Web Hosting Reviews

All the webhosting companies I’ve tried or heard about!

I’ve tried a lot of WordPress web hosting companies, or at least heard about them from people I trust. My main criteria are: SPEED, reliability (uptime), FEATURES (easy to make changes, add SSL?), and PRICING (not too expensive). Customer service is not as important for me since I can do most things myself. I’ve used many of these web hosts myself (via clients) across a broad range of websites, from small blogs or portfolios to big shopping sites, database-intensive forums, or large portals with many tracking/ad/conversion scripts running.

• Do you want to be listed here? Please visit my SD Webhosting Review service.

Good Webhosts

Shared hosting (cheapest, but functional)

• SiteGround is one of the most popular shared hosting companies and is considered to be at the top of the shared hosting tier. Fast, good features, and great support are what set this company apart from others in the same category. The GoGeek plan starts at $11.95 per month but renews at $35 per month, making it a more attractive option for those who need managed hosting or unmanaged cloud hosting. (Their built-in SG Optimizer is *meh*, use SWIFT LITE for best results.)
• A2 is now becoming the favorite low-tier company due to SiteGround’s recent resource limits.
• HostArmada is a low cost, high-performing shared hosting company that offers skilled and friendly 24/7 support. This makes it an awesome service that compares favorably (better service yet lower cost) against other shared hosting companies.
• There are a few good web hosting companies in the UK that I can recommend. I personally tried
• GNUHost and found it to be reliable.
• Another good choice is Krystal, which offers good speeds and cheap pricing.
• If you’re looking for a smaller company, Veerotech is a good option.

Premium WordPress hosting (fast, expensive & limitations)

• Amazon EC2 is expensive and weak, and its UI is terrible.
• Flywheel promises to be better than WP Engine, but user comparisons are mixed. It has a nice UI, but it doesn’t allow different PHP settings per site. I only recommend it if you have one tiny site.
• Kinsta is great branding and unanimously faster than WP Engine and Flywheel, although I’ve heard a few bad reviews about downtimes. As of August 2019, I can say they’ve definitely gone downhill and are even slower now, with lower resource limits but still better than WP Engine.
• Pantheon is known for its fast speeds and great service. One downside, though, is that servers switch to inactive mode when websites get no visitors, which can make first-time visits slower as the server “wakes” again.
• WP Engine is one of the most popular premium WordPress hosts. They’re like the GoDaddy of managed hosting. While they’re not the fastest, they do have some plugin limitations and many issues that people complain about. Non-techie users find them to be amazing (compared to crappy shared hosting), tech users find them to be sub-par (compared to VPS) and limiting. FYI: they use Linode servers and add a proprietary caching layer.
• Closte’s performance is good, but the price is a bit high. There have been some technical issues reported by users, as well as some problems with the French support team being rude. Some people like Closte, while others have had bad experiences. I wouldn’t recommend Closte for non-technical users.
• Rocket.net is a high-performance host with great edge-caching capabilities. It’s definitely on the pricier side, but it works well and is easy to use. If you only have one or two critical sites, it can be affordable enough, but if you have many small ones, it’s definitely too pricey.

Ultra-Premium WordPress Hosting (ultra-fast, REALLY expensive)

• Pagely is incredibly fast but really pricey ($299/month and up).
• Pantheon is in the ultra-premium space as well, at $150/month and up.
• ServeBolt is still pricey but reasonable for ultra-fast enterprise-grade performance; I like them at $150/month and up.
• WordPress VIP is overpriced to me, at $1,000 and up.

Bad (or Mediocre) Webhosts

These are the hosts that you should avoid. I’ve had first-hand experience with all of these companies, either through my own accounts or through accounts belonging to clients or friends. And yes, I am well aware that there are probably many happy users for each of these companies.

• 1and1 – They’re terrible.
• 20i (UK) – They’re a typical low-tier, super cheap host…and they’re also super slow.
• ASmallOrange used to be good, but it turned terrible when they were bought out.
• A2 (VPS) is weak and expensive. It sucks compared to others. Their 8 “vCPU” is weaker than even 4 CPU from typical VPS hardware providers (DO, Linode, etc).
• BellHosting is Horrible!
• If you’re looking for a good web hosting provider, you should definitely avoid BeyondHosting, BigScoots, and BlueHost. They all have terrible hardware, slow servers, and lots of downtime. Additionally, their prices are way too high. canspace.ca is also a bad option because their servers are really slow (even with no traffic) and they have lots of intermittent downtimes.
• DreamHost might seem like a good choice because they have great customer service, but their hosting speeds are mediocre and they have awful control panel and downtimes.
• DigitalPacific (AUS) is another provider to avoid because they offer really weak, low-grade hosting. Their stack is weak and their prices are too high.
• EIG companies: Avoid all EIG-owned hosting companies. They’re known for having terrible service. FastComet: Complaints about being slow, or that they’re great until they have random downtimes.
• Godaddy: They’ve improved over the years but still have poor speeds, UI, and overall service. Yes, even their GoDaddy managed hosting sucks.
• GreenGeeks: I love their mission of ECO-friendly and clean energy. I’ve heard mixed results about their hosting, but mostly positive ones. People say they’re helpful, fast, and have great service.