If you are serious about growing your online presence, you need the best WordPress hosting Australia can offer.
A fast, reliable and secure WordPress website starts with Managed WordPress Hosting.
But as you know, you get what you pay for. Unfortunately I see many website owners using cheaper hosting alternatives to save money.
Using cheaper hosting options is not the answer to saving money.
If your business relies on a website to generate leads and sales, you should be investing more money into your hosting, not less.
Below I’ve reviewed the top 6 best WordPress website hosts in Australia. Each have their strengths; suiting a variety of different business needs.
Let me know which hosting provider you choose.
Still not sure? Send me a message.
Table of Contents:
– My Recommendations
– What is WordPress Hosting?
– Shared vs Managed WordPress Hosting
– Pros & Cons
– Key Considerations
– Best WordPress Hosting Australia REVIEWS
Top 6 Picks – Best WordPress Hosting Australia
1. Cloudways
2. Kinsta
3. JohnnyVPS
4. WP Engine
5. Flywheel
6. SiteGround
What is WordPress Hosting?
Shared vs Managed WordPress Hosting
Not all WordPress hosting is created equal though…
When you are just starting out, it’s very easy to choose a hosting provider simply based on price. Afterall, there can’t be that much difference between them all? Can there?
Well actually there is a big difference between hosting services from the absolute cheapest you can find to the most expensive. Normally ranging from ~$1/month to ~$100/month. Some as high as ~$700/month.
Down the cheaper end you have Shared Hosting Providers like: BlueHost, GoDaddy and Hostinger.
Up the more expensive end, you have Managed WordPress Hosting providers like: WP Engine, Kinsta and Flywheel.
And somewhere in the middle you have the DIY providers that offer high performance VPS and Cloud Hosting. These include: Google Compute Engine, AWS, VULTR, LINODE and Digital Ocean.
In fact, most of the Managed WordPress Hosting providers use servers from the above DIY providers. For example, WP Engine uses servers from Google Compute Engine and Amazon Web Servers (AWS).
But because they provide a ‘managed’ solution, they configure everything to suit WordPress and your requirements. Fine tuning at its best so you get the best performance possible.
My favourite Managed WordPress Hosting provider is Cloudways, which gives you access to all of the aforementioned VPS and Cloud Hosting servers. At a fraction of the price!
Shared WordPress Hosting
PROS
- Cheap
CONS
- Poor Performance
- SSL Certificates are not usually free
- Support isn’t the best
- Overcrowded servers (you’ll share with 100s of other sites)
- No extras like staging sites or backups
Note: there are still some good shared hosting providers. Ones that provide good support, free SSL certificates and decent performance. Examples include: SiteGround and VentraIP.
Managed WordPress Hosting
PROS
- Amazing Support (usually in Oz)
- Servers in Australia
- Optimised for High Performance
- Better Security
- Automatic backups
- Staging Environments
- ALL the extras
CONS
- More expensive
What to look for with WordPress Hosting
Performance – do you need the best? If you don’t have a huge site or lots of traffic yet, then you might not need the absolute best. I still recommend managed WordPress hosting over shared hosting though.
Security – make sure the hosting provider you choose takes security seriously. Also make sure they provide backups and the ability to restore your site if anything goes wrong.
Cost – this is an obvious consideration but worth mentioning. In my opinion, the price difference between cheap shared hosting and managed WordPress hosting is minimal compared to the huge performance benefit.
Disk Space – make sure the provider and their plan has enough space for your website(s). Unless your website is new. Then don’t worry for now.
No. of sites – some providers limit the number of WordPress installations to ensure maximum performance.
Support – having online chat support 24/7/365 from an expert is key. All providers below provide great support. However, some of them might not provide it from Australia. i.e. English might not be their first language.
2021 Reviews – Best WordPress Hosting Australia
1. Cloudways – Best Value WordPress Hosting
Overall my favourite WordPress hosting provider. Not just in Australia, but worldwide. The perfect balance between performance, support and cost.
Cloudways Pros
- Access to Google Cloud, AWS, VULTR, LINODE and Digital Ocean servers
- Servers in Australia
- Cheapest of all Managed WordPress Hosts
- Plans from just $10/month USD
Cloudways Cons
- Learning curve for absolute beginners and non tech savvy peeps.
P.S. Check out my Cloudways review.
2. Kinsta – Best Premium Managed WordPress Hosting
I believe Kinsta stands out from the rest because of their epic blog posts. If I have a problem, I know they have a blog post with a solution.
True WordPress experts!
Their platform is also designed with beginners in mind. But with every advanced feature you can imagine.
Kinsta Pros
- Obviously High Performance
- Uses Google Cloud Servers
- Servers in Australia
- Beautiful Dashboard
- Designed with beginners in mind
Kinsta Cons
- They also have a list of disallowed plugins. Again, this can be a good thing. It’s in place to prevent security threats and performance issues.
- Entry level plan is limited to 1 site
3. JohnnyVPS – Fastest WordPress Hosting
From my experience, JohnnyVPS provides the best performance out of all managed WordPress hosts. Just read their comparison articles comparing their performance to all the other managed WordPress hosts.
Best suited for website owners with a big site(s) and lots of traffic. I highly recommend their Dedicated VPS Hosting plans. All of which come with personalised server support via Slack!
JohnnyVPS Pros
- #1 in Performance
- They offer free clone tests. Compare to your current provider.
- Servers in Australia
- Entry level plan is only $12/month USD
JohnnyVPS Cons
- Not suited to absolute beginners or websites with no traffic.
Visit JohnnyVPS – Free Clone Test
P.S. Check out my in-depth JohnnyVPS Review.
4. WP Engine – Premium WordPress Hosting
WP Engine is one of those providers that ONLY hosts WordPress websites.
Something I love because it means they are specialists.
Any questions, queries or concerns can easily be answered.
Not to mention their platform is built for performance!
WP Engine Pros
- High Performance
- Access to 35+ premium WordPress themes
- Servers in Australia
- Proprietary Caching System
WP Engine Cons
- They have a list of disallowed plugins. This can be a good thing though. It’s in place to prevent security threats and performance issues.
- Entry level plan is limited to 1 site
5. Flywheel – Budget Managed WordPress Hosting
Flywheel was the first ever Managed WordPress hosting provider ever recommended to me.
So they’ve been around a while.
And amazingly, their prices are still very affordable starting from $13/month USD!
Their entry level plan is best suited to small websites with minimal traffic.
Flywheel Pros
- High Performance
- Also uses Google Cloud Servers
- Servers in Australia
- Made for busy creatives
- Free Malware Cleanups
- Very affordable from $13/month!
Flywheel Cons
- They also have a list of disallowed plugins. This list is shorter than the others though.
- Entry level plan is limited to 1 site
6. SiteGround – Best Shared WordPress Hosting
There are only a select few shared hosting providers that make the cut.
SiteGround is one of them because of their affordable prices, recent performance/infrastrucuture upgrade to Google Cloud servers and their world class support.
SiteGround Pros
- Very affordable!
- Now uses Google Cloud servers
- Servers in Australia
- Great online chat support
SiteGround Cons
- Shared hosting
- Ok performance
- High Renewal Price
Final Thoughts…
Max’s Tips: Best WordPress Hosting Australia
– Think about performance before $.
– Your website is a business asset. Invest in it.
– Make sure your host has servers in Oz.
– It’s usually best to stay away from super cheap shared hosting.
– If you’re just starting, get 24/7 online chat support.
There you have it.
My thoughts on the best WordPress hosting Australia can offer (at the moment anyway).
So which hosting provider are you leaning towards? Would love to see your thoughts in the comment section below.
Still not sure? Send me an email and I’ll personally help you out.
P.S. If there is a host that should be in this list, please let me know.