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WordPress is the content management system (CMS) of choice for many agencies that build and manage clients’ websites due to its extensive functionality and customizability.
But while WordPress can help you create stunning, functional websites for your clients, the true potential of these sites is only unlocked when paired with the best web hosting.
A good host ensures your sites load fast, stay up and running, and are secure from potential threats or attacks. Conversely, the wrong choice can result in slow load times, frequent downtimes, and many other technical issues that could tarnish your agency’s reputation.
In this guide, we’ll spotlight seven top-tier providers, explaining what makes them the best WordPress hosting for agencies.
Keep reading to find out which of these WordPress hosting solutions could be a great fit for your agency.
How to choose the best WordPress hosting for your agency
There are a few essential factors you should take into account when choosing a WordPress hosting provider for your client websites. The most vital are performance and speed, security and reliability, scalability and flexibility, customer support, and pricing.
Let’s examine each in more detail.
Speed and performance
People expect websites to load fast and will leave if it takes too long. For example, 25% of visitors will abandon a page that takes longer than four seconds to load. Furthermore, each additional second of load time decreases conversion rates by an average of more than 4% in the first five seconds.
To guarantee fast speed, ensure your hosting provider has adequate server resources, including CPU, RAM, and storage, to handle your client’s website traffic and data needs.
Choose a provider with data centers located near your clients’ target audiences to help reduce latency and, subsequently, the load times of your sites. You should also look for providers that offer content delivery networks (CDNs).
Last but not least, consider hosting companies that provide advanced caching mechanisms so previously viewed content can be served more quickly to users.
Security and reliability
The cyberworld is filled with all kinds of threats. To stay safe, look for a web host provider that offers robust security features, such as malware scanning, built-in firewalls, and DDoS protection.
Things can still go awry even with the above security features, so search for providers that also offer automatic backups, preferably on a daily basis. Make sure they have easy restoration options so you can swiftly recover your website or data in the event of a mishap.
In regards to reliability, the most important metric to consider is uptime. The best WordPress hosting for agencies has an uptime guarantee of at least 99.9%. This ensures your sites are accessible to visitors almost always, minimizing the chances of lost sales or opportunities.
Scalability and flexibility
It’s essential to align with a host that offers scalable resources.
When your sites grow in terms of traffic or assets, you should be able to effortlessly add extra system resources like CPUs, bandwidth, SSD storage, and RAM to handle the increased loads.
If you’re subscribed to a WordPress hosting plan with a set amount of resources, your chosen host should allow for easy plan adjustment — whether that means upgrading it as your agency expands or downgrading if you’re consolidating. Such flexibility ensures you’re not locked into a plan that no longer suits your requirements.
Customer support
Technical issues are inevitable and can crop up at any time. When that happens, you want a dedicated team by your side, ready to assist. The best WordPress hosting for agencies comes with 24/7/365 customer support that’s accessible via various channels like phone, live chat, and email.
Equally crucial as round-the-clock availability is expertise and responsiveness. Ensure your provider’s support team is technically proficient, competent, and swift in responding to customer issues.
A practical way to gauge the quality of a web hosting company’s customer support and its turnaround times is to read online reviews. Even better, contact the company directly through its official support channels.
Pricing
The best WordPress hosting for agencies comes with clear pricing structures. A transparent and condition-free money-back guarantee is usually a good sign.
The actual costs of hosting will vary between different providers. While it’s natural to be drawn to low prices, take time to understand what those numbers really mean. Some providers might offer seemingly low initial rates only to later charge more for essential features.
Instead of just looking at the price tag, assess the value proposition of each provider’s offerings. Read the fine print to understand what you’re getting for the price and determine if it aligns with your agency’s needs — both now and in the near future.
Companies that offer the best WordPress hosting for agencies
Now that you’re ready to choose a WordPress host for your agency, here are a few options worth considering. Please note that the pricing information listed below is accurate as of the publication of this article but is subject to change.
1. Liquid Web
Liquid Web has been providing web hosting services for more than 25 years and is thus a seasoned pro in this space.
The company offers one of the broadest ranges of hosting plans in the industry, including:
Whether you’re looking to host a few WordPress sites or want to deploy a complex multi-server hosting environment, you can trust Liquid Web to have a custom solution for your needs.
Every plan includes a free CDN add-on to ensure content is delivered quickly to visitors on your clients’ websites.
In terms of reliability, Liquid Web confidently backs its services with a 100% network uptime service level agreement (SLA). And if the company somehow doesn’t meet that, you’ll get a credit for 10 times (or 1,000%) the amount of time your sites were affected.
A diverse selection of security measures — including integrated firewalls, DDoS protection, malware scans, and routine security updates — will fortify your sites. The company also provides free SSL certificates.
Liquid Web’s crowning jewel is exceptional customer service. The company offers 24/7/365 support on multiple avenues, including live chat, phone, email, and tickets. What’s more, it boasts an unmatched response time of 59 seconds on the phone or chat.
Liquid Web’s support staff comprises WordPress experts, along with Microsoft, Juniper, Red Hat Linux, and Cisco-certified technicians who are greatly competent in all things web hosting.
With Liquid Web, you don’t need to hire a separate SysAdmin — the company support considers itself an extension of your team.
Lastly, Liquid Web has one of the best agency partnership programs in the web hosting landscape, with a lot of valuable perks.
Join Liquid Web’s Partner+ Program to access not only Liquid Web’s full suite of features but also that of its sibling brand, Nexcess, which specializes in hosting optimized for WordPress.
Some of the best Nexcess features include daily backups, automatic updates, a curated premium plugin stack, instant staging, and a plugin performance monitor.
- Stellar 24/7/365 customer support.
- Free CDN addon for speed optimization.
- 100% network uptime SLA.
- Comprehensive product portfolio, plus access to Nexcess features.
- Integrated firewalls, DDoS protection, and malware scanning.
- Free SSL certificates.
Best agency WordPress hosting for: All-around high-quality features and customer support.
Price: Managed WordPress hosting starts at $17.20/month for up to three sites for three months, then $43/month.
2. Kinsta
Kinsta is another WordPress hosting provider worth looking into.
At the forefront of Kinsta’s appeal is its commitment to fast loading speeds.
Each site that’s powered by Kinsta runs on Google Cloud Platform’s highest CPU machines.
Plus, the company has an expansive network of resources that includes 35+ data centers and 260 CDN Points of Presence (PoPs).
The intuitive MyKinsta tool allows easy management of sites, granting you access to a plethora of customization and optimization tools.
You can give unique credentials to each member of your team and allow them access to all (or a select few) sites. You can also give your clients full control over their sites. There’s a staging environment for each WordPress install that’s separate from the live production site to help you safely test them.
The company keeps your sites secure using various tools, including Cloudflare web application firewall and DDoS protection.
Other premium features include easy upgrading or downgrading of plans, listing on its agency directory to get additional visibility, free hosting for your own agency website, daily backups, free SSL with automatic renewals, and white-label hosting.
- Fast speeds.
- Cloudflare web application firewall and DDoS protection.
- WordPress staging environment.
- Easy upgrade or downgrade of plans.
- White label hosting.
- Daily backups.
Best agency WordPress hosting for: Fast speeds and performance.
Price: Starts at $340/month for 20 WordPress installations.
3. Cloudways
ALT: CloudwaysWordPress hosting for agencies.
Cloudways boasts an impressive client portfolio of over 12,000 agencies and 500,000 WordPress websites.
One of its standout features is its transparent pay-as-you-go pricing model. With Cloudways, you can scale up without fear of hidden costs. Additionally, you only pay for the resources you consume.
You can choose DigitalOcean, Google Cloud, or Amazon Web Services (AWS) to power your sites.
You can install as many sites as you want on your cloud server of choice. Tools like Cloudflare Enterprise CDN and advanced caching ensure optimal website performance and speeds.
You can easily add team members to your Cloudways account and grant them access to support, billing, and the cloud console. The company also lets you leverage tools like SSH, SFTP Access, and WP-CLI to enhance productivity.
To help keep your site secure, Cloudways provides tools and features like SSL certificates, end-to-end encryption, and bot protection.
Additional features include free migration, automated backups, staging tools, and automatic WordPress updates with a guaranteed 99.9% uptime.
- Pay-as-you-go pricing model.
- Several cloud hosting providers to choose from.
- Easy addition of team members to your Cloudways account.
- Automatic backups.
- 99.99% uptime guarantee.
Best agency WordPress hosting for: Seamless scaling.
Price: Starts at $11/month.
4. SiteGround
SiteGround is another great WordPress hosting platform for agencies. It comes with an automated setup wizard that lets you create new clients’ sites in minutes. There’s also a unified dashboard from which you can easily manage all your sites.
Transferring sites to clients is hassle-free with a few clicks, plus you can make recommendations for hosting plans and add-on services as part of the transfer process. After the transfer, you can stay on a collaborator list.
SiteGround also allows you to add team members with relative ease and choose the sites and features they have access to.
The company prioritizes performance and security — offering tools like a CDN, IP blocker, SSL, caching, automatic updates, and daily backups.
Some of SiteGround’s plans let you white label the hosting dashboard. This essentially lets you replace SiteGround’s brand with your own, so clients don’t see the company’s logo on their control panel.
- Automated set-up wizard.
- Easy transfer of sites.
- Support for various collaborators.
- White label hosting.
- Performance and security tools like a CDN, IP blocker, SSL, WordPress caching, auto-updates, and daily backups.
- WordPress staging tool.
Best agency WordPress hosting for: Fast and easy site creation and management.
Price: Starts at $4.99/month.
5. WP Engine
WP Engine is a trusted provider of managed WordPress hosting, currently powering over 1.5 million WordPress sites.
It offers an array of tools and features with each plan to enrich the site-building and design experience. These include free premium WordPress themes and plugins and one-click staging environments.
For those transitioning from another host, WP Engine provides an automated website migration plugin to help ensure a smooth and instant transfer.
Scalable architecture backed by tech giants like Google Cloud, AWS, and Microsoft Azure makes sure that your clients’ websites can handle high traffic. And with tools like EverCache, a global CDN, and automated WordPress and PHP updates, you’re assured of peak performance and fast loading speeds on your clients’ websites.
Other features that this provider offers include free SSL certificates, easy site transfers to clients, and daily and on-demand backups.
- Free premium WordPress themes and plugins.
- Staging environment for all sites.
- Automated migration plugin.
- EverCache, a global CDN, and automated WordPress and PHP updates.
- Daily and on-demand backups.
Best agency WordPress hosting for: Premium site-building and design features.
Price: Agency plans start at $77/month (billed at $920/year).
6. Flywheel
Flywheel is another top WordPress hosting service that’s worth considering.
With this web hosting provider, you can add team members as collaborators and give them permission to manage sites, edit files, and update databases. A real-time activity feed lets you know what everyone is working on.
When it comes to building sites, Flywheel offers Blueprints, which essentially lets you package your favorite themes and plugins as a custom configuration or starter set for future projects.
There’s also a staging environment to enable stress-free site changes, and once you’re done, you can push your changes to production with one click.
Global data centers and servers optimized for WordPress and a caching engine ensure high performance and fast load times on all your sites. You can also add a CDN for even faster speeds.
Flywheel has you covered when it comes to security, offering tools and features like free SSL certificates, nightly site backups, and free site clean-up in case of hacking.
- Support for collaborators.
- Blueprints feature for saving custom configurations of preferred themes and plugins.
- Servers optimized for WordPress.
- Free CDN for improved speed.
- Free SSL certificates.
- Daily backups.
Best agency WordPress hosting for: Easy collaboration with team members.
Pricing: Freelance plans start at $96/month (billed at $1,150/year) for up to 10 sites.
7. Pressable
Pressable is designed exclusively for WordPress and WooCommerce. It comes with a user-friendly and intuitive dashboard that simplifies the site management process.
Pressable’s plans are flexible — you can upgrade, downgrade, and customize your plan easily for your needs.
With a global CDN and worldwide data centers, you are assured of fast speeds with this provider. The company also offers a 100% uptime SLA.
Security-wise, each plan comes with Jetpack Security Daily. This provides a suite of essential features, including daily backups, malware scans, and brute-force attack protection.
Other great perks you can expect from this provider include managed migrations for client websites, free SSL certificates, and 24/7 expert support.
- Flexible plans.
- 100% uptime SLA.
- Worldwide data centers and a global CDN.
- Jetpack Security Daily for each plan.
- Free SSL certificates.
Best agency WordPress hosting for: Security.
Price: Starts at $37/month for three WordPress sites when billed annually.
Final thoughts: The best WordPress hosting for agencies
Choosing a hosting provider for your clients’ WordPress sites is a critical decision that can significantly impact your agency’s success. Each of the web hosting companies we’ve looked at here brings a unique set of strengths to the table that can enhance your agency’s offerings and guarantee client satisfaction.
However, if you’re looking to collaborate on a deeper level and maximize the benefits from your provider, you should check out Liquid Web.
In addition to exceptional site performance, security, and top-tier support, Liquid Web comes with an attractive agency partner program.
You’ll get exclusive perks and benefits such as a dedicated account manager, commissions that scale as your business grows, and a partner directory listing to increase your visibility and potentially attract more clients.
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