Moving to WordPress: Choosing the Best Web Host

Has 1-click installation.

It’s very easy to install WordPress, and some people report having completed the process in 5 minutes.

One of the people who reported having a bit of difficulty turned to customer support and they were able to help them with the process.

Bluehost uses cPanel, which is widely recognized and familiar.

Some people have had difficulty, but usually because they were brand new to hosting and weren’t already familiar with cPanel. It can be confusing and overwhelming at first, but people reported that they got used to it over time.

Others who are really overwhelmed by it tend to ignore it. Many people reported that they don’t even use it after they get WordPress set up, because they can do everything they need from straight within the WordPress dashboard.

It was noted that the admin panel has ads.

Several people have reported outages, but when they occur they usually get dealt with swiftly.

Another user reported having several outages because of other people on their shared server using more than their fair share of resources. This can happen when a site gets a sudden huge traffic spike. But the person reported that whenever it does happen, BlueHost usually steps in to take care of it within 1-2 hours.

One user in particular seems frustrated with the amount of outages. She has only been with BlueHost for 2 months, but there have been 2-3 brief outages and one full-day outage. BlueHost always resolves it in the end, but the sheer amount in a short time period seems frustrating.

I emailed customer support when I was messing with CSS and posted something in the wrong place, thus crashing my site. I ended up figuring out through Google/forums how to fix it, but they answered within a few hours and were really nice!

I received a phone call about two days after registering, to see if everything was going okay. The rep was polite and excited for my move to BlueHost.

I’ve used both the online chat and the phone. The person I chatted with online was very helpful and knowledgable. In the case of the phone call, Bluehost actually called me to thank me for choosing their service and wanted to know if I had any questions. I was very impressed with this.

I had accidentally edited something in the script which made my site come up as an error. i contacted Bluehost and they were able to pinpoint what it was and fix it for me fairly quickly – and explaining what it was that set it off.

I usually call them up 🙂 The phone conversations are all very good. The staff are helpful and professional, they actually don’t mind walking me through things that I have no idea of and they don’t rush me.

Lightning quick response via online chat. Resolved my issue right away. Very happy with BlueHost.

One of the biggest complaints I have heard about Bluehost is downtime. I have read a lot of stories on Google about sites being slow or down all the time, and then I stumbled across this conversation on Twitter one day. Two book bloggers were complaining that their Bluehost sites were “constantly down” and that Bluehost never notifies them.

I think Bluehost is one of those cases where they overcrowd some of their servers. So it can be really hit or miss. If you get placed on a good server that doesn’t have too many people on it, you might have a good experience. But if you get placed on a crowded one, you’re more likely to experience frequent downtimes.

But I also keep hearing wonderful things about their cusomer support. Just check out the customer support section and see what I mean!

Has 1-click installation.

DreamHost uses their own custom-built admin panel. So if you’re familiar with cPanel, you will have to get used to a new account control system.

A few outages have been reported. In one instance (about a month ago), one of DreamHost’s server banks was hit by an electrical outage and failed. Sites were down for about 3 hours, but no data was permanently lost.

I sent them an email through a form they have on their website. They responded that same day, in just an hour or two, and provided very helpful information.

only contacted once and used email – they were hopeless thankfully it wasn’t anything major and I worked out an alternative. I think it may have been a fairly tricky question however as it involved AU domain name delegations and traffic routing.

I have done a lot of research on DreamHost and have heard a lot of horror stories. One huge thing is that in the past DreamHost actually cancelled its customers accounts if they installed the “All in One SEO Pack” plugin on WordPress. A customer named Shandon Lewis experienced this and there are several other posts about it on WordPress.org.

DreamHost had no legitimate reason for banning their users from using this plugin. It’s honestly just absurd. However, apparently they no longer prohibit this and won’t cancel your account for it, but it still scares the crap out of me. They had no reason to ban this plugin, and yet they did. Their claims that it “Hogs resources” are absolutely absurd, since it’s a very light-weight plugin.

One person also posted reporting that DreamHost customer support actually made changes to his WordPress blog without permission. The person in question contacted CS asking why his site was so slow. The DreamHost customer support proceeded to log in to the person’s WordPress blog and disable plugins. The more professional thing to do would have been to e-mail them with a list of suggestions on which plugins should be deactivated to decrease loading times.

Because I’ve heard some DreamHost horror stories and I don’t like some of their policies from the past, I feel I have to give them a lower rating. I think they’re one of those companies that used to be great when they were smaller, but things have gone downhill a bit since they’ve become a larger company. I think there are better options out there.

No 1-click installation.

You have to install WordPress manually or using a “somewhat automated” system like Softaculous.

They use cPanel for their control area.

A few outages have been reported, but they are minimal, and GigaTux will send out e-mails in advance or afterwards to explain why.

They have a client area where you can send support tickets regarding any issues or queries you have. They respond very quickly and are very helpful.

Although I didn’t know much about GigaTux before now, they seem like a very solid company. They have a great looking homepage and I like the sound of their reliable communication.

However, their hosting packages aren’t very “beginner-friendly”. Someone brand new to self hosting might get confused about which hosting to select or which package they actually need.

Has 1-click installation, but some people have had difficulty finding it.

If you’re used to using cPanel, then GoDaddy’s custom admin area might be difficult to use.

However, if you go in with zero expectations (if you’re not used to cPanel), then it is pretty easy to navigate. However, it might not be very clean or have the best interface.

GoDaddy did have one huge outage over the summer of 2012, in which most sites were down for several hours. This was because they were targeted by Anonymous. However, servers were all brought back online a few hours later and no data was lost.

Another person reported a different outage, where her site was down for an hour. She sent in a ticket and tweeted at GoDaddy and they took care of it within the hour.

Another user feels that his site is much slower than he’d like. However, other people have used his site and they have reported that the speed is fine.

Otherwise, sites are mostly speedy and there are no outages.

Phone support seems very good and reliable. You usually call, give them your name and number, and then they call back within 10-20 minutes.

I sent in a support ticket and tweeted them. The person was very helpful and responded rather quickly as well. I’ve also used them for work and calling their customer support was a good experience too.

[When I made an error and my site went down,] I called them and they had me back up and running in a flash. They walked me through what I’d done wrong and I was very impressed.

GoDaddy is one of those sites that is very hit or miss. If you get placed on a decent server, you will probably have a great experience with a pretty fast site. But, you could also get placed on an overcrowded server, which means it’s more likely that someone else on the server will use too many resources and slow your site down.

I was lucky enough to be on a great server. My site was always pretty fast, never went offline (except for that one Anonymous incident) and this was with several years of use. Overall, I was extremely happy with GoDaddy.

GoDaddy does have a few quirks, but you probably won’t notice them unless you’re doing more “advanced” web work. One example is that GoDaddy doesn’t work very well with PayPal IPN. This is a problem if you want an e-commerce site. PayPal IPN is used when someone makes a purchase on your website, then PayPal “talks” to your site to say “The payment went through” so that the purchase can be marked as “completed” or “paid for” on your site automatically. The “normal” methods just don’t work with GoDaddy. If you’re writing your own e-commerce system you can make it work, but if you’re using a pre-coded package or plugin, odds are it won’t work with GoDaddy.

However, your average blogger won’t have any kind of e-commerce system so most people won’t have to worry about things like that. I think that GoDaddy is a pretty good option if you’re just looking for a simple blog host. They’re reliable and have decent prices, starting at $5.99 per month. They have sales quite often so you can get good deals if you buy at a good time. However, their economy plan does only allow for one website on your host, so if you want more than one you will have to upgrade to “Deluxe” at $8.99 per month.

Has 1-click installation.

There are a lot of options in the admin panel, but it’s very well organized and easy to navigate.

One person experienced a small period of complete downtime on her blog, but the issue was resolved very quickly (within 15 minutes).

Customer support is very helpful and responsive with live chat.

HostGator is one host that I have read a lot of horror stories about. Here is just one example: Hostgator Sucks: Mindless Account Suspension after being a Loyal Customer for a Year.

The summary in that article is that HostGator is just fine as long as everything is working okay. And if you have small issues with file permissions or tiny edits, their customer support is just peachy. But as soon as you run into a HUGE problem, their customer support is sketchy, they refuse to work with you, and they can scare the living daylights out of you. They can literally prevent you from accessing your site or retriving your file backups. There are loads of stories online about hosting accounts being suspended for no reason, or customer support being a nightmare.

Additionally, I have encountered one HostGator blog personally which was EXTREMELY slow. Now, to be fair, there could have been many factors here like bad plugins or too much traffic. But it could also be because HostGator’s servers are crappy and overcrowded (which is not uncommon with popular webhosts).

My recommendation: stay away. Yes you could have a great experience with HostGator, but why risk it when there are plenty of other more reliable hosts?

Has 1-click installation.

Nose Graze Note: I can’t even tell you what admin panel they use because it’s not listed on their site.

No reported outages, but site speed can be very slow. This is likely due to too many people on each server.

Live online chat regarding website speed. Very quick to respond, even if they don’t know why I am slow quite often.

iPage seems to have some great deals, but they kind of trick you by hiding their real prices, which are about $8.99 per month (locked into a 12-month deal). That’s kind of expensive compared to other options out there. Overall, I find their website to be difficult to navigate and hard to find exactly what they offer on their plans. It looks like they’re trying to minimize their use of technical jargon to make it easier for newbies, but it also means they’re not very specific about what exactly you’re getting.

Combine that with very slow site speeds, and I’m not sold. There’s no reason to choose this host when they’re known for having slow sites. There are better options out there!

No 1-click installation.

KnownHost uses cPanel, which is easily recognized and simple to use.

No reported outages.

[KnownHost’s customer support] is nothing short of phenomenal. [..] They respond to emails *within minutes* regardless of time of day. They are also very detailed and responsive. They solve problems super fast. You can tell each and every one of their reps are expert developers unlike other hosting companies like GoDaddy who’s reps don’t even understand how WP works. The only thing I have to say is I think having them has been a learning curve. They don’t dumb down terminology and someone unfamiliar with running a self-hosted blog, and who has never used an FTP program, can easily get lost. But for someone who has been looking to switch hosts because they are looking for speed and a larger sever, KnownHost is the place to be.

KnownHost isn’t the cheapest option, even for VPS/Dedicated. Even some of their add-ons are quite expensive. However, part of that is because they offer Managed servers. Managed is more expensive than un-managed, which is what I have more experience with.

But that being said, I’m impressed with what was said about their customer service. They seem like a solid, reliable company.

No 1-click installation.

You do have to install WordPress manually, but the one person who reported using Laughing Squid said it was a fairly easy process, despite not having been familiar with FTP or hosting in general.

They use a customized panel created by Rackspace. It’s fairly easy to navigate.

If you have a small site with not much traffic, Laughing Squid will probably suit your needs. But if you have a big site or want room for expansion, it might not be a good choice because it can be slow.

Laughing Squid is cool as long as you aren’t getting a bunch of traffic. When I first started blogging it was fine and my site ran smoothly. But when it started to grow and when Cuddlebuggery was created… it was pretty slow.

They were ok, but the only support they offered was by way of email. I also found that they weren’t very swift to address my concerns. Sometimes I had to wait for the next day to get an answer. They also don’t have much support outside of business hours, including the weekends.

Look elsewhere for hosting. Even if Laughing Squid is perfectly fine for smaller blogs, you should never settle like this. There are other, similarly priced hosts that have much more reliable speed and up-time. There is no reason to limit yourself! And, of course the lack of 1-click WordPress installation is a major drawback for anyone who is brand new to self-hosting.

Has 1-click installation.

RFE uses the familiar cPanel admin system.

No reported outages.

I’ve used both email and online live chat. Email support was within hours and the live chat took mere moments to reach someone. Both were due to instances where I had made a mistake (like locking myself out of cPanel lol)

I love the fact that RFE Hosting has an entire blog section dedicated to WordPress guides. They have guides on how to install WordPress, how to back up your WordPress blog to Dropbox, and more. They don’t blog that often (you’ll notice many of the articles are 1-2 years old), but I love the content that they do have. It makes them seem like they care about their users.

Their price plans also look very reasonable, and I think it’s great that your RFE site will be powered by CloudFlare! (I use CloudFlare myself and it’s awesome.)

I also really like how they put up a list of some of their clients with screenshots. They also offer a Blogger to WordPress migration service.

Update – 15 Aug 2013: Since writing this post, I have used RFE Hosting for multiple clients and they have been phenomenal. They have great service, excellent support, fast websites, no downtime that I’ve seen, and it’s insanely easy to install WordPress. I highly recommend them!

Has 1-click installation.

They use cPanel for their control area.

No reported outages.

Phenomenal. Very responsive, friendly, and eager to help however they can!

With a lowest cost of $8 per month, Safe Shark Hosting might not be the cheapest option around, but it seems like a fairly solid host. cPanel is easy enough to use and their up-time seems reliable.

One great thing about Safe Shark Hosting is that they provide a free migration service. From their website:

If you’re currently running a blog or website, we’ll help you move your content to ensure nothing gets left behind – completely free of charge. In comparison, WordPress.com charges $129.

And assuming they keep to their word, they have a great 99.9% uptime guarantee:

Safe Shark Hosting has a 99.9% uptime guarantee – if your site is unreachable for more than 43 minutes per month due to issues on our end (and not due to user misconfiguration, etc.), we will work with you to make things right, be it refunds, bonus features/upgrades, or free months of hosting.

That is a very attractive offer!

Has 1-click installation.

Very easy to navigate and find what you’re looking for.

Websites aren’t the fastest, but users have never experienced any outages.

Online chat is very quick and reliable.

Easy WordPress installation, a familiar cPanel admin area, no known outages, and no scary hidden Acceptable Use Policies. Overall, they seem like a pretty solid service. The somewhat slow site speed is a bit of a bummer though.

However, the one thing that makes me itch is the price. If you go to their site, it says $3.95 per month (with a $14.95 “set up fee” if you only buy 1 month). That set up fee is bullshit. But also, this is apparently the “sale” price. In nice small print, you will see “Regular $9.95/mo”. Web hosting for $9.95 per month? No thanks. I currently pay more than that, but that’s because I have a dedicated server. If you’re doing shared hosting, you don’t need to be paying more than $6 or $7 per month. And that set up fee is ridiculous.

The price is the only thing that bothers me though. And it makes me wonder if this $3.95/mo is truly a sale price, or if they’re just claiming it’s a sale price for marketing purposes, but in reality that’s the price 100% of the time. It just confuses me…

Doesn’t quite have a 1-click installation, but you can easily and “somewhat automatically” install it using Softaculous, which is in your admin panel. However, because it’s listed under “Softaculous”, it might not be that obvious to a new user.

They use cPanel for their control area.

It’s very basic to navigate, but you would need to know a lot of web jargon, like SQL or POP3, etc, to find what you are looking for.

A couple outages have been reported due to “server maintenance”, but otherwise it is fast and relatively stable.

Amazing customer support. There is a ticket logging system and I always get a reply within 24 hours. Fantastic support, the owner is always happy to fix anything for you, can’t rave about it enough.

Three-Words Hosting does seem like a good, reliable option. I think my only hesitation is that it looks like a one-woman show (one person running the hosting site). That can be both good and bad. Smaller hosting companies tend to put a lot more effort into supporting their clients and being the best they can be. They’re not “sell outs”. But on the other hand, it also means they’re less established as a business so you never know when they might run into problems, close down, etc.

But I guess it’s not fair for me to judge Three-Words Hosting on “what could happen”, so I’d say it’s a fairly solid choice.

The other only downside is the WordPress installation, which is still easy, but might not be that obvious for a new user.

Has 1-click installation.

It’s not the easiest or best admin panel ever, but it’s not overly difficult or complicated.

No reported outages.

My first impression of WebHostingBuzz is that I like them. Their homepage is very crisp, clean, and professional. They have good price plans, starting from $4.95 per month, which is very reasonable. They also offer very generous disk space and bandwidth. Comebine that with 1-click WordPress installation and a 45 day money back guarantee, and you’ve got a good deal!

However, the user who submitted this survey had never gotten in touch with customer support, so we don’t know how good that is.

One major downside is that WebHostingBuzz doesn’t allow its WordPress users to install caching plugins, as stated in their Acceptable Use Policy. Caching is very common on WordPress because it can make your site significantly faster. So if that’s something you’re interested in, you might want to look elsewhere.