If you’re looking for the best WordPress hosting in the UK, then you’ve come to the right place. In this blog post, we will discuss some of the best providers in the country and why you should consider them. We will also go over some of the features that make these hosts stand out from the rest. So, whether you’re just starting out or you’re a seasoned pro, read on for the best WordPress hosting in the UK!
Best WordPress Hosting UK: Our Shortlist
Below is a list of some of the best WordPress hosting providers in the UK. We will go over each one and discuss why they made our shortlist. Here are the hosts that we’ve decided to feature in our comparison:
- Bluehost (www.bluehost.com)
- SiteGround (www.siteground.co.uk)
- 123 Reg (www.123-reg.co.uk)
- 1&1 IONOS (www.ionos.co.uk)
- GoDaddy (uk.godaddy.com)
Let’s get into the weeds on this!
1. Bluehost
Best WordPress UK Hosting
| Bluehost Hosting at Glance | |
|---|---|
| Global Performance Grade | A |
| Uptime Guarantee | ✔ |
| Free SSL | ✔ |
| Hosting Types | Shared, Dedicated, WordPress, VPS |
| Basic Plan Features | 1 website, 50 GB SSD storage, 24/7 support |
| WordPress Plan Starting Price | £2.18/month |
Bluehost is one of the biggest names in the industry and one of the few web hosts officially recommended by WordPress.org. They are known for their balanced hosting service (low price and decent features and reliability), which makes them a top choice among many users, especially beginners. Their shared hosting plans start at just £2.18/month if you pay annually (this price includes free domain registration). Bluehost has been around since 1996 so they have plenty of experience providing great value services to clients all over the world including here in the UK!
The company offers 24/hour live chat support as well as email ticketing system that allows you get answers quickly no matter what time it is where you’re located. Bluehost offers unlimited bandwidth on all their servers along with free SSL certificates included in all plans.
A sneak peak at Bluehost’s WordPress hosting plans:
One of the things that makes Bluehost a great WordPress hosting provider is their easy-to-use platform. They have one-click installation for WordPress as well as other popular applications. This means you can get your website up and running in no time! In addition, they offer a wide range of features such as unlimited storage, email accounts, and domains. Bluehost also has a data center in London which ensures lower loading times for websites targeting the UK audience.
Overall, if you’re just starting out Bluehost is an excellent option for WordPress hosting in the UK and we highly recommend them!
…or check out our Bluehost Review
Pros
- Unmetered bandwidth
- Free SSL certificate and domains
- Excellent uptime
- Affordable first-term contract
- Reliable uptime
- Shared hosting plans offer generous storage
- Great initial pricing packages
- Consistently reliable performance
- Excellent customer support
- Generous storage options
- The first term is very affordable
- Offers unmetered bandwidth
Cons
- Limited storage on the cheapest plan
- Limitations on monthly site visitors
- Their system constantly bombards users with upsells
- Entry-level plans have limited backup options
- Uses only US-based servers
- Expensive added features
- Renewal rates are expensive
- Poor backup options
Starting at
$2.95
per month
2. Siteground
Best Customer Support
| SiteGround Hosting at Glance | |
|---|---|
| Global Performance Grade | A |
| Uptime Guarantee | ✔ |
| Free SSL | ✔ |
| Hosting Types | Shared, WordPress, WooCommerce, Cloud |
| Basic Plan Features | 1 website, 10 GB storage, ~ 10,000 visits/mo |
| WordPress Plan Starting Price | £2.99/month |
SiteGround is another big player in the industry with over fifteen years of experience providing quality web hosting services. Their shared hosting plans start from £2.99/month if you pay annually, so a notch more expensive than Bluehost’s offering.
The company is well known for providing impeccable customer support which can be reached via live chat 24 hours a day, seven days a week or by phone at any time during regular business hours in your country of residence. SiteGround also has servers located throughout the world including London and all over Europe, North America and Australia so no matter where your visitors are coming from there’s bound to be one close enough to offer low latency. You won’t need to worry about downtime with this provider either since their uptime guarantee is 99% – which means they’ll refund 100% of your money if they don’t meet this requirement.
Apart from slightly more expensive starting price, Siteground’s only downside is that the company doesn’t include a new domain name free of charge. If you want to register a .co.uk domain during setup you will have to shell out additional £14.95 / year.
Overall SiteGround provides a great value proposition for the price point and we believe it’s also an excellent choice for WordPress hosting in the UK.
| Not provided by vendor
3. 123Reg
Best Budget Option
| 123 Reg at Glance | |
|---|---|
| Global Performance Grade | B |
| Uptime Guarantee | No uptime guarantee for standard hosting packages |
| Free SSL | ✔ |
| Hosting Types | WordPress |
| Basic Plan Features | 1 free domain for the first year, 1 site, 30GB of storage space |
| WordPress Plan Starting Price | 99p/month |
123Reg is recognised as one of the most popular domain name registrars in the UK, reportedly with over 3.5 million domains registered. They’re also known for the consistent expansion of their infrastructure, which currently includes advanced hardware with load balancing that guarantees a solid latency and reliability.
Their WordPress offering can host up to five websites with two free domain names included in the first year. Support is reliable, with comprehensive FAQs to address questions quickly, a UK-based phone number that’s accessible 24/7 and easy to use online ticket system. As one of the leading hosting sites in the UK, 123Reg naturally has multiple data centres located in the country. This is important as it ensures quick load times of the hosted websites.
Server performance is decent and supported by set of very welcomed features such as free email address, CDN and regular backups. However, some basic features such as uptime guarantee are only available on more premium tiers.
Fortunately, all on 123Reg’s plans (including the 99p/month ‘Starter’) are WordPress ready. As with any web host, the cost of hosting will depend on the service level that you need. You’ll pay less for a simple, straightforward site like a personal blog and have to invest a little bit more for an enterprise-scale with the full bells and whistles. Overall, with 123Reg, you still one of the most affordable and easy to use hosting solutions preconfigured to support your preferred CMS, including WordPress.
4. 1&1 IONOS
Best for SMEs
| 1&1 IONOS Hosting at Glance | |
|---|---|
| Global Performance Grade | A |
| Uptime Guarantee | ✔ |
| Free SSL | ✔ |
| Hosting Types | Shared, Dedicated, VPS, WordPress, Cloud |
| Basic Plan Features | 1 website, 10,000 visits/month, 10GB SSD storage |
| WordPress Plan Starting Price | £15/month |
1&1 IONOS is another popular option in the UK. With this hosting site, you’re able to pay £15 per month for receive a free lifetime domain, SSL certificate, 10GB of storage, and email. Their basic plan is recognised as a great starting point for websites.
It’s also well known as a managed WordPress hosting plan option, which means that you will run into little to no trouble when it comes to the technical side of setting up your site. The platform’s interface is intuitive and user friendly, making configuration straightforward and easy. 1&1 IONOS even comes with a WordPress assistant that helps guide you each step of the process, and takes the primary of objective of your site into consideration to suggest appropriate themes and plugins.
The range of packages 1&1 IONOS offers is perfect for small to medium enterprises. It consistently receives strong reviews for its various hosting plans which come bundled with excellent website-creation tools, and a free SSL certificate.
As a UK company, you get locally based online support, access to a voice-based help centre accessible via a UK-based phone number, and reliable online support.
5. GoDaddy
Best for eCommerce
| GoDaddy Hosting at Glance | |
|---|---|
| Global Performance Grade | A |
| Uptime Guarantee | ✔ |
| Free SSL | ✔ |
| Hosting Types | Shared, WordPress, VPS |
| Basic Plan Features | 1 website, 30GB storage, 25K montly visitors |
| WordPress Plan Starting Price | £4.99 /month |
GoDaddy’s variety of features is one of its selling points. Under it’s Basic plan, GoDaddy provides a free business email and domain for one year, daily malware scans, automatic backups, SFTP server access, out-of-the-box integration with a CDN, and automatic WordPress core updates.
While this feature set offers great value, it doesn’t really stand out from competition. However, it’s higher tiers includes more robust features that includes premium extensions that offer incredible value, especially if you’re running an eCommerce site.
They also offer round the clock support via phone through a UK based number and provide reliable tools for backing up and restoring your site should you encounter any issues. While GoDaddy offers 24/7 support, the easiest way to get in touch with a specialist is via phone. This isn’t always a pro and will depend on your preferences, however the availability of other support alternatives, such as help articles, forums, and a live chat option is appreciated. By virtue of being a global company, GoDaddy currently doesn’t house its data centres in the UK, with the nearest one being located in the Netherlands. Nevertheless, the brand is a recognised reliable choice.
Perhaps the biggest downside of choosing GoDaddy is that it only supports one website across all its basic WordPress hosting plans. If you intend to host multiple sites, you will need to upgrade to the Pro plans. However the bundled premium add-ons are a great draw for SMEs.
What to look for in the Best WordPress Hosting UK?
While we’ve already pre-vetted some of the best WordPress hosting providers for the UK readers, there’s a handful of things you have to keep in mind if you’d decide to pick a host that was not included on our list.
Local data center
A local data center is always key to choosing a host for a website that will target a particular geography. Put all other things aside, the closer your website server is located, the lower your site loading times will be, period. While it might be said that these days a robust CDN will suffice, and it’s true for websites visited across the globe, one still can’t really beat a server that is physically close to website visitors.
Reliable customer service
A reliable customer service is a must, especially if you’re not always available to deal with technical issues yourself. Given that you’re likely based out of the UK, you should make sure that the host provides customer support during your business hours, rather than during the core hours of a different time zone. It’s especially important given quite a lot of hosts are based out of the US, so in this case we would be looking at least 5h time difference which is far from ideal when something suddenly happens to your website.
All of the above mentioned providers offer 24/hour support via live chat, email or telephone (some more, some less responsive) so you should never be left in the dark when something goes wrong!
Available uptime guarantee
A good uptime guarantee is also important – any host worth their salt should offer at least a 99% uptime guarantee. This will protect your wallet as will be able to get all your money back if they don’t meet this requirement.
GBP-denominated pricing
This one is a nice-have. Firstly, as a UK business it’ll be much easier to track your expenses if all invoices are denominated in your local currency (GBP). Trust us, your accountant will thank us for this tip. Secondly, sometimes when you’re paying in a different currency for your hosting, e.g. USD, the currency exchange rate fees is on the higher side, meaning you’re paying few % extra on top of the actual price. Again, no one likes to overpay for the same service.
Free domain name
Many of the providers on our list include a free domain name when you sign up for their services. This can be a great way to get started with your own website without having to spend extra c. £15!
Best WordPress Hosting UK FAQ
Hopefully, the options for WordPress Hosting above have given you a good way to start your search. However, if you have some additional questions before you can make your choice, this FAQ section should put your mind at ease.
Q: Is WordPress hosting essential?
If you’re using WordPres.org to build your website, hosting is not included with your download. Though WordPress.org is free to use, you’ll need somewhere to host the site, a domain name, and other paid tools to get your site up and running. A WordPress hosting provider is the company that stores your files for your website and delivers them to your customers.
Q: Is WordPress hosting expensive?
It often depends on the hosting provider you choose, and the kind of hosting you want. Depending on the kind of features you need, you might opt for a more expensive hosting package which gives you support for more websites and visitor management. On the other hand, there are plenty of affordable hosting options available too.
Many of the top WordPress hosting providers mentioned above will allow you to access extra features to make your purchase more worthwhile, like free SSL certificates or CDN access.
Q: Can you get WordPress hosting for free?
Technically, WordPress hosting is available for free – but the kind of features you’ll get from these solutions is extremely limited. We’d recommend staying away from WordPress hosts who offer support for free if you want to build a professional image online too. Most free providers will be able to put advertisements on your site that you don’t agree with.
Free hosting providers are also more likely to shut down your website at any moment and leave you with nothing.
Q: Do you have to get a domain and hosting from the same provider?
Not necessarily. Some people prefer to get their domain name and hosting in the same place, because it means fewer bills and renewals to keep track of. There are also a handful of WordPress hosting providers out there offering free domains as part of your purchase, depending on the package you get. However, you can always look for your domain from a different provider if you prefer.
Q: Can I build any site with a WordPress hosting provider?
Most hosting providers won’t dictate a specific kind of website you have to build with their service. You’re free to design whatever kind of website works for you. This could mean investing in a standard portfolio website where you can share your accomplishments with potential employers and clients. Alternatively, you could design a site for eCommerce. Just make sure you know how much protection you need in place for an eCommerce site.
It’s also worth ensuring you have the right amount of bandwidth if you’re going to be building an eCommerce store, as the number of visitors you have can go up rapidly.
Q: Is it easy to install WordPress?
To use WordPress for your website, you’ll need to install it within your WordPress hosting provider account. This means going into your account and using the steps provided to implement specific files and code into your service.
Most of the WordPress hosting providers we’ve mentioned above have a one-click installation service, so you should be able to get started with no problem. The alternative to one-click installation is usually cPanel, which is a very easy-to-use solution for installing and managing a WordPress website. If you have trouble with installation, you can contact the service team.
Q: How do I keep my WordPress hosting account secure?
It’s important to remember your hosting account is where you store all of your essential WordPress website files. This means it’s very important to secure your account correctly. The best way to secure your account is to use a strong password, and avoid logging in from public locations, unless you decide to use a VPN. It’s also worth looking into any security features your WordPress host can offer.
Q: Can I switch hosting provider?
Absolutely, you don’t have to stick with the same WordPress hosting provider forever. Most solutions available today will even give you access to things like Free emigration services, so you can more easily move from one account to another whenever you choose.
Q: Does data center location matter?
If a lot of your visitors are in the US, it makes sense to host your website there too, as it will usually lead to short page load times. However, if your visitors are scattered around the globe the location doesn’t matter as much as you can use a CDN service to redistribute page loading across multiple data centers around the world so that your website always loads fast, no matter where it’s accessed from.
Picking the Best WordPress Hosting UK (Quick Recap)
Now that we’ve described and compared each WordPress hosting in detail, it’s time to decide which is the best for your business.
For your convenience, we have created a small table with a side-by-side feature list, so you can easily compare the best WordPress hosting providers.
| Hosting | Cost | Free Domain | Traffic | 1-Click WP |
| Bluehost | £2.18/mo | ✓ | unmetered | ✓ |
| SiteGround | £2.99/mo | ✗ | 10,000 visits/month | ✓ |
| DreamHost | $2.64/mo | ✓ | unmetered | ✓ |
| HostGator | $2.59/mo | ✓ | unmetered | ✓ |
| GoDaddy | $4.99/mo | ✓ | unmetered | ✓ |
A good WordPress hosting provider is the one that gives you an excellent experience with your account from start to finish. Bluehost is an excellent choice if you want to start a blog and looking for simplicity and value, while Siteground gives you some of the best support in the industry for just £2.99/month.
But in all honesty, you can’t go with any of the aforementioned top WordPress hosting companies. All providers offer fast servers, great uptime, reliable support and very affordable pricing plans.
Think carefully about the kind of features and support components that matter most to you when choosing your solution. Remember, you can always switch if you’re not totally happy with the WordPress hosting provider you choose in the end.
We hope this article has been helpful in choosing the best WordPress hosting provider for your needs. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us!
