5 Best Shared Hosting Providers For Starting WordPress Blog

There are so many Shared hosting providers around that choosing between them is always tough.

  • What should we look for?
  • How should we decide which one to use?

Most of the first time blogger does not understand that hosting requirements change based on the age and traffic of the blog. Starter blogs usually look for cost saving options like shared hosting, with decent speeds for the blog. As your blog grows you will start looking for more powerful or managed hosting.

So you should never look for a solution which will work entire duration of the blog. You will have to migrate at some stage to better hosting solutions, so look for hosting providers which fits the bill at this time.

Shared Hosting

If you have decided to start a new blog and looking for which hosting to look for, here are the 5 shared hosting providers which you can use.


AWS LightSail

Most of the blog starts at shared hosting as they are the cheapest option around but if you get a VPS (Virtual Private Server) at the cost of shared hosting, nothing like it.

That’s AWS LightSail, A VPS at the cost of Shared hosting. It sounds tempting but it comes with its cons which we will discuss down the line.

Why AWS?

AWS LightSail is build on Amazon EC2 infrastructure. AWS was always able to host WordPress blogs but building an EC2 instance and installing WordPress was never easy.

People needs to aware about Cloud infrastructure and able to work with AWS console. AWS LightSail is build to help people with minimum understanding of Cloud infrastructure, to build their blogs on AWS infrastructure.

On the background it uses EC2 infrastructure but most of the app installation is automatic and it comes with a fixed price. Installing WordPress on LightSail is very easy and you will reap the benefit of best infrastructure in the market.

It also comes with some freebies like DNS management, Backup and Restore WordPress Blog, Matrics reporting and monitoring, Static IP address etc.

Check this guide on How to Setup WordPress on AWS LightSail.

Any Cons?

Now it all sounds like a must have points, but what are the cons. Though the installation is easy and you don’t have to deal with AWS overwhelming console, you still need basic understanding of cloud infrastructure.

They do not have the cPanel support, so most of the work will be done through FTP or CLI. Also if you are planning to keep multiple low traffic site in a single account, setting them up on a single LightSail instance will be little tricky.

It provides a good alternative to Shared hosting for the people who has some technical background. Their plans starts with as low as $5 a month.

Check AWS LightSail


BlueHost Shared Hosting

Bluehost is one of the good Shared hosting provider which provides support for more than 2,000,000 happy customers.

They have multiple plans and just included optimized WordPress services in the list also. They provide some optimisation to the server so one bad neighbour can’t block every one else.

Their unique services include resource protection, enhanced cPanel and scalability. When your blog grows and you want to move to VPS or dedicated servers, you can move it with 1 click. This takes care of a big headache of manually moving the blog when it grows. It’s as easy as just upgrading your plan.

Their resource protection is also helpful in saving you from bad neighbours. It keeps monitoring the resource utilisation and if it feels that a single site is taking too much resources, they will move that site to isolated servers. That way they make sure that other sites are not impacted by the heavy use of resource by one site.

Their packages include site protection, email support with email id creation, backup and restore service. They have worked on the cPanel and customised it to make sure all the work can be done from there, including domain management.

So if you are looking for a hosting provider with cPanel support, security and good performance, Bluehost can provide all of these.

Check Bluehost Hosting


SiteGround Hosting

SiteGround is another hosting provider which has a very good performance for WordPress Blogs. Their server are optimised for WordPress and they constantly updates their system for better security.

They have build their own caching tool, the SuperCacher, which uses NGINX technology to drastically increase WordPress speed. This comes free with every account and they top it up with free CDN with every account. The combination of SuperCacher and Cloudflare CDN provides a much needed boost in terms of speed.

Their hosting solution also include access to their homegrown tools and WP-CLI. WP-CLI is a nice command line tool to do most of the work needed for WordPress.

Their server are already updated with PHP7 and if you are aware about PHP development, it itself a significant boost in terms of performance.

SiteGround also has a one click installer, staging area and Git Interface for creating repo’s. If you constantly make changes to the design and other aspect of your blog, staging area gives a nice way to test those changes.

Like other managed wordpress hosting, they provide auto WordPress update which is a nice touch on shared hosting. They are also one of the hosting partners recommended by WordPress.org, which automatically talks about their services.

Check SiteGround Hosting


InMotion Shared Hosting

InMotion also one of the hosting providers who has optimised their shared server for WordPress and offer WordPress Managed Services at a very decent price.

The WordPress Managed plans include SSD storage, PHP7 support, OptimumCache (their caching solution) and automatic backup and updates. WordPress Managed plans in shared hosting usually comes with some restriction on the plugin but InMotion doesn’t put those kind of restriction. You are free to use any plugin you want on your WordPress Blog.

They also include Max Speed Zone, which means user can decide where they want to host the blog. Currently they have data center at the east and west coast, you can choose the location which will be closer to your audience.

Check InMotion Hosting


Hostgator Shared Hosting

Hostgator is also one of the good hosting provider with their 99.9% uptime guarantee, which they actually fulfil. They currently host more than 8,000,000 domains and still able to provide good support to them.

Their plan include cPanel access, unlimited email support, 1-click WordPress install, unlimited subdomain and bandwidth. Now all this sound like what’s get offered on any other hosting provider but Hostgator shine in two department Support and uptime.

You will not get any disruption on the blog uptime and that’s the prime reason so many people trust them for their hosting. They also include CodeGuard site backup and restore and SiteLock Website Security solution free with their shared hosting plan.

When you are in need and you can’t reach support people, that’s the most frustrated time. HostGator have 24/7 support via phone, chat or ticketing system, so you will always be able to reach someone.

Check InMotion Hosting

So which Shared hosting provider you are using for your blogs?

Full Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning that if you click on one of the links and purchase an item, we may receive a commission (at no additional cost to you). We only hyperlink the products which we feel adds value to our audience. Financial compensation does not play a role for those products.

About Sanjeev

Sanjeev is an IT Consultant and technology enthusiast. He has more than 15 years of experience in building and maintaining enterprise applications. He is been with Android from T-Mobile G1 time but recently shifted to iOS. He loves to code and play with the latest gadgets.

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