Web hosting companies use the same physical resources (hardware) in the way that your system uses hardware. Three hardware characteristics, specifically; memory (RAM), processing power (CPU) and hard disk space define the quality and capacity of your hosting services.
Shared hosting – You share a server and the hardware resources of that server with many websites.
Why Shared Hosting?
- Cheapest type of hosting- It is very important to keep costs low when you start your site and generate no revenue. Starts as low as $3.5 per month, sometimes even less.
- Good support – Many sites used shared hosting and big hosting companies have a reasonably good customer support system. And they generally have newbie-friendly user dashboards.
- Easy one-click installs for WordPress.
- Hosting services will help you scale and migrate when your site traffic grows.
Shared hosting is by no means the best for a full-fledged revenue-generating high traffic site but it is best you start here. At least hosting costs will never cause you to shut your site down.
If you are wondering how much more the best services cost. Let me put it this way, a month of hosting on the best-managed WordPress host will cost you the same, as it would 8 months on a shared hosting platform. If you are confident of your ability to generate revenue, you should start with the best in business – Managed WordPress Hosting – WP Engine.
But if you are a first-time blogger, you can not possibly be. And money is a genuine concern. Far too many people recommend expensive hosting plans as though cost is irrelevant. But for some of you, for whom cost is relevant and a deterrent, there is shared hosting when starting a site.
The shared hosting options available are pretty decent. Let’s have look at a few of the best shared hosting options for WP.
Before that, I must reemphasize a revenue-generating high traffic site is not meant to be host on a shared server. As your site traffic picks up, you must scale your hardware appropriately. We might receive a commission if you decide to purchase through these links.
Best Shared Hosting for WordPress
1. SiteGround
Probably the best shared hosting option available to you. SiteGround offers excellent uptimes (99.9%+), one click WP installation and well-cached servers serving static pages. Their websites are very secure and offer a Hack alert to help prevent any security breaches. The support is known to be reliable over the phone, internet chat and e-tickets.
Previous global attacks on WP sites using brute force techniques were unsuccessful on SiteGround websites, as expected. But their security workarounds ensured that the websites never became slow or the servers overloaded as you might expect, due to the exponentially increased number of site requests. Their servers are strategically located in Chicago, Amsterdam and Singapore. They provide domain registration free of cost. For more information about SiteGround please read our full review.
2. BlueHost
An extremely well-known budget hosting solution. Recently there seems to be increased disgruntlement about their service. It is an easily operable hosting platform that may appeal to someone new to website development. Their user dashboard is one of the easiest to handle. For a newbie looking to create a site that does not use too many server resources, BlueHost is an acceptable option. You must be wary of the server CPU load, so your site is not suspended due to CPU throttling. As far as their servers go they offer a near 100% uptime. For more information about Bluehost please read our full review.
3. Hostinger
Hostinger is an exciting up-and-coming company. Focusing on low service prices, this host is starting to turn everyone’s heads. Its pricing structure is quite fair. For example, – Hostinger renewal prices do not increase when your promotional package runs out. Unlike many other hosts, Hostinger won’t increase the prices as long as you use it. The performance is surprisingly amazing! Their SSD servers rarely go down and have better response times than most mainstream companies.
Of course, no company is without its drawbacks. Currently, Hostinger does not provide any phone service and live chat is only available for existing customers. Yet considering how inexpensive, quick and reliable the services are, it doesn’t seem to be a complete deal-breaker.
4. InMotion Hosting
InMotion provides powerful hosting and great scalability. They store all site data on SSD (Solid State Drives, which are faster the average HDD, especially it provides quicker access). One click installation for 310 applications, one of which is WP. Free domain registration and site transfer with no downtime during the transfer process.
They offer spam-safe email IDs and free daily backup. InMotion also lets you pick your site’s server, reducing the ping depending on your site’s viewer demographics. They provide a 90-day guarantee which takes some courage, the industry standard is much closer to a month. For more information about InMotion please read our full review.
5. Site5
Site5 offers shared hosting and free site migration if you sign up with them. Every site that is registered with them has disaster recovery backups which are performed on a nightly basis and it covers everything relevant to your website including emails.
Their resource usage policy ensures that your site never runs into a shortage of RAM or processing power so long as it stays within their accepted fair resource usage policy limits. This is to ensure that all sites registered with them are protected.
Site5 practices green web hosting, they plant one new tree for every new account at Site5. They also scan your sites for malware and keep your site safe, although it is priced at $49.99 per year which seems a bit pricey. A 45-day money-back guarantee, if you are unsatisfied with their service and a 99.9% uptime guarantee, failing which they’ll offer you a service credit.
Servers are located all over the globe, US, Canada, Romania, London, Sidney, India, Singapore and Netherlands. Depending on location, you can pick which server location you want for $1~$5 extra per month.
6. A2 Hosting
Solid State Drives power this host with unlimited RAID storage, 12 core CPUs and 64Gb servers at a minimum and 10Gb/s redundant networks. Free migration to begin with, green hosting with 100% carbon neutrality, perpetual security and hack scans for free. Backups are free from their Swift Plan ($4.9/mo) and upwards.
3 server locations, Railgun Optimizer and Cloudflare CDN support add to A2’s hardware to produce a powerful hardware and software combination capable of delivering good site load times and almost no downtime at all. $50 in Yahoo/Bing credit, 20% off on Tesla Themes and a 30-day money-back guarantee make this a rather tempting choice for shared hosting in addition to the impressive hardware. For more information about A2 Hosting please read our full review.
7. iPage
A hosting option for someone with a tight budget, iPage offers free domain registration. The hosting service enables one-click WP installations, advertising credits up to $250 and 24*7 support for those in North America. iPage also provides near 100% uptime. SiteLock security suite comes free to ensure your website’s files and information. Scalability for your site should be easily achievable they offer upgrades to VPS and good support.
8. A Small Orange
A Small Orange is a good host with SSD storage and myriad automatic script installations. In addition to a 99.99% uptime, they provide daily backups with multiple restore points. You can create password-protected directories and enable IP blocking and also hotlink/leech protection for your site. They are committed to reducing their environmental impact with green practices and offer a 90-day money-back guarantee which is pretty gutsy. And another thing I should add, I’ve read a great deal about the kind of service and support they provide, all of the reviews suggest that they are an excellent hosting partner for any business. The only negative in my book would be 2 US-based servers, most hosting companies have servers across multiple timezones. But this can be offset with a CDN partner to deliver your static files.
9. TMDHosting
TMDHosting is a fantastic, feature-packed, fully managed WordPress and shared hosting with competitive prices for nearly any type of project you want to start. Moreover, whether you are launching something fresh or would like to switch to a different hosting service since you are not satisfied with your current provider, it is worth looking into TMDHosting. The service has you fully sorted out with all the must-haves for an always smooth and seamless website operation.
It is safe to say that TMDHosting is a cheap hosting provider that suits all users ideally. From startups to medium-sized businesses and to enterprises, TMDHosting has you covered. Regardless of your plan, all users get unlimited SSD space and bandwidth, a 60-day money-back guarantee and a pre-built WordPress environment for uninterrupted operation. Of course, there is also an amazing support team you can contact at any given time of the day. They will respond and assist you in setting yourself up with the ideal package for your current state.
10. GreenGeeks
A new standard in the web hosting industry for being green. GreenGeeks offer free nightly backups, free domain name registration, real-time security scanning, protection against brute-force attacks, a RAID 10 configuration and SSD-powered webspace to keep your site on its toes. Their service is best for people based in North America where their servers are located. The support is good enough if you are reasonably knowledgeable about website development.
11. Rose Hosting
Generally host very fast websites with low load times compared to the average shared host service. This is true probably because they have five different plans under shared hosting depending on the customer’s needs. A very good hosting option, ideal for scaling up operations as they provided VPS & dedicated hosting. Only later did they add shared hosting plans. Support is good, they provide a 30-day money-back guarantee and nearly 100% uptime.
12. Hostgator
Hostgator is a good hosting service with a reliable server and a 99.99% uptime guarantee. It is an eco-friendly host with multiple hosting plans that provide extra resources depending on your site’s growth. They have a large collection of installable scripts and web templates, a few free marketing tools to start with and a decent support system.
13. DreamHost
DreamHost runs on SSDs, offer a 100% uptime guarantee, free domain registration and a 97 day money back period. Their user dashboard may not be as easy to handle as BlueHost but they offer slightly better customer support.
A Few Tips About Shared Hosting
- Unlimited disk space and transfer mean nothing. Rarely will you encounter such a difficulty caused by a lack of either.
- Shared Hosting Plans suffer the most under load because you share server resources. They will not allow your site to hog all the server resources at any given time. Some hosts will even go so far as suspending your account.
- CPU Throttling is very real and your host service will expect you to upgrade your plan if you keep pushing against the ceiling of your hosting plan.
- Most host service providers increase the renewal fee and the low fee is a ploy to ensnare you, beware of increases in price for hosting service renewal.
Check out the following features when considering hosting options of different costs:
- Domain Registration – Free or not?
- Security and site scanning for malicious scripts.
- Backup services – Daily/Weekly.
- Hardware – CPU employed, network data transfer limits and whether HDD or SSD.
- How many nodes or sites are assigned to one server.
Rose Hosting has 5 hosting plans and they split their servers up so that each of their clients is able to meet their requirements. And the price goes up as the site traffic increases. It is bit like a VPS plan (you pay for increased use) in some ways which makes it all the better.
Final Thoughts
Shared hosting must only be a means to keep your budget tight until your site gets off the ground regarding revenue generation. Then you will certainly need to think about better web hosting plans like VPS and dedicated servers.
In the next few posts, we will discuss options of web hosting companies for other types of hosting services and we will also benchmark the performance of various providers of shared hosting services to help you identify the best shared hosting option among the lot.
If I’ve missed out on your favorite shared hosting service, please do weigh in in the comments section 🙂
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