shared server, your website’s performance may still be affected by the resource utilization of other websites.
To get guaranteed resource allocation, consider going for their VPS hosting service.
- VPS Basic — $10 per month (3 years) for unlimited websites, 1GB memory, 30GB SSD storage space, and unlimited traffic
- VPS Business — $20 per month (3 years) for unlimited websites, 2GB memory, 60GB SSD storage space, and unlimited traffic
- VPS Professional — $40 per month (3 years) for unlimited websites, 4GB memory, 120GB SSD storage space, and unlimited traffic
- VPS Enterprise — $80 per month (3 years) for unlimited websites, 8GB memory, 240GB SSD storage space, and unlimited traffic
Dedicated Server Hosting
Need a server of your own to house your big website ideas?
You can count on DreamHost’s dedicated server hosting services to handle all your big needs.
Their dedicated hosting plans include DDoS protection, 24/7 monitoring, and priority customer support. The main drawback is, you’ll need to pay extra to enhance your server with SSD storage.
SSD-powered dedicated hosting plans start at $279 per month with a capacity of 240GB.
- Standard — $149 per month for 4GB memory, 4-Core/8-Thread CPU, and 1TB HDD storage space
- Enhanced — $279 per month for 16GB memory, 12-Core/24-Thread CPU, and 2TB HDD storage space
Performance and uptime
DreamHost exemplifies the importance of choosing a tried-and-tested web hosting company. While they may not have the best overall stats, their hosting services are still consistently fast and reliable.
Take note that they’ve been operating for decades. That should only make the numbers below all the more impressive.
- Average Uptime — 99.965%
- Lowest Monthly Uptime (Past 12 Months) — 99.64%
- Highest Monthly Uptime (Past 12 Months) — 100%
- Loading Speed — .609 seconds
User-friendliness
Although DreamHost has been around for decades, they did a great job of updating their dashboard interface whenever necessary.
It looks just as clean and user-friendly as most modern web hosting account dashboards today.
DreamHost’s WordPress hosting services also have features that will give your blogging endeavor a running start.
Other benefits
- Free SSL certificates
- Unlimited bandwidth and storage even for basic plans
- Data centers utilize renewable energy for lower carbon footprint
- Free privacy protection
- Automated backups
9. WP Engine
If you’re planning to build your own website, there’s a good chance you’re planning to use WordPress.
It is, after all, mentioned in the vast majority of DIY website development guides on the internet.
The team behind WP Engine understands that there is a huge market for managed WordPress hosting services right now. As a result, they dedicated their resources to perfecting their WordPress hosting service.
WP Engine highlights
- Great performance — WP Engine doesn’t offer a lot of options when it comes to hosting, but the tradeoff is surely worth it. In the bubble of managed WordPress hosting services, WP Engine’s service has superior uptime and speed.
- Custom recommendations — Learning about web hosting is sometimes overcomplicated by pages upon pages of information that aren’t relevant to your goal. WP Engine fixes this by presenting personalized content based on your background and objectives.
- Loads of premium themes — It’s true that WordPress hosting plans from other companies also provide free themes to sweeten the deal. But with WP Engine, you’ll get premium themes plus the Genesis Framework as a bonus.
What are its hosting packages?
WP Engine only offers managed WordPress hosting and nothing else.
It’s their top priority from the start, which is why they have conceived cream-of-the-crop WordPress hosting packages.
I have a lot of favorites from their managed WordPress hosting service. That includes the over 35 StudioPress themes, automatic SSL certificates, and the high server capacities.
- Startup — $25 per month for one website, 50GB bandwidth, 25,000 monthly visitors, and 10GB website storage space
- Growth — $95 per month for 10 websites, 200GB bandwidth, 100,000 monthly visitors, and 20GB website storage space
- Scale — $241 per month for 30 websites, 500GB bandwidth, 400,000 monthly visitors, and 50GB website storage space
It’s also worth mentioning that WP Engine can provide custom hosting solutions for big businesses. You just need to be in touch with a sales specialist to receive a plan that suits your specific requirements.
Performance and uptime
With such a high price tag, it’s only fair to expect top-of-the-line performance from a WP Engine hosting plan.
That is fortunately the case, based on the numbers put forward by multiple sources.
- Average Uptime — 99.99%
- Lowest Monthly Uptime (Past 12 Months) — 99.99%
- Highest Monthly Uptime (Past 12 Months) —100%
- Loading Speed — 0.497 seconds
User-friendliness
The WP Engine platform makes sure you build your first WordPress website right and fast.
Your user portal makes it easy to perform tasks like site management, site reporting, and plugin updates.
Granted, there are branching menus like the “Production” section that requires some getting used to. But there are also tools like the Automated Migration plugin that will help you get things done quickly.
Other benefits
- WordPress staging environments
- Global CDN
- Free SSL certificates with automatic installation
- Transferable websites
- EverCache front-end system for performance and scalability
What to look for in a web hosting service?
When choosing a web hosting service for your blog, it’s important to focus on the following:
1. Hosting packages
What hosting packages does a web host offer? Knowing this will help you choose a company since upgrading your plan is easier than migrating to a new host.
Here’s a rundown of the most common web hosting packages:
Shared hosting
Every web host should have a shared hosting solution for websites in their early stages. That’s the solution I’d recommend you start with while you’re still not getting any traffic.
In a shared hosting plan, you essentially share server resources with a number of different sites. The downside is, your website’s performance may be affected if another site hogs all the resources in the shared server.
Due to the low price tag, shared hosting plans are a good entry point for freshly-made blogs. However, you may get subpar website performance once you start getting thousands of web traffic.
VPS or Virtual Private Server hosting
Just like shared hosting, a VPS hosting plan will have you share server resources with other websites. The main difference is, VPS hosting dedicates an allocation of resources, like RAM and CPU power, to your site.
This means your website is always guaranteed fair utilization of resources whenever you need it.
VPS hosting plans also allow for more control over your server’s administration. If you want, you can be in charge of security patches, bug fixes, and server monitoring as well as maintenance.
Managed WordPress hosting
To make things clear, a managed WordPress hosting can be run on either a shared or VPS system. Despite that, rest assured that your WordPress website is as secure and fast as possible.
In a managed WordPress plan, the host takes care of the technical side of things. This includes WordPress installation, updates, backups, and security.
Another advantage of managed WordPress hosting is the specialized customer service. If you have questions about running your WordPress website, your host’s customer support team should have all the answers.
Some hosting companies also offer managed WordPress hosting on dedicated servers, but most bloggers won’t find it cost-effective.
Dedicated hosting
As the name suggests, a dedicated hosting plan grants you exclusive rights to an entire server.
This should meet all the demands of big websites with tons of data, like eCommerce websites. You also get full control over your server’s configuration, maintenance, and storage space.
Due to the expensiveness of dedicated hosting services, I wouldn’t recommend it to new bloggers. Even established blogs with thousands of traffic may not be able to take full advantage of a dedicated host.
Cloud hosting
In simple terms, “cloud hosting” enables the on-demand utilization of resources from multiple servers. This ensures maximum uptime, performance, and the guarantee that you’ll always have the hardware firepower to support your website’s needs.
Not all web hosting companies offer cloud hosting, though. If they do, expect it to cost significantly more than regular shared or VPS hosting plans.
2. Price
Every web hosting company should have different prices for different hosting packages. However, different companies could have different prices for the same type of hosting services.
Don’t worry — we’ll put this factor into consideration when looking at the hosting companies on this list.
Just remember that, in terms of pricing, lower doesn’t always mean better. You should also factor in the value you’ll get from every dollar you spend on your hosting plan.
3. Customer service
Here’s the thing: once you purchase a hosting plan, its reliability and performance heavily depend on the hosting service provider.
With a bad host, you can do nothing for a week and your server may still experience downtimes and slowdowns. But with a competent one, you can mess around your website and it can still run as smoothly as ever.
That’s why excellent customer service is a must-have for web hosting companies.
Great customer service should keep you in the know about what goes on behind the scenes. And whenever your website runs into issues, they should be able to assist and educate you at the same time.
It’s all about the level of communication they’re willing to have with their customers.
4. Uptime
“Uptime” pertains to the time your website is accessible over a specific period.
During times your website is inaccessible, those are called “downtimes.”
If you want your blog to be successful, you want to minimize downtimes as much as possible.
Not only do downtimes translate to lost profits, they’re also bad for SEO, especially if they occur often.
In a perfect world, you could go for a web hosting company that can guarantee a 100% uptime. Unfortunately, even the very best hosting companies can only achieve up to 99.99% uptime in any given year.
5. User-friendliness and extra features
Let’s face it, you can’t go wrong with any of the web hosting companies in this list.
All of them are more than capable of satisfactory website speeds and reasonable uptime.
There are, however, wide discrepancies between each web host in terms of features and usability.
Modern web hosts, for example, come with WordPress installation apps that can make the process a walk in the park. Some also offer custom plugins that can help with certain tasks like performance optimization and site migration.
Conclusion
Found the right web hosting company for you?
Even if you didn’t choose SiteGround, I’m sure you made the right decision. Of course, as long as you choose one of my top picks listed above.
Just focus on each company’s features, pricing structure, and web hosting products. Take your time and remember this:
Taking an extra day or two choosing a host is better than migrating to a new one in the future.
If you have any questions or suggestions regarding what you read above, feel free to leave a comment below. I also welcome any form of feedback — so, type away!
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Hi Ankit,
I had a question regarding Web Hosting –
Does Web Hosting really matters to a new & upcoming Blogger?
Or is it a function of traffic reporting in which case it wont matter much for a new Blogger?