This page represents the views of David Wolfpaw, and does not represent the views of the WordPress Foundation
We get asked a lot about hosting. Generally, we say “it depends”. Heck, one of our organizers gave a whole talk on choosing the right hosting for your needs
That said, there are a few hosts that we generally recommend. Two of those hosts are WP Engine and SiteGround. For full transparency, both of them have sponsored our meetups, as well as WordCamp Orlando. Even so, they’re not getting a recommendation because they’ve supported us, but we support them due to outstanding support, service, and high quality product.
SiteGround
SiteGround is who we host wporlando.org with, and they’ve got lots of things that we like about them. One is that their support is amazingly fast. I generally have responses to requests for support, whether technical or billing, in under ten minutes if I use their ticketing system. If I’m dong live chat, the reps are all knowledgeable, and can generally help me on the first try or escalate me to someone who can.
SiteGround also has support for Let’s Encrypt right in the control panel for their shared environments, giving you access to free, open source SSL/TLS certificates. On top of that they’ve got a robust staging system and git integration. Using this link (non-affiliate) will get you a steep discount on your first year of hosting, since they also support WordPress meetups all over the world.
WP Engine
WP Engine is another personal favorite. I’ve been a customer since 2012, and have consistently had good experiences. As a site owner, I don’t have to worry about backups, security, or maintenance, as those needs are covered in a managed environment. Their staging system is robust, and even easier as a one click from production site to staging and back again.
As a developer, WP Engine has a great management system that gives you access to all of the tools that you need to manage client sites where they don’t want to share billing info, manage domains and redirects, SFTP logins, PHPMyAdmin, error logs, and more. It’s a different system than CPanel and is necessarily more restrictive, but that’s because you’re expecting WP Engine to handle a lot of the technical side for you, and they do a good job of it. Using this link (affiliate) will get you two months free on an annual plan.