The Best WordPress Hosting for Food Blogs

Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. I recommend this hosting because they companies that I personally use; not because of the small commissions I make if you decide to sign up.

WordPress website hosting is one of the more unsexy topics to talk about when it comes to your food blog. As unsexy as it is, it's one of the most important decisions you have to make for your blog. Looking at huge lists of hosting features and promises of unlimited this and the best that, can feel overwhelming, and it is.

Investing in Quality Hosting

The best WordPress hosting isn't cheap. If you break the cost down by day and weigh the potential revenue gain with a website that loads quickly (and doesn't go down); the decision to invest a little more in quality hosting is a pretty easy one.

Hosting is a little like buying a car. There are so many options and you can spend a little or a lot. Some are slow and some are fast. Some offer incredible service and others leave you feeling alone broken down on the side of the road. Some give you a courtesy car while yours is in the shop (backup), and others show you the door to walk home without your luggage.

Hosting is a car that you want to be fast, reliable and with the best service. When your car (or website) breaks down, you want someone there who can quickly help and not leave you feeling alone on the side of a dark road in the middle of nowhere.

There are only two hosting companies that I'm recommending in this post. Not that there aren't others out there that are just as good; but these are the two hosting companies that I personally use and trust every day.

This gives you two options to choose from depending on where you are on your blogging journey. It's completely understandable that when just launching a blog, you probably don't want to spend a single dollar more than you have to. You need something that is great for starting out and that can scale with you. When you are more established and the blog is your business and generates income; it's important to take it even more seriously.

Cheap Hosting Costs Add Up

There are many unseen costs of cheap hosting. It might start off at $1.95/month, but then you start adding more options that you need and end up spending more than you would with a quality host that includes all those features.

• Time. Nothing is more valuable than our time.
• Visitors leave your site causing your ads to be seen less, and thus, costing ad revenue
• SSL Certificate - many cheap hosts will try to charge for an SSL certificate. While more sophisticated SSL certificates can cost money, there are free versions such as Let's Encrypt, that are totally free and should be included with your hosting package without any extra fees.

So which host would I recommend?

I recommend two companies for WordPress hosting. While there are thousands of hosting options, I narrowed it down for you to just two. You might see a lot of "how to start a food blog" guides that recommend hosting from a certain company. I'm not going to get specific by names, but you really don't want to go there. If you take your blog seriously, you want to take hosting seriously and it's an investment that can pay-off in many ways.

If you scrolled down to this and just want a simple answer. Go with WPEngine if you are making money on your site. It might be hard to justify $35 a month when you are just starting out. When you can, I would definitely recommend WPEngine. I can't tell you how much less I think about hosting, site speed and updates switching to WPEngine. Whenever I have a question, their customer support is there to answer or even go in and fix the issue. They are just amazing.

When you are just starting out and need to invest your money in other areas, SiteGround is a great hosting option.

[pricing_table columns="2"]
[pricing_column title="WPEngine" highlight="true" highlight_reason="My Pick" color="extra-color-1" price="35" currency_symbol="$" interval="Per Month" ]

• 3 environments/site
• Free SSL Certificate
• CDN & SSL included
• Built-in caching
• 25K visits/month (on startup plan)
• Risk-free for 60 days
• Get 2 months free with annual prepay

[button size="medium" url="http://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=714568&u=1360624&m=41388&urllink=&afftrack=" text="Try WPEngine" color="extra-color-1"]
[/pricing_column]
[pricing_column title="SiteGround" price="3.95" currency_symbol="$" interval="Per Month"]

• One website
• Free SSL Certificate
• PHP 7
• Cloudflare CDN
• Free daily backups
• Free Email Accounts
• Starting at $3.95/month

[button size="medium" url="https://www.siteground.com/index.htm?afcode=c9fdf48e57dbf787870492d31b81c89e" text="Try SiteGround" color="extra-color-1"]
[/pricing_column]
[/pricing_table]

WordPress Hosting FAQ's

1. 1. How much does WordPress hosting cost?
      WordPress hosting can be as little as $3.95/month for new websites and be in the $1,000's for big sites with lots of traffic.
   2. What WordPress hosting is best for me?
      I recommend SiteGround when you are just starting out and WPEngine when your website is your business or generating revenue.
   3. What if I'm currently on bad hosting?
      The good news is that both SiteGround and WPEngine make it easy to transfer your site to them. It's something they can often do for you if you have all the login info needed.
   4. Where should I register my domain name?
      I recommend buying (or transferring-in) and managing domain names through Google Domains. They charge $12 a year for each domain and the interface is beautiful and easy to use. Yes, it's not free or something like $1.99 to buy a domain from Godaddy, but those prices are only for the first year so you are better spending a few extra bucks and go with Google Domains.

Like posts like this? Check out my Resources for Bloggers page.