After creating many WordPress sites I have now graduated from the School of Hard Knocks for Designers with a Bachelors in Time Wasting Avoidance. I would like to share my hard won know-how to save would-be bloggers the misery a poor host can cause.
Here’s what works.
First: If your using Blogger or WordPress.com, I strongly recommend that you shift to your own self-hosted blog. This will give you the creative flexibility and control you’ll need as your blog grows. Read this article to know the complete details about creating a good blog.
What to Look For-
- cPanel Install of WordPress:
Make sure the hosting provider offers CPanel which is a beginner-friendly dashboard for managing your hosting. Look for a provider that allows you to install WordPress from CPanel. This is basically a one-click install that makes it super easy to get started. From there you can set your password and get right on to the fun of building your blog.
- 24-Hour Customer Service:
Customer Service should be available via a ticket system, chat, and/or telephone. I actually test their service with a simple tech question before I sign up. You want to be able to reach someone on the phone immediately if your blog goes down or you get hacked (yes, this happens!). It doesn’t matter if you are big or small you still deserve the same service. Believe me you’ll appreciate it when you run into a problem.
- Experience Hosting WordPress Sites:
I prefer hosts that have bloggers as customers. WordPress users have specific needs (i.e. Database configuration, Page Speed, and Backup services) that normal website owners don’t have to wrestle with as much.
Many hosting companies have been bought out by EIG, Endurance International Group. These include Hostgator, Blue Host, iPage, Fat Cow, GoDaddy and many, many more. Some companies I have used in the past have become completely unreliable since being bought by this corporate cabal. Read more indepth about EIG here.
At this time I find it hard to recommend any one company. Try InMotionHosting or A2 Hosting Do Not use Network Solutions! They have the slowest servers in creation, and seem content to ignore multiple complaints from their users. It takes forever to get a page to update, and you’ll be pulling your hair out trying to get a post or page up.
Thanks to: pushingsocial.com see also: wpdesigner.com
I’ve got several new sites lined up so I’ll definitely check them out. I’ve become disenchanted with my own current host. Come renewal time, I’m going to bail.
Glad to share!
I don’t want to sound too giddy about WPEngine, but they’ve consistently helped me out and made sure that everything worked for me. They’ve got a speed tool on their site, and I’ve used that (and other tools, of course, for comparison) to clock the speed on identical WP installations on Bluehost and WPEngine. The WPEngine installation was at least twice as fast as the Bluehost one. There might be ways to optimize for WP on Bluehost, but I like that with WPEngine, they take care of that for you.
hai! would you please review on exabytes as well? add to that well, guess what! bluehost is number 1 for wordpress
Thanks! I’m always on the lookout for feedback on host companies.
I just wanted to stop in and put in a good word for WPEngine (http://wpengine.com). They’re a bit more expensive, but I’ve had great customer service from them (including after midnight), they only deal with hosting WP sites, they support well-known clients such as FourSquare, and they’re great for scaling if you want to host multiple sites. WPEngine does use shared servers, but because they’re so highly optimized, the load times are still amazing.
I wouldn’t recommend Bluehost. The unoptimized, shared hosting has given even my sites with relatively little content terrible load times, and load times are basically what make or break a site. The speed is so slow that I’ve even had issues just getting the WP Dashboard to load properly.