Four Website Hosting Companies I Recommend

14.03.2020 Nate Hoffelder 1 Comment

I recently had a request from a reader who wanted me to recommend a hosting company. This is a question I get a lot, and I am always happy to answer it, but it’s been a while since I last wrote out my recommendations.

I of course host websites for my clients, but that is more of a side business than one of my core activities. When asked about hosting, I usually mention four companies.

These recommendations are for hosting a single WordPress site; if you want to host multiple sites, or want to talk about competing platforms like Squarespace, that would be a whole other discussion.

WordPress.com ($60)

There are some web designers who would call me crazy for saying this, but WordPress.com can be a good place to host your author or publisher website. It is rather limited in features at the cheaper pricing tiers (no plugins, and no third-party services) but if you just need a simple site then you can’t go wrong at $60 per year.

You can build that site using free Gutenberg page templates and have a very nice looking site for almost no effort.

PeoplesHost ($110)

There are many budget website hosting companies. A lot of them, including big name companies such as GoDaddy and Bluehost, are simple terrible, but there are any number of companies with excellent service and reliable servicers.

PeoplesHost is one of those reliable companies. I have my server there, and I have been very happy with their tech support and customer service. I have also sent a number of clients there, and several have remarked on how great the support is.

What’s even better about this price is that you can easily keep several websites on one account without running out of resources.

Siteground ($180)

Siteground is a little more expensive than its budget-priced competitors, but it offers services that most of those competitors do not. SG has its own optimization, speed, and caching tools which make SG’s fees worth the price.

Seriously, whenever I work on a WP site hosted on Siteground, my first step is to activate the SG Optimizer plugin and enable all of its recommended settings. This one step has a visible impact on site performance.

WPEngine ($300 plus)

WPEngine provides gold-standard service, but they also cost a mint. You can host one site there for only $25 per month, but if you need several sites (up to ten) you will soon be paying WPEngine more for hosting than I currently pay for my server.

That fee is worth it, though; WPEngine sets a high standard for security, stability, and speed. basically, WPEngine  will handle things for your site that I have to take care of myself for my own sites.

image by torkildr via Flickr