Are you a blogger?
If yes, you will already know the importance of having a reliable hosting provider.
A good hosting service should offer security, speed and timely support to all bloggers.
Especially when you have blogs that generate income, it is essential that you host your blogs with a trustworthy service provider.
In this blog post, I am going to list down 5 best hosting services for bloggers.
Let’s check out one by one.
Best Hosting for Bloggers: A Quick Overview
A large proportion of the blogging community relies on WordPress to run their blogs. This means, as a blogger you would mostly require a hosting that is super WordPress friendly.
So here is a quick overview of the best hosting services for bloggers.
We will look at each of these hosting service providers in detail, including the pros and cons, so that you can decide which one can be the best hosting for your blog.
1. Siteground Hosting for Bloggers
Recommended Plan: GrowBig | Price: $5.95/mo. | Recommended for: Intermediates
Siteground is one of the hosting services recommended by WordPress.org on their website.
As I mentioned above, most bloggers tend to use WordPress to maintain their blog. Luckily, Siteground offers managed WordPress hosting plans that are super convenient for bloggers.
I recommend using the ‘GrowBig’ plan offered by Siteground. This is a reasonable plan that comes with all the essential features to host your blog effortlessly.
So what makes Siteground a great hosting plan for bloggers?
Let’s check out the critical features of Siteground ‘GrowBig’ hosting plan.
Managed WordPress hosting plans
All plans of Siteground are managed WordPress, which makes it perfect for bloggers. These hosting plans come with WordPress exclusive features that are super easy to deal with.
Here is the list of managed WordPress features that you get with Siteground GrowBig plan.
- One-click WordPress install: Lets you install WordPress on to a domain with a single click.
- WordPress auto-updates: Receive all the updates from WordPress automatically.
- In-built caching plugin from Siteground: This caching plugin offered exclusively by Siteground keeps your blog fast-loading.
- Support provided by WordPress experts: The support offered by Siteground for WordPress blogs is exceptional. Most of their support associates are WordPress experts, so it makes easier for them to look at your root problem and solve them. Support is available 24×7 through chat, phone or tickets.
Start at only $5.95/month
The most recommended ‘GrowBig’ plan is priced at $5.95/month for the initial period. The renewal rates are normally higher than this. But you can avail the same pricing for a longer period if you choose to pay in advance. For example, you can choose to pay in advance for 3 years and avail the hosting plan at same $5.95/month pricing.
99.9% Uptime
Siteground is known for their uptime. I have been using their hosting for the last 2 years, and never had a down-time issue once. This will be a critical feature if you are a serious blogger.
Secure and fast servers
Siteground ensures their hosting servers are secure and fast. In fact, if you are migrating from another host to Siteground, their team does a thorough scan on your blog/website files before hosting them on their servers.
Free blog migration from another hosting
If you are migrating your blog from another host to Siteground, their expert team will take care of all the migration process. If you lack the technical expertise to migrate a blog, don’t worry about that anymore. Siteground will do that for you.
One-click staging support
The staging feature of Siteground will let you create exact copies of your blog on a sub-domain with just one click. These staging copies can be used for testing any of the new features. You can test the new feature on the staging copy and once it is completed, you can push that change to your live blog.
This is a great feature if you are managing your blog all by yourself and want to test out features before actually implementing them on your live blog.
Free daily backups and restore
This will be a really helpful feature for all the professional bloggers. It is always better to have a backup of your blog. Siteground does a daily backup of your blog, and in case if you want to go back and restore from one of those backups, that is possible too.
Free email accounts
The GrowBig plan on Siteground comes with email accounts as well. You can create professional custom email addresses using this feature. You can use an email client like Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird to access your emails.
Free SSL certificate
An SSL certificate will turn your blog more secure. Blogs without an SSL certificate will be marked ‘not secure’ by browsers like Google Chrome. (see below image)
Free CDN
A CDN is a Content Delivery Network that will deliver content from your blog to a user based on his geographical location. A CDN will be made up of a network of servers located in different parts of the world. This will make content delivery from servers to the user fast.
Other Technical Specifications:
- 20 GB webspace
- 25,000 visits monthly
- Unmetered traffic
- Unlimited databases
- Host unlimited blogs/websites
Major Pros
- Fast & secure
- Dedicated WordPress features
- Great support team
- Daily backups
Major Cons
- Renewals can be expensive
- No free migration for their basic plan
2. Bluehost Hosting for Bloggers
Recommended Plan: Basic | Price: $3.95/mo. | Recommended for: Beginners
Bluehost is one of the most popular hosting services among bloggers.
Bluehost is also recommended by WordPress.org on their website.
On Bluehost, it is even easier to set up a WordPress blog within a few clicks.
I would recommend the Bluehost ‘Basic’ hosting plan that starts at $3.95/month. This plan is ideal for beginners and comes with all the essential features.
Let’s look at all the critical features of Bluehost Basic hosting plan.
Very economical pricing & money-back guarantee
The ‘Basic’ plan on Bluehost is priced very economically. It starts at $3.95/month, and to avail this pricing, you will have to purchase the hosting plan for a period of 3 years. Even then, this is a really good deal as you get the hosting for 3 years at a price of $3.95/month. Plus, they have a 30 days money-back guarantee, in case if you find their hosting not the right fit for your blog.
Automatic WordPress installation
Bluehost takes care of installing WordPress on your domain. When you create your hosting account with Bluehost, it automatically installs WordPress on your desired domain. This will be a really convenient feature if you are a total beginner to the world of blogging.
Install one blog
The ‘Basic’ plan of Bluehost allows you to install only one blog, which means just one domain. If you need to create more blogs with one hosting account, you might want to upgrade from the ‘Basic’ plan.
Auto-updates
Bluehost delivers all the WordPress updates automatically to your blog installation. This will ensure your blog is up to date with its WordPress version.
Free SSL
Bluehost also offers a free SSL certificate for your blog, which can have a slightly positive impact on your SEO performance.
Free domain name
Bluehost offers a free domain name (for one year) with their Basic hosting plans. This is a great offer for bloggers who are just starting out. Also, as the domain name and hosting are with the same provider, the set-up and installation becomes a lot easy.
Other Technical Specifications:
- 50 GB SSD Storage
- 5 Parked domains
- 25 Subdomains
Major Pros
- Free domain name
- Economical pricing
- WordPress auto-install
- 30 days money-back guarantee
Major Cons
- Minor slow server response issues
- blog/website transfer is not free
3. Namecheap Hosting for Bloggers
Recommended Plan: EasyWP Starter | Price: $3.88/mo. | Recommended for: Beginners
Though Namecheap is mostly known as a domain registrar, they do have hosting plans that are affordable and reliable.
For bloggers, I would recommend going with their Easy WP plan which is created exclusively for WordPress blogs and websites.
Let’s look at the main features of Easy WP Hosting by Namecheap.
Very economical pricing for beginners
The pricing starts at $3.88 per month (Easy WP Starter plan) which is very economical for many beginners. Though there are other higher packages, this would be adequate if you are just starting out as a blogger.
Easy set-up dashboard & quick WordPress installation
This is perhaps one of the greatest features of Easy WP hosting by Namecheap. They have an exclusive dashboard where you can control everything related to your blog, including the WordPress installation. This plan doesn’t come with a cPanel, you can access their exclusive dashboard instead of cPanel to make use of other features.
Also, the dashboard of Easy WP hosting is very user friendly and any beginner can use it to make their blog up and running.
Hosted on Namecheap cloud
Easy WP hosting is hosted on cloud, which means you will have better performance in terms of speed, security and accessibility.
Easy backup and restore
Like many other WordPress hosting plans, Easy WP also offers easy backup and restore features, which can be really helpful for bloggers who are just starting out.
SFTP & Database access
As you won’t have a cPanel with Easy WP hosting accounts, you can access your website or blog’s internal files through SFTP. You will have to access it using an FTP application like FileZilla.
99.9% Uptime
The Easy WP hosting plan from NameCheap also has a 99.9% uptime which is seriously good for this pricing.
Free CDN
NameCheap is also offering a free CDN service with Easy WP hosting plans.
Great support
NameCheap is known to have a great support team. Their support is available through chat and tickets. From my experience, I have mostly used their chat support feature. Their executives will attend your support request really quickly and in most cases, they were able to help me sort out my issues.
Other Technical Specifications:
- 10 GB SSD Storage
- 50,000 visitors/month
Major Pros
- Easy set up with the help of a dedicated dashboard
- Great support team
- Backups and restore
- Hosted on cloud
Major Cons
- No cPanel if you like to have it with your hosting account
- No free migration from other hosting providers for Easy WP hosting
- No free SSL for Easy WP Starter plan
- Recommended Reading: 5 Best Web Hosting Plans for Your Small Business [2020]
4. A2 Hosting for Bloggers
Recommended Plan: Lite | Price: $3.92/mo. | Recommended for: Beginners
A2 Hosting offers multiple hosting plans that are ideal for bloggers.
When it comes to WordPress hosting, they have 2 types of plans.
- Shared WordPress hosting
- Managed WordPress hosting
These two types of hosting plans vary in pricing as well as features. Their managed WordPress hosting plans are known to have better performance and speed, that you will get for a little higher price.
If you are a blogger who is just starting out, go for their shared hosting plan, or if you are a seasoned blogger, you can readily go for their managed WordPress hosting plan.
In this blog post, we will discuss their shared WordPress hosting plans that are more beginner-friendly.
And among the multiple shared WordPress hosting plans available, we will be discussing the ‘Lite’ plan that starts at $3.92 per month.
Now, let’s look at the critical features of A2 Hosting’s ‘Lite’ shared WordPress hosting plan.
99.9% uptime commitment
A2 Hosting guarantees a 99.9% uptime which is one of the most essential features that any hosting service should have.
Choice of data center location
This would be a convenient feature if your blog has a lot of visitors from a particular geographical area. In such cases, you can choose a data center location that is close to your target location. This will help your users to access your blog and its content faster.
Website staging
Staging is a great feature at this pricing. It will help you create exact copies of your actual blog for testing purposes.
Free CDN
The free CloudFlare CDN can help you deliver your blog content faster to your users when they are accessing your blog from various geographical locations.
1 click installs
The ‘Lite’ plan of A2 Hosting also comes with 1 click WordPress install which will be super convenient for beginners.
Free SSL
This plan also offers a free SSL certificate for your blog that can slightly boost your search rankings.
Free blog/website migration
In case if you are migrating to A2 Hosting from another host, they will migrate your blog for free into A2 Hosting’s servers.
25 Email accounts
This plan also offers 25 email accounts for free, which you can utilize for creating professional-looking email addresses.
Other Technical Specifications:
- Unlimited SSD storage
- Total databases: 5
- Unlimited transfer
Major Pros
- Free blog/website migration
- Unlimited SSD storage
- Free SSL
Major Cons
- No inbuilt caching
- No auto backups
5. Dreamhost Hosting for Bloggers
Recommended Plan: WordPress Basic | Price: $2.59/mo. | Recommended for: Beginners
Dream Host is another hosting service provider recommended by WordPress.org on their website.
They have multiple hosting plans available for WordPress blogs and websites. However, as a blogger, if you are just starting out, you can go with their ‘WordPress Basic’ plan which is very economical.
The other WordPress hosting plans offered by Dream Host are quite pricey when compared to other hosting services we discussed above.
However, their ‘WordPress Basic’ plan is a good deal if you only have one blog to host.
Let’s check out this plan’s top features that can be helpful to the blogging community.
Free domain name
Dream Host provides a free domain name with their Basic hosting plan. This would be helpful for newbie bloggers who are just starting out. And the set up will be easier too, as the domain and hosting are handled by the same service provider.
Price starts at $2.59/month
This would be one of the lowest prices available for WordPress hosting. To avail this pricing, you will have to buy their Basic hosting plan for a period of 3 years. But even then it is a good deal considering the monthly pricing of $ 2.59/month.
WordPress pre-installed
DreamHost Basic plan also comes with pre-installed WordPress that will help you set up your blog very quickly.
Free automated WordPress migrations
In case if you are migrating to DreamHost from another hosting provider, you can get it done using their free automated WordPress migrations. Though it is an automated migration, in certain cases, it would be wise to go with manual migrations.
Free SSL
This hosting plan, though cheaper, offers a free SSL certificate for your blog, which is a really good deal under this price.
Other Technical Specifications:
- Unlimited traffic
- Fast SSD storage
- 1 blog installation
Major Pros
- Free domain
- Free SSL
- Automated migrations
Major Cons
- No daily backups
- No staging
- No free manual migrations
Final Verdict
These 5 are the top hosting services that bloggers can make use of. All of them are WordPress hosting plans that offer features like one-click install or even auto-install.
If you are a newbie blogger, or if you are just starting out, go for a service like Bluehost or DreamHost, as both of them are priced very economically.
Whereas if you want to upgrade to a better hosting service from your current one, certainly consider Siteground which is an exceptional service provider.
Other two services, NameCheap Easy WP and A2 Hosting are good deals for the features that they offer. Consider these two if you want any of the specific features that they are offering.
So check out all these plans if you plan to build a blog or want a better hosting service for your blog.
And feel free to leave a comment if you have any queries.
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