Best WordPress Hosting Options

I've used many different hosting companies, and for a few years, up until early 2019 I'd moved all my sites onto WP Engine. I wanted an easy life. But as the number of sites I had increased, the costs grew to be too much to justify. I had to find another solution. Right now I have settled on one hosting solution for my WordPress sites and another that I can recommend to people who want an easy, less hands-on, approach to hosting. Which one I'd recommend for you, depends on your preferences. See below.

Hosting Option 1

If the following describes you :

• you want fast, high quality WordPress hosting
• you want reasonable pricing - see how much I pay below.
• you are confident in your ability to run a server knowing that in the background you will have support and help to do so - to a point
• you almost never need hand-holding level server support
• you do not mind being directed to technical articles by support and being left to figure out the rest of the server problem on your own
• you do not need WordPress support at all ever, because you know everything there is to know about WordPress
• you want a company that is dedicated to building the best WordPress hosting solution in the world.
• you like the hosting company's CEO to be an extremely accessible, technical super-God, with a searing, somewhat alternative, sense of humour.

then use the GridPane Hosting Dashboard alongside your choice of raw server provider. At the moment I use DigitalOcean servers on GridPane.

How Much Do I Pay GridPane?

GridPane is a server manager application. So sites are not actually hosted with them. You buy raw server droplets at providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) or DigitalOcean. At DigitalOcean server droplets can cost as little as $5 USD per month.

I currently run around 10 droplets at varying prices, some at $5 per month and some at $15 or $20 per month. Some droplets have one website on them, others have two. I have a test droplet that has maybe 10 websites on it. After that my GridPane costs are fixed at $100 per month on the legacy Developer plan. Please note this plan has since risen to $200 per month. However they do have a Pro plan which is $50 per month

So all in all I pay about $140 per month to host around 30 sites. But of course the number of WordPress sites I host is up to me, how busy they are and the capacity of the server droplets I buy from providers like DigitalOcean. The GridPane part of my costs are fixed.

My Opinion

Look - I totally love GridPane. But ... be clear. The only reason I am able to use them is because I never have any questions about WordPress. I know it well. Server technology? Not so much. But my husband Russell is super knowledgeable about server stuff and can understand everything GridPane say. I try not to bother him nor GridPane with my server/hosting related questions. But if I am stuck, and if on contacting GridPane support I cannot understand a word the GridPane support team are saying, I just get Russell to fix it.

If you don't have your own resident Russell, or, if you are not a Russell, I advise that you do not choose this option. I love GridPane. They are liberating, innovative, fast, honest and cool, but they do not cater to everyone. If you do not have the confidence to up your server game, (or you don't have someone who can help you), probably best to look elsewhere.

Hosting Option 2

Or, if the following describes you

• you want fast, high quality WordPress hosting
• you want very reasonable pricing
• you'd like your sites to be moved from your current host to your new host for free
• you are have no idea how to run a server and you're not interested in learning (don't blame you)
• you sometimes need hand-holding level support
• you know a bit about WordPress but sometimes need help if your sites experience real difficulties (like they go down)
• you'd like help that doesn't end with support sending you a link to some technical article
• you'd like support that fixes the problems they've promised to fix and can see your point of view
• you understand that support cannot fix bad plugins, or make fixes to your CSS or PHP to make your design look better
• you really like animals - especially dogs
• you like the hosting company's CEO to be a visionary, socially aware, "I can change the world" type of bloke

then use WPX Hosting.

How Much Do I Pay WPX Hosting?

I pay only $24.99 USD per month to host 5 sites. You can make this even cheaper by paying for a year in advance, at $249.96 USD per year.

My Opinion

This is the easy hosting option that is also cost effective. Terry Kyle, the chap that runs this organisation is a straight up good bloke and he does a lot for dogs. Further, with WPX Hosting you don't need to understand how to run a server, and they are willing to help you with some aspects of WordPress too.

But if you need help with WordPress in general, then do consider contacting me. I've personally taught scores of bloggers to become self sufficient on WordPress.