Guide to Our Drupal Web Hosting Reviews: 5 Features Of The Best Drupal Hosts
Drupal is the 6th most popular content management system, powering 1.4% of all websites online. Although its market share represented as a percentage may seem low, the powerful CMS backs nearly 450,000 websites worldwide.
WordPress often gets the name recognition and popularity, but the Drupal content management system represents a tech enthusiast’s dream platform.
As an open-source publishing platform that predates WordPress by a few years, Drupal particularly resonates with researchers, developers, and those with large databases of information.
Those looking for a high-performance system that can handle dense amounts of information and display it in meaningful, user-friendly ways will appreciate a self-hosted Drupal environment.
Many of the best web hosts in the world have tailored a Drupal web hosting plan to meet user needs, so our team took to the field to test out the top services and learn about the common features.
1. Drupal Hosts With cPanel Let You Install The Free Software in One Click
Initial setup — signing up with a host, downloading the necessary software, and customizing your first Drupal website — is arguably the most daunting part of website ownership for many beginners.
Thankfully, control panels with quick-and-easy software installations mean you can download and install popular CMS and forum software, like Drupal, in as little as one click. Take a look at our favorite cPanel hosts that offer the industry standard.
Some hosts, like Bluehost and HostGator, even optimize the cPanel experience even further. By tailoring the interface to users’ specific needs, your web hosting plan will give you efficient, clear access to Drupal core files, themes, and other modules.
2. Cheap Drupal Hosting Plans Throw In A Free Domain
Budget-minded hosting customers are probably wary of accumulating costs associated with starting a new website or online business.
If you need to hire outside help with design or maintenance, or if you’re simply dealing with the financial hurdles of launching a new business, each additional credit card charge can make you shudder.
Fortunately, many of the best hosts cater plans to small budgets. They’ll package incredible benefits into a shared hosting plan to offset any burdensome costs you may be experiencing with your new launch.
A favorite hosting package perk is a free domain name registration at signup, which covers roughly $15 of your first year’s expenses.
3. Many Drupal Hosts Support Unlimited Domains, Email, and Storage
Once you have your Drupal installation and the perfect domain name, you’re now ready to start building. Features abound in the offerings of each top Drupal hosting solution.
Within the CMS, you can customize webpages exactly to your liking, and hosts like SiteGround will support you with unlimited resources — site traffic, SSD storage, MySQL databases, and email hosting service at your free domain.
HostGator is another go-to Drupal expert when it comes to a well-equipped server and hosting platform with unmetered resources. Hosting options include a free SSL certificate, SEO tools, and the Cloudflare CDN.
4. Managed Drupal Hosting Services Handle The Hard Stuff
Drupal is the performance powerhouse of the CMS platforms — offering impressive security and speed right out of the box.
Needless to say, hardware stability to match the software is probably important to Drupal hosting customers. Powerful technology is nothing if you don’t know how to properly maintain it.
Drupal-enabled servers are no exception. This is where a managed Drupal hosting service can be a lifesaver.
Take InMotion Hosting, for example. All InMotion plans boast SSD-powered servers, and as part of the hosting company’s managed hosting packages, InMotion will implement security measures and performance configurations to best fit your particular project and maximize uptime for your Drupal site.
Among other hosting options, we love that A2 Hosting goes to great lengths to perfectly configure its servers for optimal performance. From a souped-up web server to multiple layers of caching, the hosting provider keeps a pulse on the larger Drupal community to stay ahead of any advancements.
5. The Best Drupal Hosting Provider Will Have You Up and Running In Minutes
Performance-packed Drupal takes the lead for many companies and developers in need of a powerful content management system, and the services atop our Drupal hosting reviews enable you to have a fully functioning website configured and live within minutes.
Drupal has steadily grown in popularity for the past few years, and the release of new Drupal distributions shows no sign of slowing that trend.
Be sure to sign up for one of the best Drupal hosting services highlighted here, and rest easy knowing that a 24/7 support team will be ready to assist should you ever run into trouble with your hosting account.
Whether you’re looking for shared hosting or a dedicated server, having a winning web hosting company on your side means your Drupal website is sure to come out with a victory.
Other Features to Look For in the Best Drupal Hosting Service
To summarize, the best Drupal host will offer features that make setting up and maintaining your site easy as pie. To recap, you should look for features such as:
- Multiple server options, such as shared hosting, cloud hosting, and VPS hosting
- The option to choose between Windows hosting and Linux hosting
- Excellent customer support
- Add-ons such as free email hosting, domain registration, and SSL certificates
- One-click Drupal website installation and unlimited RAM, CPUs, and bandwidth
If you consider these top factors, you’re sure to end up with the best Drupal hosting solution for you.
