Choosing the Best WordPress Hosting in 2023

Host	Host Starting At (based on an annual plan)	One-Click WordPress Install?	Key Features	Overall Rating
WP Engine	$20/month	Yes	Managed service, free SSL, CDN, and site migration, choice of server architecture	4.5/5
Kinsta	$29.16/month	Yes	Managed service, unbeatable speed, unlimited free site migrations	4.5/5
Hostinger	$2.99/month	No	Free SSL and email, generous bandwidth and storage caps	3.75/5
InMotion	$4.49/month	Yes	Free SSL, email, and domain registration, lots of security add-ons	4/5
SiteGround	$2.99/month	No	Free WordPress themes and email addresses, lots of security add-ons	4/5
A2 Hosting	$17.99/month	No	Widest range of different services and plans	4.75/5
Bluehost	$2.95/month	Yes	Endorsed by WordPress, Free CDN, SSL, domain registration, and email	4.75/5
Elementor	$99/year	Yes	One-stop shop provides hosting, web building, and site management tools from a single dashboard	4.5/5

When managing websites, we have found that most site owners put their energy into developing an engaging and user-friendly site. Of course, these are critically important components of a successful website. But, there’s one often overlooked component that all website owners need: web hosting. 

A web host provides the server space and storage your site needs to live on the internet. The best web hosts deliver much more than just server space and also provide robust security features, time-saving automation, and the reliability you need to keep your site running 24/7/365. 

With many websites on the internet utilizing WordPress as their content management system (whether blogs or e-commerce), most site owners are looking for the best WordPress hosting for their web properties. Today, we’ll take a closer look at everything you need to consider before selecting a host, and we’ll also check out the best WordPress hosting on today’s market. 

Requirements for the Best WordPress Hosting

WordPress is reasonably lightweight, and there are hardly any requirements WordPress has regarding web hosting. 

To host your WordPress website, the host must provide the following: 

• PHP version 7.4 or newer.
• MySQL version 5.7 or newer OR MariaDB version 10.3 or newer
• HTTPS support

Choosing the Ideal Hosting for Your Site

Most web hosts offer various hosting products ranging from basic shared hosting for a few dollars a month to managed solutions that provide dedicated site management and automation features. Depending on the needs of your website, you’ll find that some of these hosting products are a better fit for your business than others. 

Free WordPress Hosting

Free WordPress hosts are web hosts which will provide you with storage on their servers for your website at no charge. We have found that there’s no such thing as a free lunch, so you’ll want to approach these hosts with a healthy measure of skepticism and investigate why they are free.

Most free hosts offer very little storage space or site security, don’t allow you to connect a custom domain, and advertise their services on your website. 

Shared WordPress Hosting

Shared WordPress hosting is the most economical arrangement for hosting your website. With a shared host, multiple websites from different owners are hosted on the server, and the websites can split the cost of hosting among them to provide the lowest price possible. 

Shared hosts provide adequate features and security, but this arrangement has some drawbacks. If your website is hosted on a server with another website that generates a lot of traffic, it may end up cutting into the resources the server can allocate to the needs of your website. Slower page speeds and more frequent outages are typical with shared hosts. 

Some of the best web hosts offering shared hosting are: 

• Hostinger
• InMotion
• SiteGround
• A2 Hosting
• Bluehost

WordPress VPS Hosting

VPS hosting is similar to shared hosting in that multiple websites share a single server. The critical difference is that with a VPS host, part of the server is partitioned off and allocated to your website exclusively. The benefit of VPS hosting is that it’s still relatively affordable while providing your website with dedicated resources and more reliability. 

Some of the best web hosts offering VPS hosting are: 

• Hostinger
• InMotion
• A2 Hosting
• Bluehost

WordPress Dedicated Server Hosting

With a dedicated arrangement, users lease servers from a hosting provider and can use that server and the resources it provides exclusively. With a dedicated server, the site owner has complete control over the minutiae of hosting, including the host operating system and server hardware. 

Dedicated hosts are best for sites that receive significant traffic and site owners with experience running and maintaining web servers.

Some of the best web hosts offering dedicated hosting are: 

• InMotion
• A2 Hosting
• Bluehost 

Managed WordPress Hosting

Managed WordPress hosting is arguably the favorite arrangement among WordPress users, providing many benefits over other hosting formats. With managed hosting, all of the day-to-day needs of your hosting are handled by the hosting provider. Plug-in and security upgrades, site backups, and updates are all conducted automatically. 

Managed WordPress hosts are available in many configurations, including shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting. A general managed WordPress host provides more than enough features, security, and speed for most sites. Midsize and enterprise-level businesses will benefit from a VPS or dedicated WordPress host. 

Managing hosting is significantly more expensive than a DIY alternative. Still, many sites feel the benefits and peace of mind they receive by not having to worry about the day-in-day-out operations of their web hosting is well worth the added cost. 

Some of the best web hosts offering managed WordPress hosting are: 

• WP Engine
• Kinsta
• Hostinger
• InMotion
• SiteGround
• A2 Hosting
• Bluehost

A Comparison of the Best WordPress Hosts

With so many excellent WordPress hosts on the market, it can be challenging to decide on the best WordPress host for you. After testing over a dozen hosts, we’ve provided more information on your website’s top eight best hosting for WordPress options. 

WP Engine 

WP Engine is an excellent choice for WordPress users looking for a managed hosting solution. Everything WP Engine does is tailored to WordPress and WooCommerce installations, to the point they don’t work with sites built outside of the WordPress ecosystem.

As a managed host, tedious tasks like updating plug-ins, security certificates, or backing up the site happen automatically, saving you time and ensuring your visitors are safe. They’ll also provide site migration if you move your site from another host. 

WP Engine provides crucial extras like an SSL certificate, firewall, threat and malware monitoring, and 24/7 customer support. A free CDN and their EverCache page technology deliver impressive speed, with page load speeds among the best in the industry.

WP Engine has a few minor caveats, like not providing email addresses or domain registration services. Outside of that, the only area of concern is the price. WP Engine, and most other managed hosts, represent a significantly higher expense than a bargain-priced shared host. WP Engine is among the best WordPress hosts if you have a substantial budget allocated for hosting.

While WPEngine’s plans, starting at $24 per month, are expensive, they include proactive security, automated updates and backups, staging environments, and access to premium themes. 

At our digital agency, we strictly utilize WP Engines’s services. While it is a premium service, the features that WP Engine offers far surpass other hosting options at an agency level.

Pros

• Industry-leading safety and security
• Excellent customer service
• Users can choose between Google Cloud or AWS infrastructure
• Free SSL, CDN, and malware scanning

Cons

• Expensive
• Doesn’t provide email addresses for site users
• No in-house domain registration

Kinsta

Kinsta is another premium WordPress host that delivers managed hosting exclusively for stores running WordPress or WooCommerce. Like WP Engine, this host handles site migrations, backups, and plug-in updates to ensure your site runs at its best. 

Performance-wise, Kinsta delivers best-in-class page speeds, more than 99.9% uptime, and all of the security features you need to inspire trust in site visitors, including a free SSL certificate. Their team will migrate your site for free if you’re currently hosting with another provider. 

In place of a CPanel dashboard, Kinsta has its own, called MyKinsta, that’s intuitive and makes site management simple, especially if you manage more than one website. Customer service from Kinsta is better than average, and they’re available 24/7 to help with issues via live chat. 

Like WP Engine, this host doesn’t provide email addresses and is near the top end of the price spectrum. Kinsta’s hosting begins at a whopping $35 per month, but it is a managed solution that provides automated updates and backups, managed site migrations, and many other time-saving premium features.

Pros

• Fastest page load times 
• Excellent management dashboard
• Unlimited free site migrations

Cons

• Very expensive 
• No email addresses
• Immediately bumps your site to the next plan tier if site traffic caps are reached

Hostinger

Hostinger is one of the most versatile web hosting providers, offering a broad selection of different hosting products to meet the needs of various site owners. Hostinger’s most popular product is shared hosting, but they also offer VPS and cloud hosting, along with specialized hosting for WordPress users. 

Hostinger’s shared offerings are plagued by the same issues that affect all shared hosts. Users can expect occasional downtime, and page load speeds pale compared to what you’d get with a managed or cloud host. 

Hostinger does provide some valuable extras, like a free SSL certificate, free email, and plenty of bandwidth and storage. Higher plan tiers offer unlimited bandwidth and storage and more email addresses, making it an excellent choice for larger sites and teams. 

The company offers 24/7 live chat support, and while they aren’t quite as knowledgeable as companies like Kinsta or WP Engine. It would be nice to see phone support offered, especially considering you’re more likely to run into issues with Hostinger compared to the premium hosts on our list. 

This host offers a comprehensive selection of hosting products, so their pricing runs from as low as $1,99 a month for shared hosting to as much as $29.99 per month for their most comprehensive cloud hosting product. 

Pros

• Wide selection of hosting products
• Affordable prices
• Free email
• SSL Certificate

Cons

• Mediocre customer support
• Spotty uptime
• Mediocre page load speeds

InMotion

Similar to Hostinger, InMotion is a versatile host that offers customers various hosting solutions for their sites. Whether you’re looking for shared, managed, VPS, or dedicated hosting, they have you covered. There are also special plans for resellers and WordPress sites. 

Regardless of the hosting product you choose, they all include a free SSL, a suite of security add-ons to keep you protected, free email accounts, and unlimited bandwidth. The higher plan tiers have free domain registration for the first year, more storage, and unlimited email addresses.

Performance-wise, your experience with InMotion will vary depending on the hosting product you choose. Their shared hosting offerings provide above-average site speeds and uptime but still can’t compete with premium hosts like WP Engine or Kinsta. 

Their WordPress hosting performs a bit better, and their VPS and dedicated plans deliver much more speed, security, and reliability. We’d like to see a one-click WordPress install, at least for the WordPress-specific hosting, but you’ll need to handle the install through InMotion’s Softaculous software, which you’ll find in the CPanel dashboard. 

InMotion’s inexpensive shared hosting begins as low as $3.49 per month with an annual plan, while their priciest offering, dedicated hosting, begins at $269 per month. 

Pros

• Excellent assortment of hosting products
• Free email and domain registration
• 90-day money-back guarantee
• Better than average performance across the board

Cons

• No free automated backups
• Servers only located in the United States

SiteGround

SiteGround offers an excellent array of different hosting options and an array of premium add-ons that help make your site faster and more secure. Whether you’re a newbie launching your first site or an agency that needs white-label options for your clients, SiteGround has something that will fit your needs. 

All of their hosting plans feature an array of security add-ons, including SG Site Scanner, which scans your sites for malicious behavior, and SpamAssassin, which prevents spam and allows you to blacklist specific IP addresses. 

This host provides shared hosting as well as WordPress and cloud hosting. They’re a bit more expensive than the budget-minded hosts on our list, but they deliver better speed, reliability, and features than hosts like InMotion or Hostinger. Their long-term plans offer deep discounts, so there are opportunities to save once you’re sure SiteGround is a good fit for you.

SiteGround also provides arguably the best customer service of any host on our list. Not only do they provide 24/7 phone support, but you can also reach their team by live chat or email if that’s more convenient for you. 

Siteground is another company offering a wide range of hosting products, which can range in price from as low as $2.99 per month for their lowest shared plan to as high as $400 per month for their top-of-the-line cloud hosting.

Pros

• Excellent speed and reliability
• Lots of security and site speed add-ons at no cost
• Free WordPress themes
• Free unlimited email addresses

Cons

• Very expensive unless you commit to an annual plan or longer
• Doesn’t offer VPS or dedicated hosting

A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting is a premium host that excels by virtually every measure. Excellent speed and uptime, bulletproof security, and a customer service team that’s knowledgeable and there when you need them are just a few of the reasons why A2 is an excellent choice for your hosting needs. 

This host offers the broadest range of hosting services, including shared hosting for both general sites and those built on WordPress. A2 also provides managed WordPress, cloud, VPS, reseller, and dedicated hosting. 

You’ll also notice that within each hosting type, several different plans offer more or less in the way of storage, bandwidth, and monthly traffic. Regardless of where your site is, A2 has a hosting arrangement that will provide the speed, security, and reliability you need, and their expansive product range means you never end up paying for more than what you need.

A2 offers a one-click install for WordPress, and for eCommerce stores, there are also one-click installations for tools like WooCommerce, Magneto, and OpenCart. Curiously, A2 doesn’t offer a free SSL with their plans, letting users choose their own instead. 

A2 offers many products, ranging from shared hosting as low as $2.99 per month with an annual plan, to upwards of $500 per month for their top dedicated server hosting. 

Pros

• Best selection of hosting and plan types
• One-click WordPress installation 
• Unbeatable uptime and reliability

Cons

• Expensive
• Doesn’t include a free SSL

Bluehost

Bluehost is one of the few hosts on the market that carries an endorsement from WordPress, so you can rest assured that they deliver optimal performance and some of the best WordPress hosting in the industry.

Bluehost offers general and WordPress-specific shared hosting, managed WordPress hosting, VPS, and dedicated hosting. For experienced users looking to keep costs low, regular WordPress hosting is excellent but leaves you responsible for site backups and plug-in updates. In contrast, they handle it for you in-house if you choose managed hosting.

All Bluehost’s plans include a free CDN, a free domain for your first year, and a free SSL. The most affordable plan provides the SSL for your first year, while the higher plan tiers provide one for as long as you’re with Bluehost. 

Their customer service is second to none, which is one reason they carry WordPress’ endorsement. Bluehost’s team knows WordPress inside and out, and they’re available 24/7 by phone or live chat. Keep in mind that the least expensive plan tier only provides live chat. 

Bluehost also provides in-house domain registration services and free email, so there are fewer extras for you to have to worry about when you sign up with this company. 

Pricing is from $2.95 per month for an entry-level shared plan. Bluehost also offers affordable dedicated hosting, with plans topping out at $120 per month. 

Pros

• Carries the WordPress endorsement
• Free CDN, domain registration, email, and SSL
• Excellent customer service

Cons

• Prices skyrocket after the initial plan term
• Doesn’t offer month-to-month plans
• Doesn’t offer cloud hosting

Elementor Cloud

Undoubtedly the splashiest new product in the WordPress world in quite some time, Elementor Cloud is an all-in-one service that provides everything you need to design, build, and host your website in one place for one price. While it might not be appealing for site owners that only need hosting, Elementor Cloud is an excellent option for new website builds. 

On the front end, Elementor Cloud provides you with hundreds of custom-designed assets, form and pop-up builders, animations, and optimization tools so you can build a beautiful custom website. On the back end, they provide managed hosting with pre-installed WordPress, free SSL and CDN, daily backups, 20GB of storage, and 100GB of monthly bandwidth. 

All site management, from design to security to hosting, is handled from one convenient and intuitive dashboard. 

Experienced users may find the platform to be a bit restrictive for their liking, but for beginners and site owners looking to build out a new web property as quickly and efficiently as possible, Elementor Cloud is well worth a closer look. 

Elementor Cloud is undoubtedly the most interesting and enticing option on our list from a pricing perspective. There’s only one plan, and for $99 per year, you have all the tools you need to build and host an outstanding site. 

Pros

• Puts all your front-end and back-end tools in one place
• One yearly price takes care of everything from hosting to site building
• Managed service that handles backups and plug-in updates automatically

Cons

• Incompatible with certain WordPress plug-ins 
• May not provide enough storage or bandwidth for especially large or busy websites

A Quick Recap of the Best WordPress Hosts

We’ve covered eight of the best WordPress hosting options on the market and compared them. It’s a lot of information, and it’s a challenge to keep it all straight as you decide on the best host for you. Check out the chart below for a summary of the best WordPress hosting options and their differences. 

Host	Host Starting At (based on an annual plan)	One-Click WordPress Install?	Key Features	Overall Rating
WP Engine	$20/month	Yes	Managed service, free SSL, CDN, and site migration, choice of server architecture	4.5/5
Kinsta	$29.16/month	Yes	Managed service, unbeatable speed, unlimited free site migrations	4.5/5
Hostinger	$2.99/month	No	Free SSL and email, generous bandwidth and storage caps	3.75/5
InMotion	$4.49/month	Yes	Free SSL, email, and domain registration, lots of security add-ons	4/5
SiteGround	$2.99/month	No	Free WordPress themes and email addresses, lots of security add-ons	4/5
A2 Hosting	$17.99/month	No	Widest range of different services and plans	4.75/5
Bluehost	$2.95/month	Yes	Endorsed by WordPress, Free CDN, SSL, domain registration, and email	4.75/5
Elementor	$99/year	Yes	One-stop shop provides hosting, web building, and site management tools from a single dashboard	4.5/5

WordPress Frequently Asked Questions 

When researching the best WordPress hosting, most site owners have a few related questions we may not have covered yet. We’ve answered your most pressing questions below to help you find all the information you need in one place. 

How much traffic can a WordPress host handle? 

Depending on the hosting tier you select, your WordPress host should be able to handle virtually unlimited traffic. Most WordPress hosts allow you a certain amount of site visits per month, and if you exceed that number, you’ll need to upgrade your plan. 

Start with the lowest plan tier for new sites, and upgrade as needed as your site begins to see more traffic. 

Does the host I select need to have CPanel? 

CPanel is the industry standard dashboard for managing the different aspects of your web host. Many users like CPanel for its simplified environment and ease of use, allowing site owners to make changes from one centralized location. 

You can choose to use a host that offers CPanel or opt for a host that provides its own customized dashboard. These days, almost all hosts provide a simplified management dashboard that’s easy to use for all customers. So, while many website owners prefer using CPanel, it isn’t required. 

How much does building a WordPress website cost? 

Building a website on WordPress can cost you next to nothing, or thousands of dollars, depending on the needs of your website and the traffic it generates. WordPress is free, and hosting can be inexpensive. It’s possible to build a WordPress site and host it for $100 or less. 

As you start to add plug-ins and advanced functionality to your site, these modules come at a cost and can significantly increase the cost of building and managing your website. 

What is the Best WordPress Host? 

Your best WordPress hosting will depend mainly on your needs, experience level, and budget. Managed WordPress hosting from services like Bluehost, WP Engine, or Kinsta consistently perform at the top of the industry. They provide the security, reliability, and service you need to keep your site running with fewer headaches. 

Bluehost, in particular, is endorsed by WordPress as one of their preferred web hosts, and many users agree that they offer the best hosting for WordPress websites.