- January 20, 2023
- by Zac Geekie
- Web Hosting
- 0 Comments
WordPress is the content management system of choice for most people looking to launch a small business website or e-commerce store.
Having your own independently hosted and run WordPress site offers some advantages over using ready-made, all-in-one site building platforms.
Sure, you’ll have to spend more time on initial setup of the site, but with WordPress you get unlimited ability to customize both the front end and the back end to your own needs and preferences.
You’ll also be able to easily migrate the website to another hosting provider should you for any reason be unhappy with your current provider. However, this won’t be necessary if you pick the right web host from the beginning — and that’s what this article will hopefully help you achieve.
Best WordPress Hosting Providers
We’re not going to talk about the same old “top” hosting companies you’ve probably seen on almost every review site out there. Many of those turn out to be a big disappointment when you need some serious, urgent technical support.
The list below includes some of the most reliable hosting services for small business WP websites. Some of these offer fully managed WordPress hosting, while others have a selection of different shared and dedicated hosting solutions.
Let’s just get down to business!
1. Pressable
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You must be familiar with the WordPress.com platform, which provides free and paid hosting plans using their own customized version of the WordPress system. This site is operated by Automattic, which in turn is owned by the original developer of WordPress: Matt Mullenweg.
Pressable is another service operated by Automattic, and this one is primarily focused on fully-managed WordPress hosting for small businesses and professionals.
Whether you just want to host a single new website or several established websites, they have different plans that can suit any project of any size.
As a fully managed solution, they take care of installing WordPress (or migrating your site for free), keeping daily backups, monitoring server performance and security, and resolving any technical issues that arise out of the blue.
What really makes Pressable one of the best WordPress hosting providers for small business is their highly skilled support team that is available around the clock. They only host WordPress sites and they are quite knowledgeable about the technical aspects of this system.
2. Rocket
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Speed is among the most crucial website performance metrics and one of the vital elements of a good hosting service. Rocket’s managed WordPress platform is built with speed being a top priority and a key selling point.
One of the main reasons why Rocket beats most other hosts when it comes to site loading speed is that they utilize the premium Cloudflare Enterprise CDN solution, which is among the most advanced and fastest CDN services on the market.
Rocket only deals with managed WordPress hosting, and they have different plan tiers for individual site owners, agencies and enterprises.
All the tools you’ll need to manage your WP site (staging, caching, backups, etc.) are integrated into their easy-to-use, custom control panel.
The support team is very friendly and will readily go above and beyond to assist you with any issues related to your account or website. Even the CEO of the company doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty handling support requests on some occasions.
If you are looking for the fastest WordPress hosting with outstanding support at a reasonable cost, you won’t find many better deals than what this company has to offer.
3. Kinsta
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Kinsta is another reliable host that can take good care of your small business website. Unlike Pressable and Rocket, which are based in the U.S., Kinsta is run by a global team distributed around the world.
They have a very solid hosting platform that is powered by Google Cloud infrastructure. The plans are flexible and can be upgraded with additional resources and features to meet your site’s requirements.
One important thing you should note about Kinsta is that they offer a limited number of PHP workers with each plan. This can easily become a performance bottleneck for dynamic sites, such as e-commerce (WooCommerce) sites, especially those with high traffic or frequent traffic spikes. Upgrades are available but can massively hike up your monthly bill.
Kinsta’s pricing is generally on the higher end of the scale, so this may not be the right choice for you if you are on a tight budget.
Their expert live chat support (available 24/7) and the well-optimized servers can justify the relatively high cost. If your budget is flexible, you might enjoy working with this company.
4. KnownHost
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Despite the cheesy name of this company (is it?), you’d be grateful to stumble upon it. They have been in business since 2006 and they are one of the most reputable web hosts within webmaster communities on Reddit and other forums.
Unlike the three companies mentioned above, KnownHost offers both regular shared web hosting and managed WordPress hosting. They also have great deals on various types of VPS hosting (regular, NVMe, and cloud).
KnownHost is one of the best hosts for WordPress for three reasons: well-built and secure servers, quick support by US-based agents, and reasonable prices.
If you are interested in affordable WordPress hosting without sacrificing performance, security or support, this could be the perfect fit for your website.
5. Krystal
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Were you expecting to see BlueHost, HostGator or DreamHost on this list? Sorry to disappoint you, but this isn’t another typical affiliate “top hosts” review! This post is for companies that are reputable by their own merits rather than overblown by their affiliates — and one of those, I’d argue, is Krystal.
This UK-based provider may not be popular among commission-driven review sites, but if you look them up on TrustPilot, Reddit and other community-driven sites, you’ll find a lot of positive experiences shared by real customers of theirs.
I think Krystal is a trustworthy web host for small business owners because of their secure and stable servers, and more importantly, because of their exceptionally talented in-house support team.
Their shared hosting plans pack ample features at a reasonable price point. You can choose your server location from three available options: UK, USA and Netherlands.
They also have a more advanced, fully managed WordPress hosting service, which is more suitable for large and high-traffic websites. Be advised though that the managed WP solution is only available in their UK data center at the moment.
Comparison of The Top WordPress Hosts For Small Business
The following table provides a summarized side-by-side comparison of the five WordPress hosting companies discussed above.
*Note: Certain specifications may vary from one plan to another.
Pressable | Rocket | Kinsta | KnownHost | Krystal | |
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Service | Managed WP | Managed WP | Managed WP | Shared/Managed WP | Shared/Managed WP |
Server resources | Shared | Shared or dedicated | Shared or dedicated | Shared | Shared |
PHP workers | Unlimited | Unlimited | Limited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Monthly visits | Capped (upgradeable) | Uncapped | Capped (upgradeable) | Uncapped | Uncapped |
Control panel | Custom | Custom | Custom | cPanel | cPanel |
Staging | Yes (custom tool) | Yes (custom tool) | Yes (custom tool) | Yes (via cPanel) | Yes (via Softaculous) |
Backups | Free (30 days) | Free (14 days) | Free (14+ days) | Free (custom) | Free (31 snapshots) |
Paid add-on | Not available | Not available | Free (unlimited) | Free (unlimited) | |
Money-back guarantee | 30 days | 30 days | 30 days | 30 days | 60 days |
Starting price | $19/month | $30/month | $35/month | $11.95/month | £4.99/month |
Based in | USA | USA | Global (remote) | USA | UK |
Official site | Visit | Visit | Visit | Visit | Visit |
Best WordPress Hosting Selection Methodology
We followed a balanced methodology when selecting and ranking the companies listed in this article. The following are the key factors we took into account when evaluating each provider.
Service Reliability
There are different metrics that affect the reliability of a WordPress hosting service. If we have to summarize it in one sentence, it would be: keeping your website running flawlessly and securely at all times while providing prompt solutions to any technical problems that arise along the way.
We sifted through dozens of companies in order to select the ones that have a solid track record of providing reliable services.
Uptime Guarantee
Frequent downtime is one of the top reasons many website owners change their hosting provider. It’s not only annoying, it can also result in massive losses to your online business.
Proactive server monitoring can significantly boost uptime by identifying and resolving issues before they lead to downtime.
We made sure that all of the companies we have chosen offer an uptime guarantee of no less than 99.9%.
Performance
The hardware as well as the software powering the server that hosts your website play a key role in how well it performs. Utilizing modern and fast hardware leads to faster processing and loading, as does using an optimized server stack.
We evaluated both hardware and software performance metrics for each of the hosts we included in this list.
We prioritized providers that use optimal hardware and software configurations, and at the same time offer adequate amounts of server resources to facilitate impeccable performance.
Security
Server and website security is one of the major concerns of small business owners. The last thing you want to be dealing with is a hacked website and/or compromised customer data.
When it comes to WordPress hosting, there are two types of security enhancements that should be implemented. The first relates to general sever and network security measures, and the second includes WordPress-specific security improvements.
Some hosts use third-party tools to secure their servers while others have their own custom-built tools and configurations.
We looked for companies that take security very seriously and offer the right tools to help protect your website from various types of threats lurking in the cyber world.
Technical Support
Many things can go wrong with your website or server at any time requiring technical assistance from the support team. Sometimes, the solution is as simple as clicking a few buttons, and sometimes, a thorough examination by an expert technician may be needed.
Having access to a knowledgeable support team 24/7 is one of the must-have features to seek in a web hosting service.
This was one of the main factors we used as the basis for our selection of WordPress hosts. We extensively examined user feedback about each company’s support service on different independent review sites. We also did our own testing of the expertise, helpfulness and response time of each company’s support team.
Pricing
Unless you’re on a limited budget, price shouldn’t be your primary criterion when picking a web hosting provider. That said, price still does matter. Why would you pay a higher price if you could get the same level of service at a lower cost elsewhere? — That’s a big “if”, though.
We didn’t search for the cheapest hosting providers for WordPress, but rather the ones that offer the most reliable service at a fair price. Some of the hosts on our list are a bit on the premium side while others are more budget friendly.
On the whole, all of our selected providers have affordable plans for small business, e-commerce and professional WordPress websites.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below you’ll find some commonly asked questions about WordPress hosting with the best attempt at a precise and helpful answer.
How to Find a Fast WordPress Hosting Service?
First of all, it’s important to keep in mind that the speed of your website is mainly affected by two things: its own build (including the theme and plugins), and the hosting service.
As far as the latter is concerned, the following are some of the most notable characteristics of the fastest WordPress hosting services that you should seek:
- NVMe SSD storage (or at least standard SSD)
- Adequate quotas of CPU and RAM with flexible limits
- Static and dynamic caching
- A global content delivery network (CDN)
- LiteSpeed web server
- MariaDB databases (performs faster than MySQL)
- Comprehensive security scanning and protection
How Much RAM Does a WordPress Site Need?
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer to this question since it can dramatically vary from one site to another. It depends on the size, complexity and the traffic volume of the website.
For a new WordPress site that mostly consists of static pages, such as a blog, 512 MB of RAM should be enough as a starting point.
If it’s a new e-commerce/WooCommerce site, the minimum amount of RAM recommended for seamless functioning is 1 GB.
If it’s an established website, you should look at its current server usage statistics to estimate the right amount of RAM required.
Is Managed WordPress Hosting Better Than Shared Hosting?
Managed WordPress is a more convenient choice if you are looking to launch a new site as quickly as possible with minimum manual installations and configurations.
It can save you the time and effort you’d normally spend on finding and installing third-party plugins that add essential functionalities to a new WP site. These include staging, caching, backups, security, CDN, etc.
Another important advantage of the managed option is that the servers come optimized for WordPress, so the performance and speed are higher than what you usually get with shared hosting.
The only major drawback of managed WordPress is the higher cost. This can be totally worth it for small business owners whose time is much more valuable than a few extra dollars per month.