Over the past 15 years, I have hosted close to one hundred websites using various hosting companies, everything from cheap and nasty shared hosting providers to having a dedicated server.
If you have a WordPress website or intend to build your first or new website on WordPress, then using a built for WordPress Hosting service would be your best choice. In recommending that, there are many hosting companies that do specialize in WordPress hosting. Knowing who to go with may feel like taking a stab in the dark.
The Newbie Mistake
The newbie mistake almost everyone makes is buying cheap hosting when they purchase their first domain name. The usual suspects are GoDaddy and Hostgator. In a way, it does make sense, you might as well get your hosting when you buy a domain name.
The problem is you're buying "junk food" hosting. It may be cheap, but it won't be good for your website. You get what you pay for in the world of hosting, and if you go cheap, that's what you'll receive - slow hosing that's vulnerable to malware with frustratingly poor customer support.
Beware of The Managed WordPress Providers
My previous hosting company was Liquid Web who offer "Fully Managed WordPress Hosting - Backed by the Most Helpful Humans in Hosting®".
In general they were pretty good, but the one benefit they claim to provide (and pride themselves on), they didn't deliver on, and it became a source of frustration. As part of their managed WordPress solution, LiquidWeb states "We make a copy of your site and test plugin updates for you every night, automatically, so you don't have to worry about keeping your site up to date ever again."
The problem was I did have to worry about keeping my sites up to date because LiquidWeb would regularly email me stating "We have detected problems while updating plugins on yourwebsite.com." I would have to go into the backend of WordPress and manually update the plugins myself. These "problems" weren't problems. These emails were triggered by a script, meaning LiquidWeb doesn't have staff manually updating plugins.
When you are managing multiple sites for various clients, getting emails from your hosting provider almost every day informing you of problems that don't exist kills your confidence. Needless to say, I switched to a different hosting company.
LiquidWeb: "Never Think About Plugin Updates Again!"
Who Should You Go With?
You should go with a hosting company that:
- delivers on their promises
- specialises in WordPress
- understands marketing
- makes site speed a priority
- can guarantee an uptime of 99.95%
- provide SSL certificates at no extra cost
- migration of all your sites at no extra cost
- have exceptional and fast customer support
- employ support staff who actually use and understand WordPress
I know one company that does all that!
Introducing the WordPress Hosting advantage - WPX Hosting!
WHY YOU CAN TRUST WPX HOSTING WITH YOUR WEBSITES
SUPPORT
WPX averages around 30 seconds support response time on Live Chat by Support Agents who can handle most issues themselves - nobody in the hosting industry is getting near that and that's 24/7/365 from anywhere in the world, not just during US 'business hours'
SPEED
Page load time matters in the online space. If your web pages load slowly, you lose potential visitors, and that means you ultimately lose leads and money. With WPX Hosting my home page loads in 1.3 seconds - that is phenomenal.
99.95% UPTIME
WPX never overloads servers with hosting accounts, unlike so-called 'cheap' hosting which crumbles under any traffic load. WPX owns its own high-spec hardware, highly customized for performance and it's why WPX normally is at the top of the table in comparisons review sites.
CONTENT DELIVERY NETWORK
WPX has built its own FREE custom CDN (Content Delivery Network) with 25 end points around the world for consistent, worldwide loading speed.
DAILY BACKUPS
WXP Hosting performs daily backups of your sites and holds them for 28 day. Also, the Backup Manager allows you to take backups of your website at any time, restore them as you see fit and download them locally. No need for backup plugins. Hooray!
The screenshot below of the Backups Dashboard shows you how easy it is to create, restore and download backups with WPX Hosting!
MALWARE REMOVAL
WPX does NOT charge for malware removal from their customers' websites. Most hosts will make a commission off you by recommending you spend hundreds of dollars on malware services like Sucuri.
Note: I have not had a malware issue with WPX Hosting to date.
SSL CERTIFICATES
WPX was the first to integrate unlimited free SSL certificates from the Google co-sponsored initiative, Let's Encrypt. They will provide SSL certificates for all your websites at no extra cost
PAW OF APPROVAL
WPX has a committed mission of funding welfare projects for homeless and shelter dogs ( and a few kitty cats). In 2019, they established their own non-profit foundation, Every Dog Matters, to accelerate and expand the good work that they do. The work of Every Dog Matters is fully funded by WPX and the foundation's team works out of WPX HQ
If you are a animal lover and you want part of your hosting cost to go to the care and shelter of homeless dags, then make WPX Hosting your hosting provider.
Apart from always trying to build great products with great support, I judge my success as a Web entrepreneur by how many hundreds/thousands of homeless dogs my business can positively impact, not by how many exotic sports cars I own,....(I own exactly none). - Terry Kyle, CEO, WPX Hosting
It Is Not Just About Hosting
Choosing a hosting company is not just about speed tests, support and price. You want to choose a company that is built on good values that has an accessible founder/owner who has a personal mission. That's way I trust my websites with WPX Hosting.