If you’re setting up your first WordPress site, you might consider getting shared hosting. This is a beginner-friendly and affordable option for new site owners. However, with so many providers, selecting the best shared hosting plan for your site might be challenging.
Fortunately, we’ve done some research to help you get started. By looking at the key features and pricing options offered by each web host, you should be able to choose the plan that best suits your needs (and budget!).
👉 In this post, we’ll briefly discuss what to look for when choosing a shared hosting plan. Then, we’ll look at some of the best options on the market and help you pick the right one for your WordPress website. Let’s jump right in!
What to look for when choosing a shared hosting plan
Shared hosting is an affordable service offered by almost every web host. With this type of hosting plan, you will share a server with hundreds of other customers. This setup means you only pay for a fraction of the server resources.
However, if you’re planning to upload a lot of content to your site, you’ll need to choose a web host that offers a generous amount of storage space. If you expect a sudden growth in traffic over the next few months, you could also benefit from opting for a plan with unmetered or unlimited bandwidth.
Additionally, your chosen web host should offer all the essential features to help you get started. These include easy WordPress installations, domain registration, and email setup. Beyond that, if you’d like to experiment with your new site before making it live, you’ll want to choose a host that provides a staging environment.
It’s also important to consider the security measures included in the shared hosting plan. Unfortunately, attacks on WordPress sites are very common. For this reason, many hosting providers offer protection against malware and other threats.
🏁 Finally, you’ll want to choose a web host that offers an efficient service. Caching and content delivery networks (CDNs) can help your site run faster, potentially leading to higher conversion rates. These features are essential if you sell products or services through your WordPress website.
Best shared hosting providers for WordPress sites in 2023
Now, let’s look at some of the best shared hosting providers for WordPress. Here are eight of our top picks!
📚 Table of contents:
1. Bluehost
Bluehost offers some of the most affordable and user-friendly hosting plans. Its shared hosting service is especially designed for WordPress users and includes automatic installations of the software. Packages also provide a free SSL certificate to help protect your site and a content delivery network (CDN) to make it load faster.
⚙️ Key features:
- Custom hosting dashboard with useful tools, along with full cPanel access
- Option to use a free WordPress-based website builder
- A free domain name (for one year), which you can manage from your hosting account
- 24/7 customer support
Thanks to its automatic WordPress installation and excellent support, Bluehost is an ideal option for beginners.
💸 Pricing: Bluehost’s basic shared hosting plan starts at just $2.75 per month. For more security and privacy features, you’ll need to upgrade to the Choice Plus plan or higher, which starts at $4.95 per month.
2. SiteGround
SiteGround is another popular choice for shared hosting. Its plans are optimized for WordPress and include one-click installations, a site-building wizard, and managed automatic updates of the core software and plugins.
All of SiteGround’s plans also now use Google Cloud infrastructure – even the shared ones!
⚙️ Key features:
- Custom Site Tools dashboard to manage your site
- CDN and caching solutions to help improve loading times
- Free WordPress plugins to improve performance and security
- A custom web application firewall (WAF) to protect your site against malicious attacks
- Free installation of WooCommerce for eCommerce sites
- Daily backups
One small downside is that SiteGround doesn’t offer a free domain name with your purchase.
💸 Pricing: SiteGround’s shared hosting plans start at $1.99 per month.
3. Hostinger
Hostinger is one of the cheapest options for WordPress users. Its shared hosting plans start at just $1.99 per month and include some features you’d expect to find in more expensive packages. These include a seamless WordPress installation, managed auto-updates, and performance optimization tools.
⚙️ Key Features:
- Custom hPanel hosting dashboard
- Uses LiteSpeed Web Server for improved performance
- Cloudflare-protected nameservers to safeguard your site against DDoS attacks
- Weekly backups
- Unlimited free SSL certificate
Hostinger offers a lot of features for an affordable price. However, the starter plan does not include a free domain, so you’ll need to pay extra for registration.
💸 Pricing: The Single Shared Hosting starts at $1.99 per month. You can upgrade to Premium Shared Hosting for $2.99 per month to access more features. Alternatively, you might purchase the Business Shared Hosting plan, which starts at $3.99 and is optimized for eCommerce sites.
4. A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting offers shared hosting plans optimized for speed and performance. For instance, you’ll get pre-configured site caching, four server location options (including two in the US), and Solid State Drive (SSD) hosting for your entire WordPress site.
⚙️ Key Features:
- On the Turbo plans, A2 Hosting uses LiteSpeed Web Server for improved performance
- Unlimited email accounts
- A WordPress toolkit to help you manage your plugins and themes more easily
- Free SSL certificate and site migration
- Easy staging sites
A2 Hosting may be the right choice if you want a reliable service. The company offers 24/7 support through live chat, email, and phone. However, its high-performance LiteSpeed Web Server is only available for higher-tier plans, so you might still experience some speed issues with the starter plan.
💸 Pricing: A2 shared hosting plans start at $2.99 per month. Alternatively, you can purchase the Turbo Boost plan for faster loading times, which starts at $6.99 per month.
5. DreamHost
DreamHost is one of the best shared hosting providers. Its plans come with WordPress pre-installed and a Quickstart Wizard to help you get started immediately. Additionally, you’ll get access to over 200 site templates designed for different industries to speed up your web design process.
⚙️ Key Features:
- Custom hosting dashboard to manage your sites
- Unlimited bandwidth and storage
- Built-in caching
- Automatic daily backups
- Free privacy protection and SSL security
One big advantage of DreamHost is that it lets you pay monthly while still keeping prices low, whereas a lot of other shared hosts make you pay for at least a year upfront.
💸 Pricing: The Shared Starter plan starts at $2.59 per month. Meanwhile, the Shared Unlimited package can host unlimited websites, starting at $2.95 per month.
6. GreenGeeks
GreenGeeks is an eco-friendly company that invests in renewable energy. Plus, its shared hosting plans include all the essentials for a fast and secure WordPress website, including built-in caching and a free SSL certificate.
⚙️ Key Features:
- LiteSpeed Web Server for improved performance
- cPanel for website/hosting management
- Daily backups
- Free malware cleanup if your site gets hacked
- 300% green energy match
Additionally, GreenGeeks offers 50 GB of web space and 50 email accounts with the starter plans, which is much more than what other hosting companies provide.
💸 Pricing: The Lite plan starts at $2.95 per month and is ideal for small or new websites. If you need access to more resources, you can opt for the Pro plan, which starts at $4.95 per month.
7. HostGator
HostGator’s shared hosting plans are designed for both newbies and experienced users alike. Additionally, it offers scalable solutions so that your site can grow alongside your business.
⚙️ Key Features:
- cPanel for website/hosting management
- One-click WordPress installs
- Free SSL certificate and domain
- Unmetered bandwidth and disk space
- Free email hosting
The most basic plan comes with plenty of resources for new websites. However, HostGator might not be as efficient as other web hosts in terms of speed and performance. Important features, such as caching and CDN, are not included in the plans, so you will need to pay extra for them or use a separate plugin.
💸 Pricing: HostGator’s shared hosting starts at $2.75 per month. If you purchase the Business plan (for $5.25 per month), you’ll get access to search engine optimization (SEO) tools.
8. InMotion Hosting
Finally, InMotion Hosting caters to small businesses. Its shared hosting plans come with a selection of marketing and e-commerce tools. Additionally, it has a user-friendly dashboard to help you easily manage your site.
⚙️ Key Features:
- cPanel for website/hosting management
- Several security measures, including DDoS prevention, automatic backups, and hack and malware protection
- Free domain and SSL certificate
- Professional email addresses for your business
- Free access to the WordPress-based BoldGrid Website Builder
- Nginx-based caching on higher-tier plans
InMotion offers fast loading times thanks to its UltraStack server configurations. This makes it an ideal choice for online shops. However, some features, like backups and business tools, are only available as add-ons.
💸 Pricing: InMotion’s shared hosting plans start at $2.29 per month. For more advanced features, like caching, you’ll need to purchase the Power plan, which starts at $4.99 per month.
Try the best shared hosting today
Shared hosting can be the ideal solution for new and small websites. This service tends to be affordable and includes all the necessary features to help your site run smoothly. These include optimized servers, caching, and protection against common WordPress attacks.
If you’re looking for 🏎️ a fast and reliable 🔧 hosting solution, you might consider purchasing a plan with A2 Hosting or InMotion Hosting.
If you have a very 💵 small budget, Hostinger might be the right choice for you.
Meanwhile, Bluehost has a wealth of 🎨 professional templates to help you design your site more quickly.
Do you have any questions about the shared hosting providers featured in this post? Let us know in the comments section below!
https://revive.social/best-shared-hosting/
