Choosing a good website host for your WordPress site can be a daunting proposition. There are many web hosting companies out there, and just as many price points and different offerings to compare. RED’s recommended website hosting is based on our experiences with many different hosting companies on behalf of our clients since 2001.
As all companies do, hosting companies change over time. A host that used to be good may no longer be good, or a host that used to be poorly rated may make positive changes and improve their service. So it’s important to make sure the website hosting recommendations you’re looking at are up to date.
Different organizations require different types of hosting plans. Read on for our website hosting recommendations, and see which is the best fit for your organization.
Qualities we look for in a website host:
- Good server speed.
Visitors want to be able to see your site as quickly as possible and not wait a long time for pages to load. - Up time.
A host should take measures to keep your site online as close to 100% of the time as possible. - Reachable, responsive and knowledgeable support when issues arise.
- Reasonable prices.
- Up to date, secure versions of PHP.
Access to a secure programming language helps keep your website secure.
- Secure hosting set-up.
The web host's own security is an integral part of a secure website. - Flexibility in configuring the hosting account with a good control panel.
This makes it easier for us to make any and every kind of update to your website and do any custom programming you may require.
Extras that are great to have:
- Free SSL certificates for websites who don’t need extended validation.
- Offer email and support for email.There are arguments for keeping email separate, but depending on your needs, it may be helpful to have email on the same host.
- Free CDN or caching support.This allows your website to be loaded more quickly.
- Ability to set up staging sites easily for testing new features or updates.
- Automated backups.We have our own solution for this, so it’s not a requirement, but backup redundancy is never a bad thing.
- Carbon neutrality.RED is interested in making a difference in the world, and one way we do that is by using carbon-neutral or “green” web hosting.
Our recommended website hosting companies in 2021
*Please note that the links below are affiliate links, so we may receive compensation if you sign up using one of these links. However, we only recommend hosts we find reliable.