Finding the best web hosting for small business can be a pain in the neck. Reading all of the reviews and product comparisons on google before making a decision is just overwhelming — and it’s easy to get stuck in analysis – paralysis.

As someone who has been blogging for some time, I am here to help you make an informed choice and choose the best web hosting for your small business.

Disclosure: The links you see in this post are affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase using my referral links, I will receive a commission (at no cost to you.) Please understand that I talk about these products and services because I believe in them and can stand behind them, and not because of the small commission that I will receive.

1. What is the Best Web Hosting for Small Business?

As a business owner, my top priority is SPEED.

Two quick points about speed

• Loading speed is considered by google as a ranking factor. The faster your website loads, the more plus points you get from google – and the higher your chances are to rank on the first page (and that’s what we, as business owners, want.)

• The looading speed of your site is directly connected to your web host. In fact, hosting is the #1 factor of website speed. This is why I tell my clients to choose their hosting provider with care: your website’s speed will rise and fall with the rise and fall of your web host.

So out of the big three; Bluehost, SiteGround, and WP Engine, which web hosting is best for your small business?

Based on twitter, reddit and facebook reviews (all below with pictures), the service you get with WP Engine is simply unmatched. WP Engine is the complete package for speed optimization, security and reliability.

2. WP Engine – Small Business Web Hosting Features

With WP Engine, you get the following:

• You get two months free if you pay for the entire year in advance.

• SSD technology for lighting speed

• WP Engine has recently adopted the Google’s latest cloud platform to boost loading speed by an additional %40 making WP Engine faster than anyone else in WordPress

• Using PHP 7.3, WP Engine customers see up to a 15% decrease in request processing time.

• 99.99% Uptimes

• Free Genesis Framework and 35+ StudioPress Themes using any of their plans

• You can expect to receive a personalized experience and recommendation for your site. You get custom functionality with access to over 50,000 plugins and a curated list of recommended plugins in the Solution Center.

• You’re getting managed (and NOT shared) hosting which means that the 100 WP Engine experts will mange your tech stack, server security, updates, and server-side optimizations.

• Every plan comes with free SSL, global CDN and daily automatic backups. 

• WPEngine locks down your site with managed WordPress updates, vulnerability scanning, 2FA, DDoS mitigation, automatic threat detection and blocking.

• WP Engine can handle spikes in traffic if one of your posts goes viral. It won’t slow your site or become unresponsive.

• Free migration from another host using their plugin. Their support team is available 24/7/365 to help you with the process.

• They have a 60-day money-back guarantee to sample WP Engine features.

• You will get a predictable bill: your introductory rate is what you pay as long as you are a customer. That’s not the case with Bluehost or SiteGround. Your next bill cycle will go up significantly for the SAME service and not an upgraded one.

• Best support in the industry (and I mean world class support).

3. Web Hosting Speed For Your Online Business

When people choose a web host, they’re looking for reliability as well as security, but most importantly, they are looking for speed. Every second you can shave off from your loading time, you’re website and your business are better off for it.

Here are what people have to say about WP Engine:

3.1 WP Engine is Now the Fastest Web Hosting Provider

By adopting Google Compute-Optimized Virtual Machines (VM), WP Engine now promises even faster sites through accelerated page load times. Couple this with HTTP/2 and the latest PHP 7.3 support, you will be on your way to a blazingly fast website.

3.2 Endorsed by WP Rocket for Even More Speed

Few web hosting companies are endorsed by a plugin as popular as WP Rocket. WP Rocket has an impeccable reputation in the market and it has partnered with WP Engine. It is now one of the most preferred (and fully compatible) plugins that is specifically tailored to fit the needs of WP Engine customers.

With this combo, WP Engine customers get the best front end optimization AND the best server optimizations for an incredibly fast website.

4. Best Web Host: Reddit Conversations

People want to see conversations by real users and not simply by affiliates. For this reason, I have posted a couple of conversations for your to view and make up your own mind.

5. Best Web Host: Facebook Conversations

There are a dozen of facebook pages where people ask about hosting providers. Here you will see regular folks asking the online community for recommendations.

This is what they have to say:

6. Results for Migrating to WP Engine

When people migrate their websites, they do so because they are usually looking to improve their website’s loading speed. In fact, according to google web developers: one of the ways to improve your website loading time is by migrating to faster database systems.

Which company should you migrate your website to?

Here are what others have to say:

7. Ethical Standards

When you join WP Engine, you will be joining an online community that lives by high ethical standards.

WP Engine is known for giving back to the community. In 2019, they donated $100,000 to causes that their employees care about. They were the first to sign the Equal Pay for Equal Work White House pledge. And they have an amazing intern program for college students.

This is a company that deeply cares about its relationship with its surroundings; both customers and employees, and is out to provide the best service it can while benefitting the community at large.

WP Engine has also been featured on CNN reports.

It is admired by customers, employees, and partners.

8. Free Genesis Framework and Studio Press Themes

In mid 2018, WP Engine acquired StudioPress. Studio Press is a renowned theme development company that produced the popular Genesis Framework and a lot of premium WordPress themes. With this move, WP Engine customers now have access to the Genesis Framework and a selection of 37 StudioPress WordPress themes for FREE. No need to spend money on premium theme that could go upwards of $120 per theme!

When using any of their themes, you can rest assured that your website AND your theme are fully optimized for speed.

9. WP Engine Compared to Bluehost

Bluehost is a great budget host if you want to start a personal blog. I actually recommend them to my clients if they are on a budget and they are just starting out.

With Bluehost, however, you will be getting “shared hosting.” This means that you will share your server with other blog owners. This can compromise the loading speed of your website and that, in turn, can affect your SEO and ranking.

To get the best out of Bluehost and counteract the possible slowness of your website loading speed, you can purchase WP Rocket for $49/year. This is a great combo for beginners.

10. WP Engine Compare to SiteGround

SiteGround is also a great option for beginners. It’s great for speed – they use PHP 7.3, Cloudflare and SG Optimizer – but their service comes with CPU limitations, and their prices get steep after your first year.

You can use them if you are looking to start a website that contains a lot of pictures, art, and info-graphs, and they are great as long you stay within your given CPU limitations.

Feel free to ask me any questions about blogging/ how to start a blog. Here is a link for how to start a successful blog with pictures.