Your blog’s success largely depends on the web host you select. Make sure to put in ample time and resources choosing the right service for your website.
So, you decided to start a blog. Welcome! The blogging world is super exciting and life-changing. Not only can it help you make some passive income, but it will teach you more than you thought you ever needed to learn too!
If you still aren’t sold on blogging, you can check out this ultimate guide to learn more about the task at hand and its benefits. As you’ll learn, the first thing you need to do is select a WordPress hosting service. No matter what your web host budget is, there are website platforms that can fit just about any budget. The one caveat is knowing which sites are worth it and which are not.
In this article, we are going to help you select the top WordPress hosting service for 2021. Although the final decision is completely up to you, you certainly need to make an educated decision based on each service’s benefits and drawbacks.
Let’s learn more.
Web Hosting: What Is It?
To many new bloggers, they know they need to select a WordPress web hosting site, but they don’t understand what web hosting is in the first place. If you don’t know what web hosting is, it can be challenging to see the benefit in spending money on it.
Web Hosting Explained In Simple Terms
The easiest way to think about web hosting is to compare it to Google’s Gmail. As you likely know, Gmail allows you to send and receive emails for free. Gmail allows you to access your mail, no matter where you are in the world.
After all, all the emails must be physically stored somewhere, but they aren’t stored on your laptop or at the library’s computer. If your emails were stored at these locations, you couldn’t open the emails anywhere else.
What Google does is store all of your Gmail emails on physical servers. You request access to these servers every time you connect to the Internet and log into your email account. This is how websites work as well.
The website content is stored somewhere physically. Whenever someone goes onto the website, they request access to the websites, and the location physically sends the visitor their requested website. Because of this fact, you need a web hosting site to physically store your website’s information.
Google Doesn’t Cost Money. Why Do Hosting Services?
One thing that may have you confused is that Gmail and Google are free, whereas many web hosting services are not. Not only do web hosting services require you to pay, but they often ask for a monthly fee. Why do you have to pay for one but not the other when they work the same way?
For both Gmail and all web hosting sites, there are fees associated with maintaining the system. Google does not charge you to use their services because they collect and sell information from you, which they use to sell to companies. They make billions through this process, meaning they don’t have to charge you to make money.
Web hosts, on the other hand, charge for the resources. They aren’t collecting data and information that they can sell. The only way these web hosting sites make money is to charge people who are using their services. Depending on the type of hosting web service you select, the web services offer different resources.
Web Hosting Types
There are different resources and services that certain web hosting sites offer. It’s essential to understand all of the hosting services to help you find a WordPress hosting service that is right for you. Let’s look at the four different types of web hosting services, starting from the most expensive to the least.
- Dedicated Hosting: The absolute best web hosting type is dedicated hosting. It gives your website a single server. Websites with a lot of traffic will do best with dedicated hosting, though it costs much more than all the other types.
- Cloud Hosting: Cloud hosting allows you to share more than one server with multiple websites. Given that multiple servers cannot go down simultaneously, it makes your website run much smoother than VPS or shared hosting.
- Virtual Private Housing (VPS): VPS allows you to share your server with other websites, but your server is assigned a specific space through software. Though it’s not as impressive as having an entire server for your site alone, it is more impressive than shared hosting.
- Shared Hosting: Shared hosting is a great option for starting blogs since it is highly affordable. As a new blog, your website won’t have as much traffic, meaning you don’t need as many resources. The server is divvied up between more than one website with shared hosting. This reduces the cost, but it can affect your website if one of the shared websites sees a lot more traffic than usual.
Because shared hosting is the least expensive, it is a great option when you are just starting. You can easily find shared hosting or VPS services that are next to nothing, if not free. You should only select these server types whenever you have around 50K traffic per month. After your website approaches 100K, you should opt for cloud hosting or dedicated hosting instead.
Factors to Consider When Selecting a Hosting Service
Before we talk about the top hosting services, it might help to talk about the three most important factors to consider when selecting a hosting service. These factors can help you narrow down between the top services listed below.
Your Site’s Traffic
The first factor you need to consider is your site’s expected traffic. If you are just starting out, your site probably won’t have a lot of traffic. More experienced sites, however, will generate a lot more traffic, requiring more resources.
Hosting Type
You need to consider your site’s traffic because that will largely determine what sort of hosting type you select. As we discussed above, 50K or below is suitable for VPS or shared hosting. As soon as you start getting close to 100K or above, you need to switch to cloud hosting or dedicated hosting instead.
Having a lot of traffic will make your site run slower if you select a hosting service with fewer resources. For example, your website will probably run poorly if you have a traffic of 100K on a site serviced through shared hosting.
If you expect your website to start getting a lot of traffic from the beginning or eventually, you could go ahead and invest in cloud hosting or dedicated hosting instead, but that’s not necessary until you reach higher traffic levels.
Budget
Finally, the last thing to consider is your budget. The smaller servers and shared hosting experiences will be much more affordable than the dedicated versions. If you aren’t making any money yet on your blog, it’s better to go with an affordable option so that you can save money. Once you start generating more traffic, you might want to upgrade to something a bit more expensive for its additional resources.
Top WordPress Hosting Services for 2021
Now that we’ve learned all about web hosting services, here are the top WordPress hosting services for 2021 at a glance:
Of this list, Bluehost, HostGator, and Hostinger are the best options, whereas the remaining four are great alternatives if the top three don’t suit your fancy.
1. Bluehost
The all-around best WordPress hosting service is Bluehost. As soon as you start researching hosting sites, Bluehost will pop up. Most bloggers and even WordPress itself recommend this serving site for its long track record.
It also has quite a few servers to choose from, including shared, cloud, and dedicated servers. It offers so many server types, making it easy to transition your site as your traffic rises. Bluehost even offers free migration if you need to transition your website from a different server to theirs. This is a great choice if you currently have no traffic but anticipate growing traffic as time progresses.
The biggest downside of Bluehost is that the monthly fee can get expensive, especially if you aren’t making a lot on your blog yet. Those on a budget may want something a bit more affordable.
2. HostGator
Another leading WordPress server is HostGator. It is a bit cheaper than Bluehost, but they offer many of the same services. They even provide free website migration whenever you need to transition your website from one service to theirs.
Despite the comparable nature of Bluehost and HostGator, HostGator is nowhere near as impressive in its response time and customer support. If your website goes down or experiences unforeseen troubles, they might not be able to help you. Many bloggers have trouble with HostGator.
3. Hostinger
If you’re on a budget but still want a service that offers impressive features, Hostinger may be the option for you. Their prices are incredibly affordable, with some of their plans starting at only $2 per month. At the same time, they have great service, and they have 99.9% uptime.
Where Hostinger gets you is that renewal prices go up from the initial low price. However, you can lock in on a multi-year plan to keep prices low beyond the first year of use.
4. SiteGround
SiteGround is ideal for people who need shared hosting. Your server will work excellently and is very secure. The site is even specifically made for WordPress, making it easy to integrate your site into this host.
The biggest downside of SiteGround is that it is by far the most expensive out of all of the products on our list. Those on a budget certainly might not be able to afford this option. If you care more about the service and quality, however, SiteGround is tough to beat.
5. InterServer
InterServer offers really low prices with fixed renewal rates. This makes it easy to stay on a budget now and in the future. Their services are also of outstanding quality, making it a great budget pick for those just starting out.
As with all the other servers on this list, InterServer has some downsides as well. Most notably, it experiences more downtime than the other websites, which can be annoying for both you and your viewers.
6. DreamHost
DreamHostis another great hosting platform for savings. It has been around for about 18 years, meaning they know how to make website hosting easy and affordable. With DreamHost, you can make custom dashboards, get unlimited space, and more. There are even free setup fees and free domains for extra savings, but their customer support and downtimes are lacking.
7. kinsta
Finally, the last host you might want to consider is kinsta. kinsta offers impressive, dedicated hosting features, making it a favorite among those who want quality that they can’t get anywhere else. Of course, this comes with a downside: it is much more expensive than the other options on this list.
Which One Should You Select?
After looking at all of these WordPress hosting services, you might feel a bit lost about which one to choose. This is where you should consider the three factors we discussed above: your traffic, hosting type, and budget.
If you still need more help deciding, see which server we recommend based on Blogger needs below:
- SiteGround: Bloggers needing to increase traffic
- Bluehost: Bloggers who want scalability at a lower price
- HostGator: Bloggers who want scalability and are okay with decreased speed and support at a lower price
- Hostinger: Bloggers who are on a tight budget and are okay with decreased speed and uptime
- InterServer: Bloggers starting a blog as a hobby or side hustle and who want fixed renewal prices
- DreamHost: Bloggers who need free setup and domains.
- kinsta: Bloggers who need a comprehensive dedicated server
Final Thoughts
Because of how popular blogging has become, there are tons of website hosts to choose from. Just make sure to consider your site’s traffic, hosting type, and budget to find the right option for you. Let us know which one you decide and how it works for you!
