I’m a senior software engineer, sysadmin, and former CTO. I stopped doing WordPress a while back, but I still accept projects from people I know, mostly for fun and a bit of extra cash. I don’t make a living off WordPress.
I only use shared hosting for clients to avoid the hassle of maintenance. The clients pay for the hosting, and I give them instructions on how to set it up. I’ve tried a lot of hosting options, but none of them have impressed me. Here are my requirements:
Don’t recommend premium shared hosting like Kinsta or WPEngine. They charge outrageous prices ($70/month). I could get a dedicated server from Hetzner for $30.
Don’t suggest free or poor-quality hosts like HostGator or Hostinger. Their support is bad, and they’ve gone downhill.
Dreamhost and SiteGround aren’t good either. They rely too much on aggressive caching. SiteGround used to be great 10+ years ago but has gotten worse and more expensive over time.
No hosts that raise prices drastically after the first year. I want fair, consistent pricing—like how NameSilo is for domains.
Only suggest hosts you’ve personally used. No hosts that use aggressive caching to fake fast speeds.
For example, GoDaddy’s business plan is fast without caching, but they charge $85/month. I don’t know about their shared hosting.
My current clients use Dreamhost and SiteGround, and I have a VPS with RamNode, but I don’t know much about their managed shared hosting.
I understand shared hosting isn’t perfect, but there’s a big difference between ‘not great’ and ‘terrible.’ I can run WordPress faster on a $20 AWS Lightsail instance than on a premium Dreamhost plan, which is just greed at this point.
I’ve been using Zume.net, which is one of the recommended hosts on this subreddit. They’ve been fantastic—great speeds, reliable servers, and affordable pricing. I still don’t understand why people pay so much for other shared hosting when hosts like Zume are out there.
kharly said:
I’ve been using Zume.net, which is one of the recommended hosts on this subreddit. They’ve been fantastic—great speeds, reliable servers, and affordable pricing. I still don’t understand why people pay so much for other shared hosting when hosts like Zume are out there.
Thanks for the recommendation! I’ll check out Zume.net.
If you’re looking for a good balance of affordability and performance, check out Namecrane. They’ve got solid performance features like LiteSpeed and Anti-Malware at a reasonable price. The support is decent but might be a little slow at times. However, it’s miles ahead of the big hosts like GoDaddy.
I’ve been using their reseller plans, and the performance has been great so far.
Kit said:
If you’re looking for a good balance of affordability and performance, check out Namecrane. They’ve got solid performance features like LiteSpeed and Anti-Malware at a reasonable price. The support is decent but might be a little slow at times. However, it’s miles ahead of the big hosts like GoDaddy.
I’ve been using their reseller plans, and the performance has been great so far.
Thanks for the suggestion! Just to clarify, I don’t mind paying more, but I refuse to let my clients pay $70/month for shared hosting. Even $20-$40 is fine, as long as the prices don’t jump after the first year.
Kiernan said:
Does it count as ‘personally try’ if I own the company? I built it because I got fed up with price hikes and poor service from other hosts.
That counts for me! I’m not against marketing, as long as it’s transparent.
Kiernan said:
Does it count as ‘personally try’ if I own the company? I built it because I got fed up with price hikes and poor service from other hosts.
Can you DM me your site? I’d like to check it out.
BroccoliHost is reasonably fast, and their basic plan starts at $2/month (or $1 for the first term). They do use caching (optional) and include a CDN with the hosting.
I’ve had a great experience with Nixihost for shared hosting. I’ve been with them for over a year, and they offer solid performance with fair pricing and good support.
Tanner said:
I’ve had a great experience with Nixihost for shared hosting. I’ve been with them for over a year, and they offer solid performance with fair pricing and good support.
Tanner said:
I’ve had a great experience with Nixihost for shared hosting. I’ve been with them for over a year, and they offer solid performance with fair pricing and good support.
Which plan are you using—the basic shared one?
Yes, I use the basic shared plan since I manage multiple websites. The Mini Shared plan should be enough for a single website.
Eliana said: Tanner said:
I’ve had a great experience with Nixihost for shared hosting. I’ve been with them for over a year, and they offer solid performance with fair pricing and good support.
Which plan are you using—the basic shared one?
Yes, I use the basic shared plan since I manage multiple websites. The Mini Shared plan should be enough for a single website.
Thanks! I’ll go with Nixihost for my next project.
Tanner said: Eliana said: Tanner said:
I’ve had a great experience with Nixihost for shared hosting. I’ve been with them for over a year, and they offer solid performance with fair pricing and good support.
Which plan are you using—the basic shared one?
Yes, I use the basic shared plan since I manage multiple websites. The Mini Shared plan should be enough for a single website.
Thanks! I’ll go with Nixihost for my next project.
Great choice! I use Nixihost too and love their service. They’re reliable and don’t play pricing games like some other hosts. I’m sure you’ll be happy with them!