Blogging can be a bit challenging but one thing you should never get wrong is your choice of web hosting platform.
While a good web hosting platform compliments your effort and takes care of major unforeseen technical issues that arise along the way, a bad web hosting platform is like a nightmare frustrating all your efforts and keeping you demotivated to a point where you’ll be left with no choice but to quit blogging.
A lot of bloggers lost 2-3 years of hard work due to their wrong choice of hosting.
I’ve also had my fair share of bad hosting experiences in the past before learning it the hard way.
Now it’s your turn to make choices.
Let’s just say you’re at the right place and at the right time.
In this article, I’ll talk about the 7 best web hosting platforms for blogging to kick off your journey.
Without further ado, let’s get started.
Key Consideration Factors for Choice of Web Host
There are 3 most important factors to consider when choosing a web hosting for your blog:
1. Uptime 🟢 – Website uptime is the time that a website or web service is available to users in a given period. Although 100% uptime is the ultimate goal, the industry considers 99.9% uptime as the minimum that all web hosting should achieve.
2. Speed ⚡️ – You need a web host that’s blazing fast for your blog, not one that takes forever to load your blog content else you’d lose your readers.
3. Customer Support ☎️ – Very important. The hosting company you choose should have expert support that responds quickly when you need help either by chatbox, email support or mobile call.
The Credibility of our Blog Web Host Selections
A little bit about the credibility of this article.
I have 3 personal blogs each running on 3 different top hosting platforms mentioned here (SiteGround, BlueHost and A2Hosting), this site is one of the 3 blogs.
Hence the comparison sterns from my personal use and not generalized research.
I also work for a Florida Based Marketing Agency as the company’s SEO Manager at the time of preparing this article.
This enabled me to manage/resolve SEO technical issues of top brands across the states hosted on multiple platforms.
The 7 web hosting platforms listed in this article are the chosen best selections from a broad list of 86 web hosting platforms I’ve worked with in the past 7 years of my web career.
So this review is no fluff, but more of a professional insight into what best serves your needs.
Best Web Hosting Sites for Bloggers
| Blog Hosting Sites | Hosting Tag | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Site Ground | All Round Best for Blogs 🏆 | 9.7/10 |
| BlueHost | Best Standard Budget-friendly💰 | 9.5/10 |
| A2Hosting | Fastest Hosting Speed | 9.1/10 |
| Hostinger | Best Affordable Plans | 8.5/10 |
| NameCheap | Best Domain Name Registrar | 8.2/10 |
| GreenGeeks | Best Eco-friendly Option | 8.0/10 |
| Dreamhost | Best for Site Upgrades | 7.3/10 |
1. SiteGround Hosting (Best Overall)
Double Badges: || All Round Best for Blogs 🏆 || Best Customer Service 🎖
SiteGround is one of the top recommended WordPress hosting platforms and the 1st on our list owing to its fast and secure servers.
It began operations in 2004 and manages over 2 million successful blogs and websites.
This site runs on SiteGround and the experience has been nothing short of awesome.
All web hosting platforms mentioned on this list have similar strengths but there are 2 things that make SiteGround stand out from the crowd. They are:
i.) Maximum Ease of Use: SiteGround does a perfect job of helping you get started with no hassle. From the hosting to configuration and finally getting your site live, all processes are well streamlined that someone with zero technical knowledge can easily get on board.
ii.) Customer Support: Of all tested hosting platforms, the customer support of SiteGround has the fastest response time. They typically respond in less than a minute for live chats.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Good Uptime – 99.99% | No Free Domain except on Special Promo |
| Great Support | The starting price may be steep for beginner bloggers ($6.99 for the StartUp plan) |
| Lightening-Fast Hosting Speed Averaging at 615ms | |
| Maximum Ease of Use | |
| Officially Recommended by WordPress.org | |
| Free SSL Certificates | |
| Free Email Accounts | |
| Free WordPress Installation | |
| Free Backup Every Single Day | |
| Unmetered Traffic Across All Plans | |
| 30 Days Money Back Guarantee | |
| Top Tier Security |
Performance
Third-party server speed tests regularly reveal that SiteGround’s response time is between 0.056 and 0.138 seconds depending on your location in the world.
Uptime
Uptime isn’t something you need to worry about when using one of SiteGround’s plans. Their servers boast a 99.9% uptime.
SiteGround Pricing Verdict
SiteGround is not the best budget-friendly when compared to other options like Bluehost which you can get for $2.95.
Most brands recommend Bluehost which is the next on this list over SiteGround simply because Bluehost it’s cheaper.
However, SiteGround has a lot of features to compensate for its slightly higher price.
SiteGrounds’s high 99.9% uptime, free SSL, emails, ease of use and highly responsive customer support help to preserve its position as #1 on our list of best web hosting for bloggers.
2. Bluehost
Hosting Tag: || Best Standard Budget-friendly💰
If you’re more concerned about cheaper web hosting than SiteGround which still gets the job done taking off extreme perfections, then Bluehost is the way to go.
Bluehost is the best budget-friendly standard web hosting for bloggers.
With just $2.95/month, you can quickly set up your blog with all the basic functionalities of a standard site.
Established in 1996, Bluehost has grown to be the most popular hosting platform amongst bloggers with an easy-to-navigate control panel and 99.9% guaranteed uptime.
Performance
Bluehost has excellent functionality with high load speeds.
Depending on location, it scores 0.046 sec to 3.43 sec for response time in independent server speed tests.
Customer support
Bluehost support team is available to resolve all queries. You can contact them via phone, live chat, and email.
Package Features of the Bluehost Hosting Plans
– Basic Plan
- Free 50GB SSD storage
- Free SSL certificate
- Unmetered Bandwidth
- One website
- One included domain
- 25 sub-domain.
– Upgraded Plan
- Free Unlimited website hosting
- Free Unlimited domains
- Access to spam expert
- Free unlimited storage
- Domain Privacy
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Relatively low Starting Price Compared to Others | Upselling Add-ons |
| Reliable 99.99% Uptime | "Not-so-fast" Customer Support |
| Super Fast Hosting | Price increases upon Renewal |
| Easy to Use | |
| Officially Recommended by WordPress.org | |
| Free Domain and SSL Certificates | |
| Pre-installed WordPress | |
| 30 Days Money Back Guarantee | |
| Standard Customers Support |
3. A2 Web Hosting
Hosting Tag: || Fastest Hosting Speed ⚡️
A2 Web Hosting is a blog hosting provider reputable for its fast load speed and affordable plans.
It started operations around 2001 and has grown bound and leaps into a successful service with untampered results.
Performance
A2 Hosting has a load time of 392ms when passed through an independent server speed test. This rating proves how fast any blogs hosted on the platform would load.
Customer Support
Their customer support service is top-notch with round-the-clock availability.
Package Features of A2 Web Hosting Plans
– Basic plan
- One website
- Free Cpanel (Control Panel)
- Unlimited storage
- 24 hours monitoring
- Unlimited transfer
- Free SSL & SSD certificate.
- 30-days money-back guarantee
– Upgraded plan
- Unlimited website
- Server rewind backup
- Unlimited domains
- Free and easy site migration
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Fastest WordPress Hosting | No Backups on Basic Plan |
| Fast Support via live Tickets & Emails | Less Features on the Basic Plan |
| WordPress Optimized Servers | Price increases on Renewal |
| Quick and Easy Setup | |
| Free Domain, Email and SSL Certificates | |
| Industry-Leading Security | |
| Free Site Migration | |
| 30 Days Money Back Guarantee |
4. Hostinger
Hosting Tag: || Best for Plan-Wide Affordability👩👦👦
Hostinger provides multiple solutions, including shared hosting, cloud hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated servers.
Hostinger has been in existence since 2004 and boasts of over 24 million users.
Much reputable for its easy-to-use control panel with a standard uptime of 99.95%.
Performance
Hostinger has an impressive fast load speed with an average load time of 0.369 secs which is well above the industry standard.
With its powerful server response time, Hostinger offers exceptional performance that is competitive with other hosting providers.
Customer Support
Hostinger offers 24/7 services in this department, with its professional team reachable through mailing and live chat.
It also provides comprehensive knowledge base content on blogging to help guide new users.
Pricing
Hostinger prices are budget-friendly, with plans ranging from $2.99/per month to $11.99/per month.
Package Features of Hostinger Web Hosting
– Basic Plan
- Limited bandwidth and storage (100GB)
- One website
- One email account
- GitHub integration Cloudflare protection
- Drag-and-drop website builder
- Lifespeed cache
- Two subdomain
- 24/7 customer support
- One Cron job
– Upgraded Plan
- Unlimited website
- Free SSL certificate
- Unlimited email account
- Cloudflare protection
- Unlimited FTP accounts
- Free Domain
- SSH access
- GitHub integration
- Lifespeed cache
- Unlimited MySQL database
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Competitive & Affordable Hosting Plans | Inconsistent Performance |
| Excellent Onboarding | Limited Customer Service (No Phone or Email Support) |
| Good Uptime – 99.95% | Limited Disk Space |
| Good Customer Support | No Daily Backup on Basic Plan |
| Optimized for WordPress | |
| Free SSL Certificates | |
| One-Click WordPress Install | |
| 30 Days Money Back Guarantee |
5. NameCheap Hosting
Hosting Tag: || Best Domain Name Registrar 📕
Founded in 2000 and recognized as America’s #1 fastest-growing hosting platform.
It first gained its popularity by offering cheap domain name registration then later incorporating web hosting among its services.
As a host, Namecheap isn’t robust with features and resources, but it’s certainly decent for the price—particularly with shared hosting, where one might already be looking for affordable options, Namecheap provides a good mix of price and resources.
Performance
It has a high load speed, scoring 0.83secs for load time on third-party testing.
Customer Support
Their expert customer support team always pays attention to users’ requests. You can reach its team through live chats.
Pricing
Their hosting price is throat-cutting; it comes as low as $34.88/year on the basic plan.
However, you might not be able to enjoy some quality features with its lowest package.
Package Features of NameCheap Hosting
Basic plans
- Maximum of three website hosting
- 20GB storage space
- 50 MySQL database
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Free SSL certificate
- Privacy protection
Upgraded plans
- Has automatic backup
- Unmetered SSD
- Unlimited website hosting.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Ease of Use | Questionable Uptime Scores |
| Good Customer Support | |
| Reliable as a Registrar | |
| Quite Affordable | |
| Good Security |
6. GreenGeeks
Hosting tag: || Best Eco-friendly Option🌳
GreenGeeks is a small web hosting platform with over 300,000 users. It launched in 2006, with its headquarters being situated in California.
The company positions itself as an industry-leading eco-friendly web hosting provider, putting back 3 times the power we consume into the grid in the form of renewable energy.
Also, they offer competitive pricing plans across different needs and budget sizes.
Performance
GreenGeeks are incorporating new technology to increase their page performance and load speed. It scores 0.452 secs to 0.9 secs for load time.
Customer Support
They have a knowledgeable support team to tend to your request. You can reach them through email, live chat, and calls.
Pricing
Their prices are affordable and start at $2.49/month for three consecutive years but their top-tier hosting runs for $8.95/month.
Package Features of GreenGeeks Hosting
– Basic plan
- One website
- Free domain name for a year
- Free CDN integration
- One-click app installer
- Real-time security scanning
- Free SSH and FTP access
– Upgraded plan
- Unlimited website
- Free premium wildcard SSL
- Free dedicated IP
- Unlimited web space.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Eco-Friendly | No 24/7 phone support |
| Good Performance | Lack of Developer-Friendly feature |
| Multiple Server Location | No Website Staging |
7. Dreamhost
Hosting tag: || Best for Site Upgrades ⏫
Dreamhost houses over 1.5 million domains which is a real testimonial of the platform’s functionality and reliability.
Also, a great option as it allows you to create a WordPress blog without any coding knowledge having been in existence since 1996.
Dreamhost is one of the 3 hosting platforms recommended by the makers of WordPress, the other 2 been SiteGround and Bluehost.
Performance
Dreamhost has a strong server response with an impressive load speed. It scores 0.719 secs for response time on third-party testing.
Customer Support
Endowned an efficient customer support team.
Pricing
Their pricing starts at $2.59/month (for a one-year plan) with a crazy 97-day money-back guarantee.
If you aren’t looking to opt for a long-term commitment, you can get their month-to-month plan for as low as $4.95/month.
Package Features of Dreamhost Web Hosting
– Basic plan
- One website
- Unlimited traffic
- Fast SSD storage
- Free SSL certificate
– Upgraded plan
- Unlimited website
- Unlimited email
- 240 GB SSD storage.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Reliable – 99.95% | Uses a custom dashboard instead of cPanel |
| WordPress Recommended | No direct telephone support |
| Good Support | No unlimited email account with starter plan |
| Transparent Pricing (No hidden fee) | Not ideal for users with limited web hosting knowledge |
| Good Support | |
| Affordable VPS & cloud hosting upgrade pricing | |
| 97 Days Money Back Guarantee |
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
– Do You Need a Hosting Site for Your Blog?
Yes. If you want to start a professional profitable blog, then you need a self-hosted blog with paid hosting.
You’ll have to make the right choice as the success of your blog is greatly dependent on your web hosting.
– How Do I Choose a Blog Host?
To choose the right blog host you’d have to compare the core hosting functionalities that affect the day-to-day running of a blog.
This includes hosting speed, pricing, allocated storage, customer support and a couple of other features listed on our curated list of the 7 best hosting platforms for blogging.
– Which Blog Platform Is Best for Beginners?
SiteGround is the overall best blog hosting platform for bloggers taking all factors like speed, security, customer support and ease of use into consideration.
Bluehost is the best budget-friendly and GreenGeek is a wonderful eco-friendly option.
– How Can I Monetize my Blog?
You can monetize your blog through Affiliate marketing, Google Adsense, Sales of niche courses and sales of digital products.
You can also monetize your blog through partnership, sponsorship and packaged services.
Final Words on Best Web Hosting Platforms For Blogging
A lot of hard work goes into starting and growing a blog to the point where it starts earning a substantial amount of money.
While at it, you don’t want to be held back with hosting issues and that’s why it’s important to get it right from the onset.
SiteGround tops the chart but if you’re low on budget, you can go with Bluehost.
They will both serve the core purpose of starting a blog.
After successfully hosting your blog, the next phase will be determining what needs to be done and taking action, it’s meant to be a progressive journey.
You can check out other articles here on Website Hurdles as I’ve documented various blogging guides to fast-track your growth.
If you find this hosting guide helpful, then share it with your colleagues so we can all make the right choices together.
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