My 2017 Pick for WordPress Host
I’ve been building websites for a loooooooong time. 10-years in Internet years – which is like, maybe, 112 human years, and 767 dog years. In that time, I’ve worked with dozens and dozens of hosting companies. About 5 or 6 years ago, shared hosting sites rose in popularity to fill the painful gap left by <ahem> GoDaddy. So I tried them out.
Some had fantastic, US-based support staff. And way too many outages.
Some had crazy fast speed. And no support at all.
Some had cool add-ons (backups, SSL, etc…). And none that actually worked.
Why? Shared hosting companies like HostGator, BlueHost, GoDaddy cPanel, etc… are trying to be everything to everyone. WordPress has been the most prevalent website platform for years now, yet the hosts supporting it were using database servers that could be tipped over like a house of cards, backups that backed up themselves until you have a terabyte of back-ups which could slow your site to a crawl.
The verdict: get thee to Managed WordPress Hosting.
These WordPress-specific accounts are highly optimized, delivering a better experience. Here’s the 7-criteria I discuss with my clients when helping them choose (or more often upgrade) their host.
7 Criteria to Consider when Upgrading WordPress Hosting
- Speed
1) Site Speed directly impacts SEO
2) Site Speed directly impacts your conversion rates - Security
1) If your site is down, you stop making money.
2) Getting the red-screen of death (Google Malware Warning) is a great way to scare away your customers - Flexibility
1) Sites are meant to grow
2) PHP Version Upgrades, Multi-Site, CDN’s - Accessibility and Skill of Support
1) US-Based Support is critical to clear communication
1) Hosting support should have expert-level support staff available - Ease of Migration
1) Do they have a tool or service to handle the migration for you?
2) Have other users reviewed this aspect of the service? - Backup/Restore Features
1) Daily backups are standard now, not an add-on benefit.
2) Restoring a backup should not be complex or require complicated FTP uploads - Core Features vs. Add-ons
1) SSL (Secure-Socket Layer) should be easy / cheap to add to your WordPress install
2) CDN (Content-Delivery Network) integrations and add-on should be available.