In this blog post, I am sharing the best cheap WordPress hosting solutions for 2020. If you wish to create a WordPress website, there can’t be a cheaper and better place to start than right here.
If you’re searching for cheap WordPress hosting services, you probably do have a bit of experience with shared hosting. Or if you don’t, you’re atleast clear on the fact that you only wish to create a WordPress website, isn’t that right?
So, before we proceed further, let me just explain in brief the primary differences between the two? (Or just scroll down if you’re already familiar with the differences).
What are the differences between shared hosting and WordPress hosting?
In the simplest possible words, Shared hosting is for “everything and anything”. While WordPress hosting is focused on WordPress sites. You can’t generally host HTML and non-WordPress sites on a WordPress hosting. But it’s not true vice-versa. Meaning, a shared hosting can be used for WordPress sites, as well as for any other type of site you wish to host on it.
WordPress hosting plans offer more WordPress-centric features. For e.g. they’d in most cases have WordPress pre-installed. They also often push updates and backups automatically.
“Staging” can be offered with WordPress hosting sites. It’s the ability to preview or test a site before pushing it online. These WordPress servers also in some cases come pre-included with speed-optimizations, SEO optimizations and plugins to better your site.
Furthermore, these servers also protect your sites against WordPress-specific attacks and vulnerabilities.
In a nutshell, Shared servers are servers used by a multitude of people, for a multitude of sites. On a single server, people can be running an e-commerce website, a personal blog, a video streaming site, a download site and what not.
WordPress hosting servers however are dedicated exclusively to WordPress sites. This makes sure the overall maintenance is a lot better. Moreover, some companies also offer premium WordPress support on their WordPress plans. These support representatives are trained to solve WordPress-related problems.
Note that not all best cheap WordPress hosting companies will offer all the features mentioned above. It largely depends on the companies, as well as the package/plan you’re going with.
But fortunately, most of the companies listed below almost always offer the primary requirements for a perfect WordPress project. Let’s just address one major aspect of WP hosting before we start with this list of best cheap WordPress hosting companies?
Unmanaged Vs. Managed WordPress Hosting Plans
The unmanaged plans just offer lesser features while the managed plans offer more of them. Naturally, the managed plans also cost a bit more than the unmanaged plans. For all the companies below, I’ve primarily discussed the “unmanaged” plans. Considering how budget surely something I’m keeping in mind for this piece.
The unmanaged plans are more than enough for individuals and small-businesses. Although if you can afford it, the managed packages would surely offer you better security and better speed.
Best Cheap WordPress Hosting Services in 2020
Here are all the companies I’ve tried, tested and compiled for you:
All data is true for the "Cheapest WordPress Hosting" plan only.
Let’s get a much closer look at these best cheap WordPress hosting companies then?
1. BlueHost
Website: https://www.bluehost.com/
Bluehost is officially recommend from WordPress as the best hosting company for WordPress. Then, it offers EVERYTHING that you need to start a blog in the next couple minutes for free with its best cheap WordPress hosting plans.
It offers a normal WP hosting, as well as a WP Pro plan. The normal WP hosting plan automatically installs WordPress as soon as a plan is purchased. It also takes care of any and all updates which may be required. A free SSL too is offered which is mandatory and even helps with rankings.
Three plans are offered, the cheapest WordPress hosting plan costs USD $3.95/month. 50 GB of storage, unlimited bandwidth, 5 parked as well as 25 subdomain are allowed. 1 website/domain can be hosted and USD $100 worth of Bing and Google ads credit too are offered. A free domain is tucked in for the first year as well.
The other two plans both cost USD $5.95/month each. Unlimited space and websites are offered on both the plans. All of its best cheap WordPress hosting plans allow staging.
The company offers impressive speed and uptime. However, do not take my word for it. Head over to this Bluehost review to get a transparent report of various tests on the servers.
Analytics, advanced security, SEO optimization tools, e-mail marketing tools, automated data backups etc. are available in the “WP Pro” plan, which is the managed WordPress hosting package and costs more.
Key features on the cheapest plan:
- Cheapest plan: USD $3.95/month.
- Free migrations: No
- Automatic WP Installations & Updates: Yes.
- Staging: Yes.
- Free SSL: Yes.
- Free domain: Yes.
- 24 X 7 live chat: Yes.
- Money Back: 30 days.
2. Hostinger
Website: https://www.hostinger.com/
Hostinger actually is the cheapest WordPress hosting solution on this entire list. It’s being listed at #2 because it’s less generous with its add-ons and features than Bluehost. It’s still “the best” company to start your WordPress blogs with if “budget” is your driving-factor.
Its cheapest plan costs just USD $0.99/month! It doesn’t provide a free domain or free SSL on the cheapest plan. It allows 2 subdomains, 100GB bandwidth and 1 website on this plan.
Although, its USD $2.89/month plan does include a free domain. And finally, the USD $3.99/month plan includes the free SSL as well. Space and bandwidth are unlimited on these two plans. 100 subdomains are allowed on each of these two plans.
Custom-built, pre-installed plugins such as Litespeed Cache and WordPress Acceleration are included in all plans. These helps improve the overall load-time of your websites. WordPress can be installed in one-click from the control panel.
PayPal, various credit and debit cards as well as Bitcoin can be used to make payments. Unfortunately, there’s no live-chat unless you register/signup on the platform first. There’s a 30-day refund policy as well. They do not provide free migrations.
Key Features on the cheapest plan:
- Cheapest plan: USD $0.99/month.
- Staging: No.
- Free SSL: No.
- 24 X 7 live chat: Yes (Not available to non-registered users).
- Free domain: No.
- Free WP migrations: No.
- Money Back: 30 days.
3. A2 Hosting
Website: https://www.a2hosting.com/
A2 Hosting, alike Bluehost is an all-in-one package when it comes to hosting WordPress sites. Plans starting as low as USD $3.92/month offer free domains, free migrations, SSL certificates, and 25 E-mail accounts.
Free Cloudflare CDN, staging possibility, and even a free website builder is pre-included.
As is the industry-standard, only 1 website can be hosted on this plan. If you move onto the next plan which costs USD $4.90/month, you can host unlimited websites, get free automatic backups, and even a traffic-spike protection.
The most expensive plan costs USD $9.31/month. It offers A2 site accelerator, LiteMage, WP Litespeed Cache, and fewer users on the servers for better performance for you. They certainly offer live-chat.
A2 Hosting’s refund-policy is the undefeated monarch on this entire list. They offer “anytime” moneyback guarantee. The company offers server-choices, Michigan, Arizona, Amsterdam or Singapore can be selected.
Key Features on the cheapest plan:
- Cheapest plan: USD $3.92/month.
- Free migrations: Yes
- Automatic WP installations & updates: Yes.
- Staging : Yes.
- Free SSL : Yes.
- Free domain : Yes.
- 24 X 7 live chat: Yes.
- Money Back: 30 days.
4. Siteground
Website: https://www.siteground.com/
Siteground’s plans are closer to Bluehost than Hostinger. But so are the features. The best cheap WordPress hosting plans start at USD $3.99/month. It offers a free SSL certificate, unlimited subdomains, pre-installed WordPress as well as automatic updates. Siteground is the second WordPress hosting solution that WordPress officially recommends.
This plan allows 1 website, and offers 10 GB space. The bandwidth is stated to be adequate for approximately 10K visits/month. It also includes their free “WP Migrator” plugin which can be used to migrate existing WordPress sites instantly.
Free daily backups (upto 30 copies), Cloudflare CDN, WP CLI and SSH are some other WP-specific features offered on the cheapest plan. However, Staging is limited to the two other more expensive plans which cost USD $5.95/month and USD $11.95/month respectively.
These more expensive plans also offer free migrations, on-demand backup as well as WordPress supercacher. No plan offers free domains on Siteground. The space too is always limited, it’s 20 GB with the USD $5.95/month plan and 30 GB with the USD $11.95/month plan.
Automated server-level fixes for any major vulnerabilities too is offered on all plans. There’s a 30-day moneyback guarantee. Credit/Debit cards and PayPal is accepted. Live-chat is available 24X7.
Key Features on the cheapest plan:
- Cheapest plan: USD $3.95/month.
- Free migrations: No
- Automatic WP Installations & Updates: Yes.
- Staging: No.
- Free SSL: Yes.
- Free domain: No.
- 24 X 7 live chat: Yes.
- Money Back: 30 days.
5. Dream Host
Website: https://www.dreamhost.com/WordPress/
If WordPress says Dream Host is one of the best cheap WordPress hosting companies, who am I to argue? Well yes, the third and last official recommendation officially from WordPress is Dream Host.
The cheapest WordPress plan is priced at USD $2.59/month. WordPress is pre-installed. It offers 1 free domain, unlimited space and bandwidth, free SSL, and allows hosting 1 domain.
It also includes automated backups. A free WordPress website builder with themes is offered as well. There’s another Shared plan priced at USD $4.95/month, offering unlimited domains and free E-mail ID (not offered on the cheaper Shared plan).
Free migrations and staging is not offered on the cheapest plan. Those are for the more expensive “Managed WordPress” plans. These plans also includes built-in server level caching, and pre-installed Jetpack plugin.
The refund-policy is impressive and allows a 97-day refund period! There’s also a live-chat to help with any and all problems. Comparatively, accepts wider range of payment modes as compared to Bluehost or Siteground. You can pay using PayPal, Credit/Debit cards, gift cards, money orders or even Cheque.
Key Features on the cheapest plan:
- Cheapest plan: USD $2.59/month.
- Free migrations: No
- Automatic WP installations & updates: Yes.
- Staging : No.
- Free SSL : Yes.
- Free domain : No.
- 24 X 7 live chat: Yes.
- Money Back: 97 days.
6. NameCheap
Website: https://www.namecheap.com/
NameCheap is probably the second cheapest company on this list of best cheap WordPress hosting companies. Its cheapest plan goes for USD $1.90/month when paid yearly. Although it offers limited features with its cheapest plan, and hence is mentioned lower on this list.
It offers 10GB storage and enough bandwidth to handle 50,000 visits/month. Neither a free domain, nor free SSL certificates are offered. No free e-mails are offered either. Surprisingly, they do not even offer any subdomains whatsoever. They do however offer free migrations from existing hosts.
A “Maintenance mode” is offered which is what makes staging possible.
WordPress is automatically installed and updates too are taken care of .The two other plans offer more space and visitors. For e.g. the “Turbo” plan costs USD $44.88/year and offer 50 GB storage fit for 200,000 visitors/month. Or the “Supersonic” plan costs USD $49.88/year, it offers 100 GB Storage and is best for up to 500,000 visitors.
There’s a live-chat available. The refund-policy is that of 30 days. Cards, PayPal and Bitcoin are the accepted modes of payments.
Key Features on the cheapest plan:
- Cheapest plan: USD $1.90/month.
- Free migrations: Yes
- Automatic WP installations & updates: Yes.
- Staging : Yes.
- Free SSL : No.
- Free domain : No.
- 24 X 7 live chat: Yes.
- Money Back: 30 days.
7. iPage
Website: https://www.ipage.com/
A good balance between “cheap” and “feature-rich” is what iPage has successfully achieved. Its cheapest WordPress hosting plans start at USD $3.75/month. It also includes a free domain. The space as well as bandwidth is unlimited. And then it comes pre-installed with a number of themes and plugins for WordPress!
Even a free SSL is included and WordPress obviously is pre-installed. However, WordPress updates aren’t automatic with iPage. Also, they do not offer free migrations in case you wish to move from your current host.
Staging is included even with the cheapest WordPress hosting plan on iPage. The second, more expensive plan costs USD $6.95/month and offer automatic Malware removal, Sitelock and better support.
Alike Bluehost, it too offers pretty impressive uptime and speed. Payment modes too are similar to Bluehost’s PayPal and Cards. A live-chat is offered which is responsive and fast. Money-back guarantee is offered for the standard 30-day period.
Key Features on the cheapest plan:
- Cheapest plan: USD $3.75/month.
- Free migrations: No
- Automatic WP installations & updates: Yes.
- Staging : Yes.
- Free SSL : Yes.
- Free domain : Yes.
- 24 X 7 live chat: Yes.
- Money Back: 30 days.
8. Accu Web Hosting
Website: https://www.accuwebhosting.com/
Talking of best cheap WordPress hosting companies, it wouldn’t be fair not to mention Accu web hosting. They’re the only provider on this entire list offering a “Free” plan! Despite being free, the offered features may very well compete with some of the paid-plans mentioned here.
The free plan allows 1 domain to be hosted. 30 GB bandwidth, 2 GB Storage and a traffic volume of around 5,000 hits/month can be handled. It also offers 25 E-mails and 10 SQL databases. Additionally, a free SSL certificate and staging is available on all their plans.
The paid plan however starts at USD $3.49/month. It allows for unlimited websites to be hosted, and does include a free domain. 10 GB storage is offered. This plan also covers free migration. WordPress Speed optimization as well as daily backups are offered. Another paid plan worth USD $5.58/month available as well.
It’s one of the very few best cheap WordPress hosting providers which allow us to manually select server-locations. You can choose from USA, Singapore or UK. Payments can be made with cards or PayPal. There’s a 30-day moneyback guarantee. Live-chat available.
Key Features on the cheapest plan (not including the “Free” plan):
- Cheapest plan: $3.49/month.
- Free migrations: Yes.
- Automatic WP installations & updates: Yes.
- Staging : Yes.
- Free SSL : Yes.
- Free domain : Yes.
- 24 X 7 live chat: Yes.
- Money Back: 30 days.
9. InMotion Hosting
Website: https://www.inmotionhosting.com/
InMotion Hosting isn’t the cheapest WordPress hosting, but is immensely reputed in the industry. The lowest plan starts at USD $6.99/month. It offers a free domain, free SSL certificate, pre-installed WordPress, as well as free migrations.
Automatic WordPress updates as well as updates for themes and plugins are available. This plan also offers 100 subdomains, 26 parked domains, 200+ free themes 40GB space and unlimited E-mail accounts. All the plans, including the cheapest do offer a staging environment, a CDN, Jetpack, and malware protection.
Free advertising credit worth USD $150.00 too is offered on all the plans. The bandwidth is unlimited on all the plans as well. Even the cheapest plan is good for around 20,000 visitors/month.
Other plans are priced at USD $9.99/month, USD $12.99/month, and USD $19.99/month. They offer more space and support more domains among other features. Live-chat is available 24X7.
The moneyback guarantee extends for a good 90 days which is the second-best on this entire list.
Key features on the cheapest plan
- Cheapest plan: $6.99/month.
- Free migrations: Yes.
- Automatic WP installations & updates: Yes.
- Staging : Yes.
- Free SSL : Yes.
- Free domain : Yes.
- 24 X 7 live chat: Yes.
- Money Back: 90 days.
10. Hostgator
Website: https://www.hostgator.com/
Hostgator is another very well established yet potentially best cheap WordPress hosting solution. Its cheapest plan is called the “Hatchling” plan, and costs just USD $5.95/month. It offers free migrations (1 website), a free domain, a CDN as well as free SSL certificates.
1 website can be hosted on this plan, it claims being able to handle 100,000 visitors/month although I’d say aim a tad-bit lower. It also features automated backups and automatic malware removal.
There are other plans which cost USD $7.95/month and USD $9.95/month respectively. They offer more WordPress websites and a larger number of traffic-handling capacity.
WordPress is pre-installed and updates are automated. The space and bandwidth are unmetered.
A big downer for me personally is the fact that it doesn’t support staging on its WordPress hosting plans! However that wouldn’t matter to you if your site is relatively new and doesn’t experience constant real-time traffic, allowing you to experiment with its imperfect versions. Live-chat available.
Key features on the cheapest plan
- Cheapest plan: $5.95/month.
- Free migrations: Yes.
- Automatic WP installations & updates: Yes.
- Staging : No.
- Free SSL : Yes.
- Free domain : Yes.
- 24 X 7 live chat: Yes.
- Money Back: 45 days.
Final Words
So which is the best cheap WordPress hosting company in general? I’d say Bluehost. Or, go with A2 hosting. This is based on the fact that these two companies offer the best speeds, uptime, support, features and free add-ons. They also without doubt are among the cheapest.
Although if it’s just “cheap” you need, Hostinger is a pretty solid bet. If you’re still indecisive, iPage or Siteground would be good neutral grounds.
All in all, each of these companies have their own strengths and weaknesses. Some offer more features, while others are cheaper. Some are just more expensive but offer much better servers.
I’ve laid it all down for you. For now, I’d like to know which company you think wins the crown for the best cheap WordPress hosting. Do use the comments and let me (and the other readers) know.
