WordPress is the most popular and widely used content management system in the world today. The behemoth powers more than a quarter of the internet, and it enjoys a 61% market share of the CMS space. This includes a large number of Australian businesses.
WordPress powers 43.3% of all websites on the internet, 14.7% of which are world’s top sites.
Hosting is a vital part of a WordPress website, and a good hosting service provider goes a long way to making the website more reliable and efficient. It can be a bit overwhelming for customers who are new to the world of WordPress hosting since it has many components.
We looked at the best WordPress hosts on the market and evaluated them based on pricing, features, user reviews, ease of use and more. All prices and details are current as of April, 2024.
Note: The below list represents a selection of our top category picks, as chosen by Forbes Advisor Australia’s editors and journalists. The information provided is purely factual and is not intended to imply any recommendation, opinion, or advice about a financial product. Not every product or provider in the marketplace has been reviewed, and the list below is not intended to be exhaustive nor replace your own research or independent financial advice. For more information on how Forbes Advisor ranks and reviews products, including how we identified our top category picks, read the methodology selection below.
To determine the best WordPress hosting providers, we gathered thousands of data points on more than 50 top hosting providers, then developed a ranking system based on how each provider performed in five key categories— each with its own subcategories.
The five categories used for this ranking include: pricing, general features, user reviews, expert opinion and WordPress-specific features.
We then weighted those five categories based on their importance, as follows:
Our Australian-based editorial team then ensured the hosting providers were suitable for local customers, applying an additional layer of research.
You will note that we have included a star rating next to each product or provider. This rating was determined by the editorial team once all of the data points above were considered, and the pros and cons of each product attribute was reviewed. The star rating is solely the view of Forbes Advisor editorial staff. Commercial partners or advertisers have no bearing on the star rating or their inclusion on this list. Star ratings are only one factor to be considered, and Forbes Advisor encourages you to seek independent advice from an authorised financial adviser in relation to your own financial circumstances and investments before you decide to choose a particular financial product or service.
Featured Partners
1
Bluehost
Starting price
$4.60 AUD per month
Standout Features
Free domain name & SSL for a year
Money Back Guarantee
30 Day
2
HostGator
Starting price
$US3.75 ($5.62 AUD) per month
Storage and Bandwidth
Unmetered
Extras and inclusions
Free domain registration for a year, free website and domain transfer, free SSL certificate, free email
3
IONOS
Starting price
$US2 ($2.95 AUD) per month
Drag-and-drop interface
Yes
SSL certificate included
Yes
One word: scalability. Thanks to its many customisation options, WordPress can grow through each stage of a business’ journey. The many plug-ins allow a website admin to expand and develop their web offering. This is one of the reasons why we have chosen to focus on WordPress hosting providers.
WordPress counts a collection of over 60,000 free plugins.
With shared hosting, the key thing is that your WordPress website shares a single server and other resources with several other websites. Additionally, with this hosting, you are responsible for maintaining your own website.
When it comes to managed hosting, everything is taken care of for you, including implementation of features, standard website maintenance, automatic backups and updates.
No, not all. While that may have been the case some years ago, analysis shows that this is now an outdated conception. The platform itself has become more enterprise-friendly, which has led global companies such as The New York Times, Forbes, eBay, and a host of Aussie companies to use its digital publishing services.
There is no shortage of companies that offer hosting for your WordPress site, so do your own research first to ensure that the company you select offers:
The price you will pay for WordPress hosting will range from introductory rates as low as $5 AUD per month to hundreds of dollars, depending on your needs and scale.
