Special Offer: Sign-up for WordPress hosting using one of the links on this page, Ninja Blog Setup will install, setup and configure a WordPress blog for you, for free! (After you sign-up for hosting, use this form to order your blog installation.)
WordPress Hosting Company Comparison Chart
| Company | Blogs / Acnt. | Plan Name | Price | Disk Space | Bandwidth GB/ month | Score / 10 | Domain Name | Coupon |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dreamhost¹ |
∞ |
1 Year | $6.86 | 500 GB | 5,000 |
8.33 |
Free |
NINJABLOG (save $37) |
| ∞ | 1 Year | $7.95 | 600 GB | 6,000 | 8.69 | Free | ||
|
∞ |
Baby monthly | $7.95 | 600 GB | 6,000 | 8.84 | $15 | NinjaJon (first month $.01) | |
| Lunarpages |
11 | Basic 1 year | $7.95 | 1,500 GB | 15,000 | 8.85 | Free | 25OffHosting ($25 off) |
| ∞ | Deluxe Linux 1 Year |
$6.29 | 100 GB | 1,000 | 6.32 | $1.99 |
Hint: Most people spend a lot more time than necessary finding the “perfect” hosting company. The truth is most reputable companies (like those listed below) are all very similar when it comes to overall quality. If you search the web you will find complements and complaints for all of them.
* Ratings are an average of the ratings from the following sites: BestHostRatings.com & WebHostMagazine.com
¹ NinjaBlogSetup.com is happily hosted on Dreamhost. Dreamhost is also one of the first hosting companies to be carbon neutral to minimize climate change.
The amount of disk space and bandwidth offered by these companies is extremely high. Even a very popular blog would not come close to these limits on a monthly basis.
Even if you are starting your first blog, I recommend signing up for hosting that allows for more than one website. Most people find they want to start at least 2 or 3 blogs. Alternatively you could share a No Limit account with a friend, to split the costs.
WordPress Hosting Plan Components
A standard hosting environment for blog hosting software will include the following components.
- Apache web server, which is found on almost 100% of Linux hosting services.
- SQL server - usually MySQL which will manage the WordPress blog database.
- A mail host, which allows your WordPress site to send email notifications for things like comments, password resets and administrator functions.
- Fantastico web hosting allows easy installation of WordPress and many other popular website management tools: Drupal (themes), Moveable Type.
- PHP blog hosting. WordPress runs best on the latest version of php 5.x
WordPress Hosting Benefits
Getting your WordPress site hosting setup on your own domain name, can have many benefits over using free blog hosting services like WordPress.com or Blogger.
- Custom WordPress themes. You visit any of the many WordPress themes download sites and modify it or have a designer modify it to perfectly represent your topic or business blog.
- WordPress plug-ins perform an almost unlimited number of creative services that make creating a blog easier.
- Multiple sites. With a web hosting reseller unlimited account, or even many shared hosting plans, you can host 20 or more WordPress blogs on one hosting provider plan.
WordPress Host Advanced Features
There are many blog hosting elements that will not affect the novice or low traffic blogger searching for reliable and affordable WordPress hosting. However once your WordPress blog begins to earn decent money or you experience bandwidth limits or process throttling, you may want to upgrade to a more advanced WordPress host.
- Server virtualization allows your WordPress blog to run unaffected by other sites on the same server. You are protected from downtime that could result from other sites’ traffic spikes or errors.
- Dual processor servers or even quad processor servers provide extra speed and power for high traffic or processor intensive sites. For example lots of AJAX or many database calls for each page that is served. WordPress hosting will sometime benefit if your site has a lot of traffic.
WordPress Web Host Cautions
These are the primary things to be aware of when looking for WordPress blog hosting:
- Windows hosting - WordPress will run on Windows servers, but it can be a hassle and some features like the very important search engine friendly links (permalinks) can be almost impossible. Avoid Windows for WordPress hosting.
- Poor support - Before I signup for any WordPress hosting, I always like to contact support with a question. Just ask "what version of WordPress is your Fantastico currently installing?" if you can’t think of anything else to ask.
- If it isn’t the lasted version your blog host may not at the most reliable hosting company.
- If it takes a long time for them to respond to your question - more than a couple hours, move along and select
- Cheap hosting - look for blog hosting experts. Sure going with a $2 a month plan will be probably be fine when things are running smoothly, but when your best post ever gets mentioned on ProBlogger.net and your server crashes, you won’t want to wait 18 hours for a response to your service ticket.
- Shady promises of free WordPress installations. I see quite a few blog hosting companies advertising "free WordPress installation" but they really only have a way for you to just install the basics yourself. You’ll still be many hours of work from having the type of blog you are expecting.
Fortunately our WordPress hosting offer allows you to get a fully featured WordPress blog setup and ready to blog for free, just by signing up for your WordPress hosting services from any of the links on this page.