Best Hosting for Word Press Blogs
Word Press Basics
Word Press is an open source software platform which is frequently used for blogs. It includes many features which allows for easy customization, numerous widgets and templates. It's perfect for those who want more customization than provided on other platforms such as blogger.com
There are two main options with Word Press. You can set up your own blog on their server - wordpress.com - or you can download the Word Press application from WordPress.org and host it on your own web server. It's when you choose this second option that you want to be careful about which web host you choose.
Choosing a WordPress host
Minimum Requirements for Word Press
There are three requirements for Word Press to work:
- PHP 4.3 or greater
- MySQL 4.0 or greater
- The mod_rewrite Apache module
As Word Press is so well known, many hosts will automatically install it on your account, or at least state whether or not they are compatible. However, even though many are compatible, some are better than others. I recently discovered this after having to leave Yahoo as my host and switched to a new host.
Some recomended WordPress hosts
There are many website hosts which are adequate for Word Press hosting, however there are a few hand picked specifically by Word Press themselves - so you know they should be okay.
They include:
Blue Host - BlueHost is one of the more highly recommended hosts. Their rates are very reasonable when signing up for a longer term, offer unlimited storage space, and give you Google & Yahoo credits upon signup. However watch when you sign up that you're not paying for 1 or 2 years up front! I made this mistake - and likely I was tired and not paying attention, but the sudden realization I was being charged over $200 did wake me up. It was very easy to cancel and get my money back however after this mistake (of mine), and they were very nice even though it was my mistake.
Dream Host - Their current advertising campaign includes unlimited storage and bandwidth for $8.95*/month, and 24/7 technical support (* there's always a star - check the details for yourself)
Media Temple - Media Temple has the nicest website of them all, however their rates start at $20/month, and are intended for more serious webmasters, who may expect sudden bursts of traffic.
Just Host - Just Host's rates start quite low - well under $10/month for their basic package. They also install WordPress free for you, give you Google & Yahoo credits (to get your AdWords campaign going) and offer unlimited space and bandwidth.
Host Gator (My personal host - no problems after 2 years!) - Host Gators rates start well under $10/month as well. For $8/month at the time of writing this, you could host unlimited domains and have unlimited space and bandwidth. Through Host Gators CPanel you can easily automatically install Word Press, as well as a number of other blogging and Content Management platforms. From personal experience, I can say their tech support has been very helpful.
So - how to choose?
It's not a simple decision, but at the same time, all the above hosts have been proven to be trustworthy and suitable for a Word Press blog, so you won't go wrong by choosing one of them. If budget is your biggest concern, HostGator seems to have the lowest price start up package, but prices do change!
