What makes a web host good for WordPress?

What makes WordPress hosting stand out from the rest, according to top web hosts

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

Almost every web host has a WordPress hosting service, but how do you separate the good ones from the bad, and what is it that makes a host particularly good for WordPress?

I have my thoughts, which I’ve detailed in ourbest WordPress hostingguide but I wanted to hear from the web hosts themselves - what do they think is important and how do they optimize hosting services for WordPress?

So, I asked hosts that have been recommended by WordPress themselves, and this is what they had to say.

This is what SiteGround believes makes the best WordPress hosting

Monika has worked at SiteGround Web Hosting Company as a Marketing Director and Product Manager, leading product development strategies and overseeing product launches. Additionally, Monika has experience as a Product Owner, gathering requirements and supervising project implementations.

WordPress powers over 40% of all websites on the internet, making it the most popular content management system worldwide. With great popularity comes a vast choice of different WordPress hosts with varying prices, features and specifications that can make your head hurt. Here at SiteGround we’ve spent the past 20 years constantly iterating on the perfect WordPress hosting - keeping up with continuous changes in user and software demand.

Our experience with hosting millions of websites during all those years show that there are four main pillars that separate the good from the great when it comes to WordPress hosting.

Support that has your back

First things first: when it comes to hosting, support is king. You want a host that’s there for you 24/7, ready to jump in when you need them. Great support makes the difference between a minor hiccup and a full-blown business disaster.

Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!

When choosing a good WordPress host, look for quick response times and knowledgeable staff who speak your language - both literally and technically. Read reviews and ratings on independent websites to get a better understanding of the level of support you can expect.

If you’re a beginner or simply don’t want to deal with coding, look for a hosting provider that can help you easily reach vetted WordPress developers or provide such services in-house.

Security to never worry about

WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world, making it a hot target for hackers. A good host is proactive when it comes to security - they have built-in platform features like WAF and DDoS protection, pre-installed SSL, 2-factor authentication and automatic updates - both for WordPress and for site-critical software like PHP for example.

Don’t overlook backups when choosing a host - you’ll need those more often than you think. While cheaper solutions may offer minimal or no backups, this is an area where you shouldn’t compromise. At SiteGround, we’ve gone the extra mile with our enterprise-grade backup system. All sites we host come with daily backups that are geo-distributed, meaning your backups are stored in a different datacenter than your website. This ensures that a safe restore is just a few clicks away, both in everyday situations, like a website update gone wrong, or the most extreme scenarios beyond your control.

Speed that fuels your success

Speed is a major factor in your site’s success - it’s essential for user experience,SEOand even conversions. When it comes to WordPress sites, you want a host that’s investing in speed in all areas that matter.

Great hosts optimize at every level in order to squeeze every ounce of performance from your website. At SiteGround we start with premiumGoogleCloud platform infrastructure and network to ensure uptime and performance and finish with our in-house built SiteGround Speed Optimizer plugin for WordPress to ensure that your application is running at its fastest. And there are a number of speed essentials in between - multi-level caching, free CDN for every site, our own ultrafast PHP implementation, custom MySQL setup adding extra speed to concurrent visits and many more. Performance optimization is a never-ending process - both for the host and the site owner and you should look for a host that understands the importance of speed and is as excited as you when it comes to making your site as fast as possible.

Easy management empowering you to do more

The final piece of the puzzle is ease of management. Depending on your needs, easy management can mean different things.

If you’re hosting a single website, the features that will make your life easy and are absolutely essential when you host WordPress sites are those that offload software management for you. Choose a host with managed WordPress autoupdates. You might want to have some control there, so consider whether autoupdate settings can be modified and how is the host performing them. For example - do they do testing and backups before updating? Backups are essential anytime there’s an update involved, so at SiteGround we do a backup before every WordPress autoupdate - ensuring that if the new version doesn’t agree with your website for any reason, you’re a click away from restoring back to your fully-functional site in no time. Other features that may come in handy for your WordPress site are Staging and Git - allowing for controlled, safe testing of different designs or functionality.

There are also features and tools that make multi-site management a breeze. A convenient and easy to use control panel is a must if you host multiple websites. If you’re working with clients, look for hosts with built-in collaboration functionality to allow for easy teamwork and access management.

To summarize - choosing the right WordPress host is crucial for your website’s success. The best WordPress hosts excel in four key areas: responsive and knowledgeable support, proactive security, optimized speed at every level, and user-friendly management tools. These pillars ensure that your WordPress site not only runs smoothly but thrives in the competitive online landscape. As you evaluate hosting options, prioritize providers who demonstrate expertise and commitment in these areas. By selecting a host that excels in these four pillars, you’re setting a strong foundation for your WordPress site to grow, perform, and succeed.

SiteGround

What Hostinger believes makes the best WordPress hosting

Saulius enjoys observing users through their daily life activities, looking for problems to solve, and building products that make users more efficient online, help them spend more time on the things they love, and leave all the rest for technology to solve. As VP of Product at Hostinger, Saulius oversees Web Hosting Platform & Tools, Managed WordPress, and WebPro Experience. Saulius has been with Hostinger since 2022 and has been in the IT Software development industry for 19 years in total. Before joining Hostinger, Saulius worked on building and launching tech-driven products to market for early-stage startups. Currently Hostinger is the fastest-growing Hosting company in the world and powers 7.2M websites as of September 1st, 2024.

WordPress is a versatile content management system suitable for various projects, from a blog or hobby site to an eCommerce business. This means that every WordPress user’s needs are also different. Many are working on brave new projects and ideas – often more than one, and are looking for anaffordableway to test them out. If an idea proves successful, they want toscaleit effortlessly.

On the other hand, those with established WordPress websites might be looking for a better host totransferto easily, quickly, and, ideally, for free. Besides the essentials, such as a free domain, email support, and responsive 24/7 expert support, we recommend considering three key areas when choosing a managed WordPress hosting provider:

Security

While the simplicity and popularity of WordPress will make for fast development, it might attract bad actors who exploit loopholes and vulnerabilities. Look for a web host with a good track record and integrated security features. Oursecurity measuresinclude:

AI tools

1-click installers, pre-built templates, and staging tools have become the norm. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools and features are on the rise, saving time for WordPress users in starting and maintaining their websites and content. Here are some of the integrations our managed WordPress hosting clients can enjoy:

Performance

On the internet, every second counts. The faster a website loads,the lower the bounce rate; website performance is also aranking factorthat helps achieve higher positions in search engine results. Here’s what makes WordPress websites load fast at Hostinger:

Hostinger

What Bluehost believes makes the best WordPress hosting

Mike has been involved with WordPress since 2008. He has over 100 contributions to the WordPress core project and has spent most of his professional career with roles in product and engineering. He loves to enable dreamers and SMBs to succeed with their online goals.

Choosing the right hosting provider is crucial for the success of your business, especially when it comes to your WordPress website. A hosting service that can grow with your business and is specifically tailored to the needs of your WordPress site is foundational for long-term success. At Bluehost, we’re committed to providing the kind of WordPress-focused hosting service that allows businesses like yours to achieve sustainable growth online, while enjoying the scalability, security and efficiency of the WordPress platform.

Today, WordPress is the most popular content management system in the world, powering over40%of all websites. But to make the most of WordPress, it’s essential to choose a hosting service that specializes in the platform, ensuring that your site performs to its highest potential and can scale as your business expands.

Different sites have different needs, but WordPress sites might require specific skill sets and demands. The type of website you run often dictates the level of performance you’ll need, so make sure to nail down your online goals from the outset. Whether you run an agency building high-quality WordPress sites for clients or you’re an individual business owner, knowing what your site needs will help you make the right hosting choice.

Before choosing your web hosting provider, consider these important questions:

Answering these questions will help ensure that your hosting solution aligns with your business goals and effectively supports your business’s growth.

A reliable WordPress hosting provider, like Bluehost, offers several key features:

These features allow businesses to maximize their WordPress site’s potential, streamline operations and drive growth. With Bluehost, you get a hosting partner that not only understands WordPress, but also provides access to WordPress experts with the specialized support, free self-service migrations and resources needed to help you, your business and your WordPress site thrive.

Bluehost

James is a tech journalist covering interconnectivity and digital infrastructure as the web hosting editor at TechRadar Pro. James stays up to date with the latest web and internet trends by attending data center summits, WordPress conferences, and mingling with software and web developers. At TechRadar Pro, James is responsible for ensuring web hosting pages are as relevant and as helpful to readers as possible and is also looking for the best deals and coupon codes for web hosting. When James is not at his desk he enjoys hiking in the mountains close to his home in California.

Best free and public DNS server of 2024

Zoho turns to Nvidia NeMo to build proprietary LLMs

The Apple Watch is helping Afib patients ditch blood thinners in a ground-breaking trial