Here is an example of polls made on different WordPress blogger related Facebook Groups. Even though the people here are mostly hosting professionals and bloggers you can see they mix up the hosting types.
Poll at SEOSignalsLab Facebook Group
Poll at the WordPress hosting Facebook Group
SiteGround is the best WordPress hosting provider in the UK according to the majority but this is because they have the value for the money and a great customer support for small and medium sites.
If you need premium performance web hosting the companies down the list like WP Engine and Kinsta are the right choice for you but they also come at a premium price. In this article, we will expand in-depth the differences and how you can choose a good WordPress host for your own site.
Also keep in mind that UK hosts should have UK data centers (which means web hosts with server location in the UK). Any good WordPress host should provide money-back guarantee, 24/7 support and free website backups. Free domain name and free ssl certificate can come as a bonus.
You should first answer several questions and then determine which type of WordPress hosting is the best for you.
- How much is your budget?
- How much is your estimated traffic?
- Is this a serious project that you care about or a test site?
- Can you manage a Linux server yourself?
The different types of WordPress hosting and which one is for you?
Now that you have the answers to the questions above, here we have a list with the most common type of hosting and which one you should choose based on your project.
- Professional Shared WordPress web hosting - this is a solid solution for serious projects, small and local businesses, personal blogs and any other project that you are just starting and you care about. This is a budget solution for sites with traffic <3000/day. More details here.
- Managed WordPress hosting - The premium version of the shared hosting. For projects that need premium customer support, security and uptime but come at a premium price too. More details here.
- DIY Self-managed WordPress VPS - for tech geeks and devs who need freedom and can support their own Linux system. More details here.
- Managed VPS - a middle tier between the pro shared and managed hosting. Pricing is in the middle too. Details here.
- Cheap WordPress hosting (Shared) - for people who need a very basic web presence, don't have much traffic and don't care much about their projects of the user experience of their visitors. Can be as low as £1/m. More details here.
- Free hosting for WordPress - a very limited solution usually with forced ads. For test and school projects or if you are just experimenting with WordPress. More details here.
In a nutshell
| Type of hosting | Support | Performance | Price | For serious projects |
| Pro Shared | ||||
| Managed | ||||
| DIY VPS | ||||
| Managed VPS | ||||
| Cheap Shared | ||||
| Free |
Since we have cleared the basics, let's begin with a more detailed explanation on each of the hosting types. In the sections below we will go over each hosting type, who is it for, its pros and cons and recommendations for the best hosting companies operating in this segment of the market.
Professional Shared WordPress hosting
The professional WordPress hosting is the type of hosting that you need if you are just starting or you have a low to medium traffic but you are serious about your project and you care about your users' experience.
It is still a shared hosting (your sites share the same server with many other users) but unlike the cheap WordPress hosting services there are more resources on the server, each account is limited in the resources it can spend and the site performance is usually much better. This, however, means that if you have a post that goes viral and you have not talked with the host beforehand you can reach the host processing/bandwidth limits and your sites will go down. You also get helpful customer service usually over the live chat and the tier 1 tech guys are knowledgeable and can solve a lot of your issues fast.
The hosting plans with these web hosts start at around £10/m but you can get a better deal for your first year with one of the discount links we have.
Web hosts in this tier also have much better security. They will not allow you to install some WordPress plugins, will scan your site for vulnerable packages and have some sort of containers where they isolate each site from the rest, so even if one site on the account gets infected it won't affect the other WP installs.
Backups are provided for free but I always advise people to make a local offsite backup every now and then if they care about their project.
We also recommend that you get a local UK WordPress hosts because they have much better latency to your UK visitors and also their support hours fit with the UK work hours. The best companies provide 24/7 support but every company is different.
Pros & Cons
Expert Support with WP knowledge
Good uptime and speed
Easy to use control panels
Affordable price
Limited resources (I would not recommend for sites with more than 100k visitors/m or spikes)
Can't handle spikes in traffic
Sometimes upsell to fix issues
Recommendations on Shared WordPress hosting
|
Features
|
 |
 |
|---|---|---|
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Visit Host & Get Discount
|
VISIT SITEGROUND | VISIT A2HOSTING |
|
Price
|
£2.95/mo. | £3.15/mo. |
|
Websites
|
1 | 1 |
|
Disk Space
|
10 GB | 10 GB |
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Number of Monthly Visits
|
10 000 | 20 000 |
|
Free Domain Name
|
||
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WordPress Support
|
||
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SSD Drives
|
||
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In-house WordPress caching
|
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Email Accounts
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Unlimited | Unlimited |
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UK Datacenter
|
||
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Free WordPress Themes
|
||
|
One click install
|
||
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Auto WordPress Updates
|
||
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Money-Back Guarantee
|
30 DAYS | 30 DAYS |
| READ REVIEW | READ REVIEW | |
| VISIT SITEGROUND | VISIT A2HOSTING |
SiteGround is hands down the best WordPress hosting in the shared tier. They are listed as one of the recommended hosts by WordPress.org (And also Joomla and Drupal).
SiteGround provides premium managed WordPress hosting service with expert WordPress support. They provide 1-click install for a smooth start and free migration if you are looking to move an existing website.
They can help you with specific WordPress related issues, theme installation or plugin configuration and will do it promptly. Their 24/7 support replies instantly on phone and chat, and up to 15 minutes on ticketing. Their in-house developed WordPress caching (available on GrowBig and GoGeek plans) can speed up a website’s performance up to 4 times.
SiteGround currently hosts over 500 000 domains and have received 95% client satisfaction rate for 2018 6th year in a row which makes it one of the top WordPress hosting providers. They also offer different bonuses like free SSL certificates and daily backups.
A2 hosting is a great WordPress hosting and comes close at number two.
They also have great performance and support and offer LiteSpeed with their Turbo plans. A2 hosting UK works hard on security and has an in-house monitoring system that lets you know if you have vulnerable or outdated files and have auto-update options for your WordPress site. They are a great hosting company overall but we put them on second place because they had several big outages in 2018 (caused by massive DDoS attacks but still) and they are more of a global host while SiteGround web host is more focused on the UK market.
A2 hosting also have great customer support team, uptime monitoring and software updates.
Managed WordPress hosting
If you can, this is the area to aim for if you already have a successful online presence. This is a high tier premium hosting which comes at a premium price. It is mainly for professionals, large businesses, e-commerce shops and sites that make you money and you want to always be up and have a strong security. This is a type of hosting that allows you to focus on your business and leave the technical details to the hosting provider.
This is mostly a limited environment where you will not be able to install all plugins, you won't have SSL access and you won't be able to change things directly related to the hosting, but in any case that is why you pay a premium price - so the host takes care of all of it.
This is why you also want a company that has 24/7 support (or at least UK working hours). Most of the managed WordPress hosts also use a cloud platform so the location is not a problem, they can set up a UK server for your site.
Managed WordPress hosting is also good if you want to expand your reach above the UK since it usually has a premium built-in CDN(Content delivery network) which delivers your content fast globally. If you outgrow your plan it is easily scalable since these companies already got architecture on the cloud. They usually provide free offsite backups too so you don't need to worry about that either.
Pros & Cons
Superfast server responce time
Strong security and good system administration
Good and knowledgeable support
Closely controlled environment
Usually has premium DNS and CDN
Easily scalable and has staging environment
Price is steep
Can be limited on visitors/sites per plan
Some overbill if you get more traffic than your plan
No ssh access
Recommendations on Managed WordPress hosting
|
Top Performer
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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UK Support Hours
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||||
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Chat Support
|
||||
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UK Data Center
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||||
| Free Migration | ||||
| Backup | Daily | Daily | Daily | Daily |
| Staging | ||||
| Core Infrastructure | GCP | Own Data Center | GCP, AWS | Rented DC |
| Money back | 30 days | 30 days | 60 days | 30 days |
| Overage Charges | Bandwidth | No | Per visit | No |
| SSH Access | ||||
|
Visit Host
|
VISIT KINSTA | VISIT LIQUID WEB | VISIT WPENGINE | VISIT FLYWHEEL |
DIY Self-managed WordPress VPS
WordPress site hosted on an unmanaged VPS is the best bang for the buck you can get out of a hosting plan. If you are a developer or a tech geek.
WordPress on unmanaged VPS is good for tech startups, developers, geeks and people who want to have the freedom to break their own server and then fix it.
Self-managed VPS means that you are only provided with a control panel for your server. There you can set up with one-click install a Linux server and you are provided with SSH root access. From there you are on your own.
This hosting type gives you great freedom since you can choose your stack yourself. But then again this is not for the non-techie ones. You need to know how to set up and secure a Linux system. How to choose, install and configure a web server (Apache, Nginx or Litespeed). Set up caching, SQL, PHP, Redis. Install and set up a mail server. Set up the domain name servers.
The good news is that even if you are not that techie and you are not afraid to type in a few lines of SSH there are services that can install a stack for you in minutes. For example, with EasyEngine you can get a WordPress website up and running in no time. It has options to set up free SSL from LetsEncrypt, Redis, caching plugins and so on with only a few lines in the terminal. However, it comes out of the box with PHP 5.6 and you need to update that on the server.
Other notable server managing platforms are ServerPilot, RunCloud, GridPane. All of them has their pros and cons but if you read the documentation you can easily install and manage WordPress with those platforms on many VPS web hosts.
Another important point is that you have to take care of your own backups and pay on time. If something happens with your droplet (the instance on the VPS) nobody can recover your backup. Or if you forget to pay for your VPS. So make sure to always have a local backup and keep credit in your account in the VPS provider that you choose.
With a £5/m droplet, you can easily handle 60k/m unique visitors on a WordPress blog that you install yourself. However, if your account in that the time you have to put to manage the VPS and secure it, maybe the price of the VPS comes close to the one of the Managed WordPress hosting. However here you have the freedom to do whatever you want with the stack and install anything... since you are the admin. If you need more resources, however, you might want to get a dedicated server.
Pros & Cons
Cheap
Fast
Reliable
Freedom to install anything
No support
No backup (outside of the droplet)
No security
You have to manage it or hire a sysadmin
Recommendations on DIY VPS WordPress
Here we have compared the cheapest plans of the four most widely trusted by the community VPS platforms with droplets in the London data centre of each. Price is the same ($5/m) and they have compared a 1 core 1GB/RAM droplets. In the table below you can see the additional features they provide. UpCloud is the winner in this test but all the other providers are a good fit for your WordPress sites.
|
Brand
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Disk I/O(read)
|
89726 IOPS | 39680 IOPS | 60357 IOPS | 43137 IOPS |
|
Disk I/O(write)
|
25754 IOPS | 10342 IOPS | 8645 IOPS | 15754 IOPS |
|
CPU
|
406 ops/s | 302 ops/s | 290 ops/s | 360ops/s |
| Memory | 2118K ops/s | 1763K ops/s | 1247K ops/s | 647K ops/s |
| Backups | ||||
| UK Datacenter | ||||
| DDOS Protection | ||||
| Hourly Billing | ||||
|
Visit Host
|
VISIT UPCLOUD | VISIT LINODE | VISIT DIGITALOCEAN | VISIT VULTR |
Managed WordPress VPS
This is a middle ground between pro shared and managed WordPress hosting. If you need a professional level of hosting that can support high traffic at a reasonable price - this is a very good solution. You got dedicated resources, its fast, reliable and with a stack made to serve WordPress. The price is higher than the shared since you have to pay for the VPS management. Support is usually only for the VPS and the stack and not for WordPress itself, so if you are not very techie or if you a very techie you can find this frustrating. This is because most likely you won't have root access to the VPS and will not be able to tweak anything on the server.
If you need a specific technology this is not for you, but if you just want to run a stable WordPress website with a good performance at a reasonable price - the managed VPS is a good option.
Another feature that we like about this type of service is that you got your own droplet with your own IP where your site is hosted and you don't have neighbours. This is especially good for SEO reasons since you can be sure none of the other sites on the account is spamming so you get blacklisted for someone else's mischief. It is much better security-wise because you don't have to worry if there will be server breach because of one of your neighbours installed a vulnerable plugin or did not update their WordPress site.
With managed WP VPS you don't get an email. If you need the email you will have to buy additional host just for the email or use something like Google or Zoho mail.
Also, make sure the support hours fit the UK time zone.
Pros & Cons
Good value
Support for the stack
Dedicated resources
Good security
Scalable
No email
You have to know a bit about hosting to purchase the right plan
Possibly no SSH
Most don't have live chat
Recommendations on managed WordPress VPS
Currently, Cloudways has no alternative in this tier. They have easy to use control panel that you can deploy a premade stack to any of the big VPS companies like DigitalOcean, Vultr, and Linode or directly to the cloud on the GCP(Google Cloud Platform) or AWS(Amazon Web Services). Cloudways also provide support for the stacks. Sometimes the support is not the most knowledgeable and hard to reach by phone but if you try hard enough you will eventually reach a support rep that can solve your problem. You also don't have root SSH access so you will have to wait for the support team to fix any server-side issues. Overall CloudWays is one of the best WordPress hosting providers for growing traffic on a limited budget.
Cheap WordPress hosting (Shared)
There are hosting providers that have plans as low as £1/m. The cheap WordPress hosting plans are good if you are on a budget, you are just starting and you want more freedom to experiment with WordPress themes and plugins that the free providers will not allow you. You get what you pay for though so we do not recommend those plans for serious projects or business sites or if you care about speed, uptime and your visitors' experience.
It is also good for marketers to set up the so-called PBNs or network of blog sites that get close to 0 traffic.
To justify the low price the hosting companies are putting hundreds or thousands of sites on the same server. This can slow up the response time of the server or even cause downtime. Usually, they are not updated with the latest tech and some run on old and not supported versions of PHP and MySQL. This can also cause security problems.
Support is also not the greatest. To keep the price low they outsource it and keep a low staff. Tier 1 support is not very helpful and answers with ready-made scripts.
Still, if you are going for this option choose a company that has local support, local servers and has been on the market for at least several years. We have a guide on buying cheap web hosting here.
Pros & Cons
The cheapest hosting solution
You have the freedom to experiment with WP themes and plugins
Free SSL
Easy Control panel
Poor security
Poor support
Slow overcrowded servers
Problems are solved by upselling
Downtime for hours/days
Which is the cheapest WordPress hosting in the UK?
Here we recommend GoDaddy, Hostinger and 1&1
We do not recommend buying WordPress hosting from any of the EIG brands (Bluehost, Hostgator, ASmallOrange, Site5 and so on) or Inmotion hosting because they do not have good reputation in the web hosting industry.
|
Features
|
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Visit Host & Get Discount
|
VISIT GODADDY | VISIT HOSTINGER | VISIT 1&1 |
|
Price (1st year)
|
£1.00/mo. | £1.07/mo. | £1.00/mo. |
|
Websites
|
1 | 1 | 1 |
|
Disk Space
|
10 GB | 10 GB | 100 GB |
|
Number of Monthly Visits
|
25 000 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
|
Free Domain Name
|
|||
|
WordPress Support
|
|||
|
SSD Drives
|
|||
|
Email Accounts
|
3 | 1 | 25 |
|
UK Datacenter
|
|||
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Free WordPress Themes
|
|||
|
One click install
|
|||
|
Auto WordPress Updates
|
|||
|
Money-Back Guarantee
|
45 DAYS | 30 DAYS | 30 DAYS |
| READ REVIEW | |||
| VISIT GODADDY | VISIT HOSTINGER | VISIT 1&1 |
Even though GoDaddy is notorious for upselling and having a ton of sites on their servers which makes them quite slow... they are not a bad WordPress hosting company if you are on a budget. With the 1/m plan, you can launch your project, you will have backup and support, easy to use interface and a huge tutorial base since GoDaddy is one of the largest and oldest hosting companies. They also provide free domain name and live chat sith some of their hosting services.
They also offer UK phone support in UK business hours so if you get stuck or you have a problem you will most likely get decent help.
However, all the concerns we mentioned above about the cheap WordPress hosting companies apply for GoDaddy web host as well. So make sure you use them just for starter projects with a low amount of traffic. Also, keep in mind that the prices listed above are only good for the first year. Then they increase and you will have to either pay the higher price or buy a new hosting plan and migrate your site.
In a year you will know if the project you have started is viable and you can upgrade your plan to a better one or move to a better WordPress hosting option. If you choose GoDaddy, we have a step by step tutorial on how to install WordPress there.
Hostinger is also a good web host in the low tier with their chea plans. However, they do not have live chat and are less features rich. They have free domain offers sometimes, so if you are on a budget, you might want to wait for a plan with an offer.
Free WordPress Hosting
The free hosting plans are good if this is your first WordPress or you can't even afford the £1/m for a cheap WP host. Those are good only for test projects or personal blogs that you do not plan to monetize. Usually, the free options do not allow your own domain and push unwanted ads to the free site.
WordPress.com is such a place. It is maintained and owned by Automattic (the creators of WordPress). It is very easy to set up but also very limited on the themes and plugins you can use for your blog. For the free plan, they allow only subdomains e.g yoursite.wordpress.com and they push ads to your site. On the upside, it is a well-maintained service with strong security and is very fast. It is a good way to get a feel on what you can do with WordPress but once you decide it is time for a more serious project, buy a domain name and buy a real hosting.
Backups are not provided for the free plans and if you break their TOS your blog can be shut down with no way to restore it. Since it is not your own domain you have no control over whether it will be online or not.
Pros & Cons
Free
Fast
Secure
Easy to set up
Not on your domain
Pushes ads
Limited plugins and themes
It can be terminated at any time (so no control)
No backups
FAQ
Factors to consider when choosing a WordPress hosting
Some general review factors:
- How fast and reliable is the hosting company?
- How many websites could you run on a single hosting plan?
- How competent and friendly is the technical support?
- How easy and intuitive is the cPanel?
- How about money-back and uptime guarantee?
Do they provide additional value with free bonuses and WordPress specific features like:
- free domain name
- WordPress themes and plugins
- WordPress one-click installs and migration
- automatic WordPress core updates
- data backups
What is WordPress?
WordPress has become one of the most popular web publishing platforms and today it powers more than 75 million websites, but what many people don't realize is that WordPress is not just a blogging tool, it's also a highly flexible content management system or CMS that enables you to build and manage your full-featured website using just your web browser and best of all it's completely free! WordPress is an open-source platform that lets you manage everything from a small personal blog to a large commercial site with hundreds of pages.
WordPress is a PHP based CMS that uses MySQL data to store data. This means any website hosting services that meet the basic WordPress requirements can store and deliver your content. The best performing servers for WordPress are Apache and Nginx.
Shared Vs Managed WordPress hosting?
The real question, of course, is whether all these extra features warrant the extra cost?
If you are a beginner who is starting a blog or a simple website, then you DO NOT need to be managed WordPress hosting, just choose a reliable and cheap web hosting from the list above! If low cost is your biggest priority, then go with a non-managed WordPress hosting provider.
If you are a medium-sized website with high-traffic and you are a lack of technical skills, then average web hosting can become a hassle and it makes sense for you to get managed WordPress hosting.
What are the minimum server requirements to run WordPress?
To run WordPress we recommend your host supports:
- PHP version 7.2 or greater.
- MySQL version 5.6 or greater OR MariaDB version 10.0 or greater.
- HTTPS support
- Nginx or Apache with mod_rewrite module
The most recent version of the WordPress requirements you can always find here.
If you have questions or recommendations on how we can improve the article get in touch with us here.
