How to choose a host

Choosing a hosting platform is one of the first decisions in any web project. It affects your site's speed, security, reliability, and ongoing cost. We make this decision with you — here's how we think about it.

What matters most in a host

Performance

Speed affects everything — user experience, search rankings, and conversions. A good host includes:

• Fast server hardware (SSD storage, modern CPUs)
• A built-in caching layer so pages load quickly
• A CDN (content delivery network) that serves your site from locations close to your visitors

Reliability

A host with poor uptime means your site goes offline unpredictably. Ask what uptime guarantee comes with the plan you're considering: 99.9% is the figure managed WordPress hosts usually quote, and the level you're promised depends on the plan rather than on the host in general. Not every host publishes one. Also ask how quickly they notice and respond when a site goes down. See uptime, downtime & what they mean.

Support

When something goes wrong — and eventually something always does — you need people who can help quickly and who understand WordPress deeply. Generic hosting support often cannot help with WordPress-specific problems.

Security

A good host includes malware scanning, firewalls, DDoS protection, and automatic SSL renewal. This doesn't replace site-level security, but it significantly reduces your risk.

Staging environment

Being able to test changes on a private copy of your site before publishing them is essential for any active business website. All three of our recommended platforms include this.

Backups

Daily automated backups, with easy one-click restore. Not an add-on — built in.

The three platforms we recommend

Flywheel

Flywheel is our default recommendation for most small to medium WordPress sites. It has an excellent interface, strong staging tools, great customer support, and competitive pricing. It's aimed at freelancers and agencies, with tools for managing client sites — collaborator access per site, and the ability to transfer a site's billing to the client.

Best for: Growing businesses, portfolio sites, service businesses, content-heavy sites.

Learn more about Flywheel

WP Engine

WP Engine is a long-established managed WordPress host, and Flywheel's parent company. It excels at handling high-traffic sites and complex WordPress configurations. The User Portal is powerful, though less polished than Flywheel or Kinsta.

Best for: High-traffic sites, ecommerce stores, enterprise organizations, complex multi-environment workflows.

Learn more about WP Engine

Kinsta

Kinsta runs each site in its own isolated container, and lets you pick from 30 data centers around the world so your site sits close to your visitors. The MyKinsta dashboard is the most elegant of the three. It's priced at a premium but delivers premium performance.

Best for: Performance-focused sites, international audiences, fast-growing businesses, teams who want the best dashboard experience.

Learn more about Kinsta

Side-by-side comparison

Prices change often, so we don't list them here. Check each platform's pricing page for current plans: Flywheel pricing, WP Engine plans and pricing, and Kinsta pricing.

What we don't recommend

• Budget shared hosting (e.g. basic GoDaddy, Bluehost, or Hostgator plans) — slow, insecure, and poorly optimized for WordPress. The money saved is not worth the problems caused.
• DIY VPS or cloud hosting — powerful, but requires server administration expertise. Unless you have a dedicated developer on your team, this creates more problems than it solves.

Common questions

What if I already have hosting I'm happy with?

We can work with your existing setup in some cases. Tell us which platform you're on and we'll advise. If we think a change would benefit you, we'll explain why — but we won't push you to switch unnecessarily.

Who owns the hosting account?

You do. Your account, your credit card, your site. We manage it on your behalf, but everything belongs to you. See who pays for hosting? for billing details.

Can I change hosts later?

Yes. Sites can be migrated between hosts. There's some work involved, but it's a routine process. See what happens when we migrate your host.

Related guides

• What is managed WordPress hosting?
• Flywheel hosting: overview
• WP Engine hosting: overview
• Kinsta hosting: overview
• What happens when we migrate your host
• Domain vs hosting vs email
• Give us cPanel / shared hosting access — if you're on older shared hosting