13 Best UK WordPress Hosting Plans (Feb. 2024)

A mind-boggling 43.1% of all websites on the internet are built on WordPress, a content management system (CMS) juggernaut. That means WordPress powers nearly 810 million websites. Its open-source roots, wide range of robust features, strong community presence, and flexible infrastructure are the primary reasons for its incredible popularity.

While you can download the core WordPress software for free and build a WordPress website on your own, this is not recommended for beginners. It can be a time-consuming and overwhelming process that may not bear fruit.

Since you will have to pay for a domain name and web hosting service anyway, it is best to choose WordPress hosting. If you are based in the UK and are looking for the best UK WordPress hosting providers, you are in the right place. Renowned UK-based websites like The Economist, The Times, and Sky Sports use WordPress, so read on to find the best UK WordPress hosting plans.

Bluehost has a datacenter in London and is the gold standard of WordPress hosting. It makes WordPress easy and has been recommended by the CMS goliath itself since 2005. The web host and WordPress have been partners for more than ten years and have crafted each Bluehost WordPress hosting plan with care.

Bluehost also has an in-house team of dedicated WordPress experts for superior customer service and full-time WordPress core development. It is safe to say that Bluehost is committed to WordPress, and it understands the needs of WordPress users better than most do. Bluehost offers self-managed and managed WordPress hosting plans.

If you are comfortable managing your WordPress hosting plan, the BASIC plan is worth a look. This plan is ideal for a blog or small website and includes sufficient SSD storage, unmetered bandwidth, SSL certificate protection, a speed-boosting content delivery network (CDN), and automatic malware scans.

Bluehost also offers unmanaged plans for small and growing businesses to establish an online store. Its managed WordPress hosting is more expensive — but worth it. These plans include Jetpack tools, a centralized Marketing Center dashboard, more than 100 WordPress themes, and daily scheduled backups.

SiteGround has an in-house CDN with servers in London, making it one of the quickest and most reliable WordPress hosts around. SiteGround is rated a 5.0/5.0 by our in-house experts and powers more than 2.8 million domains while offering robust security, fast speeds, and 24/7 customer service.

The host offers optimized WordPress and WooCommerce hosting plans with full management that are powerful yet easy to use. Depending on the size of your business, you can choose from the StartUp, GrowBig, and GoGeek plans. The StartUp plan is the cheapest and a good option for bloggers and SMBs.

The StartUp plan includes decent web space, unmetered traffic, WordPress website and email migration, automatic WordPress software and plugin updates, a Let’s Encrypt Wildcard SSL certificate, enhanced security, and eCommerce integrations.

Higher-priced plans include unlimited websites, staging features, private DNS, and priority support. It is worth noting that all of SiteGround’s shared hosting plans offer managed WordPress capabilities. One of the only drawbacks of purchasing a SiteGround hosting plan is that you need to buy a domain name separately.

Hostinger has servers throughout Europe, including in the UK, and provides a custom CDN for lightning-fast performance. The web host is a standard-bearer for affordable, high-quality hosting, and it is a popular pick for WordPress beginners. It offers three cheap managed WordPress plans.

These plans offer superior website performance due to Hostinger’s CDN, LiteSpeed Web Server technology for rapid website loading speeds, and Object Cache technology for faster website response times. The Premium plan is the cheapest and includes all the features you need to create your WordPress website.

The Premium plan includes multiple websites and email addresses, plentiful SSD storage, solid performance, automatic weekly backups, and unlimited Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates and bandwidth. The plan also includes security capabilities, such as a WordPress vulnerabilities scanner, WP-CLI and SSH, DDoS protection, a WAF, a malware scanner, and a secure access manager.

The more expensive WordPress hosting plans offer a staging tool, AI provisions, on-demand backups, WooCommerce optimization, advanced security features, and priority support.

InMotion Hosting has a datacenter in The Netherlands, which is near the UK. While you may have to pay a premium for its services, InMotion Hosting is supremely reliable and provides powerful hardware and great support. The web host is highly rated and should be one of your top contenders for WordPress hosting.

InMotion Hosting provides managed WordPress plans optimized by experts. These plans offer industry-leading speed, fly security patching, safer upgrading, and server-to-server migrations. Of the four plans it offers, the WP Core plan is the most budget-friendly and is ideal for small and medium-sized websites.

This WP Core plan provides an SSL certificate, NVMe SSD storage space, enhanced WordPress performance, and unlimited bandwidth. It also includes DDoS and malware protection, automatic backups, a website builder, free advertising credits, and customer management tools.

In addition, it provides PHP workers, a powerful control panel in cPanel, developer-friendly tools, and live chat support. Unfortunately, this plan only offers US datacenter options, so you will need to purchase a higher-tier plan for UK WordPress hosting.

A2 Hosting has a datacenter in Amsterdam, close to the UK, and is the fastest web hosting provider both in the region and globally. Each managed WordPress plan is pre-configured with the A2 Optimized WordPress plugin.

The plugin implements caching (page, database, and object) and numerous compression options to save considerable bandwidth and enhance the performance of your WordPress site. Its plans are backed by the host’s Turbo line of blazing-fast technology. A2 Hosting’s cheapest Turbo-optimized WordPress plan is the Run plan.

The Run plan offers NVMe storage, on-site daily backups, the Jetpack free toolkit, pre-optimized performance, preconfigured security, WP-CLI, SEO tools, free email addresses, smart updates, and easy site cloning and staging.

A2 Hosting does not provide a free domain name with its WordPress plans, which will add to the overall price. Despite this, A2 Hosting offers some of the best WordPress features we have seen and is easily one of the best UK WordPress hosting providers.

Nexcess has two datacenters in the UK and offers top-notch managed hosting services for both WordPress and eCommerce. These services are backed by ultra-flexible cloud infrastructure, elite performance, and expert support, and they come with a hefty price tag. Nexcess offers some of the most expensive managed WordPress plans we have seen.

If budget is not a constraint, you should examine these plans, as they offer some pretty significant WordPress features for effortless website building. Nexcess offers eight WordPress plans, of which the Spark plan is the cheapest.

The Spark plan includes satisfactory SSD storage and bandwidth, website migration, instant access to staging, SSL certificates, automated daily backups, and unlimited email addresses. It also provides premium WordPress plugins, a curated WordPress stack, disaster recovery assistance, and solid overall security.

Nexcess offers the greatest PHP flexibility on the market with its WordPress plans. Unfortunately, it does not offer free domain registration.

HostPapa has servers in Amsterdam, which is close enough to the UK for great performance. It is an SMB hosting stalwart, delivering smart web solutions at affordable prices. The hosting company’s shared and WordPress hosting services, in particular, offer great value for the money.

HostPapa provides two categories of WordPress hosting: optimized and managed. Optimized WordPress hosting plans are cheap and include refined speed, enhanced performance, additional security, and 24/7 support. Managed plans offer all of the same features — and more — at significantly higher prices.

The WP Start plan is an economical, self-managed plan and is a solid option for beginners building a single WordPress site. This plan offers adequate SSD storage and email addresses, a standard SSL certificate, many core WordPress features, and free Jetpack tools.

More expensive plans include WordPress staging, advanced features, automated backups, domain privacy, and daily malware scans and removal assistance. Note that most WordPress hosts offer automated backups and malware-related security features in their lowest-priced plans.

HostGator’s datacenters are only in the US. This does not stop HostGator from delivering exceptional WordPress services to UK residents, as it routes your WordPress site through the Cloudflare network, which has datacenters throughout the UK. The modern web host offers three speedy managed WordPress plans with beefed-up security and free migrations.

These managed plans are reasonably priced and include all the features that businesses of any size need to launch a credible WordPress website. Each plan includes ready-to-go WordPress, advanced security, HostGator’s simplified control panel, free site migrations, and 24/7 premium support.

As the name suggests, its Starter Plan is beginner-friendly. It includes unmetered bandwidth, a free SSL certificate, free email, ample Google Ads credits, hundreds of WordPress themes, automatic backups, and malware removal tools.

The Standard Plan and Business Plan offer the same core features but with additional options for more scalability. All in all, HostGator is among the best UK WordPress hosting solutions.

Cloudways is powered by AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and DigitalOcean, with datacenters in the UK and an optional Cloudflare add-on. The managed cloud hosting provider delivers reliable, innovative, highly flexible, and high-performance hosting services. It is the top SMB hosting provider according to TrustPilot (as advertised on the host’s website).

Unlike most web hosts, Cloudways does not provide specially curated plans for different hosting categories. Instead, customers have the freedom to create a plan to their specifications and only pay for the services they need.

Cloudways is particularly encouraging for WordPress enthusiasts. You can select a standard or premium plan powered by Digital Ocean, AWS, or Google Cloud Platform to start. Standard DigitalOcean plans are the cheapest of all.

The lowest-priced standard DigitalOcean plan includes easy WordPress installation, managed WordPress capabilities, a simplified Cloudways cache, advanced caches combined with Breeze, and Cloudflare Enterprise (as a paid add-on).

Despite its immense hosting flexibility, Cloudways does not offer a free domain name with its plans.

As the name suggests, WP Engine is a WordPress-only hosting company. It hosts your WordPress site on AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure servers, all of which have locations in the UK. Rated 4.8/5.0 by TrustPilot, WP Engine offers several stellar features for WordPress hosting, including proprietary caching tools, Cloudflare CDN, a staging area, and single-click restore points.

These features are part of a managed WordPress plan that you can customize to your needs. However, if your budget is on the lower side, you may want to find another option. WP Engine’s managed plan is perfect for businesses that expect high-quality WordPress hosting, with price being no barrier.

The managed plan includes enhanced speed and performance, SEO capabilities, proactive security and threat blocking, automated WordPress and PHP updates, customizable workflow tools and themes, and automatic backups.

WP Engine does not offer a free domain registration service.

HostArmada has a UK datacenter in London. Although it’s a relative newcomer, HostArmada has garnered quite a positive reputation, and it consistently ranks among the best web hosts in the business, particularly for WordPress hosting. The cloud host delivers some of the cheapest managed WordPress plans around.

Its plans are powered by NGINX ( Start Dock and Web Warp plans) or LiteSpeed (the Speed Reaper plan) web servers. The plans are optimized for page loading speed and offer quick, redundant SSD storage space. The Start Dock plan is sufficient for most new website owners.

This plan includes free SSL for all sites, unlimited subdomains, databases, and email accounts, a cPanel control panel, daily backups, a SiteBuilder subscription, malware scans and removal, and a WAF.

The Speed Reaper plan offers increased scalability and dynamic caching as well.

Flywheel is another WordPress-only host that operates a UK datacenter in London. It is one of the best WordPress hosting services for creative agencies, developers, and designers. Flywheel’s managed WordPress plans are fast, secure, and reliable.

While its plans are costly, they provide a bundle of efficient workflow tools to help create beautiful WordPress websites. The Tiny plan is a good option for small websites.

The Tiny plan includes decent SSD storage and bandwidth, a few WordPress themes, custom FlyCache technology, Fastly CDN, an SSL certificate, and plugin security alerts, among other features.

You can also request a custom-built plan. Flywheel is yet another WordPress host that does not provide free domain registration.

Last but not least, the domain registration leader, GoDaddy, has several UK datacenters, and it offers sturdy WordPress hosting plans complete with AI capabilities. The GoDaddy AI onboarding service makes building a WordPress website simple. Just answer a few questions, and the service can create a website design that you can fine-tune to your liking.

Its plans are affordable, fully managed, and blazing fast. Add GoDaddy’s reliability to the mix, and it is a solid contender for the best UK WordPress hosting.

The Managed WordPress Basic plan is best for simple websites. It includes NVMe storage, unlimited bandwidth, an SSL certificate, daily backups, and malware scans. The plan also provides a WAF and automatic updates for the core WordPress software, plugins, extensions, and PHP versions.

A one-click migration tool, professional email capabilities, and staging site and developer access are welcome bonuses.

Web hosting revenue in the United Kingdom is projected to reach $8.49 billion in 2023, and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 20.02% between 2023 and 2028. WordPress is the dominant player, not just in the UK market, but around the globe. That is why most web hosts offer WordPress-specific hosting services. The UK has the third-most WordPress users in the world after the US and Iran.

WordPress hosting in the UK is no different from anywhere else in the world. A WordPress hosting service can provide you with all the tools to build and host your WordPress website. These services are specially optimized for WordPress and typically offer incredibly fast speeds, high levels of security, automated updates, dedicated support, and a high uptime guarantee.

It is important to have an optimally located datacenter to ensure maximum uptime. Most web hosting providers have datacenters in Europe, specifically in and around the UK, to cater to European audiences. This is beneficial for WordPress users in the UK, and it is the biggest reason so many good WordPress hosting options exist in the region.

Self-managed and managed WordPress hosting plans often provide all the features you need to successfully set up your WordPress site. These plans may also include premium security, performance, growth, and marketing tools. That said, many action-packed features do not necessarily guarantee a terrific WordPress hosting option. You need to know what exactly to look for.

Here are the features you should look for in a WordPress host:

• Uptime: High uptime is instrumental for user satisfaction. A minimum uptime guarantee of 99.9% is a must. The closer to 100% uptime, the better.
• Storage: Very few hosting plans offer unlimited storage and bandwidth (the best combination). Assess your present and future storage needs (a 20% buffer is recommended), and opt for a plan that offers unmetered bandwidth and ample storage for maximum performance.
• Speed: A CDN and caching optimization enable fast page loading speeds.
• Domain: Free domain name registration and privacy.
• Setup Process: A streamlined setup process, with one-click WordPress installation (preferably with preconfigured settings), and a user-friendly control panel.
• Business Features: Custom email addresses, free SSL certificates, eCommerce integrations (such as WooCommerce), and advanced analytics tools (i.e. Google Analytics).
• Security: Regular backups (automatic), malware scans and removal, firewalls, and DDoS protection.
• Scalability: Provisions for easy scaling without sacrificing performance (multiple or unlimited websites are a bonus).
• Customer Support Service: 24/7 customer support, with live chat, phone support, a ticketing system, email support, and an in-depth knowledge base.
• Reputation and Pricing: Trustworthiness and value for money.

If a WordPress host bundles these features and a set of advanced WordPress features into a budget-friendly plan, take note of the web host, compare it with hosting providers that offer similar amenities, and select the most suitable option to meet your requirements.

The physical location of your WordPress server’s datacenter could affect your website’s performance. The farther away the server is from its users, the greater the distance data travels to reach them. For example, A2 Hosting has a datacenter in Amsterdam, which is quite close to the United Kingdom.

The proximity of its datacenter to the UK and its AI-powered software and hardware optimizations make A2 Hosting the fastest WordPress web host in the region.

A2 Hosting’s managed WordPress plans are backed by its Turbo line technology, offering serious speed. The web host pre-configures WordPress installs with the best security and speed settings and provides an option to easily add the WooCommerce plugin to your website.

Cloudways is no slouch, either. The cloud-based web host has DigitalOcean, AWS, and Google Cloud Platform datacenters in the United Kingdom, ensuring lightning-fast performance and reliability.

Managed WordPress hosting is more expensive than the self-managed version because it includes several premium features. An unmanaged WordPress hosting plan typically costs less than $50 annually. Managed WordPress hosting, on the other hand, could set you back more than $100 in the same period.

WordPress pricing models vary, and some web hosts offer much cheaper WordPress plans than others. Bluehost and Hostinger, for example, offer more affordable managed WordPress hosting. A2 Hosting, on the other hand, charges a premium for its services because of its super-fast, performance-optimized infrastructure and WordPress features. You could also host your WordPress site on a shared, dedicated, cloud, or VPS hosting plan.

These plans generally provide a one-click installation option for the WordPress web app and many other web applications. Shared and cloud hosting are much cheaper than dedicated or VPS hosting, but are best suited to small and mid-sized businesses. If budget is not a constraint, you could opt for a VPS or dedicated hosting plan.

Regardless of your hosting plan, you can save costs if the plan includes free domain name registration.

You can download the WordPress core software for free by visiting WordPress.org, but we recommend a paid hosting service to bring your WordPress website to life. You can download and install the software on your computer at no cost, just like any other free or open-source software, and use it as a testing environment.

You can learn how to test new features and build a WordPress website on your local server (i.e. your computer) before migrating your website to a live server. While you can purchase any hosting plan (shared, cloud, or dedicated) with a free domain to host your WordPress site, we recommend selecting a self-managed or managed WordPress hosting plan.

A managed WordPress plan will make your life easier. If you already have a shared, cloud, or dedicated server hosting plan, do not fret. Most hosting providers offer one-click installation of WordPress with these plans, and some offer dedicated WordPress resources. Hostinger, for example, includes several fantastic AI-based tools for WordPress with its shared hosting plans.

Pro tip: If you’re sure you don’t want to pay for WordPress hosting, you can use a free service like 000webhost to put your site online. However, it will come with fewer resources and several limitations.

Naturally, WordPress hosting is the best for WordPress, and managed WordPress hosting plans are the cream of the crop. However, shared, cloud, VPS, and dedicated hosting have their own benefits. You could use any of those types to effectively host a WordPress website, particularly if you have already purchased a plan.

Here are the pros and cons of these hosting types:

	Pros	Cons
Shared Hosting	Cheapest and most user-friendly hosting option, with numerous top-notch features. A free domain name is included with most hosting plans. Best for blogs or small websites.	Shared resources could lead to issues with speed and reliability. Less secure than other hosting options because of a shared server with potentially thousands of users.
Cloud Hosting	Another pocket-friendly and reliable hosting option. Easy to scale according to your business needs Highly customizable. Ideal for SMBs.	Reliant on the internet to store your data. Pay-as-you-go pricing can be difficult to predict.
VPS Hosting	Full root access and control. Dedicated server resources. More secure than shared hosting. Best for website owners with medium-level traffic	More expensive than shared and cloud hosting. Less scalable than cloud hosting. Less secure than cloud hosting.
Dedicated Hosting	Enhanced performance. Complete security and extensive control. Dedicated support. Ideal for organizations with millions of website visitors.	Most expensive hosting option. Increased complexity. Potential for high environmental impact.

Shared hosting is often the best solution if you are looking for a cheap hosting plan with a free domain name. Cloud hosting is another solid, budget-friendly option. VPS hosting and dedicated hosting cost more but are equally effective for WordPress hosting (if not better), especially for mid and large-sized businesses. However, it is difficult to match the benefits of a managed WordPress plan for WordPress hosting.

Managed WordPress hosting offers faster website loading speeds and superior performance (the servers are WordPress-optimized), automatic updates and backups, robust security measures, expert WordPress support, and immense flexibility.

Bluehost is the best WordPress hosting provider for UK residents. With a datacenter in London, carefully crafted WordPress plans, in-house teams dedicated to WordPress, and stellar security features, Bluehost offers customers the best selection of WordPress hosting features.

Hostinger, SiteGround, HostGator, HostArmada, and GoDaddy are excellent options as well. SiteGround, in particular, is worth another look. It has an in-house CDN, servers in London, an outstanding monthly uptime guarantee of 99.999%, SuperCacher technology for fast page loading, and remarkable security features.

While A2 Hosting is on the more expensive side, it is also an exceptional WordPress host with plans curated for speed and security. Apart from SiteGround and A2 Hosting, each of the above-mentioned web hosts offers a free domain name with their managed WordPress hosting plans. All of this information should help you confidently select the right hosting plan for your WordPress website today!