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Best WordPress Hosting 2019

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Best WordPress Hosting 2019

Choosing the right hosting for your WordPress website is very important. Your website’s health will rely on the hosting provider your use.
But how do you know which one is the best WordPress host?
There’s so many to choose from: Bluehost, SiteGround, HostGator… etc.
Whichever host you’re going to choose, keep in mind the 3 most important factors of a WordPress hosting:
  • Speed – also known as “load time”
  • Uptime – needs to be at least 99.94%
  • Customer Support – they should help you with WordPress related questions.
I tested out 10 most popular “WordPress” hosting providers and checked their uptime over a period of 12 months.
Full disclosure: I earn a commission if you end up purchasing any of the web hosting services listed on this site through my referral links. This helps me to keep WebsiteSetup up-to-date. Thanks for your support.
P.S. I cannot guarantee you will get similar uptime or speed to your website as this varies on several different factors such as the hosting package you choose, your site size and the number of visitors your website gets.

10 Best WordPress Hosting Services

Let’s jump to the best hosting providers first, then move down the list to see which ones you should avoid. Without further ado, here are the 10 best web hosting services for WordPress in 2019:

1. Bluehost (www.Bluehost.com)


Bluehost homepage
Visit www.Bluehost.com

Bluehost is a popular hosting service among small business owners and bloggers. Hence the reason, I’m recommending Bluehost for people who want to create their website using WordPress.
They’re hosting more than 2 million websites and they belong to EIG who also owns HostGator.
How did Bluehost compare? Turns out quite good:

Bluehost speed and uptime last 12 months
My Bluehost “test” site, uptime and speed October 2017 to October 2018

Their last 12-month average uptime is >99.99% and load time is 406ms. This means they’re the most reliable web hosting with only 1 hour of downtime per year. Surely a strong top 1 host.
BlueHost has 24/7 customer service available for any questions you may have regarding website setup. They’re not cheap, though. Prices start at $2.75 per month, but they throw in a free domain name (for 1-year) plus site migration for new accounts, too.


2. HostGator Cloud (www.HostGator.com)


HostGator review
Visit www.HostGator.com

HostGator was founded back in 2003 by Brent Oxley and later sold to Endurance International Group (EIG).
According to their website, they host more than 10 million domains making them one of the most popular web hosting providers on the planet (next to GoDaddy).
And for a reason!
Their last 10-month average load time is 421ms and uptime 99.97%. Not bad, in, over the past 12 months they were offline for only 3 hours. Plus, they were the third fastest web hosting service, only beaten by A2 Hosting (with a lower avg. uptime).
To give you a better overview of HostGator Cloud performance, take a look at the graph below (last 10 months):

HostGator Cloud uptime and speed statistics
My HostGator Cloud “test” site uptime and speed from October 2017 to October 2018

Keep in mind that this isn’t a regular, HostGator shared hosting option. It’s the new and improved cloud hosting. They come with a pricey cost – $13.99/mo, but they’re currently discounted to $2.99/mo if you decide to buy 1 month or 6-month plan. After that, it renews to the regular price.

3. SiteGround (www.SiteGround.com)


Siteground review
Visit www.SiteGround.com

Since 2004, SightGround has grown to a large network of over 800,000 domain names around the world. Most of their staff is located in Bulgaria, but they’ve servers worldwide.
In this example, the “Start-Up Plan” (cheapest) is being used to monitor uptime and average load time.
In terms of uptime, SiteGround maintained an average uptime of 99.99% followed by a solid (not the best) load time of 714ms.

SiteGround uptime and speed last 12 months
My SiteGround “test” site uptime and speed from October 2017 to October 2018

We also tested out their customer support by connecting with their live chat and asked several questions to evaluate their support team. They were friendly and helpful, answering questions quickly.
Additionally, SiteGround offers free transfers for existing website and they’re officially recommended by WordPress.

4. A2 Hosting (www.A2Hosting.com)

A2 Hosting pricing
Note from editor: We’ve put A2 Hosting here because they had the best load time. If we only take a look at their uptime, they wouldn’t be listed as #4th.
A2 Hosting is quite new in the WordPress hosting niche (founded in 2001). They became more popular only lately.
They claim to be 20x faster than their competitors. Somehow, they managed to achieve faster load time than SiteGround or HostGator.
They averaged 392ms in a period of 12 months. That is basically instant page loading, making impatient people happy because they won’t have to wait for pages to load. A2 Hosting implements caching, which stores data in a visitor’s browser, so they won’t have to request information from your website every time someone tries to access it.

A2 Hosting uptime and speed last 12 months
My A2 Hosting “test” site uptime and speed from October 2017 to October 2018

Unfortunately, their uptime has slipped over the past few months to an average of 99.91% (currently 8 hours of downtime over a period of 12 months).
A2 offers 24/7 customer support through their live chat, email, phone, and ticketing systems. I checked this out by contacting their live support and they responded instantly with easy-to-understand responses.

5. Site5 Hosting (www.Site5.com)

Site5 hosting
  • Uptime: 99.98%
  • Load Time: 704ms
  • Support: 4/5
  • Website: www.Site5.com
Site5, founded in 1999 by Matt Lightner (and later sold to EIG) promises the best web hosting for serious web designers.
After testing them for 12 months, Site5 delivered below average site load time of 704ms:

Site5 uptime and speed statistics last 12 months
My Site5 “test” site uptime and speed from October 2017 to October 2018

Their uptime isn’t anything spectacular. In fact, similarly to iPage, their avg. uptime over a period of 12 months is also 99.98% (ranked #6th).
They do provide good support through live chat, email, and phone support in case you have questions, along with a 90-day money back guarantee if you’d like to try them out anyway.
Site5 offers 3 pricing plans. The first, “hostBasic” is $6.95 per month, which allows you to have one website and free migrations. The second plan, “hostPro+Turbo” is $11.95 per month, which offers 24/7 live chat support, free migrations, and a free dedicated IP. The last plan, “hostPro” comes at $8.95 and offers unlimited websites and free migrations.
  • PROS: Very flexible host
  • CONS: Their price isn’t worth the value

6. iPage (www.iPage.com)

iPage homepage
  • Uptime: 99.98%
  • Load Time: 831ms
  • Support: 3/5
  • Website: www.iPage.com
iPage was started in 1998 and has since grown to serve over one million websites. They’re once again owned by the Endurance International Group (EIG) brand. Honestly, I didn’t think they would perform well because they were suspiscously “cheap”.
I gave iPage Hosting a chance since they, too, call themselves as WordPress hosting. Luckily, I found them pretty reliable.
During this time they’ve managed to deliver 99.98% uptime.

iPage speed and uptime statistics last 12 months
My iPage “test” site uptime and speed from October 2017 to October 2018

The average loading time is 831ms. It’s not bad, but it’s well below the competition’s average.
iPage is cheap, though. They’re one of the cheapest hosting options I saw (behind one other hosting option) at $1.99 a month. This is the rate for 12-36 months, you would technically be locked into a super long-term deal to get that price. As you can see, you get what you pay for with speed and performance.
iPage is probably not the best option in hosting WordPress. Although the customer support and prices are nice, you don’t want to struggle with their slow speed and average uptime.

7. Dreamhost (www.Dreamhost)

dreamhost review
The next WordPress hosting site that I looked at was DreamHost, who has another huge network of over 1.5 million sites (they’ve also been around since 1996).
They claim to be “Award-winning Web & WordPress Hosting” despite being under DDOS attack (in August) and providing data on an anti-Trump website with considerable court oversight.
Their page loading times came in at an average of 724ms over the same period. Not so good, huh?

Dreamhost speed and uptime data from last 12 moths
My Dreamhost “test” site uptime and speed from October 2017 to October 2018

Since they got DDOS attack their uptime is obviously very low – 99.90%. DreamHost also throws in a few other nice little add-ons.
First, you get unlimited bandwidth. They’ll credit your account for every hour that there was an issue with uptime. When I contacted customer support to ask a couple of questions, I got a fairly quick response.
One of DreamHost’s big drawbacks is their pricing. Their lowest plan is still almost double what some other hosting sites offer – $7.95 per month. On the plus side – you get the longest money back guarantee from DreamHost (97-days) to test drive their service before getting locked into a lengthy contract.
  • PROS: Reliable, fast, good customer support
  • CONS: Recent DDOS attack, expensive option for beginners

8. InMotion Hosting (InMotionHosting.com)

inmotion wordpress hosting pricing
InMotion hosting was founded in 2001 and is a privately held hosting provider with a customer base of over 300,000 domains.
They also own a hosting website named “Web Hosting Hub”.
They advertise themselves as “best web hosting for business” and they’re pricing starts from $4.99.
First, let’s see how InMotion hosting performs:
InMotion delivered not so impressive uptime of 99.94% over the last twelve months. That seems to be consistent over the last months.

InMotion Hosting speed and uptime statistics last 12 months
My InMotion Hosting “test” site uptime and speed from October 2017 to October 2018

Keep in mind that the average speed in the hosting industry is about 790ms, and my InMotion Hosting test site’s average page loading time is slower than that – 803ms. So it seems not be as fast as HostGator or A2 Hosting, but it’s not the worst.
One of the drawbacks with InMotion Hosting is that there’s no instant account access. That means if you’re an international customer, outside North America for example, there might be a delay and a hassle when attempting to verify your new account.
In overall, you’d be “OK” with InMotion’s service, but don’t expect much more.
  • Customer support: Reliable, fast, good customer support
  • CONS: No instant activation for people outside the US

9. GreenGeeks (www.GreenGeeks.com)

GreenGeeks homepage
GreenGeeks, founded in 2006 by Trey Gardner is now hosting over 300,000+ websites over their nine years in business.
They are the only “truly” green host in this list. They claim 99.9% uptime on their website. That’s almost zerodowntime. It’s a bold claim to make! Can they live up to the hype?
When tested their performance, GreenGeeks delivered 99.93% uptime. So 0.03% above their promise. Not that bad.
That equates to 6 hours of downtime (not as good as SiteGround or HostGator Cloud, though).

Greengeeks uptime and speed last 12 months
My GreenGeeks “test” site uptime and speed from October 2017 to October 2018

Fortunately, GreenGeeks did show the same great results in speed as they did in uptime.
Their average loading time was 520ms – this is 36% higher than the industry average.
GreenGeeks has 24/7/365 U.S. based support via live chat, phone, or email support. Some of their other features are free data transfers, free domain name, and free site migration.
GreenGeeks goes for $3.95 per month and they offer a 30-day money back guarantee. Each pricing plan is all-inclusive too. Although GreenGeeks has excellent speed, their uptime is barely average. Which is kinda a deal breaker. I suggest you look at some of the better hosting options reviewed (like #1 and #2 above) that go for around the same price.
  • PROS: Strong uptime, green hosting provider, free site transfer
  • CONS: Load time for WordPress website should be better

10. Arvixe (www.Arvixe.com)

Arvixe hosting homepagea
  • Uptime: 97.75%
  • Load Time: 5,977ms (!)
  • Support: 2/5
  • Website: www.Arvixe.com
Arvixe was originally founded in 2003 before later being acquired by EIG (again!).
Things aren’t starting great with their 99.75% uptime.
Take a close look at their average speed on the my Arvixe test site:

Arvixe hosting uptime and speed last 12 months
My Arvixe “test” site uptime and speed from October 2017 to October 2018

The industry average for speed is around 790ms. Even that is not very fast, to be honest – some of the fastest hosting providers load within ~300ms (or almost twice as fast).
How did Arvixe perform? An abysmal 5,779ms. That is unbelievably slow. Nearly impossibly slow. Just one second delay in page load time could cost Amazon 1.6 billion. Think what it can do to your online business.
Seems like Arvixe is just slow in general. Their customer support was slow too. I tried reaching out to ask a few basic questions and it took over an hour for a response.
Arvixe’s pricing is also on the expensive side of the fence at $7 a month. Upfront and in advance for a full two years. Any shorter plans means paying much more per month. Arvixe does offer unlimited bandwidth and a free domain name for life to their credit.
But you can do so much better than Arvixe. Once again, take a look at the first few names in this review for companies that exceed across the board in uptime, page loading times, customer support, and pricing.

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