WordPress Hosting Recommendations for 2023
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Over the last 16 years of running an online business, I have used nearly every hosting platform and company under the sun for big sites, small sites, business sites, ecommerce sites, membership sites – you name it! People ask me almost every other day what web hosts I recommend and use, so I’m making this list as an easy reference I can point them to.
Full Disclosure: Yes, there are a couple of affiliate links sprinkled through this post, which means I might earn a commission if you sign up for any of these hosting plans using one of my links. I actually thought about NOT including them, to show how serious I am about which ones I recommend, but then I realized I spent about 16+ years, countless sleepless nights fixing server problems and thousands upon thousands of dollars to thoroughly try out and research just to be able to make a list like this … yikes!
So yes, including a couple of affiliate links here and there at least helps me feel like my years of torture weren’t all in vain and maybe were worth it in some way. Seriously, genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, if you buy hosting through one of my affiliate links, thank you!
#1 Choice: Kinsta – Professional, Premium Level WP Hosting
This is where I tell you to just save yourself the whole hassle of reading everything else in this blog post and go to Kinsta, which is the same host I am using to host this very website.
I mean it, sign up with Kinsta and stop reading. You don’t need to do anymore research or ask whether it’s any good because I literally spent 16+ years researching, testing, and crying with hundreds of other webhosts to be able to confidently tell you this.
If you are a hosting geek nerd, this is where I tell you that you can find a plan for whatever database solution + php workers + memory / storage space you need, they use Google cloud servers, and they use NGINX instead of Apache. (This is huge when it comes to performance!)
If you have never built a website in all of your life with WordPress, this is where I tell you it’s awesome for anyone who is not tech-savvy and you don’t have to worry about anything because they’ve already handled it all for you.
If you are a developer or building a complex site, like a Woocommerce site or membership site, you will have no issues. You will save yourself hours and hours of work and frustration. You can SSH anytime you need to but they’ll do everything for you too. Your customers will actually receive their emails too – that’s huge!
They also have great chat support. And LOTS of tutorials. And perhaps the simplest, cleanest, easy to navigate dashboard around.
When it comes to hosting, you really do get what you pay for in most cases – so if having peace of mind, not fighting with servers, and knowing help is just a couple of minutes away at all times, this is the host for you.
#2. WPX – Great Affordable Option for Beginners + Bloggers With Multiple Sites
WPX is the beginner-friendly budget host I wish had existed when I first started building out niche sites 16+ years ago.
If you are just getting started, building basic niche sites or a simple business site that directs to something else like Shopify or Etsy shop or Teachable or landing pages, this is a very good, budget-friendly, affordable option.
I had a plan with this hosting company for about an hour and the only reason I didn’t stay is because it’s best for basic content sites, not more complex sites like online shops and membership sites. They achieve speed with aggressive caching – which is fine for static content, but not ideal for situations where you can’t cache everything.
They also check all the boxes for things like SSL certificates, CDN, security, etc.
Customer service was great, not instant, but still timely and helpful. The dashboard is easy enough to navigate. If you’re building a small forest of niche sites that are still in the early stages and don’t have a huge budget, you won’t be disappointed. If you want to start small and simple, it’s a great choice.
They also rescue dogs. That’s even more awesome!
I don’t have an affiliate link for them and I’m too lazy to see if they have an affiliate program at this particular moment. That’s okay with me though, I’d rather them put any commissions I might have earned towards rescuing dogs anyways.
#3. Cloudways – Reliable + Affordable Solution But Probably Won’t Save You That Much Money or Time
This is great easy way to host a site for very cheap if you like the idea of having the control of your own servers and hosting on Digital Ocean but also don’t want to be doing everything via SSH.
Although it makes it easier to host on Digital Ocean’s infrastucture, it’s still kind of complex to set up. By the time you configure/pay for CDN/WAF solutions + email hosting + caching plugins and everything else it may not be the best option.
And if me just explaining to you what it is all sounds like gibberish to you, that is exactly why you should scroll back up and just go with Kinsta, Flywheel or WPX. Your life will be much simpler!
But – it’s a nice bridge in between, too. I’m glad it exists. And I’m a huge Digital Ocean fan so I can recommend because your site is at least on a good foundation.
#4. Digital Ocean – For Sys Admins + Server Geeks Who Love Saving a TON of Money
Digital ocean is the best place if you are a control freak for server settings, are comfortable with SSH, know what a LAMPstack is and how to keep your site safe from DDOS + Brute Force Attacks.
You’ll save an insane amount of money if you’re cool with running your own servers – I had a site that got over 500k visitors a month on a $10 droplet.
It’s by no means for beginners, but it’s an option. I personally don’t go that route anymore mostly because I was severely worried for awhile what might happen to my websites and who would manage them in the unfortunate event I would be eaten by a bear.
Then, the only person on earth I knew who could possibly take over managing my servers moved to West Virginia, where they are even more bears than we have here in Pittsburgh.
Still, I continue to use Digital Ocean for all kinds of things. Digital Ocean Spaces is great as an object storage solution + easier to navigate than Amazon S3. It’s also a very affordable way to spin up a site as a test playground with no commitment – you can play with it for three days + hit destroy and will only be billed for those 3 days of use!
Also, last year they changed their pricing, and instead of giving a song and dance on why they’d be charging more – they actually introduced a plan that charged less just in case the $2 more a month was out of your range. That impressed me right there alone.
#5. Dreamhost: For Cheapskates
Dreamhost has been around a very long time and hasn’t sold out to anyone really over all these years so that makes have a lot of respect towards them for that aspect alone.
A VPS or managed WP plan is a great way to get started cheap – I hosted about 12 starter sites there on a $15/month plan and never really worried too much about anything about the VPS other than if one site was going down, they were all going to go down with it. (That’s true for any VPS though).
Their dashboard is confusing, but it’s easy enough, support is helpful. It’s okay. They do not rescue dogs. Will still need to worry about CDN/WAF/caching/etc. Good option if you are on a budget and a complete cheapskate – it’s reliable hosting with minimal issues.
At the same time, I think it’s very important to say here that cheapskate hosting isn’t going to necessarily save you time or money later down the road. As your sites gain more traffic or become a larger revenue source in your life, the more likely you will need to move to a different host later on.
#6: NameCheap, For Even Cheaper Cheapskates + Lazy Bloggers + People Who Love cPanel
I use NameCheap for all of my domains, and they are AWESOME for that.
Their hosting is also really, really ridiculously cheap – like under $40 for a whole year as opposed to just one month and if you’re going to go with shared cheap hosting, that’s the only one I’d say is tolerable.
If you’re looking at VPS or Dedicated servers, they use cPanel, which in my opinion sucks + just eats up server resources. They also don’t give out free automated Let’s Encrypt SSL’s like candy like all the other web hosts do.
BUT – they have decent ticket support, their cheap hosting isn’t painfully slow and hands down this is the only place I’ll ever register, sell, or buy domains.
I don’t think you should really host with them, unless you literally are so strapped for cash it’s the only thing standing between you and starting your own website or online business, because they’d be a lot better than nothing. It’s also an affordable way to learn how to use cPanel if for some bizarre reason you really wanted to.
No matter what webhost you use, I 100% recommend buying your domains at Namecheap.
Honorable Mentions
These are companies where I know several “big-league bloggers” who are raving fans. I don’t personally recommend them, mainly because I haven’t used them, so how could I know for sure? But, I can confidentially say you won’t have nearly as many headaches as you might with the others that are much farther down the list.
BigScoots – I’ve heard great things, but at their pricing I went with Kinsta who uses Google servers + NGINX as opposed to researching and worrying about what it really means that they own their own data centers.
WPOpt – Everybody I know who has them loves them, but I have never tried. I generally run screaming anytime I see a hosting company uses cPanel. They could be fantastic, I don’t know. I am not a fan of cPanel and I don’t want to find out.
Agathon – This is another company that everyone I know in the big leagues of blogging loves them, but I have not personally tried. The main reason I did not go with them or ever try them out is because they are a small company that manages everything for you. That’s probably great for a lot of people, but I personally was hesitant to go somewhere completely managed and a smaller company – it’s nothing personal towards them, I just have too many scars from the past.
Hosting Companies That Are Not The Worst, Not That Great
These are the hosts that aren’t terrible, but aren’t making your life tremendously easier or better. Like, if you use one of these you won’t spontaneously combust or anything, and if you’re coming from a horrific host they would be some improvement. They’re just…I don’t know….very just okay.
A1 Hosting – They sponsored our local WP Meetup group with free pizza, so several years ago I figured I should try them out to make sure we weren’t selling ourselves out. They are all right in my book, nice people – it’s just not the greatest value for features/level of headaches for more complex sites. Also, as someone with experience running + configuring servers it took me longer to write out a support ticket than it would have for me to just go in and fix a problem myself when I had their managed VPS plans, which did not include SSH access. I moved back to running everything on DigitalOcean after I tried them out and before falling in love with Kinsta.
InMotion: Perfectly mediocre hosting. Same thing where it’s complicated to figure out what you need and it’s probably expensive + their dashboard was sort of confusing too. I can’t remember much honestly, I didn’t stick around that long. Still better than a lot of other webhosts. Privately owned, nice support.
SiteGround: Also perfectly mediocre hosting. It’s not bad, it’s not great. It’s okay. They started out fabulous, kinda fizzled, got dicey, are recovering. It’s a toss up to me whether you should use them or not.
WPEngine: Once upon a time, they were great, then they bought out Flywheel + a bunch of other managed WP hosts. They also bought out my favorite WordPress theme framework, burnt their bridges with their rabid loyal fanbase and I lost a lot of respect for them. Your site will work with almost zero/minimal trouble if you use them, I still know tons of people who have hosted there long-term with zero issues, but I personally won’t use them.
Webhosts to Never Use
This is my S^&*^ list of webhosts, avoid at all costs. I won’t go into great detail cause my mom taught me if you can’t find anything nice to say about someone you shouldn’t say it.
LiquidWeb – Once upon a time wonderful, not so much anymore. The old Liquid Web is not the new Liquid Web.
GoDaddy – I will admit they are getting WAY better than they used to be, but I still cannot recommend. Sucuri, which is owned by them, is surprisingly good though if you want an alternative to Cloudflare and they have agency pricing if you have a lot of sites so better cost-wise. They are trying hard to get past their terrible reputation and I give them tons of credit for that – but you still shouldn’t host with them.
1&1 – I am almost embarrassed to admit this, but this was the very first host I used to build my very first blog. I am nostalgic in some regards, but at same time…I don’t know. I’m glad we’ve parted ways. They taught me a lot. Don’t host with them.
Any Endurance International Brand – Endurance International has since merged into Newfound Digital. They own A TON of hosting companies. (Bluehost, Hostgator, FatCow, iPage, etc.) Avoid them all.
You Can Tell a Lot About Someone By What Hosting Plans They Recommend
Once upon a time I was researching to find someone who might be able to help manage my sites. Their list of recommended hosts was the only reason I even contacted them, simply because they shared a lot of the same sentiments as I did – it showed their experience.
I can also tell almost instantly if an “internet marketing guru” is an honest person or experienced just based on whether or not they tell people to use BlueHost. If they are recommending Bluehost, they obviously either A. don’t have nearly enough experience or B. just want affiliate money and it’s an easy sell to beginners because they are cheap + commissions are high.
On the other hand, if someone is recommending Kinsta or some of the other more pricier hosts, you can at least be confident that whatever methods they are doing is working well enough that the hosting prices don’t scare them away. You also know that they value their time, their stress level, and take their business seriously enough to make sure their service is always available. They also have your best interest at heart because they don’t want you to waste your time.
Anyways, if you have questions about hosting, just ask in the comments. I tried to make this easy enough to follow – and of course, every single website is different so what works for one person may not be the best for another person. If nothing else, I at least hope my 16+ years of frustration helps someone!
