Choosing the best WordPress hosting for agencies becomes more critical for website development companies managing hundreds or even thousands of client's websites.
Your clients rely on your expertise and trust in managing their websites.
So your hosting needs, expectations, accessibility, and performance requirements will differ from someone managing one or two websites.
Working with web hosts with poor hosting services and low-quality server infrastructure might lead to distrust and damage your agency's reputation.
I've discussed many WordPress hosting providers that offer white labelling or customized hosting services for agencies.
This web host also offers personalized hosting services that allow direct client billing, branding, and complete control over your business.
In today's post, I will share the top 4 hosting for WordPress development companies.
Best Agencies WordPress Hosting
Most of the web hosts listed on this page you already know, though you may not be aware they offer personalization or white labelling hosting service.
You must know that agencies hosting plans are not cheap, so you must be ready for the budget.
Since your business heavily relies on hosting quality, price shouldn't be one of your pros for choosing the best agency WordPress hosting.
Here are my top four agencies' specific WordPress hosting if budget is not a problem.
1. Cloudways
Cloudways offer agencies WordPress hosting, enabling businesses to manage clients' web properties from a more reliable platform and accessibility.
One of the advantages of using Cloudways as an agency is the pay-as-you-go plan, which enables you to pay only for the server resource used. And the unlimited website hosting makes Cloudways perfect for hundreds of website management.
You're not billed a flat monthly price or committed to lengthy contract terms.
Another benefit of agency hosting with Cloudways is the Cloudflare Enterprise add-on price. If you host more than 25 websites, the price goes as low as $1.99 monthly.
Hosting with Cloudways is straightforward; choose from the five available cloud hosting service providers:
With Cloudways autoscale features, you don't have to worry about exceeding server resources, storage, or bandwidth.
Autoscale automatically scales and downgrades server resources based on the traffic level. So, even if your client's website suddenly experiences traffic spikes or runs viral marketing, Cloudways never asks you to upgrade to a higher plan.
This means when traffic suddenly goes up, Cloudways scale up resources to handle the demand, and when traffic returns to normal, the platform automatically downgrades to your normal hosting plan.
Cloudways Agency Top Features
- Manage account access for team members, such as billing, cloud console, and support. You set the server and application permission level for each team member.
- Migrate the WordPress blog database to Cloudways in one click with the free migrating plugin.
- Enjoy affordable access, as low as $1.99 per month (having up to 25 websites), to the Cloudflare Enterprise CDN, and other optimization features, like images and mobile optimization, reduce latency and bandwidth costs.
- Powerful WordPress security with Cloudflare add-on, end-to-end encryption SSL Certificate, bot protection, proactive DDoS attack, and two-factor authentication for your account.
- Helpful documentation saves you hundreds of hours of contacting support for tasks you can handle as a developer.
- Build and test WordPress site changes on a staging environment before moving to a live site.
- Sign up for the Cloudways agency partner programs for additional benefits like guest author appearances, income, and growth, saving you hundreds in monthly budget and increasing productivity.
- Enjoy up to a 99.99% uptime guarantee.
Cloudways Agency Pricing
While Cloudways Digital Ocean server, standard and premium, start at $11 and $14, respectively, prices depend on the cloud server provider you select.
For example, the Google Cloud server costs more for its entry price, starting at $37.45, while AWS (Amazon Web Server) starts at $38.56.
This gives you the flexibility to determine your hosting budget.
Note whatever plan you subscribe to on Cloudways, you always pay for the resources used, not what is allocated to your account as you have in many web hosts. This type of hosting billing provides more transparency in invoicing and resource usage.
All Cloudways hosting accounts come with Cloudflare Enterprise CDN features, free Object Cache Pro, automated backup, auto-healing, and 24/7/365 support services.
2. WP Engine
There is no white-label service or direct client billing, but WP Engine offers one of the best hosting for agencies and web developers.
If your web development uses headless WordPress, you will love WP Engine. Your development team can leverage tools like Atlas hosting environments, Faust.js, and WPGraphQL.
The platform boosts fast and top-of-the-line hosting performance with a custom cache feature EverCache and CDN.
In addition, WP Engine has an agency-partnered program allowing you to earn referral commissions, support your development cost, get discount, generate leads, and grow your business.
Also, with WP Engine, you can access an enterprise businesses directory delivering WordPress development solutions and services. This gives you quick access to services that help you build, plan, and deploy your application faster.
All WP Engine hosting plans offer staging and development environments, premium Genesis StudioPress themes, free SSL Certificate, Genesis Pro, built-in cache, and security features.
WP Engine Agency Top Features
- 60-day money-back guarantee, No questions asked.
- Access to 35 StudioPress premium themes, Genesis Framework, plugins, and block editors tools.
- Custom built-in cache function - EverCache.
- Staging and production website hosting environments.
- 24/7 WordPress experts support care.
- Exclusive WP Engine Agency partnership program access with added benefits, income opportunities, and growth potentials.
WP Engine Agency Pricing
The plan starts at $77 per month (including 4 months of free hosting coupon) for the Growth managed WordPress hosting plan. However, it is billed at a yearly plan of $920.
WP Engine's ecommerce agency plan costs $94 monthly, saving you $560 for four months of hosting. And the Agency Plan starts at $725 per month, you need to contact sales to negotiate discounts and feature requirements.
3. Liquid Web
Liquid Web offers a purposely built hosting service for agencies allowing you to deploy custom CMS, WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal.
Shared hosting, VPS, cloud hosting, or dedicated server, you can pick which hosting plan is suitable for your agency projects.
They offer various hosting plans, tools, and dedicated features for designers, software developers, and web development agencies.
Several options exist, from ecommerce hosting to health industry-compliant hosting, database hosting, VMware, server cluster, and WordPress-managed hosting.
With 25,000 data centers across the US and EU, your client's website will load faster for its users, especially if your client's customers are from these locations.
Liquid Web has a web professional agency program giving you opportunities to earn more and increase your profit margin.
Liquid Web Agency Top Features
- Plugin performance monitoring
- White glove-free migration services.
- Automated Woocommerce periodic testing to ensure everything works as expected.
- Free SSL certificate installation.
- iThemes Pro, iTheme security, image optimization, and Beaver Builder Lite plugins are included in each plan.
Liquid Web Agency Hosting Pricing.
Liquid Web offers eight hosting plans, giving you various options.
As an agency, a few of these hosting packages suit your needs, so let's focus on them.
Builder, Producer, Executive, and Enterprise plans are suitable for agencies. The Builder plan allows up to 25 websites, 100 GB storage, and 5 TB bandwidth, and the price starts at $73.80 for the first three months, then $164.
The annual plan costs $136.70 per month, billed $1,640 for a 12-month plan, saving you two months' worth of hosting.
Liquid Web Producer hosting package gives you more hosting storage, 300GB, 50 websites, 5 TB bandwidth, and unlimited email accounts. The monthly plan costs $147.60 for the first three months, then $328 monthly.
The Executive and Enterprise package allows 100 and 250 websites, 500 and 800 GB, and 10 TB, respectively. The plans start at $270.90 and $492.75.
Learn more about the Liquid Web agency plans and prices on this page.
4. Nexcess
Part of Liquid Web, Nexcess provides managed WordPress hosting for agencies deploying one-click WordPress blog setups.
Nexcess provides automatic plugins, WordPress Core updates, 99.99% uptime, and daily backup.
One of the cores of Nexcess agency hosting features is the client's management dashboard, allowing you to manage clients' websites from one central interface. And you can also automate website monitoring, security patches, and testing with crons and workers.
Nexcess agency integrates with Cloudflare CDN and Elasticsearch. Your hosting plan includes iThemes Syn Pro, Cloud accelerations, developer ready, premium firewall, DDoS protection, and more.
Nexcess Agency Hosting Top Features.
- Minimum 30 PHP workers per site.
- Automates woocommerce features testing.
- Daily backup and free staging environments.
- Support for WordPress multisite.
- Autoscaling for sudden traffic spikes
- Sales performance analytics monitoring.
Nexcess Agency Pricing.
Like LiquidWeb, Nexcess has Builder, Executive, and Enterprise hosting packages.
Builder costs $73.80 monthly for up to 25 websites, 100 GB, 30 php workers, and 5 TB bandwidth. The executive plan costs $147.60 per monthly billing, and the Enterprise plan is $270.90 monthly.
Each plan comes with a 55% discount on the first three-month billing. However, if you subscribe to the 12 months plan, you can save up to two month worth of hosting invoices.
Hosting Features for Web Dev Agency
As a web development agency, there are hosting features that make your job easier, integrate with tools and services already used, and help you manage clients' operations effectively.
Here are some of the features and tools you should look for in WordPress-managed hosting for an agency.
Branding and White Label
If hosting management is part of your web services for your clients, including paying invoices, you might need a white-labelling hosting feature that gives you control over branding.
This is an extremely important factor when choosing the right agency hosting for your business.
Having a hosting partner that lets you put your brand touch on certain features like the control panel, dashboard, and invoicing will give you more peace of mind and make the job easier.
Unlimited WordPress Sites
There are no two options here. You must research a web host with unlimited or reasonable website allowance in one hosting account.
Initially, you may have fewer clients and fewer than a handful of websites. But as your business grows and websites run into hundreds, you need a hosting plan that allows unlimited websites and domains.
The number of domains or websites you can host in a hosting account depends on the hosting plan you purchase. So, this won't be a problem; it is a choice you have control over.
Account Administration Control
As an agency with diverse client needs and technical knowledge, it's important to have a hosting partner with an account access control feature.
Some of your clients might request access to the hosting account, while others may not.
Either way, it is important to control account access levels for clients so they don't unknowingly disrupt performance and cause unnecessary technical issues.
Performance and Speed
You don't compromise on hosting quality.
Server performance and response time are critical to your agency's success. If you manage your agency business on a poorly configured or low-quality hosting infrastructure, you're heading towards disaster.
You must research and test thoroughly before picking the best WordPress hosting for an agency suitable for your business type. Web hosts are not equal in terms of service delivery and server performance.
Scalability
Suppose your client's business suddenly goes viral and increases traffic. You will need a reliable hosting partner with scalable hosting to handle the increased traffic without requiring upgrading to a more expensive hosting plan.
Sudden and temporary traffic spikes should not force you to spend more on hosting.
Unambiguous Resource Usage Policy
Don't skip reading the hosting resources usage policy. Ensure you have a good knowledge of what's available and what's not in your hosting contract.
Things like bandwidth and storage usage should be clear and explained in simple language.
Learn how certain account features or tools affect your business operations, limit growth, or require more access levels.
Check the refund policy in case of dispute or lack of performance. Minor things like this can become major points of dispute if not known initially.
What is The Best Agency WordPress Hosting? Editor's Pick
While I have covered a few popular agency web hosts in this guide, Cloudways is my favorite.
Cloudways offer agency-specific hosting features allowing you to manage your business more effectively. Unlimited website hosting is something to consider for large-scale agencies with hundreds of domains to manage.
Plus, you have more control over clients' and team members' access levels.
You can resell Cloudways hosting to your client and earn more from the agency affiliate program, lowering costs and increasing profit margins.
Cloudways gives agencies more control and revenue opportunities, making it the better option.
Like WP Engine, the Cloudways agencies directory also gives you access to services and tools from other digital agencies to run your business smoothly.
