Have you ever dreamed of owning your own blog site and making money of it? Sounds impossible doesn’t it, an idea and dream that is ‘too good to be true!’ Well, it is not! Many bloggers (though definitely not the majority) are making tens, sometimes even hundreds of thousands, of dollars a month off of their blog sites.
What’s their secret? Do they write about an interesting product that everyone must have, or do they write on unique topics that everyone wants to know about? Maybe! Part of the secret to their success lies in the hosting platform they use for their blogs! Most of them use (and love) WordPress for its wide range of functionalities and plugins. They especially love that this is all free!
What requirements do you need for WordPress hosting?
If you guessed that your computer has to meet certain requirements for you to even think about having a WordPress blog site, you are absolutely right! Well, your computer doesn’t have to support a lot of technical stuff for you to use WordPress. All you need is a browser that supports at least PHP version 7 scripting language. The higher the number is in terms of scripting language that your browser supports the better. Or else you will never be able to style or put content on your website. Your browser will simply not let you do this!
Your browser must also be able to support the MySQL version that is at least 5.6 or the MariaDB version that is at least 10.1. It must also support HTTPS and its accompanying secure socket layer.
What you need to know before choosing a WordPress hosting provider
If you want to choose a company to host your site, make sure it meets the following vital criteria;
- It must load quickly (Speed)
- It must always load (Reliability)
- It must be difficult if not impossible for hackers to access (Security)
Of course, you should also consider what you want and need your blog site to do. Then choose a hosting provider based on that. There are many different types of hosting providers and each is designed to meet the unique needs of each blog site. For example, you can choose from Free, Shared, Dedicated, VPS, and Managed hosting providers. Each of these has its own advantages and drawbacks based on what you want and need from your blog!
But if you have no idea what the types of hosting providers are, let alone what they can do for your blog, here is a simple explanation. The types of hosting providers are (once again) mentioned below:
- Free hosting
- Shared Hosting
- VPS hosting
- Dedicated server hosting
- Managed hosting
Free hosting
These are a dime a dozen. If you are willing to display many popup and banner ads from the host company, you can have all of the free hosting services you want. However, this may be a problem if the ads directly compete with what you promote or sell. The other downside is that many of these companies are literally fly-by-night companies. They can go under quickly without warning. Then you have to find a new hosting company. This can be a cumbersome process. As a general rule, avoid free hosting services.
Shared hosting
If you are a newbie at blogging, this is the best route for you to take. Since you’ll be sharing the hosting site with many other bloggers, you’ll be sharing the cost. Therefore, you’ll be paying much less than you would if you went with GoDaddy or Bluehost. Just keep in mind that the hosting company may limit what you can do in terms of server space. If your blog grows and needs more and more space, the company will have you pay more and more in hosting fees. If you are looking for a provider with unlimited hosting space, shared hosting may not be the way to go!
You would want to use shared hosting if you are running a blog for a hobby or if you are running a start-up blog and want to minimize expenses as much as possible.
VPS hosting
VPS is an acronym for Virtual Private Server. With this service, you’ll be using the server space you need on the hosting company’s main server and you will be charged accordingly. You’ll enjoy the same privacy, security, and scalability that you would with a dedicated server. The best part about VPS hosting is that you can configure it to run on sites using special software programs. This comes in handy if you have a uniquely configured and coded blog site. Just keep in mind that you need to have at least basic tech acumen if you want to use this type of hosting service.
This type of hosting service is ideal if you are scaling up and need more hosting space and capacity. This is especially true if your daily website traffic is growing exponentially.
Managed hosting
If you choose this hosting provider, you’ll only be allowed to park WordPress based sites on it. This is because they have a large number of sites they need to accommodate and need to conserve as much space as possible. This hosting service is ideal if you know nothing about computer science, coding, or maintaining a website. The hosting company will take care of coding, updates, maintenance, and anything else imaginable.
You’ll also be pleased to hear that your website will always be running at peak performance. The hosting provider automatically and constantly checks for improvements in security. Also, your data and content will always be automatically backed up. This comes in handy if you accidentally delete a section of your website while trying to update it. A good example of a managed server is Flywheel.
Of course, since you’re getting more services, you will also be paying much higher hosting fees. But the upside is that you’ll have 24/7 support from a very professional, knowledgeable, and friendly staff who will want you to succeed.
If you choose this hosting service, expect to pay $29 a month for one site with moderate traffic. The minute your site gets more than 25,000 visitors a month, you have to choose another type of hosting provider. Of course, you can choose the premium plan which allows you to have more than one website and domain. Expect to pay $99 a month. This is only good for medium-sized companies that are scaling up!
Dedicated hosting
The beauty of this type of hosting is that it is scalable. You can ramp up during peak season, and you can scale back during ‘downtime.’ This is possible because you lease the hosting service and space from the hosting company. Since you are a leasor, you own everything about the hosting platform – from the operating system to the infrastructure. You can, therefore, choose how you will design the platform. While you get a lot of autonomy, this can be expensive. Therefore, unless you have lots of financial support when you are starting out, this is not an ideal hosting service to use.
You will need to have substantial technical acumen and a substantial technical background if you want to use this hosting service since you are managing everything.
How do WordPress hosting providers fare when compared?
Now that you have some understanding of what WordPress hosting services are, why you need them, and what you need to know/consider before choosing one, it’s time to compare some of the top hosting providers. Most WordPress bloggers use one of ten hosting provider services. They are listed and described in detail below:
- SiteGround (http://www.siteground.com)
- Flywheel (http://www.getflywheel.com)
- Bluehost (http://www.bluehost.com)
- Kinsta (http://www.kinsta.com)
- WPEngine (http://www.wpengine.com)
- DreamHost (http://www.dreamhost.com)
- A2Hosting (http://www.A2Hosting.com)
- InMotion Hosting (http://www.InMotionHosting.com)
- HostGator (http://www.HostGator.com)
- GoDaddy (http://www.GoDaddy.com)
SiteGround (www.Siteground.com)
Of all of the hosting provider services for WordPress websites, this is the best and most popular one! They offer a wide variety of quality services for extremely cheap. Their basic package is StartUp and costs $3.95 a month for 12 months. Expect to pay $3.95 a month for 36 consecutive months of service. Their services in terms of price point (you pay more for your morning breakfast at McDonald’s) are so good that they are officially endorsed and recommended on WordPress’s official website.
It’s easy to set your site up on this platform. They have five data centers operating in Asia, the USA, and Europe. They are known for excellent and responsive customer service. Additionally, their uptime and response time is 850ms over three months.
Flywheel (www.Getflywheel.com)
You’ll pay $15 a month in monthly installments, or $13 a month if you pay for the entire year. It performs well and delivers extremely responsive websites. You can host one site with the $13 plan. It can handle monthly traffic of up to 5,000 visitors with 20GB of bandwidth for support. You’ll be able to place your site on the server for free and you’ll have 5GB of free storage space. Also, since it runs on the cloud, it’s virtual and extremely scalable.
You’ll enjoy the basic and premium features associated with managed server accounts. These include the ability to host many sites, automatic and daily backup, staging, etc…you’ll get a free SSL certificate that guarantees the security of your blog site. The dashboard is intuitive and easy to use. You can do just about anything to do with hosting from here.
Enjoy an excellent installation experience and superior support from knowledgeable, professional, and friendly customer service reps. Their uptime and response time is great. It’s in the 1.2 range.
Bluehost (www.Bluehost.com)
This hosting provider will give you ‘the most bang for your buck!’ You’ll pay $2.95 a month for a wide variety of services and support. For example, you can install it either through the cPanel options or by a limited number of ‘clicks!’ The drawback lies in its Multiple Mojo feature. You can make many costly (and sometimes irreversible) installation mistakes with this. The worst part is its poor feedback which makes it impossible to know what’s exactly occurring when you do install Bluehost.
Look forward to friendly, professional, and knowledgeable customer service from reps who will quickly answer your questions and resolve your issues. Its uptime is perfect, but its response time is not. It takes an average of 1.5 seconds to load a website.
Kinsta (www.Kinsta.com)
This service provider’s main focus is to get the most out of managed hosting providers. They are powered by the Google Cloud platform in terms of hosting and this gives them the ability to scale up when needed. You’ll be installing the server using a panel that is unique to Kinsta. This panel is designed to keep you focused during the installation process. Once you’ve created your account and installed Kinsta, it will take care of the rest for in terms of your blog site from that point on.
You’ll get 24/7 friendly support from seasoned reps who know what they’re talking about and who want you to succeed. It has excellent uptime and loads in an amazing 1.5 milliseconds. Now that’s blazing fast!
WP Engine (www.Wpengine.com)
It’s extremely popular in the managed hosting category. Its personal plan is the basic one. That will cost you $22.50 a month. This is great if you’re new to blogging even though it has a higher price tag. You will be able to support a complex blog site that’s loaded with content. WP Engine can handle up to 25,000 visitors a month, so you won’t need to switch providers for a while!
All you have to do in terms of installation is to create an account. WP Engine will do the rest for you. If you have any questions or issues, you can always raise a ticket which will be answered promptly and to your satisfaction. You can chat, but you’ll need to upgrade accounts for that. Its uptime is perfect, but its loading time is 150 milliseconds, so it is super fast!
DreamHost (www.DreamHost.com)
You’ll pay $3.95 a month for the standard shared hosting package. It may please you to know that this is its costliest plan! It’s easy to install. All you have to do is create an account. Furthermore, you can always chat with a friendly customer service rep if you have any queries or issues. Its uptime and response time (at 930 milliseconds) are less than desirable.
A2Hosting (www.A2Hosting.com)
This is new to the hosting service provider scene. The basic Lite plan will set you back $4.49 a month for a 12-month contract. They excel in terms of providing hosting services because the service is intuitive and easy to learn and use. Additionally, it fully supports WordPress based sites, is very secure, and loads and performs well.
You’ll love to hear that this provider already has the WordPress platform installed. That means that you can design your site straight from the hosting provider! The customer service department is easy to reach, either through chat or by phone. They can answer any question/query and resolve any issue you may have. Its downside lies in its uptime (which is less than perfect) and its response time which is 1 second. This is not bad, but it may increase your site’s bounce rate a little bit.
InMotion (www.InMotionhosting.com)
You’ll love this if you have many sites that sell many different products or services. It costs $3.99 a month for the basic (Launch) plan. You’ll have free SSD storage. This plan supports up to 2 sites (other advanced plans support even more!) They give you a free SSL security certificate which you can put on your website. This will eventually increase your traffic because it will reassure visitors that their activities and sensitive information is safe! This provider also has WordPress on it. This means that you can create your website(s) right from the hosting website.
You can choose the max speed you want your website to have. You’ll choose from East or West. The West option makes your site load and runs faster in the Western parts of the world. The customer support is amazing. You can access a WordPress channel and many guides and tutorials that will turn you into a ‘WordPress expert’ in no time. You can also access reps through chat. They will be able to answer even the most complex questions and resolve the most complex issues with amazing speed and accuracy!
The uptime is not always reliable, but this is more than balanced by its 170 millisecond load time. This will attract visitors in droves to your site and keep them there long enough for many to convert!
HostGator (www.HostGator.com)
Most people rave this hosting provider. They use the Starter package which is the most basic plan and costs $2.75 a month. It’s easy to register and create an account. Once you do so, you’ll be playing around with the options on its cPanel based dashboard to upload and launch your site. You may want to rethink using this if you’re a newbie with lots of issues and questions. It takes an amazing eight minutes to reach a rep through chat. Even then, you may know more about your issues than the reps do!
Their uptime is great (it’s the fastest of all hosting providers.) however, it takes about 660 milliseconds to load a page. That could negatively affect your bounce rate somewhat. But this is much better than the load time of its competitor GoDaddy.
GoDaddy (www.GoDaddy.com)
This is the most talked-about hosting provider. Its cheapest plan (basic plan) costs $5.99 a month. Their interface isn’t for the faint of heart or those who are new to blogging. The good news is that you’ll face very few setbacks when trying to install GoDaddy. You’ll be using a cPanel that is easy to learn and use. So setting up your site on GoDaddy should be easy and simple.
You can use the built-in installer to design your site straight from the hosting provider. The one drawback is that it doesn’t support temporary URLs. The customer service chat is also wanting. Expect to wait up to 40 minutes to reach a rep. However, when you do reach a rep, you’ll be conversing with knowledgeable and professional people who will resolve your most pressing concerns in a timely manner.
Its uptime could be better. Its load time is a disappointing 9 seconds.
Conclusion
You can choose SiteGround if you are a newbie who is operating on more of a shoestring budget. This is because all of the functionality it offers for its low price. However, if your coffers are deeper, and/or if you are expanding, you should choose something like WP Engine which is decently priced, yet can handle the higher traffic and bandwidth you will be experiencing.