2 Great WordPress Web Hosting Recommendations
Disclaimer: SaberWP participates in affiliate programs and earns a fee if you use our links to purchase from the company’s we recommend.
SaberWP has in the past purchased from and continues to purchase from both WordPress web hosting firms found in this article.
Hey look, if you want a list of 20 great WordPress web hosting recommendations, you won’t find it here. We’re not that kind of company. Plus, the number two qualifies as a list, right? Both the WordPress web hosting firms that we recommend are company’s we work with everyday. Our clients host there, we have active accounts at both (only currently hosting our sites at Cloudways). We have previously hosted some sites at each of the WordPress web hosting companies we recommend, and we only recently stopped hosting at Kinsta as a temporary cost-cutting measure. There is a notable cost difference between the 2 WordPress hosting company’s that we recommend as you’ll see here.
Cloudways
When shopping for WordPress web hosting one of the most important factors is the quality and consistency of the hosts support. We’ve found Cloudways much better than expected in the support category. We expect top quality support from Kinsta and WPEngine, and those services do deliver. But those services come at a much higher cost. Surprisingly the support from Cloudways is comparable even at the much lower price point.
Kinsta
https://kinsta.com/?kaid=TEGVHHQANCAT
The name Kinsta has been synonymous with “great web host” for as long as I can remember. The most common sentiment shared about Kinsta is a really position one, they have the BEST SUPPORT anywhere, ever. Now it’s true that no matter what a company does, somebody is going to be unhappy. But it’s hard not to appreciate the above and beyond focus that Kinsta has on quality.
As mentioned earlier in the article, SaberWP was hosting several sites with Kinsta up until late 2022, but we did switch those sites over to Cloudways. The reason was simply cost. We were able to put those sites on a server we were already paying for, effectively reducing the per site cost to $0. This wasn’t a choice we really wanted to make, and it’s one we’ll likely reverse later when the budget for each of those sites can be increased. Nonetheless we continue working with Kinsta every single day because many of our clients host there.
As developers knowing that server technicians are always standing by and ready to help is a huge source of relief and helps us stay focused on coding and managing codebases. I don’t think enough clients who own websites appreciate the completely separation (that should exist) between development work, as in programming work or website management, versus server management. These are just plain separate fields of work. It’s particularly annoying and counter-productive, and risky, when clients push web developers to also be server techs.
What to look out for in a bad WordPress host
Low prices often are a red flag for low quality hosts with crowded servers, slow response times and a range of other quality problems. The possibility of unexpected downtime is certainly a problem, but it’s the day to day slow response from a cheap WordPress host that is the killer for most sites. Budget hosting is ironically very expensive, if you lose customers and your traffic bounces, it undermines everything else your doing to promote your site and drive traffic.
A good place to start in researching a potential host is to look for online reviews. Surprisingly many hosting purchasers never read independent reviews for the WordPress host they are considering. This leads to many WordPress hosts getting away with poor service, and still attracting an inflow of customers. Beward the biased reviews found on WordPress host websites because obviously, these are all going to be raving about the service and speed, and there is no value in reading these at all. Even the worst web host has a few happy customers, or the ability to write fake reviews.
Some of the biggest players in the industry sell junk hosting. Beward of industry giants like GoDaddy and HostGator that promise the world for $5 or $8 a month. Again the old adage, you get what you pay for tends to apply. And if you pay so little, you really are inviting the worst results. It’s so important to appreciate the value and the complexity of good web hosting. Especially on the service side, but also the technical aspects and complexity of managing servers.
