Choosing the best hosting for WordPress is the second most important decision when creating your online project with this content manager. As you already know, the first decision when starting your website, online store, or blog is to choose the domain name.
If you already have experience in hosting web pages, I think you will agree that « what is web hosting » and « how to choose the best hosting » are doubts we all assail when we start. They are one of my client’s questions when they want to hire my services. It is normal because it is a critical decision.
As it is a vital decision so that everything goes smoothly, it is not enough to choose a cheap hosting plan. You will have to base yourself on a series of critical factors so as not to make a mistake with your decision.
This way, you will avoid problems such as server crashes, slow web loading speed (something essential in SEO), or migrating your website to suitable hosting.
It seems obvious, but you would be surprised to know the number of bloggers or website owners who have to migrate from web hosting because they have not known which is the best WordPress hosting for their site.
This article will tell you how to choose the best WordPress hosting for online stores, blogs, or any website.
You will be able to see all the details that a good server should have so that you avoid problems and have your blog or website in quality web hosting. This is all based on my experience: the best WordPress hosts currently on the market, the ones I use on this website, and some of my clients.
These keys that you will now know are the ones that have allowed me to choose the best WordPress hosting for both myself and my clients, so do not miss them.
But, let us start at the beginning.
What is web hosting, and what is it for?
Only with the translation can you get an idea of what hosting is in web pages.
More specifically, a hosting or web hosting service is a service where certain companies dedicated to it rent their servers connected to the Internet. What is web hosting for, then? (You will ask yourself). Well, so that your online business with a blog or website appears and is accessible online.
Therefore, and using the literal translation, WordPress hosting is a hosting service for your website with WordPress (and all its files) to be accessible over the Internet. To understand it a little better, a web server is nothing more than a place where the folders and files of your web page are stored.
It’s so that you understand that a server is like a bunch of big computers permanently connected to the Internet: you could have your website hosted on your computer as a server.
This brings countless problems that make it not a viable option by far. Among them, having your computer connected to the Internet 24 hours a day for 365 years is unfeasible, and I don’t think it’s suitable for a shared computer.
It should also be noted that a typical computer does not have sufficient security measures to prevent attacks or your computer from being founded by a massive influx of visits to your website.
After this explanation (somewhat lengthy, but I want you to be clear about what hosting is), it’s time to get to the heart of the matter: what features the best WordPress hosting plans must have.
So let’s go there.
7 keys to Choose the Best WordPress Hosting
That it has support for PHP and a database
The typical static pages made with HTML are already quite old-fashioned.
Dynamic pages -like a WordPress blog, an online store, or a discussion forum- need a WordPress hosting server with a database that stores the dynamic information and support for PHP, the open-source language used by dynamic websites.
Therefore, if you have a WordPress website, blog, or dynamic page, do not hire a hosting service dedicated to static pages. The good thing is that there are web hosting services specialized in this platform with its optimized database and PHP support (some even offer unlimited databases).
They will be cheap, but you save yourself a lot of trouble.
The Type of Web Hosting
When you contract your web storage service for WordPress, you must choose the type based on the visits, the size, and the website’s needs.
There are many types of web hosting (you can find more information on this Wikipedia page ). Here I show you the main types of hosting that you can choose. But I already told you it is shared hosting if you start yours.
Free Hosting
This type is not an option for any website unless you use it as a test. It has many limitations like prolonged loading, low quality, low memory, resource limitations, problems with your connection, etc. As personal advice, run away from free hosting plans.
I know that it is tempting to see services like free hosting, but I assure you that sooner or later, you will have problems, and it will be more expensive than if you had chosen your hosting from a good company.
Learn How to Choose the Best Budget WordPress Hosting Providers?
Shared Hosting
As I already told you, shared hosting is perfect for most online projects. This hosting consists of having several web pages hosted on the same server (hence its name). You will share the same machine (server) with other web pages of different clients. Each one with its private and exclusive part of the web server.
A good server with shared hosting will not have any problem if you are starting or have a small business. It can perfectly support 1000 visits per day without performance drops. Once you reach this level of visits, you will have to expand your hosting service.
Another significant advantage you should not overlook is that this web hosting is cheap. Quality shared servers usually cost between $5 and $10 per month. So it has an excellent quality/price ratio. Way above the rest.
As you can see, this option is the best WordPress hosting you can choose, especially if you are starting. Beware of contracting WordPress hosting with unreliable providers. This modality’s problem is that some unserious and quite bad companies exist.
These are dedicated to overloading their servers with many web pages. This way, web pages become saturated, which causes performance problems, slow loading, and even extended periods of crashes. If you know how to choose a suitable company, you will not have this type of inconvenience and will have it for a long time. Below you can see which WordPress hosting provider I recommend.
VPS Hosting
What is VPS hosting? From its acronym in English: Virtual Private Server. With this server mode, you will have an exclusive and private server. It will not be a single physical machine. If your website grows enough, you must choose this WordPress VPS hosting service.
An advantage of this modality is that you can customize the web hosting service by level. This way, you can adapt it to the needs of your website (resources, RAM, bandwidth, disk space, etc.). This will make the loading times of the website excellent.
The price is already somewhat higher (from $20 per month), and it is slightly more complicated to manage, so I do not recommend using it from the beginning.
These types of servers are indicated for:
- Specific hosting projects require greater flexibility than the shared hosting plan but do not require all the resources of a Cloud Server (something more detailed than the VPS) or Dedicated.
- Appropriate for developers (access for installation tests, reinstallation of programs, demos…) or for large websites that do not need a Dedicated Server.
- Requires basic knowledge of server administration.
Dedicated Server
He doesn’t have much to say about this web server; you will have an entire physical server. It is designed for large websites with a high flow of visits. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of page views per month.
Of course, this server type is relatively more expensive, and you will need advanced knowledge to manage it. The quality of the service above the location of the servers
It is logical to think that if the servers you hire are closer to you and your clients, the response time will be shorter; therefore, your website will be better for your clients, and better web positioning (SEO) will.
This is true, but it is not a determining factor when choosing your WordPress web hosting service.
Instead of looking for the closest servers, be guided by the quality of their services. It is useless for you to hire hosting from your own country if the server of the neighboring country is much superior.
You can find reliable and cheaper providers in other countries. But I prefer to have a web server in my language, which gives me confidence.
The security of web hosting
You are very wrong if you think you have everything solved by installing a WordPress security plugin and another backup plugin. Think that your website will be open to everyone; not everyone is good.
No extra protection is over.
At this point, you have to look for two things: the server’s operating system and the security it offers.
The operating system
Which operating system would you choose to protect what you make a living with? I hope you didn’t say Windows. Windows is one of the worst operating systems when it comes to security. As for web storage providers, you have to look for one with Linux.
Linux is considered the best operating system for web servers for its security. But besides this, Linux is optimized to use the MySQL database. As I said, besides supporting PHP, you must have a good database. And the best is MySQL.
The security offered by the server
Regarding this point, you should look for a server with different antivirus, antimalware, and anti-breaching protection. Apart from this, it does not hurt if the hosting company makes you automatic backups every specific period.
Ease of Administration
Quality comes at a price, and choosing a good WordPress hosting that allows you to do the same things much faster and more accessible is crucial. That is why you should choose a WordPress web hosting service that includes these two points:
- Install WordPress easily.
- It has a good management panel.
A good hoster includes the installation of WordPress CMS so that you can install it as soon as you hire their service. Within the control panels, some servers include your own. But the most widespread and standardized control panel is called cPanel.
That web hosting includes cPanel is quite essential. It is used on more and more servers and allows you to manage aspects of your service quickly and easily. With this panel, you won’t need to be a computer scientist or have advanced knowledge of these topics. From here, you can create your email accounts, and your subdomains, manage the space occupied, manage the files, your databases…
Technical Service
Another critical point that deserves to have its section is the technical service provided by the web hosting provider. For me, it is one of the most fundamental keys. The hosting you contract must be a crack in the efficiency and speed with which they respond and solve any technical problem or doubt you have.
And, of course, it must be a WordPress hosting specialized in WordPress as a CMS (if you use this content manager, of course). This is so, and there is no need to think about it: the best thing for your website is that you have hosting that resolves any doubt or incident as soon as possible. And, of course, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Also, the more forms of contact they have, the better. The fact that they answer the phone no matter what time it is or that they respond to your email in a maximum response time of 10 minutes any day is a point in favor that should be in all hosting.
I prefer slightly more expensive hosting but excellent customer service and technical support. And it may seem silly to you, but in the long run, you will know how to appreciate it because something will always happen that you need to solve with your hosting.
Other key points to Consider
In addition to the seven previous points, there are other important factors that, although they are not so decisive, you must consider to choose the best hosting for WordPress.
Disk space
Disk space is essential, but decent hosters have enough disk capacity. To start with, 500MB or 1 GB is more than enough (keep in mind that the WordPress installation and a few images and plugins take about 100MB).
Free domain for the first year
If you plan to contract the domain and web hosting for WordPress at the same time in the same company (which I advise you if you are a beginner), having the domain free for the first year is an extra that does not hurt. If, on the other hand, you prefer to contract the domain independently since it is somewhat cheaper, I recommend using Namecheap.
Maximum number of domains
This topic should not worry you if you only want to contract a domain. I want you to know that there are hosting plans that include more than one domain in case you want to have more than one domain on the same web server. If you are looking for cheap multidomain hosting, I recommend hiring it at Namecheap.
Seize it!
Limited/unlimited email accounts
The most normal thing is that you do not use more than five domain email accounts. However, you should know that some providers of these services limit the creation of email accounts to 1 or 2.
The free SSL certificate
Usually, a good web hosting company will offer free SSL certificate installation. This is used to pass your web page from HTTP to HTTPS, where the information between your server and the users will be encrypted.
Service Guarantee
An excellent hosting service provider will include a trial period of several days or a money-back guarantee if you are not happy with what they offer (usually for 30 days). I consider this important if you are undecided between two servers or have doubts about one. That is an excellent point to keep in mind.
The Price
You will be surprised I have put this point here as another less critical point when choosing WordPress hosting for your website. And that’s actually how it is; quality and safety are paid for, and in this case, you don’t have to be a rat (nor do you go to the most expensive, mind you).
Conclusion
Throughout this article, you have seen the key factors you must consider to choose a good web hosting service. From here, you should have no problem deciding on one. I recommend choosing a shared server with a web hosting provider that you know will help you when you need it. It is recognized and offers a service adapted to what you need and at the most economical price possible.
So, use WordPress in addition to the keys that we have seen. Web hosting plans should have SSD disks (to improve the speed of your site), be special for WordPress (with support for WordPress ), have the ease to install WordPress (even with automatic updates), an adequate monthly transfer, and support when installing and optimizing the best WordPress templates.
Many have asked me what the best hosting for WordPress is. It’s a question with an answer that no one likes: it depends. Based on everything I have explained here, from my experience, I can tell you that for the best WordPress hosting, I have tried GoDaddy, Namecheap, and Hostinger.
Have you had any problems with a hosting provider for this content manager?
Do you think I have left out any essential key to choosing the best hosting for WordPress?
Do not hesitate to ask me in the comments; I would love to know your thoughts and doubts. And now that you have more precise ideas, what prevents you from starting your project online?
