If you’re thinking to use WordPress to expand your business online I want to help you avoid a BIG mistake that I made. In this article, I share about the best web hosting for WordPress I have found.
I use it to host my WordPress blog and online store. I’ll also share about the popular web hosting company you should absolutely avoid.
Web design with WordPress
After 35 years of professional drumming, I am ready to share the things that helped me improve my drumming, my drumming business and my health. I also want to double down on my mission to help drummers master the art of Jazz drumming.
A few years ago I wanted to make some new websites but I didn’t know so much about the technical things of web hosting and website design. In fact, when I started out, I didn’t really even know what “web hosting” was.
Plain and simple, web hosting is a service where someone stores your website files on a secure computer. It’s also the place people are directed to when they visit your website. That computer is then always connected to the Internet so people can view your content 24 hours a day/7 days a week.
Web design is the actual act of creating your website. There are many website design services or “platforms” out there. Many are easy to use but limited in how much your site can be customized. I wanted something flexible so I went with the easily customizable WordPress platform.
Web hosting for WordPress
To get started using WordPress for my website design, I began looking at various web hosting company’s and plans. Since I was looking for specifically for web hosting for WordPress, it made it a little easier to decide.
I did a Google search for “the best web hosting for WordPress.” The hosting service that appeared the most in my searches was Bluehost. It was recommended by various vlogs, blogs and YouTube video blog tutorials. So, I gave Bluehost a try….BIG MISTAKE!!!
I have since come to understand that Bluehost has a very generous affiliate marketing payout. If a person recommends Bluehost in a blog and you sign up through their link, they are paid very well for the sell. I think this may be why so many people are recommending Bluehost.
Please pay close attention to what I share in this article, if you are looking into creating an artist website, blog or online store. I don’t want you to be deceived like I was. For all of your web hosting needs, I recommend you go with SiteGround Web Hosting services. I think you will clearly understand why after reading my story.
Cheap web hosting for WordPress
I was using WordPress.com to host my vonbaronmusic.com website for years. Due to WordPress.com’s limitations on plugins, monetizing and other things, I wanted to design my new websites with WordPress.org. WordPress.org is stable, flexible and by far the most popular blogging platform out there.
Unlike WordPress.com, WordPress.org does not include a built-in hosting service. So, I looked for a hosting plan that would allow me seamlessly design and operate my websites on WordPress.org.
As I said before, Bluehost was highly recommended and always came up as cheap web hosting for WordPress so I happily signed up for their WordPress.org hosting plan. I bought my domain, paid for my inexpensive shared web hosting plan and set up my website. That’s when the nightmare began.
Not the most reliable WordPress hosting
Even though Bluehost is repeatedly touted as the most reliable WordPress hosting, it is not. For starters, almost 50% of the time, my site was down.
That means, no one could see it for half of each day. It was offline. I had never experienced that problem before so I thought I had done something wrong. Contacting Bluehost technical support through their chat dialogue window was the next logical thing to do.
I was told that I was on a shared hosting plan and that my site was on the same server (computer) as dozens of other websites. So when another site had many visitors, my site’s priority level dropped.
This would then take my site offline to use the server resources for the other more popular sites. This “sharing” process was never explained anywhere on the Bluehost website when I signed up.
Wait for it….the upsell
So what do you think the technical support staff’s solution was? Well, of course, pay for better plan. Okay, so I did it. I went from inexpensive to a medium expensive plan and guess what? It didn’t work! I was still getting kicked off by other websites on the same server.
Another issue I was facing was the insanely slow loading of my website for customers. I was also dealing with the same delay in saving edits and uploading media to my website. Yes I had a couple of high-resolution photos but nothing design-wise that would cause such a slow loading time. I mean, I could and did go and make cups of tea while I was waiting.
I contacted tech support again and this time they said I should have my own dedicated IP address. That was upsell #2. The support staff said that if I had a dedicated IP address, things would run 30% faster and I wouldn’t have so much down time.
Okay, so I paid for yet another upgrade. Now I was paying for an expensive hosting plan and guess what? My downtime was improved a tiny bit but my site was still insanely slow.
How much does WordPress website cost?
I learned later from SiteGround that a dedicated IP address would not increase my loading speed so Bluehost was also telling me the wrong information. This was presumably to get me to upgrade.
Have you ever heard of a bait and switch? This is when someone lures you into buy something at a cheap price only to redirect you to a higher priced product or service. Used car dealers are famous for using this sales tactic.
Bluehost tech support are masters at the upsell. They baited me with the low price hosting and gradually switched me to the higher priced hosting. I later found countless reviews of Bluehost from very unhappy customers like me. Many people sharing a similar experience.
The cost of my WordPress websites including web hosting with Siteground is about $200 per year. This is in contrast to the $300-400 a year I would have paid had I stuck with Bluehost’s insanely slow and unstable web hosting.
Web hosting is the most expensive part of my website. WordPress has tons of free plugins or applications to design your website.
Web hosting customer support is most important
Most of you are probably like me and not so technically literate with web hosting. Being able to contact someone any time of the day for help is extremely valuable. Getting actual help, rather than an upsell is also important.
The straw that broke the camel’s back for Bluehost was their chat support app. I estimated that 80% of my chats were cut off abruptly due to the Bluehost support chat app crashing.
I’m sure you can imagine my frustration in trying to fix issues with my web hosting and not getting the help I needed. So much for tech “support.”
I do want to note that Bluehost was really good about one thing, the refund. They processed my refund quickly and I didn’t loose any money. The thing I did loose though, was one week of my life. For me, time is much more valuable than money.
As you begin spending money growing your online business, check out my article on bookkeeping software for drummers to learn how to better manage your drumming business income and expenses.
Which is the best web hosting for wordpress?
Well, ENOUGH WAS ENOUGH! I searched for other WordPress.org hosting companies and found SiteGround. This is when my nightmare ended.
I’m sharing affiliate links in this article. Buying your web hosting through me is a convenient way to get your website up and running and an easy way to support this drumming blog. Thank you π€
Web hosting customer support
From day one SiteGround’s technical support has been incredible. 100% of the time they have solved my issues and they solved them FAST! Their chat support app is powerful and it has never crashed.
The tech support staff are always courteous, informative and have NEVER tried to upsell. The reason for no upsell or bait and switch is simple. Their service and pricing are already great.
Website uptime
So with SiteGround, I have experienced 100% uptime! That means that people can actually see my website any time of the day everyday. I should say that every web hosting provider has some amount of downtime but I haven’t experienced that yet with Siteground after 3 years of using their service.
Website speed up for good
Both of my websites on SiteGround including my Von Baron Music Store, and this website vonbaronmusic.com are very fast in the editing and updating process. There are no delays in loading, uploading files or saving design changes.
The load times for customers are also quick. In fact, what you’re reading now is from Siteground. Are things loading fast enough for you?
Like Bluehost, SiteGround also uses shared hosting but they said the way they do it is much different than Bluehost. Their design doesn’t slow down smaller websites when a larger website has more traffic on the same server.
As I’ve said, I’m not a tech savvy person so I can’t explain the ins and outs of it. If you’d really like to know, I’m sure they can explain their shared hosting design when you sign up. The bottom line is, SiteGround’s servers allow every customer to have fast loading times.
Siteground’s plans are also reasonably priced and even have very inexpensive first-year plans. I am currently on the “Startup” plan which is great for my website sizes. After all is said and done, I think Siteground is truly the best web hosting for WordPress.
Conclusion
The web hosting price, website uptime, the website speed, and technical support make SiteGround a slam dunk for being the best hosting for WordPress on the market.
I don’t like to say bad things about anyone or any company. I felt though that Bluehost’s sales practices were a bit unethical so I want to also recommend you stay clear of their web hosting services.
Without hesitation and with 100% confidence, I recommend Siteground for your WordPress website blog or online store. With Siteground you can focus less on technical problems and spend more time playing music.
Whatever web hosting service you decide on, make sure it meets all of the important qualities I’ve shared in this article. Wishing you the best in your web design and connecting with the World online!
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