Short answer: for most first sites, SiteGround or Hostinger on paper, but budget for the renewal: three years of SiteGround’s entry plan costs $467.64, not the $107.64 the intro price suggests. If you are in the UK and want a price that never jumps, Krystal is £7 a month ex. VAT with no renewal increase.
We compared 11 WordPress hosts on what you actually pay over three years, what the entry plan really includes, and who should avoid each one. Every price and feature below comes from the host’s own pages, checked on 11 October 2026, with links. Speed is the part we measure ourselves: so far we have tested only the host this site runs on (GoDaddy), and the other hosts say “test pending” until we have bought a plan and run the same test on them. How we review.
lovewp earns a commission from some of these hosts if you buy through our links. That never changes what we write, and hosts without an affiliate programme are compared on the same terms. Affiliate disclosure.
The 11 hosts at a glance
Entry plan prices in US dollars before tax unless shown in pounds. “3-year cost” is what the entry plan costs over three years at the official prices, including the renewal. Speed is time to first byte from our UK test computer: “cached” is a normal visit, “uncached” forces the server to build the page from scratch.
How we compare hosts
Most “best hosting” lists rank hosts on speed figures borrowed from somewhere else, and quote the intro price without the renewal. We do three things differently:
- Three-year cost, not the intro price. Most cheap plans renew at three to six times the first-year price. We add it up so you can compare like for like.
- Cached and uncached speed side by side. A cached page shows how fast visitors see a normal page. An uncached request shows how quickly the server runs WordPress, which is what you feel in the admin, at checkout and on logged-in pages. Each test run is 20 normal and 20 cache-bypassed requests plus three Google Lighthouse runs; we run it twice at different times of day and report the average.
- Who should not buy it. Every host below has a real “skip it if” based on its own terms and plan limits.
We buy each plan ourselves before testing it. We have not taken free review accounts. Our verdicts and love scores only come after we have used a host for real, so the hosts on this page are compared on facts, not yet rated.
The hosts in detail
: best for a first site that needs help on hand
Type: Managed WordPress (shared, on Google Cloud). Entry plan: StartUp, $2.99/month (£1.99 ex. VAT) prepaid for 12 months. Renews at $17.99/month (£13.99 ex. VAT); special price applies to the first invoice only. Three years: $467.64 ($35.88 for year one, then $215.88 a year).
| Entry plan includes | |
|---|---|
| Sites | 1 |
| Traffic | Unmetered transfer; SiteGround’s feature page suggests about 10,000 visits a month for StartUp |
| Storage | 10 GB |
| Caching | Server-level multilevel caching (NGINX + Memcached) via Speed Optimizer |
| CDN | SiteGround CDN included |
| Staging | No (GrowBig and up) |
| Backups | Daily, kept 30 days; on-demand backups GrowBig and up |
| Included (shares plan storage, up to 10 GB) | |
| UK data centre | Yes, London |
| Money-back | 30 days |
| Support | 24/7 phone, chat and tickets |
| Our speed test | Test pending |
Suits: First-time site owners who want daily backups, built-in caching and 24/7 phone support without managing anything technical.
Skip it if: You’re on a tight budget after year one: the renewal is about six times the intro price, and the entry plan has no staging.
Read the small print: Renewal is about 6x the intro price; UK prices exclude 20% VAT; Monthly billing only at checkout (£19.99/month ex. VAT); No staging or on-demand backups on StartUp; Free domain first year only.
Sources: SiteGround official site, wordpress-hosting.htm, wordpress-hosting.htm.
: cheapest way in, if you can pay upfront
Type: Budget managed WordPress (LiteSpeed, hPanel). Entry plan: Premium, $2.99/month (£2.99) on a 48-month term paid upfront ($143.52). Renews at $10.99/month (£10.99); 1-month billing is $11.99. Three years: $143.52 (paid upfront for 48 months; on 12-month terms three years costs $311.64).
| Entry plan includes | |
|---|---|
| Sites | 3 |
| Traffic | No visit limit published; unlimited bandwidth under fair use |
| Storage | 20 GB SSD |
| Caching | LiteSpeed server cache with the LiteSpeed Cache plugin; no object cache on Premium |
| CDN | Hostinger’s own pages conflict on whether CDN is on Premium |
| Staging | No (Unlimited plan and up) |
| Backups | Weekly, kept 7 weeks; daily backups on higher plans |
| 2 mailboxes per site free for a year, then $0.59/month each | |
| UK data centre | Yes, United Kingdom |
| Money-back | 30 days (exclusions include domains and some ccTLDs such as .uk) |
| Support | 24/7 chat (AI assistant, then a person); no phone |
| Our speed test | Test pending |
Suits: Small sites and side projects where the lowest total cost matters more than phone support, and you are happy to pay four years in advance.
Skip it if: You need daily backups or a staging site on the entry plan, or you want to talk to someone on the phone.
Read the small print: Headline price needs 48 months paid upfront; Weekly, not daily, backups on Premium; No staging or object cache on Premium; Free email and domain only for the first year; No phone support.
Sources: Hostinger official site, pricing, wordpress-hosting, refund-policy, 1583267-where-are-your-servers-located.
: best for UK sites on a steady price
Type: UK shared cPanel (managed WordPress sold separately). Entry plan: Amethyst, £7/month ex. VAT (£8.40 inc. VAT), billed monthly. No intro price, so no renewal jump; renews at the listed price. Three years: £252 inc. VAT (£84 a year inc. VAT, no intro discount, so no renewal jump).
| Entry plan includes | |
|---|---|
| Sites | 1 |
| Traffic | Unlimited bandwidth; 1 CPU, 2 GB RAM |
| Storage | 10 GB NVMe |
| Caching | LiteSpeed server; you set up the caching plugin yourself |
| CDN | Not on web hosting plans |
| Staging | Manual via cPanel/Softaculous |
| Backups | Daily, 31 restore points, off-site |
| Unlimited mailboxes (500 emails/hour) | |
| UK data centre | Yes, London |
| Money-back | 60 days (domain costs excluded) |
| Support | UK team: chat, tickets, phone weekdays 9:00 to 20:00 |
| Our speed test | Test pending |
Suits: UK businesses that want London servers, a UK support team and a price that does not jump at renewal.
Skip it if: You want managed WordPress on the entry plan (updates and staging are on you) or need a CDN.
Read the small print: Prices shown ex. VAT; No free domain on Amethyst; Not managed: you handle WordPress updates; No CDN; No 24/7 emergency phone below Sapphire; 30 days’ notice to cancel; no pro-rata refunds.
Sources: Krystal official site, managed, what-backups-do-i-get-with-my-account, terms-and-conditions.
: the host lovewp.com runs on (measured)
Type: cPanel shared hosting (also sells Managed WordPress). Entry plan: Web Hosting Economy, US $5.99/month for a 3-year first term (struck-through $11.99); UK £3.99/month for a 1-year first term (struck-through £8.99). “Renewal pricing subject to change”; no renewal price stated, struck-through price is the only guide. Three years: $215.64 (Economy on its first 3-year term; GoDaddy does not publish the renewal price).
| Entry plan includes | |
|---|---|
| Sites | Economy 1, Deluxe 10, Ultimate 25 |
| Traffic | Unmetered bandwidth |
| Storage | 25 GB NVMe (Economy), 50 GB (Deluxe) |
| Caching | None stated on cPanel plans |
| CDN | Only with Website Security (1-month trial on cPanel plans) |
| Staging | Not on cPanel Economy/Deluxe; Managed WordPress Deluxe and up |
| Backups | Daily |
| Free email is a trial that auto-renews at the then-current price | |
| UK data centre | North America and Europe |
| Money-back | 30 days on annual plans, 48 hours on monthly |
| Support | 24/7 phone and chat |
| Our speed test | 332 ms cached, 367 ms uncached (2 runs, see below) |
Suits: People who already have their domain at GoDaddy and want everything in one account, on a simple cPanel plan.
Skip it if: You want caching, staging or a CDN included: on the cPanel plans these are missing or trials.
Read the small print: US headline price needs a 3-year term; Renewal price not published; Economy SSL free for year one only; Security, CDN and email are trials; Monthly plans: 48-hour refund window.
Sources: GoDaddy official site, web-hosting, wordpress-hosting, wordpress-hosting.
: best for beginners who never want to see a server
Type: Hosted WordPress (Automattic). Entry plan: Personal (plugins allowed; Free plan has no plugins), $9/month (£8). No introductory offer active; listed prices are standard rates; free domain renews at domain rate after year one. Three years: $99 (Personal plan on a 3-year term; $144 on yearly terms).
| Entry plan includes | |
|---|---|
| Sites | 1 |
| Traffic | Unmetered visitors and bandwidth |
| Storage | 6 GB on Personal (1 GB Free) |
| Caching | Global edge caching |
| CDN | Global CDN, 28+ locations, all plans |
| Staging | Business plan and up only |
| Backups | Real-time backups on Business and up only |
| Not on Personal; Titan email free for a year on Business and up | |
| UK data centre | EU West option, chosen on Business only |
| Money-back | 14 days on annual and multi-year plans, 7 days monthly, 96 hours domains |
| Support | Personal: email/chat tickets; 24/7 priority on Business and up |
| Our speed test | Test pending |
Suits: Bloggers and complete beginners who want WordPress without hosting decisions, and can live without staging and backups until they upgrade.
Skip it if: You want SFTP, staging, real-time backups or PHP control without paying for the Business plan.
Read the small print: Free plan shows ads and can’t install plugins; No staging, backups, SFTP/SSH or PHP control below Business; Some plugins not permitted; Payment features take 8% on Personal; Free domain only on annual or longer billing.
Sources: WordPress.com official site, personal-plan, plugins, refunds, how-to-create-a-staging-site, php-environment, choose-your-sites-primary-data-center.
: best value managed WooCommerce on paper
Type: Managed WordPress and WooCommerce (Liquid Web). Entry plan: Essentials WordPress (1 site, 50k visits), $9/month. No intro or renewal price shown; only the 10% annual discount. Three years: $291.60 ($8.10 a month billed yearly; no intro discount shown).
| Entry plan includes | |
|---|---|
| Sites | 1 |
| Traffic | 50,000 visits/month, 2 TB bandwidth |
| Storage | 15 GB |
| Caching | Object Cache Pro included; full-page cache not described |
| CDN | Edge CDN (Cloudflare) included; overage billed |
| Staging | Yes |
| Backups | Daily, kept 7 days on Essentials |
| Not mentioned on plan pages | |
| UK data centre | Not stated which data centres serve these plans |
| Money-back | Not stated on current plan pages (older pages said 30 days, unverified) |
| Support | 24/7 chat |
| Our speed test | Test pending |
Suits: Small WooCommerce shops that want Object Cache Pro and a Cloudflare CDN included at a low monthly price.
Skip it if: You want a clear refund policy (we couldn’t find one on the current plan pages) or more than 7 days of backups.
Read the small print: nexcess.net now redirects to Liquid Web; checkout via Liquid Web; Self-serve migration only on Essentials; Autoscaling on Elite only; Patchstack virtual patching from Pro up; Liquid Web terms: fees non-refundable except as otherwise provided; Contracted services can’t be cancelled until the contract ends.
Sources: Nexcess official site, managed-woocommerce, data-centers, cancel-services, terms-of-service.
: best for an eco focus on a budget
Type: Shared cPanel on LiteSpeed. Entry plan: Lite, $2.95/month prepaid for 12 months ($35.40). Renews at $13.95/month; monthly, 2-year and 3-year terms don’t get the intro price. Three years: $370.20 ($35.40 for year one, then $167.40 a year).
| Entry plan includes | |
|---|---|
| Sites | 1 |
| Traffic | Unmetered; resource limits in the terms |
| Storage | 25 GB SSD |
| Caching | LiteSpeed server with LiteSpeed Cache |
| CDN | Free CDN included |
| Staging | Yes |
| Backups | Daily backups advertised; terms say a copy is kept 24 hours for disaster recovery only |
| Included | |
| UK data centre | No (nearest Amsterdam) |
| Money-back | 30 days (domains, setup fees and add-ons excluded) |
| Support | 24/7 chat and phone |
| Our speed test | Test pending |
Suits: Low-traffic sites where the renewable-energy pledge matters to you, and staging on the entry plan is a bonus.
Skip it if: You rely on host backups (the terms say a copy is kept for 24 hours) or need a UK data centre.
Read the small print: Renewal about 4.7x the intro price; Terms keep backups 24 hours only: keep your own; No UK data centre; Priority support and on-demand backups on Pro and up.
Sources: GreenGeeks official site, wordpress-hosting, data-center, tos.
: best for developers who want their own server
Type: Managed cloud. Entry plan: DigitalOcean 1 GB server, $11/month (billed hourly). No intro discount; pay as you go, no contract. Three years: $396 ($11 a month, no contract; CDN and email extra).
| Entry plan includes | |
|---|---|
| Sites | Unlimited (limited by server size) |
| Traffic | Unlimited visits, 1 TB bandwidth |
| Storage | 25 GB |
| Caching | Varnish, Memcached and Redis plus the Breeze plugin |
| CDN | Not included; Cloudflare Enterprise from $4.99/domain/month |
| Staging | Yes |
| Backups | Daily by default; off-site storage $0.033/GB |
| Paid add-on ($1.50/mailbox/month) | |
| UK data centre | Depends on cloud provider (London not confirmed for DigitalOcean) |
| Money-back | None (free trial instead) |
| Support | 24/7 chat and tickets |
| Our speed test | Test pending |
Suits: Developers and agencies who want to choose the cloud provider, put several sites on one server and pay monthly.
Skip it if: You want email or a CDN included, or a money-back guarantee (there’s a 3-day trial instead).
Read the small print: You pay for a server, not a site; CDN and email cost extra; Backup storage billed per GB; No money-back guarantee.
Sources: Cloudways official site, pricing.php, wordpress-hosting.php.
: fastest on paper: every page cached at the edge
Type: Managed WordPress. Entry plan: Starter, $30/month. No renewal price rises, per Rocket.net. Three years: $900 ($25 a month billed yearly; Rocket.net says prices don’t rise at renewal).
| Entry plan includes | |
|---|---|
| Sites | 1 |
| Traffic | Visits unmetered, 50 GB bandwidth |
| Storage | 10 GB |
| Caching | Full-page caching at the edge built in |
| CDN | Cloudflare Enterprise included on every plan |
| Staging | Yes |
| Backups | Daily, kept 30 days |
| Not included | |
| UK data centre | Europe origin locations (London not confirmed) |
| Money-back | 30 days |
| Support | 24/7 chat and tickets; phone on Enterprise only |
| Our speed test | Test pending |
Suits: Busy content sites and shops with visitors around the world that will benefit from full-page caching on Cloudflare Enterprise.
Skip it if: You run several small sites: the entry plan is one site, and three years costs about six times Hostinger.
Read the small print: Bandwidth overage $0.08/GB; 1 site on Starter; No email hosting.
Sources: Rocket.net official site, full-page-caching.
: premium managed hosting with no renewal jump
Type: Managed WordPress. Entry plan: Single 20GB, $35/month. No intro discount; first month free for new customers. Three years: $1,050 ($350 a year, first month free).
| Entry plan includes | |
|---|---|
| Sites | 1 |
| Traffic | 20 GB server bandwidth + 125 GB CDN a month; visits not metered |
| Storage | 10 GB |
| Caching | Server-level full-page and edge caching built in |
| CDN | Kinsta CDN included (300+ locations) |
| Staging | Yes |
| Backups | Daily, kept 14 days |
| Not included | |
| UK data centre | Yes, London (30 data centres) |
| Money-back | 30 days (first-time customers; starts after the free month) |
| Support | 24/7 human support in 8 languages |
| Our speed test | Test pending |
Suits: Businesses that want premium managed hosting, a London data centre and staging, with the price fixed rather than discounted.
Skip it if: You need email hosting or run a small site that will never need what you are paying for.
Read the small print: Bandwidth overage $0.50/GB; Extra site $30/month; No email hosting; Overages excluded from the money-back guarantee.
Sources: Kinsta official site, overages, money-back-guarantee, backups, data-center-locations.
: managed hosting for agencies and larger sites
Type: Managed WordPress. Entry plan: Essential (1 site), $35/month (£30). Annual discount is first-year only; WP Engine says renewal pricing is subject to change. Three years: $1,176 ($336 for year one, then $420 a year).
| Entry plan includes | |
|---|---|
| Sites | 1 |
| Traffic | 25,000 visits/month, 75 GB bandwidth |
| Storage | 10 GB |
| Caching | Server-level (Varnish) built in |
| CDN | Cloudflare-powered CDN included; advanced edge security is a paid add-on |
| Staging | Yes |
| Backups | Daily, kept 30 to 60 days |
| Not included | |
| UK data centre | Yes, London (Google Cloud) |
| Money-back | None stated on the current plans page or terms |
| Support | 24/7; phone only on higher tiers |
| Our speed test | Test pending |
Suits: Agencies and companies that want mature managed tools, long backup history and a London data centre.
Skip it if: You want a money-back guarantee (we couldn’t find one) or have a busy site: the entry plan covers 25,000 visits a month.
Read the small print: Extra site $20/month; 30 days’ notice to cancel; Many features are paid add-ons on Essential; No money-back guarantee found.
Sources: WP Engine official site, restore, servers, faq, terms-of-service.
Our own host: GoDaddy, measured
lovewp.com runs on GoDaddy Web Hosting Deluxe, a cPanel shared plan we pay for. We think you should know that, so we measured it first. These figures are the average of 2 runs from our UK test computer on home broadband, 11 October at 09:27 and 11 October at 09:31.
| Measure | Result |
|---|---|
| Time to first byte, normal visit (median) | 332 ms |
| Time to first byte, slowest 10% (p90) | 537 ms |
| Time to first byte, cache bypassed (median) | 367 ms |
| Server processing time (median) | 232 ms |
| Google Lighthouse performance score | 99 / 100 |
| Largest Contentful Paint (Lighthouse) | 1.65 s |
| Failed requests | 1 of 80 |
| Page cache or CDN detected | None |
Cached and uncached times are close because GoDaddy’s cPanel plan has no page cache in front of WordPress: every visit is built by PHP. That is fine for a light site like ours, but a caching plugin or a host with server-level caching would do better on busier sites. The page tested is lovewp.com’s homepage, not the standard test page we will use on the other hosts, so compare these figures with them once those tests are in. Full GoDaddy review.
Renewal shock: intro price vs what you pay later
| Host | Intro price | Renewal price | Rise |
|---|---|---|---|
| SiteGround StartUp | $2.99/month | $17.99/month | about 6x |
| GreenGeeks Lite | $2.95/month | $13.95/month | about 4.7x |
| Hostinger Premium | $2.99/month (48 months) | $10.99/month | about 3.7x |
| GoDaddy Economy | $5.99/month (3 years) | Not published (was $11.99) | Unknown |
| WP Engine Essential | $28/month (first year, billed yearly) | $35/month | 1.25x |
| Krystal, Kinsta, Rocket.net, Cloudways, Nexcess, WordPress.com | No intro discount | Same price | None |
The way to beat renewal pricing is to buy the longest term you are confident about at the intro price, or choose a host with no intro discount. Moving hosts at renewal also works: most managed hosts move a WordPress site for free.
Hosting for UK sites
If most of your visitors are in the UK, a London data centre trims the time each request spends travelling. Of these hosts, , , , , offer UK servers. GreenGeeks’ nearest is Amsterdam, and GoDaddy says only “North America and Europe”. UK prices are often shown without VAT: SiteGround and Krystal both add 20% at checkout. A CDN matters more than server location for sites with visitors worldwide.
Shared, managed or cloud: which do you need?
- Shared hosting (GoDaddy cPanel, GreenGeeks, Krystal Amethyst): cheapest, and you look after WordPress updates, caching and security yourself. Fine for small sites.
- Managed WordPress (Kinsta, WP Engine, Rocket.net, Nexcess, SiteGround, Hostinger): the host handles caching, backups and security, usually with staging. Worth it when your time or your site’s income matters.
- Cloud (Cloudways): you rent a server and run as many sites as it can handle. Good value for developers; more decisions for beginners.
- Hosted platform (WordPress.com): nothing to manage at all, with limits on what you can change on cheaper plans.
Hosts we left out
Bluehost, HostGator, A2 Hosting, DreamHost, Pressable and Flywheel are on our list for the next update. We’d rather cover 11 hosts with checked prices than 20 with copied ones.
Questions people ask
What is the cheapest good WordPress hosting?
On a three-year view, WordPress.com Personal ($99 for three years) and Hostinger Premium ($143.52 upfront for four years) are cheapest. WordPress.com limits what you can change; Hostinger’s entry plan has weekly backups only.
How much should WordPress hosting cost?
For a small site, about $100 to $470 over three years on shared or budget managed hosting. Premium managed hosting such as Kinsta or WP Engine costs $1,000 or more over three years for one site.
Is managed WordPress hosting worth it?
If your site earns money or you do not want to deal with caching, backups and updates, usually yes. For a hobby blog, a good shared plan with a caching plugin is enough.
Which host is best for WooCommerce?
Shops need uncached speed, because carts and checkouts can’t be cached. Nexcess and Kinsta include object caching for this. We will add our own WooCommerce tests to this page.
Does my host need a UK data centre?
It helps a little if most visitors are in the UK. SiteGround, Hostinger, Krystal, Kinsta and WP Engine offer UK servers.
Can I move hosts later?
Yes. Most managed hosts migrate a site for free, and plugins such as Duplicator or UpdraftPlus make it simple to do yourself.
Last checked and changes
- 11 October 2026: prices and plan features checked on every host’s official site. GoDaddy measured (2 runs).