Recommending WordPress hosting is always tricky because most hosting companies pay for referrals. So some people simply refer the company that pays the most.
For many years I have recommended HostGator. I still do, their support is awesome and for small starter sites I still don’t think you can beat them.
However what about larger sites that require WordPress hosting, sites that are your main source of income and needs to be rock solid?
After working with them for a couple of clients, I recommend WPEngine. What’s the difference you may ask?
- Dedicated WordPress hosting. You can ONLY use WordPress on it, you can’t install other applications.
- No caching required – they automatically have caching built in whihc makes for super speedy websites.
- Daily backups (though this doesn’t include any non-WordPress files and folders or the uploads folder – for that see my backup and update service.
- Included security scanning – and they will fix a hacked site for free.
- WordPress upgrades are automatically done for you when appropriate.
- Their tech support are all WordPress experts, after all that’s all they do!
- Month-to-month contracts (though you can get two months free if you pre-pay for a year).
- 60 day money back guarantee.
WPEngine is a lot more expensive than the cheap shared hosts like HostGator, and a little more difficult to set up, but you get a lot more for your money. I currently recommend it to clients who have one main site that they want to keep up at all costs and be safe in the knowledge that it’s rock solid.
if you have many multiple WordPress sites, most of which are small, I would still keep HostGator hosting for them and perhaps move your main site to WPEngine for dedicated WordPress hosting if the cost is justified by the many benefits they provide.