Today’s article on Top Choices of Hosting for WordPress/WooCommerce Websites is brought to you by Saud Razzak – Community Manager at Cloudways.
Let’s welcome Saud in our blog, and learn from his invaluable experience!
WordPress is undeniably one of the best content management system for creating websites and ecommerce stores. With a 29% market share, it is easy to see why WordPress (and its most popular plugin, WooCommerce) has established its position as the dominant website and ecommerce store platform because of streamlined performance.
In many cases, the performance of WordPress and WooCommerce is generally dependent on hosting solution that powers the website or store. In cases where the users complain of the less than optimal performance of WordPress, the problem could be traced to the substandard hosting solution.
We did a comprehensive study of the top WordPress and WooCommerce hosting solution providers in the market today.
However, before selecting one from the list, it is important to understand the factors that are the hallmarks of a high performance hosting solution.
A good host is above all reliable. Reliability can include several features on its own, including security, speed, and scalability. In addition, the availability of competent and responsive technical assistance that can provide advice in case of unexpected failure server side, is a great advantage. Disk space and bandwidth are two other considerations for opting for a particular host. In general, the store owners has a pretty good idea of the requirements of these factors.
The choice of selecting the right host actually depends upon three factors:
- Your skill level: If you are not comfortable with technical challenges, or do not have the time to manage your own server, you will need to move towards a turn-key (managed) solution that allows you to focus on the content.
- The number of visitors of your website: Of course, the more visitors you have, the better your hosting platform should be. But rest assured, a high performing cloud hosting platform makes it easy to support several thousand daily visitors without breaking down.
- Would you like to set up an ecommerce store? Ecommerce stores offer a unique set of challenges. In all cases, it is better to opt for a host that offers specialized ecommerce hosting.
Cloudways — Managed Cloud Hosting
Cloudways positions itself as the best managed cloud hosting platform for freelancers, bloggers, designers, developers, ecommerce stores, and digital agencies who use WordPress/WooCommerce and other PHP-based applications to power their projects.
Cloudways offers the choice of six industry leading cloud infrastructures including DigitalOcean, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Engine, Vultr, Kyup, and Linode. As a result, you have the choice of selecting the data centers located across the world.
Every server launched on Cloudways Platform comes pre-configured with ThunderStack, which comprises of Varnish, NGINX, Redis, Apache, Memcached and PHP-FPM. In addition, Cloudways has recently launched a free WordPress cache plugin popularly known as Breeze and CloudwaysCDN to cater to the needs of global audience.
The best part is that Cloudways Support is available 24/7. The team of cloud experts ensures that your server related issues are fixed ASAP!
Pros and Cons
| ✓ Free SSL certificates ✓ 1-click WordPress install ✓ Free WordPress cache plugin ✓ Free Site Migration ✓ CDN $1 per GB ✓ Managed security ✓ Optimum security ✓ Data center across the world ✓ Ultra Optimized for WordPress ✓ 24/7 customer services ✓ Pay as you go |
✗ No domain registration ✗ No cPanel ✗ Email isn’t included with hosting |
Plans and Pricing
Kinsta
Kinsta comes second in this list, simply because offers it only WordPress hosting services and their services are tailored to accommodate this fact. If you can’t afford to pay for a Kinsta package, we definitely recommend the “pay as you go” solution. Although, Kinsta has an excellent reputation for the quality of customer service and their hosting solutions are powered by Google Cloud Platform, combined with NGINX, LXD containers and MariaDB.
Pros and Cons
| ✓ Free Site Migration ✓ Staging Environments ✓ Daily Backups ✓ Optimized Architecture ✓ Priority Support |
✗ Most expensive ✗ Some Plugins are Banned ✗ No Plans for Smaller Sites |
They offer 24/7 support (365 days a year) and their average response times are under 3 minutes for all clients.
Plans and Pricing
WP Engine
WP Engine is a web hosting company that focuses solely on a single niche: hosting WordPress sites. Their entire hosting system actually runs on a WordPress powered platform (so no cPanel, no domain manager, no PHPAdmin, etc.). So, you must make sure that your web app or website is based on WordPress only.
They are the new kid on the block. However, thanks to a brilliant leadership and excellent strategic market position, this web host has attracted a lot of customers that include several big names in the WordPress community.
Pros and Cons
| ✓ EverCache ✓ CDN Services ✓ Performance ✓ Security ✓ Developer Features |
✗ WordPress only ✗ Some plugins restricted |
Plans and Pricing
A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is an American web hosting provider that focuses on providing hosting “by developers, for developers”. Originally known as Iniquinet in August 2001, it was renamed in 2003. The company is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan (hence the name ‘A2’).
A2 Hosting is a shared hosting provider like none other. For example, it provides multiple versions of PHP with an easy-to-use switcher version. The company also prides itself as being very environment friendly and has partnered with Carbonfund.org.
Pros and Cons
| ✓ Excellent support ✓ Wide variety of plans ✓ Developer friendly ✓ Good security |
✗ No details on server capabilities |
Plans and Pricing
Hostgator
Hostgator.com was founded in 2002 and is now considered among the top 10 leading providers of shared web hosting, reseller solutions as well as dedicated servers. The company proudly host approximately 1% of global internet traffic, with more than 5,000 managed servers and 2.5 million+ domains.
Pros and Cons
| ✓ Free domain name ✓ 24/7 support ✓ 1-click WordPress install ✓ Low Prices |
✗ Complexities ✗ Not fast enough |
Plans and Pricing
Conclusion
The right hosting solution allows you to tap into the power of the WordPress without worrying about the hosting related challenges. It is always a good idea to be clear about your requirements and expectations so that you could easily decide on the best fit. Migrating a site from one hosting provider to another is not always easy and requires a lot of technical understanding of the process.
We feel honoured to have Saud’s insights featured in our blog, and we are incredibly thankful for the knowledge he has shared with us.
Author bio here:
Saud is the WordPress Community Manager at Cloudways – A Managed WooCommerce Hosting Platform. Saud is responsible for creating buzz, spread knowledge, and educate the people about WordPress in the Community around the globe. In his free time, he likes to play cricket and learn new things on the Internet. You can email him at [email protected].
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