Which Hosting Company Is the Most Popular on WordPress.org?
WordPress.org is the home of WordPress — the most popular content management system (CMS) on the web. It was founded by Mike Little in 2005 and is currently owned by Automattic. WordPress powers more than 27% of the internet. It’s also the tool that powers many big sites like The New York Times, The Washington Post and Medium. It’s quite an achievement that even now, after all these years, WordPress is still one of the most popular and prominent tools on the web.
But just because WordPress is popular doesn’t mean that all hosting providers offer a great experience. After all, not all WordPress-powered sites are created equal. For example, if you go to any random website that’s running on WordPress you’ll see that most of them are very amateur-looking and don’t really offer a great experience to their users. That, in turn, can make or break your business’ online reputation. So it’s important to figure out which hosting company is the best for WordPress-powered sites.
The Biggest And The Best
At the time of writing, Bluehost is the biggest hosting company on WordPress.org with almost 18% of the platform’s active repositories. But that doesn’t mean that they are the best. In fact, it’s pretty clear from their reputation on Reviews.com that they aren’t. But they are one of the most popular hosting companies on the platform. So if you’re looking to start a WordPress-powered site or are in the middle of developing one and need a place to host it, then Bluehost is a good option.
In terms of performance, security and features, HostGator and WPEngine are the best hosting providers for WordPress. Not only do they offer incredible value for money, but they also have great customer support that’s available 24/7. This, in turn, makes a world of difference when you’re trying to get your site up and running as soon as possible.
Value For Money
You might be wondering how much does it cost to run a WordPress site on a particular hosting plan. This, in turn, can help you determine which plan is the best fit for your needs. There are four separate charges you need to consider:
- The price of the hosting plan in question
- The price of a domain name (usually around $12/year)
- The price of an SSL certificate (around $25/year)
- The price of installing and using WordPress (around $20/year)
In terms of overall value for money, HostGator and WPEngine are head and shoulders above the competition. Not only do they offer some of the best pricing for a web host, but they also give you access to a broad array of features. This includes free backups, free domain privacy, free domain transfers and a lot more.
Features
If you’re in the process of defining what your perfect web host should look like, then you need to focus on three primary aspects:
- How much data should you be able to store for free
- How much should you be able to store in terms of disk space
- How much should you be able to store in terms of traffic (bandwidth)
With the exception of Bluehost, HostGator and WPEngine all offer an incredible value for money. So if you’re in the market for a web host then you can’t really go wrong with any of these three. But if you’re looking for a cheap option, then you might want to consider Bluehost. In any case, don’t expect these three companies to offer the best customer support. It tends to be rather mediocre at best. But that doesn’t mean that you won’t get good value for money.
Performance
A slow loading time isn’t fun for site visitors, especially when trying to read important content on a page. This is why you need to pay attention to the performance of your web host when considering its value. Ideally, you want your site to load as quickly as possible. And for that to happen, you need a web host that’s both affordable and reliable.
The bottom line here is that you want the highest performing web host that fits your needs. Fortunately for you, we’re going to tell you which ones are the most popular and, therefore, likely to be both affordable and reliable. So let’s get started. Bluehost, HostGator and WPEngine all offer reliable performance, and in terms of value for money, they are some of the best on the market. So if you’re looking for an affordable web host that also happens to load quickly, then these are the three hosting companies you need to check out.
Support
Last but not least, we have support. After all, you’re going to need it. Even the most technical of users need help at some point. So if you’re wondering what kind of support you’re going to get from the host, it’s important to pay attention to this aspect. In general, you’re going to want a live person to receive your call. Since this is often not the case for virtual assistants or ticketing systems, you might want to consider an hour-based support plan to work around your needs. But even then, an hour can sometimes be rather frustrating. So it’s important to consider your needs and the situation you’re in before committing to anything.
In general, the best support for WordPress comes from HostGator and WPEngine. Both of these companies have knowledgeable and helpful support staff that are available 24/7. Not only that, but they also have a money-back guarantee if you meet the right conditions. So if you’re in the market for a web host then be sure to consider these two companies.
In addition to the main features discussed above, HostGator and WPEngine also offer free backups, free domain privacy, free domain transfers and a lot more. So you’re getting pretty good value for money here. At the end of the day, the quality of your hosting experience is all about you. Meaning, if you’re not happy with the service provided by HostGator or WPEngine, then you can easily find another host that might suit your needs better. But if you’re happy with the service provided by these two companies, then you’re probably going to be very pleased with the overall value for money that both of them offer.
Now, it’s important to note that not all WordPress sites will perform the same way. A lot of factors can affect the performance of your site. For example, whether or not you use caching, the overall design of the site and the amount of content that’s available. So while we have a good idea of which hosting companies offer outstanding value for money and feature sets, it always pays to do a little research into the different components that make up the overall performance of your site. This way, you’re guaranteed to get the best experience possible from the host you choose.