Emily Gibson
Want to jump straight to the answer? Our top pick for the Best WordPress UK provider is SiteGround.
Our Top WordPress Web Host!
Being the industry leader of content management systems for websites on the internet, WordPress has a massive claim on powering over 60 million websites.
It is such a popular website and blog building tool as it has been created for beginners to the most experienced web developers.
With it being so beginner-friendly, you do not need any coding experience to create your own website. There are so many WordPress communities and developers out there willing to lend a hand.
If you are just starting out with WordPress, shared WordPress hosting is the one of the most popular hosting packages to start with.
In this hosting review, we will be discussing the best WordPress hosting UK providers and break down all the hosting companies that we recommend in detail.
So let’s get into finding the WordPress hosting solutions for UK users!
Compare the Best WordPress Hosting UK Companies
While most WordPress hosting providers will offer basic shared hosting, some premium hosting companies, such as WP Engine, Kinsta, Flywheel, and Cloudways provide managed WordPress hosting packages.
Managed hosting is more expensive than basic shared hosting. However, we included the best shared managed and unmanaged WordPress hosting solutions in this article.
We looked at uptime percentages, page speed, free features, affordability, customer support so you can compare and find the best one suited to your needs.
SiteGround best wordpress hosting provider Overall
Bluehost #2 Rated WordPress Web host
Kinsta Best Managed WordPress Hosting
Flywheel Best WordPress Hosting for Developers
WP Engine Great WordPress FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
Cloudways Best Cloud WordPress Hosting
Hostinger Best Cheap WordPress Web Host
A2 Hosting Great WordPress Hosting For Small Sites
HostGator Best WordPress Hosting for Beginners
How we Choose the Best WordPress Hosting Services
Choosing the best WordPress hosting is by far the most important aspect of building a website.
Your search engine ranking (SEO), user experience, and ultimately your website’s success relies on the WordPress hosting provider you use.
Our list of best WordPress web hosts was compiled using our comprehensive research process.
To determine our ratings, each web host was tested and analysed based on the following criteria:
Free domain names are a bonus to have included, as it’s also handy to have your domain name and web host in the same place.
SSL Certificates are another freebie to take advantage of. They provide an extra security layer on your website and become costly if they aren’t part of the package.
Other free features could be unlimited email accounts, website backups, and site migrations if you need to change hosting provider.
Let’s take a look in more detail at the Best WordPress Web Hosting Companies and for some extra tips on choosing the best one for you!
The Top 10 WordPress Web Hosts for 2022
#1. SiteGround – Best Overall WordPress Web Host
SiteGround Pros
SiteGround Cons
SiteGround is also one of the three hosting companies recommended by WordPress.org, so their servers are all WordPress optimised for the best performance.
SiteGround Key Features
SiteGround makes users WordPress journey an easy and stress-free process by having their account management system be incredibly self-explanatory and user-friendly.
If you ever get stuck, their 24/7 customer support is readily on standby, and the option to watch tutorials will help put your mind at ease.
SiteGround has impressive uptime and load time, and they work hard to continuously improve their page loading speed and performance.
They also include free email, which is a great bonus and will allow the freedom to create as many email accounts as you need for your website or business.
SiteGround Pricing
SiteGround’s StartUp entry-level plan is an excellent choice for beginners or small businesses with features for 10,000 monthly visitors, 10GB Disk Space, a SSL Certificate, and daily backups.
StartUp: from £2.99 per month (12-month plan)
GrowBig: from £4.99 per month (12-month plan)
GoGeek: from £9.99 per month (12-month plan)
All plans come with a free SSL, free CDN, free email hosting, daily backups and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
#2. Bluehost – Best for Beginners
Bluehost Pros
Bluehost Cons
Boasting the title of being recommended by WordPress.org since 2005, Bluehost often comes across as one of the most well-known web hosting platforms when combined with creating a WordPress website.
Bluehost Key Features
Their cPanel has an easy-to-use interface with all the tools required to manage your website. Bluehost has a beginner-friendly website builder, an excellent tool for small businesses and newcomers to build their own websites.
Bluehost has 24/7 customer support available to help you through the website building process and experts for anything WordPress related. Bluehost’s uptime and load times are undeniably fast, making them a competitive web hosting provider.
Bluehost Pricing
Bluehost is a great entry-level hosting provider to use. Their WordPress plan comes with great features such as a SSL Certificate, free domain name, and their handy automatic installation of WordPress once you’ve opened an account.
Basic: from £2.96 per month (36-month plan)
Plus: from £4.45 per month (36-month plan)
Choice Plus: from £5.20 per month (36-month plan)
All plans come with a SSL certificate, domain name, free CDN and 30-day money-back guarantee.
#3. Kinsta – Best Managed WordPress Web Host
Kinsta Pros
Kinsta Cons
Kinsta Key Features
Kinsta, similarly to WP Engine, also offers premium Managed WordPress Hosting only. Used by enterprise style websites such as TripAdvisor, Buffer, and Ubisoft, Kinsta offers everything they need, ranging from automatic scaling to state of the art security for customer’s data.
They take advantage of cloud-based Google servers located worldwide to optimise your website to load effortlessly and quickly.
Kinsta’s security features are top-notch, to say the least, providing hardware firewalls, constant updates and fixes, including a hack fix guarantee on all web hosting plans. As a result, security breaches are practically non-existent.
Their easy-to-use control panel interface makes navigating the management of your website a breeze. Kinsta’s 24/7 customer support is available to contact through the MyKinsta dashboard and is full of WordPress developers ready to help you.
Kinsta Pricing
Starter: from £22.42 per month (Pay yearly and get two months free)
Pro: from £44.84 per month (Pay yearly and get two months free)
Business: from £74.73 per month (Pay yearly and get two months free)
Enterprise: from £448.40 per month (Pay yearly and get two months free)
All plans come with free premium migrations, automatic back-ups, free CDN and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
#4. Flywheel – Best for Developers
Flywheel Pros
Flywheel Cons
Flywheel Key Features
Having partnered with Google Cloud Platform, Flywheel has become a genuine cloud hosting platform.
The upgraded infrastructure has achieved faster loading times and a more stable web hosting environment. They are a unique hosting platform that allows you to create private demo websites.
This can be a great feature to anyone hosting sites for clients as it gives them access to see the development and design work you have done.
Access to your website can be found in the Flywheel WordPress dashboard, where you can change any privacy modes or use the backup tools or caching settings.
Flywheel Pricing
Flywheel’s ‘Tiny’ basic plan can be ideal for smaller and simple installs, allowing you to get a feel for managed web hosting without spending a fortune.
Tiny: from £9.57 per month (Pay yearly and get two months free)
Starter: from £18.40 per month (Pay yearly and get two months free)
Freelance: from £70.65 per month (Pay yearly and get two months free)
Agency: from £178.09 per month (Pay yearly and get two months free)
All plans come with free migrations, nightly back-ups, free CDN, genesis framework, + 30 Studiopress themes.
#5. WP Engine – Great for Large Business
WP Engine Pros
WP Engine Cons
WP Engine Key Features
WP Engine is very different from the other web hosts, as they only offer managed WordPress hosting. While they may not be the first choice for a complete novice to web hosting, they provide some incredible products and features.
This ultimately means they manage your website for you, which helps businesses who want to be less hands-on with the technical side of web hosting.
WP Engine only caters to WordPress websites and fully optimises them using their EverCache plugin, claiming the sites they host run 4-6 times faster than their competitors.
WP Engine has a propriety control panel instead of the standard cPanel or Plesk options that come with most WordPress hosting providers. The interface is well organised for ease of use with quick access to all the tools required for your website.
WP Engine Pricing
WPEngine offers four pricing plans, starting from £20 per month moving up to a custom pricing plan that suits your needs.
Startup: from £20.00 per month (Paid yearly with two months free)
Growth: from £75.00 per month (Paid yearly with two months free)
Scale: from £189.00 per month (Paid yearly with two months free)
All plans come with free site migration, automated SSL certificates, global CDN, daily genesis framework and 30-day money-back guarantee.
#6. Cloudways – Best WordPress Cloud Host
Cloudways Pros
Cloudways Cons
Cloudways Key Features
As their name suggests, Cloudways is a cloud-based web hosting platform and specialises in managed WordPress hosting. Their reliable uptime and fast load times use cutting-edge cloud hosting technology to optimise website speed.
Cloudways data centres are worldwide, so your site will be delivered to them with quality loading times and faster speeds through the cloud network no matter where your website visitors are located.
Cloudways Console is their easy-to-use management control panel, allowing you to monitor your server and quickly scale any resources for your website.
24/7 customer and technical support are available by phone, email, or live chat. They also have a free trial for three days to test their platform.
Cloudways Pricing
Cloudways offers an excellent pay as you go billing system, so you only pay for what you used in the month previous.
Digital Ocean: from £10 per month (Pay as you go billing)
Linode: from £10 per month (Pay as you go billing)
VULTR: from £11 per month (Pay as you go billing)
AWS: from £27.28 per month (Pay as you go billing)
Google Cloud: from £25.12 per month (Pay as you go billing)
All plans come with a SSL certificate, free migration, CDN add-on and automated back-ups.
#7. Hostinger – Best Cheap WordPress Web Hosting Provider
Hostinger Pros
Hostinger Cons
Hostinger Key Features
Hostinger has made a name for itself as one of the cheapest hosting providers on the market.
Don’t be mistaken, though, and put it in the ‘cheap and nasty’ category because their load times are surprisingly fast.
While the uptime isn’t quite as competitive as other web hosts, Hostinger is the ideal hosting site for beginners.
They are optimised for WordPress and provide all the features needed for a startup website. While the Single WordPress plan only offers a free domain name with a 48 monthly plan, the price difference to the next option of ‘WordPress Starter’ is still very affordable.
It comes with some extra features that could benefit you and your website. This includes a SSL Certificate, easy website builder, 24/7 customer support, and one-click WordPress installation.
Hostinger Pricing
Single WordPress: from £1.49 per month (48-month plan)
WordPress Starter: from £1.99 per month (48-month plan)
Business WordPress: from £3.99 per month (48-month plan)
WordPress Premium: from £6.89 per month (48-month plan)
Most plans come with free SSL, free domain for a year, WordPress acceleration tool and 30 day money back guarantee.
#8. A2 Hosting – Fastest WordPress Hosting
A2 Hosting Pros
A2 Hosting Cons
A2 Hosting Key Features
A2 Hosting is a great all-rounder for a beginner. With their features of 100GB disk space, free SSL Certificate, and unlimited email addresses to take advantage of, then A2 Hosting is a hosting company to consider.
Their servers are WordPress optimised for fast loading times and they have an extremely reliable uptime figure of 99.99%.
A2 Hosting, as a provider, offers some of the fastest loading times across the board with their ‘Turbo Servers’ boasting to be 20x faster and, combined with their A2 Optimiser plugin, it’s hard to beat.
The only downside of their super-fast turbo servers is they’re only available on the more expensive plans.
Suppose you find your website growing and want to upgrade to a WordPress hosting plan with more optimal speed. In that case, it is something to consider.
A2 Hosting also has an excellent 24/7 customer support team, “Guru Crew Support,” which you can connect to by phone, email, live chat, or tickets.
A2 Hosting WordPress Pricing
Startup: from £2.19 per month (36-month plan)
Drive: from £3.66 per month (36-month plan)
Turbo Boost: from £7.33 per month (36-month plan)
Turbo Max: from £11.00 per month (36-month plan)
All plans come with a SSL Certificate, free Cloudflare CDN, free website builder and a money-back guarantee.
#9. HostGator – Great WordPress for Beginners
HostGator Pros
HostGator Cons
HostGator Key Features
HostGator’s managed WordPress hosting plans are designed for the ultimate WordPress site and cater to those requiring faster page loading speeds, including protection against WordPress- specific attacks and automatic updates.
HostGator has a great range of features for beginners to host a WordPress website. Using their easy 1-click install, your WordPress site will be up and running before you know it.
They provide a free SSL Certificate, domain name, unmetered storage, and automated daily 1GB backups. Just some of the basic features you will need for your website.
HostGator is a knowledgeable and reliable hosting company for WordPress websites with access to data centres worldwide.
HostGator has an easy-to-use control panel, website builder and 24/7 expert customer support. They are available to answer questions and fix a problem that you may have encountered.
HostGator Pricing
Starter Plan: from £4.38 per month (36-month plan)
Standard Plan: from £5.85 per month (36-month plan)
Business Plan: from £7.32 per month (36-month plan)
All plans come with a SSL certificate, domain name, free email and money-back guarantee.
So What Exactly is WordPress?
WordPress is a free, open-source website creation platform where you can create websites on the internet. This, combined with web hosting and a domain name, you can run your website, edit content, and create new pages or posts.
WordPress is a content management system (CMS) and is software that anyone can use and modify for free. It is the most popular way to create a website or blog, and believe it or not, one in four websites you visit are built with WordPress.
For the non-tech-savvy beginner, a CMS is a tool that makes managing the essential aspects of your website simple. You don’t even have to be a wizard in programming to build your own website!
The types of websites you can create are endless, ranging from business websites, blogs, eCommerce sites, and even portfolios. WordPress is a great tool to get those online business dreams up and running.
WordPress is highly versatile and allows your website to be viewed correctly on all types of devices, such as desktops, laptops, phones, and tablets.
As a beginner to WordPress, you will need to know the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com. While it may not sound like an issue, there is a bit of a variation between the two.
WordPress.org is the free, self-hosted software you will be able to install WordPress and use with the web host of your choice.
It means you can create a website that is 100% yours, and you have a lot more control and flexibility over the management and design of your website.
WordPress.com is a commercialised platform designed for people who would rather someone else deal with their website’s creation and technical side. Using WordPress.com will result in you losing a lot of flexibility and options in creating your website.
Long story short, WordPress.org is the way to go for more creative freedom and an affordable way to build your website how you want it.
Setting up WordPress is relatively easy these days. Most web hosting companies take care of the installation and provide you with a simple one-click install to access your WordPress website.
From there, you can have a fully functioning website up and running in 15 minutes; it is that simple. You will be able to design your website with the thousands of themes WordPress provides and add any plugins you will require on your website.
WordPress is a great software option to create your website with. Web hosting providers who specialise in WordPress will have all the knowledge and WordPress experts to help you if you ever get stuck with building your website.
It’s Perfect for the beginner blogger or startup business with excellent flexibility to create your dream website.
What can I do with WordPress?
Originally a program used to make blogs, WordPress has come a long way in recent times and powers over 34% of the internet’s websites. A few examples of the websites you can create with WordPress are:
The list is never-ending as WordPress is so versatile and easy to use. So there is no need to hire website designers or find developers to create your website.
It’s a beginner-friendly program that makes creating an online presence achievable and can be used by individuals, businesses, and everyone in between.
When it comes to the creation and design of your website, you will be able to choose from many ‘themes’. Themes are pre-built designs that change how your website will look, with WordPress having 5,000 free theme options to choose from!
You want to find a theme that you can customise, be aesthetically pleasing, and, of course, reflect your business or personal style.
WordPress themes come in templates and stylesheets and are categorised to help you find the perfect style for your website, blog, business or online store.
‘Plugins’ are essentially your websites’ apps’, much like on your iPhone or Android phone. They provide the functionality to your website without knowing how to use code.
Plugins create extensions and custom features on your WordPress website, such as contact forms, social sharing buttons, etc.
With nearly 50,000 plugins available to WordPress users, they’re easy to find and install. All you need to do is go to your plugin page in your website’s admin area, search and look for the plugin you wish to use.
Plugins can provide security for your WordPress website, optimise pages for search ranking in Google, and allow you to have eCommerce features.
Factors to Consider When Choosing a WordPress Web Host
The Different Types of WordPress Hosting Explained
Best WordPress Hosting UK for 2022 in Summary
That’s a wrap on the Best UK WordPress Hosting Providers. We’ve given you all the information you need to get you well on your way to getting that website of yours online.
All the hosting providers are excellent choices, and all cater to slightly different website needs.
Find one you feel will give you the best experience and allow your WordPress website to flourish. WordPress is such a versatile software and has many uses to make websites extremely creative, professional, or minimalistic.
It’s tough to come up with just one overall pick for the Best WordPress UK Web Host Provider.
So we have chosen two!
One for those on a budget and one for those who wish to spend a little more.
Our Top Budget WordPress Host!
and….
Our Top Premium WordPress Host!
FAQ’s
