Website hosting companies have three hardware characteristics that define how effective they are in ensuring a stable hosting of a WordPress site on the Internet – the processing power or CPU, the hard disk space, and memory or RAM. With shared hosting, you share your hardware resources and server with plenty of other websites.
With this said, shared hosting differs from all other hosting types in that the provider hosts WordPress on those servers which you have. This way you can maintain the security and optimize performance easier since there’s only a single piece of software on them.
Here are the three main reasons why you should think of a shared plan if you need great hosting services for a WordPress site:
- One-click easy installation;
- Reliable support;
- Beginner-friendly dashboards;
- Professional site migration help once the website’s traffic grows;
- Cheap costs.
Shared hosting can’t be defined as the best in the industry and yet it’s a perfect option to start with. Besides, thanks to the extremely affordable prices, you won’t have to shut down your WordPress site.
So, to find out particularly which hosting companies you should trust to host your WordPress site, we have conducted thorough research. The results are at your disposal:
The 15 mentioned website hosting companies have been chosen based on three main factors essential for WordPress hosting – uptime (the min required uptime is 99.94%), speed or load time, and customer support to give quick solutions to users’ WordPress-related issues.
Nevertheless, we can’t guarantee the same results in terms of speed and uptime for all websites since they may slightly differ, depending on the chosen plan, as well as the size and traffic of the website.
With all this in mind, let’s start!
1. Hostinger
| Hosting Name: | Hostinger |
| Official Website: | hostinger.com |
| Launched: | 2004 |
| Websites managed: | 3,341,508 |
| Test Plan: | Free hosting available |
| Cheapest Plan: | $2.99/mo |
| Refund: | 30 days |
Hostinger – is a Europe-based website hosting company with data centers in Asia, the USA, and, of course, Europe. Even though you don’t have a chance to choose your server upon registration, you can always contact the support team to ask for that once you have signed up. This is a perk that not all hosting providers can boast to offer their clientele.
Hostinger is very generous in terms of features and offers a myriad of advantages, including free SSL and email account, a solid website building tool, availability of both Windows and Linux-based hosting servers, multilingual customer support, a big offer or WordPress plans, unmetered SSD disk space and bandwidth, daily and weekly automated backups, robust caching, one-click automated WordPress install, and a free domain. Most of these features are provided in the starting tiers. Another major perk we can’t but draw your attention to is the grandiose 2.23 seconds load time which seems hard to beat. The uptime, according to our tests, meanwhile, is 99.99%.
Hostinger implements LiteSpeed technology on a server level which stands for the fastest and most credible web servers to Hostinger sites. Compared to Apache technology, LiteSpeed performs much better. Therefore, with Hostinger, website owners acquire the chance to cut delivery times to their site visitors through cached copies.
Hostinger offers its users a professional email with a personalized domain. If you plan to move to Hostinger from another hosting provider, you would like to keep your company in touch with your customers. Meanwhile, domains can be transferred easily from the domain administration panel regardless of your provider. On the other hand, a Flockmail service also works great for organizing meetings and conferences broadcast live.
As for increasing the hosting services, there are 100 useful apps, including Joomla, WordPress, and Drupal CMS.
What concerns the downsides of this WordPress hosting provider, we have to mention the inconsistency of uptime performance from time to time which is especially noticeable with shared hosting plans.
The live support available round the clock engages knowledgeable and responsible members who respond swiftly.
Hostinger falls into the category of cheap providers if you subscribe for 4 years, though. When it comes to shared hosting for WordPress, the plans are as follows:
- Premium Hosting ($2.99 per month to reach $6.99 upon renewal) – the plan includes 100 websites, 100 GB SSD, unmetered databases, free SSL Certificate and bandwidth, basic WooCommerce optimization, free automatic website migration, free 1-click WP installation, WP auto updates etc.;
- Business Hosting ($3.99 per month to reach $8.99 upon renewal) – the plan gives out 100 websites, 200 GB SSD, free email, unmetered bandwidth and databases, WooCommerce optimization, WP AI tools, LiteSpeed for WordPress, WP vulnerabilities scanner, WP multisite, on-demand backup etc.;
- Cloud Startup Hosting ($9.99 per month to reach $19.99 upon renewal) – Hostinger’s top shared tier offers 300 websites, 200 GB SSD, free email, daily backups, free CDN, dedicated IP address, advanced WooCommerce optimization, free automatic website migration, WP staging tool, WP AI tools, object cache for WordPress etc.
2. InMotion
| Hosting Name: | InMotion Hosting |
| Official Website: | inmotionhosting.com |
| Launched: | 2001 |
| Websites managed: | 922,786 |
| Test Plan: | No |
| Cheapest Plan: | $2.99/month |
| Refund: | 90 days |
InMotion is a US-based website hosting company with amazing WordPress hosting plans. Operating in the industry of website hosting for over 20 years, the company has managed to build a huge fan base with over 1.2 million domains hosted worldwide.
Many reasons make this platform ideal for WordPress users. These include free SSL, unmetered bandwidth and email accounts, user-friendly cPanel, up to 99.99% uptime guarantee, BoldGrid plugin for professional-looking sites, CDN, more than 200 free themes specialized for WordPress sites, a powerful website builder, and quickly responsive customer support which works round the clock. The 90-day refund guarantee stands out in the market since making use of the host’s services for up to 3 months will bring you a deep insight into how efficient it is for your site.
InMotion offers some freebies and nice touches to its users. For instance, the company integrates cPanel into a user’s dashboard, so there’s no need for multiple logins. In addition, if the time comes to upgrade your shared plan to enhance your business’s online presence, you will have a wide selection of VPS and Dedicated plans.
Although InMotion isn’t the most powerful hosting provider in the market, it features some of the most robust security measures. For example, the ongoing Super Security Smartwall Threat Defense System will stand against any DDoS assaults or other threats at practically no cost.
The downsides of the company involve strict limitations on the number of websites per account. For an ordinary user, this may not seem a problem, but an entrepreneur or an online marketer will view this as a drawback.
One can’t describe InMotion WordPress hosting plans as affordable. Particularly, for a two-year subscription, you get:
- Core – The plan costs $2.99/mo and offers free SSL, two websites, 100GB SSD, unmetered bandwidth, ten emails, 2x speed performance, security, and marketing tools.
- Launch – At the price of $5.99/mo, you get free domain and SSL, unlimited websites, bandwidth, and NVMe SSD, unlimited email addresses, 6x UltraStack speed and performance, plus everything from the previous plan.
- Power – Costing $5.99/mo, this hosting plan offers 12x UltraStack Speed and Performance, advanced caching, unlimited NVMe SSD, plus everything from the previous plan.
- Pro – At the cost of $13.99/mo, InMotion offers 20x UltraStack speed and performance, pro support SLA, dedicated IP, and all features from the previous plan.
InMotion is a perfect option for a myriad of sites, including business sites, Drupal, Joomla sites, bloggers, eCommerce sites, etc. However, the WordPress tiers are obviously catered to host WordPress websites. The money-back guarantee for InMotion shared hosting is valid for 30 days.
3. GoDaddy
| Hosting Name: | GoDaddy |
| Official Website: | godaddy.com |
| Launched: | 1997 |
| Websites managed: | 40,740,208 |
| Test Plan: | Yes (for website builder) |
| Cheapest Plan: | $5.99/mo |
| Refund: | 30 days |
GoDaddy – is a veteran among website hosting companies having over two decades of experience in the field and more than 9 million websites launched during all these years. However, website developers and online business owners recognize the company mostly for its domain registration services. The major characteristics and features that the company entices its users, involve Automatic daily malware scans and unmetered malware removal and hack repair, unlimited storage and bandwidth, a free domain and business mail, unlimited visitors for eCommerce packages, SEO optimizer, unlimited products, premium WooCommerce extensions available, appointment scheduling, real-time shipping rates, cPanel and Plesk Control Panel interfaces, Linux and Windows server hosting.
Transferring your business site hosting to GoDaddy, you acquire $100 worth of Google AdWords for every spent $25. Besides, the offer includes $50 in Bing ads and Facebook ads. In addition, GoDaddy features 1 GB MySQL databases with high storage volume in all three plans.
Additionally, unlike the standard shared hosting plans where much everything beyond the storage space and one-click installer costs extra, GoDaddy offers free backups. The company allows users to schedule backups, make them on demand, download, and restore the site from a backup with only several clicks.
Another perk of GoDaddy’s shared hosting provider is the automatic malware scanning feature. Moreover, the higher-priced plans provide complete malware removal, hack repair, and simple malware scanning. Other free tools cover staging and SEO tools which are yet included in the Deluxe plan or above. Furthermore, choosing an E-commerce plan with pre-installed WooCommerce as a part of WP installation, the superb WooCommerce extensions appear at your full disposal, too.
We can’t include customer support into the list of advantages since sometimes it may take a couple of business days till you get a solution to the problem. Other cons of this hosting company are the absence of restoration fees, not impressive loading speeds, and probable uptime issues.
Let’s go over the current prices for GoDaddy shared hosting plans provided you obtain them for three years:
- Economy – Priced at $5.99/mo, you get 1 website, 25 GB storage, 10 databases, unmetered bandwidth, free one-click WP install, daily backups, 2 free Microsoft 365 mailboxes, a free domain, and a free SSL certificate.
- Deluxe – At the price of $7.99, you get everything included in the Economy pack, yet the available websites are 10, the storage is 50 GB, the databases are 25, and the Microsoft mailboxes are three.
- Ultimate – Priced at $12.99/mo, this tier includes everything included in the Deluxe pack, yet the available websites are 25, the storage is 75 GB, the databases are 50, and the Microsoft mailboxes are five. You also get increased processing power.
- Maximum – Paying $19.99/mo, you obtain everything included in the Ultimate pack, yet the available websites are 50, the storage is 100 GB, the databases are 100, and the Microsoft mailboxes are five. Expect enhanced processing power and speed.
The free trial period spreads over only the website builder, while the WordPress hosting plan is offered with a 30-day refund guarantee.
4. Dreamhost
| Hosting Name: | Dreamhost |
| Official Website: | dreamhost.com |
| Launched: | 1996 |
| Websites managed: | 633,564 |
| Test Plan: | No |
| Cheapest Plan: | $2.95/mo |
| Refund: | 97 days |
Dreamhost – is a famous well-constructed website hosting company that offers robust WordPress hosting plans. Furthermore, Dreamhost has been recommended by the WordPress.org website. This company aims to deliver credible, fast, and optimized hosting for WordPress users. That’s why it is enriched with amazing features, including a 100% uptime guarantee (though we are deeply inclined to think no hosting company can manage to deliver stable 100% uptime), unmetered bandwidth, data storage, MySQL databases, and Subdomains, the possibility to host unlimited websites, a credible, profound website building tool, auto-updates and backups, free email hosting.
One-click installs are available for installing various apps, including WordPress, shopping cart software, CMS software apps, and photo galleries, at one click of a mouse. You don’t even need to know any coding to use anyone’s script.
One of Dreamhost’s perks is that it offers absolutely free hosting for non-profit organizations operating in the United States. This can be a charity or a church. All that it will need to affirm lifetime free hosting is the right documentation from the IRS (the IRS-issued 501(c) (3) determination letter).
The list of cons can’t be as long as that of pros. And yet, we don’t have the right to conceal the extra costs set on many tools you can see in the dashboard, just as the additional costs for exploiting the premium WordPress hosting. The company’s text-based cPanel isn’t always as intuitive as you’d wish.
The Pricing goes as follows if you become a Dreamhost subscriber for three years:
- Shared Starter – At the price of $2.95/mo, the plan offers one website, free domain, WP pre-installer, free automated WP migrations, WP site builder, free SSL, and fast SSD storage.
- Shared Unlimited – At the price of $3.95/mo, the shared pricing tier provides unlimited websites, a free domain, WP pre-installer, unlimited email, and everything else from the introductory plan.
The plethora of available features and the tremendous 97-day refund guarantee make this host ideal for all WordPress site owners no matter how large the site is or how much traffic it generates.
Verdict
If you aim at hosting your WordPress website on a budget yet on the best conditions till it gets off the ground in terms of revenue generation, consider obtaining a shared WordPress hosting plan by any of the reviewed companies. Each review we presented to your attention was based on our tests and analyses. They all proved secure, reliable, affordable, and effective.
However, we came to the conclusion that a WordPress website owner simply can’t go wrong with Hostinger WordPress Managed plan. He offer fast page loading, strong uptime, nice support systems, and some of the most affordable introductory costs. Surely, the choice is yours, but don’t forget that he provide a refund. Test it, and if it doesn’t meet your expectations, request your money back and pass to the next one.
