Some of these services don't offer as much customer support as the best services, don't offer as many security features or lack an uptime guarantee. You still might find a service that works for you.
HostPapa
HostPapa is a Canadian web hosting company with plans available in numerous currencies, including CAD, Euros and the Australian dollar. In fact, the option to pay in Canadian dollars is one of the primary reasons I chose HostPapa — it’s the company I’ve used for my personal websites since 2019, and I’ve had an overall positive experience working with its user dashboard and customer service agents. I also appreciate the availability of Canadian servers through HostPapa. However, there's only one server in Europe and none in Asia or Australia, so HostPapa's not an ideal choice for other international users.
HostPapa offers robust WordPress hosting plans with features like pre-installed WordPress and Jetpack (a popular plugin for optimizing your site). The WordPress installer helps you select a theme and plugins suitable for your site during initial setup and, once you’re set up, HostPapa will conduct updates to the core CMS — and plugins on certain plans — for you.
HostPapa sites are secured with SSL certification, firewall protection and DDoS protection. However, HostPapa limits automated backups and malware scanning to higher-tier plans; this is common among average web hosts, but is a major drawback when compared to our top WordPress hosts.
Overall, HostPapa offers a good service, but doesn't stand out enough to earn a spot in our main list of the best WordPress hosting companies.
Prices start at $3 a month, based on a three-year contract.
GoDaddy
GoDaddy offers three managed WordPress hosting plans with pre-installed WordPress. Higher-tier managed WordPress plans also include automated WordPress updates. All GoDaddy WordPress plans use NVMe storage to improve site speed and include an Airo Optimizer to help you identify other ways to speed up your site.
Each plan includes an SSL certificate and at least weekly backups. There's also malware scanning and a firewall, but when I spoke to customer service, they said this was “one time only,” so if you want to keep your site protected after its first encounter with malware, you'll need to subscribe to an additional security service.
In our testing, we found that GoDaddy is fairly easy to use, with excellent server performance and good customer service. However, the high prices and lack of permanent firewall protection prevent it from earning a spot in our main list of WordPress hosting recommendations. Prices start at $8 a month (based on a three-year contract).
GreenGeeks
GreenGeeks is a green energy web hosting provider, and it makes a 300% green energy match for each hosting plan. It also works with the nonprofit One Tree Planted to plant a tree with each hosting plan signup. If you are new to WordPress hosting, or migrating from another service, GreenGeeks offers free WordPress installation and free site migration so you can get started fast. GreenGeeks offers three-tiered WordPress plans, and security features include SSL certificates and DDoS protections. GreenGeeks also has an industry standard 99.9% uptime. Customer support is available 24/7 by email and chat, but phone support is only available 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. PT. While chat and email support are good, being able to talk through an issue or have a person explain in detail how to fix something at any time can be beneficial to resolving issues. Moreover, GreenGeeks' other features don't stand out enough to earn it a spot in our main best list.
Prices start at $3 a month, based on an annual contract.
MochaHost
MochaHost offers competitive prices for its four WordPress hosting plans. These plans include automated WordPress updates and security features like an SSL certificate, automatic backups plus malware and spam monitors. MochaHost's 99.9% uptime is industry standard, and customer support is available by email or chat 24/7. You can also call customer support, but you have to leave a message and wait for a call back each time. This hurts MochaHost's rating because if I call with an issue, I want someone to help me now, not at some nebulous point in the future.
Prices start at $4.60 a month, based on a one year contract.
WebHostingPad
WebHostingPad's three tiered WordPress plans offer unlimited hosting space, bandwidth and business email accounts. Plans come with a one-click WordPress installer. It offers a 99.9% uptime, security features like an SSL certificate and malware scans and removals. Customer support is available 24/7 by chat or email, and phone support is available Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. PT. These limitations on phone support, along with a lack of common security factors like DDoS protection, prevent WebHostingPad from landing a spot on our main list.
Prices start at $3 a month.
HostGator
HostGator offers three tiered WordPress hosting plans with pre-installed WordPress and a 99.9% uptime guarantee, SSL certification for at least one year, firewall and DDoS protections. You'll also get a built-in content delivery network — CDN — from Cloudflare, a tool that stores your site data in various locations around the world so international users can experience faster loading times.
Customers theoretically get access to 24/7 customer support via live chat, email or phone. However, when I tested HostGator customer support during my hands-on assessment, I never got a response via email at all. When I scheduled a call with the WordPress team, I never received the call at all and ended up troubleshooting the issues on my own. This suggests that HostGator customer support is inconsistent across channels. And with prices starting at $3.75 a month for the first year, HostGator's not worth the cost when you can get better service for the same price or less.
Bluehost
Bluehost's WonderSuite was created to help you learn the ins and outs of WordPress. The team of experts can help you set up your site or help with plug-ins. Bluehost has four tiered WordPress hosting plans, and security features include an SSL certificate for your first year and two-factor authentication. On top of the Blue Flash team, you can reach customer support 24/7 by call or chat. However, Bluehost's lack of an uptime guarantee is concerning. Its uptime agreement says it will resolve most issues within 15 minutes, but it doesn't say how often you should expect service to potentially go down. If your site goes down for 15 minutes daily, that means your site is down for over three days in one year, as opposed to the maximum of nine hours per year guaranteed by the industry-standard 99.9% uptime guarantee. These concerns around uptime, along with the need to pay for SSL certification after your first year, prevent Bluehost from earning a spot on our main best list.
Prices start at $4 a month for the first year.
Hostwinds
Hostwinds offers unlimited storage, bandwidth and business email accounts with each WordPress plan. You can also pay for your hosting plan with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It offers three tiered WordPress hosting options. Each plan includes an SSL certificate, a 99.99% uptime guarantee and 24/7 chat, email, ticket and phone support. Some security features, like two-factor authentication, need to be manually installed, but Hostwinds has a database of tutorials with step-by-step instructions. It's unclear how long contracts are for the prices shown, though. I tried to go to checkout to see how long the contracts were, but I was asked to create an account before I could go further. Having to create an account before knowing how long a contract lasts is annoying. Its introductory price is also noticeably higher than others. The renewal price might not be as much as some other services, but it's hard to tell without knowing how long the contracts are and the renewal rates could change before your initial contract ends.
Prices start at $5.24 a month.
Web Hosting Hub
Web Hosting Hub has a 90-day money-back guarantee and a free domain name if you sign up for WordPress hosting. WordPress comes preinstalled with each plan. It offers three tiered WordPress hosting options and each plan includes SSL certificate and an industry-standard 99.9% uptime guarantee. Customer support is available 24/7 by phone, chat and email. A customer support center also offers a range of tutorials to help you set up your site, and you also get a personal onboarding call if you sign up. Other features that come standard with other services, like backups, cost extra. It's this lack of security features for all plans that hurt Web Hosting Hub's ranking.
Prices start at $6 a month, based on a three-year contract.
InMotion Hosting
InMotion Hosting offers four tiered, standard WordPress plans, with starting prices ranging from $3.49 to $11.29 a month. The WP Core plan comes with two websites, 100GB of storage and 10 business email addresses. All other plans remove limits on websites, data storage and email accounts.
All InMotion Hosting plans include an SSL certificate, web application firewalls and hack and malware protection.
Unfortunately, InMotion Hosting performed poorly during our tests, with over an hour of downtime in one week and slow server speeds. Customer service also proved impossible to reach despite options for both live chat and support ticket being listed.
Read our InMotion Hosting review.
Kinsta
Kinsta offers tiered single-site and multi-site managed WordPress hosting options. All plans include SSL certification, firewall protection and malware detection/removal included.
Kinsta has a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and customer support is available 24/7 by phone, email and text. However, its high cost — starting at $30 a month — puts it out of many users' budgets.
WP Engine
WP Engine offers a variety of managed WordPress hosting plans for both regular users and agencies. All WP Engine plans include SSL certification, firewall protection and threat blocking tools.
WP Engine offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee for regular users and 99.99% uptime for enterprise users. Customer support from WordPress experts is available 24/7 via phone and live chat. However, our hands-on testing found that while its service is good, the features and support don't necessarily justify the high prices, which start at $25 per month.
NameCheap
NameCheap offers extremely affordable unmanaged WordPress hosting starting at just $2.91 a month. These plans come with a 99.9% uptime guarantee, free SSL certification and a free CDN.
Namecheap customer service is available 24/7 via live chat and support ticket. There is no phone support.
For more on web hosting, check out CNET's best web hosting services and best website builders.
