Best WordPress Hosting
Based on uptime, load time and cost. Evaluated by Avada Users
NICK SCHÄFERHOFF
Editor in Chief
Last updated: Jan 11, 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.
Me and my team tested out most popular “WordPress” hosting providers and checked their uptime over a period of 12 months. We were using identically configured Avada template for all hosting providers.
Full disclosure: We earn a commission if you end up purchasing any of the web hosting services listed on this site through my referral links. This helps us to keep this website 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.
6 Best WordPress Hosting Services
Let’s jump to the best hosting providers first, then move down the list to see the one you probably should avoid. Without further ado, here are the 6 best web hosting services for WordPress in 2019:
1. Bluehost (www.Bluehost.com)
- Uptime: >99.99%
- Load Time: 419ms
- Support: 5/5
- Website: 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:
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 $3.95 per month, but they throw in a free domain name (for 1-year) plus site migration for new accounts, too.
- PROS: Strong uptime and load time, free site transfer, free domain name, recommended by WordPress.org
- CONS: No option to pay monthly. (click to see if $3.95/mo option is still valid)
2. HostGator Cloud (www.HostGator.com)
- Uptime: 99.97%
- Load Time: 421ms
- Support: 5/5
- Website: 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.
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):
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.
- PROS: Good load time, reliable, one-click install for WordPress, 1 free site transfer
- CONS: Higher renewal fee (click to see if their $2.99/mo discount is still valid).
3. SiteGround (www.SiteGround.com)
- Uptime: 99.99%
- Load Time: 714ms
- Support: 5/5
- Website: 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.
My SiteGround “test” site uptime and speed from October 2017 to October 2018
- PROS: Good uptime, stable speed, best WordPress support, free site transfer, officially recommended by WordPress, free SSL.
- CONS: Their GoGeek plan is expensive (click here to see SiteGround’s current pricing)
4. A2 Hosting (www.A2Hosting.com)
- Uptime: 99.91%
- Load Time: 392ms
- Support: 4/5
- Website: www.A2Hosting.com
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.
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.
- PROS: Fastest WordPress hosting, WordPress optimized servers
- CONS: Weak uptime (only 99.91%)
- Use this link to see if the $3.77/mo offer is still valid
5. Dreamhost (www.Dreamhost.com)
- Uptime: 99.94%
- Load Time: 724ms
- Support: 4/5
- Website: www.Dreamhost.com
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)
Their page loading times came in at an average of 724ms over the same period. Not so good, huh?
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
6. iPage (www.iPage.com)
- 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.
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.
- PROS: Best cheap hosting for WordPress
- CONS: Not very knowledgeable customer support, bad reputation online.
- Click to see if the discount ($1.99/mo) is still valid
Best WordPress Hosting? Quick Recap
There, now you have it!
A detailed review of the top ten WordPress hosting providers.
Each review was based on my test site’s speed, uptime and cost. Third-party sources, like Pingdom, were used to monitor and analyze performance.
In short, I recommend using a web hosting provider that provides a decent uptime of 99.95% and up, while keep their load time less than 700ms.
| WEB HOSTING | COST | MONEY BACK | LOAD TIME | UPTIME | MY RATING |
| 1. Bluehost WordPress | $3.95/mo | 30 days | 409ms | >99.99% | ★★★★★ |
| 2. HostGator WordPress Cloud | $2.75/mo | 45 days | 421ms | 99.97% | ★★★★★ |
| 3. SiteGround WordPress Hosting | $3.95/mo | 30 days | 714ms | 99.99% | ★★★★★ |
| 4. A2 Hosting | $3.92/mo | 30 days | 392ms | 99.91% | ★★★ |
| 5. Dreamhost | $7.95/mo | 97 days | 724ms | 99.94% | ★★★ |
| 6. iPage | $1.99/mo | 30 days | 831ms | 99.98% | ★★★ |
In my in-depth WordPress hosting review, I came to a conclusion that you can’t go wrong with HostGator Cloud, SiteGround or Bluehost. They all offer strong uptime, fast page loading times, great customer support, and an unbeatably low prices.
3 thoughts on “Best Hosting for WordPress”
Is there a reason why GoDaddy is not included? I’ve read other comparisons that have them in the top 3 . . . Just curious.
Hi Dewayne,
Speaking as a 20 year full-time freelance developer I have to say, by far — and when I say by far, I mean BY FAR, GoDaddy’s hosting has been the biggest nightmare for my clients. I can count a dozen good sites that I’ve had to move from GoDaddy for issues ranging from outdated equipment to lack of redundancy, lost data, and simply the most incompetent customer service I’ve encountered. GoDaddy should have just stuck to the Registrar game, because their hosting program is abysmal.
In my opinion, having used both Bluehost and A2 for a long time. A2 have a better support than Bluehost. I would give them 5/5.
Other advantages:
– Better cpanel interface.
– Better file manager. E.g. drag and drop upload. Better editor.
(Bluehost will not show hidden files by default)
– More options for installing WordPress.
– You can host sites outside the default HTML root. E.g. you could have a security system outside and it can’t be reached if you gain access to the HTML root. Bluehost also have all sub/addon domians in subfolders to the default HTML root. A2 you can place them in a separate directory outside so no access from other sites.
– A2 support PHP 7.1 as of Feb 2019 my site only support 7.0.
… I could go on.
Hopes this might be helpful.