Best UK Wordpress Host

[Robert Meredith]

Hi,

I have a B2B Wordpress site that is working great. Getting lots of traffic both Organic and Adwords.

I want to manage it myself and move away from our web guy.

Money not too important (ie we are spending nearly 4 figures a month on adwords!).

So what is important is speed, support (is phone support possible?!), UK based.

Anyone had any good experiences?!

Cheers

Rob

 

[arnydnxluk]

How much traffic are you dealing with?

 

[Robert Meredith]

How much traffic are you dealing with?

Not much!!

So I suspect you will tell me design is more important than host speed.

But anyway landing page loading time is very important I think for us! We are doing ok on google adwords. So critical thing is page loads fast. And then people call or email us!

So fast. Good supprt. That's all!

 

[Robert Meredith]

PS we tried caching on our current host and then there were irritating problems like menus not ever changing etc so we turned it off. I suspect we could do better......

 

[arnydnxluk]

Not much!!

I asked because in your original post you mentioned receiving lots of traffic! But lots could mean anything

So I suspect you will tell me design is more important than host speed.

Well, that's true, the way your website is developed is a major factor in page load times.

PS we tried caching on our current host and then there were irritating problems like menus not ever changing etc so we turned it off. I suspect we could do better......

I have seen some websites with awful hosting providers where page caching was necessary just to get the website to perform as it's supposed to. However, in general (with a well built website and a good hosting provider), full page caching should not be necessary improve load times.

I'm assuming you're looking at shared hosting. Here are some things I'd require when looking for a shared hosting provider, in terms of performance:

• SSD storage
• PHP 7 support
• PHP's opcache enabled by default (important)

Additionally, the larger hosting providers often cram as many accounts as they can onto a single server to maximise profits. I'd look at some of the smaller, independent providers personally - those will also give you better support.

With that in mind I would suggest the following:

• HostPresto
• Freethought Internet
• Guru

Depending on budget, you could also look at other options such as managed servers. This should not give you any performance benefit over good shared hosting at low traffic but does offer other advantages such as increased isolation from other customers, lowering the risk of downtime.

Do consider how your website is built though. A good hosting provider cannot speed up a bad website. For example I had a customer recently who's website was loading slowly because their homepage was filled with multi megabyte images!

 

[Alan]

I want to manage it myself and move away from our web guy.

So what is important is speed, support (is phone support possible?!), UK based.

When you talk about moving from your web guy, then mention that you are concerned about support from your future host, I'm a little concerned that you are comparing apples with apples.

Hosting companies provide support for the technical environment you site runs in and maybe backups, they don't support the site itself, they don't keep the site secure, they don't answer questions on how to improve performance and they don't help you with functionality.

I'm not sure what scope of support you currently get or need, but you may want to consider WordPress Managed Hosting rather than simply Hosting.

 

[Robert Meredith]

When you talk about moving from your web guy, then mention that you are concerned about support from your future host, I'm a little concerned that you are comparing apples with apples.

Hosting companies provide support for the technical environment you site runs in and maybe backups, they don't support the site itself, they don't keep the site secure, they don't answer questions on how to improve performance and they don't help you with functionality.

I'm not sure what scope of support you currently get or need, but you may want to consider WordPress Managed Hosting rather than simply Hosting.

Sure. I will move to a wordpress host. And employ people to help me on a freelance basis.

In a previous life I did work in a team that managed 500 big Unix servers, firewalls across Europe, a big SAN etc. So I'm not afraid of a bit of technology!

 

[Robert Meredith]

I asked because in your original post you mentioned receiving lots of traffic! But lots could mean anything



Well, that's true, the way your website is developed is a major factor in page load times.



I have seen some websites with awful hosting providers where page caching was necessary just to get the website to perform as it's supposed to. However, in general (with a well built website and a good hosting provider), full page caching should not be necessary improve load times.

I'm assuming you're looking at shared hosting. Here are some things I'd require when looking for a shared hosting provider, in terms of performance:

• SSD storage
• PHP 7 support
• PHP's opcache enabled by default (important)

Additionally, the larger hosting providers often cram as many accounts as they can onto a single server to maximise profits. I'd look at some of the smaller, independent providers personally - those will also give you better support.

With that in mind I would suggest the following
Depending on budget, you could also look at other options such as managed servers. This should not give you any performance benefit over good shared hosting at low traffic but does offer other advantages such as increased isolation from other customers, lowering the risk of downtime.

Do consider how your website is built though. A good hosting provider cannot speed up a bad website. For example I had a customer recently who's website was loading slowly because their homepage was filled with multi megabyte images!

Thanks for all that. Guru looks good.

 

[Robert Meredith]

When you talk about moving from your web guy, then mention that you are concerned about support from your future host, I'm a little concerned that you are comparing apples with apples.

Hosting companies provide support for the technical environment you site runs in and maybe backups, they don't support the site itself, they don't keep the site secure, they don't answer questions on how to improve performance and they don't help you with functionality.

I'm not sure what scope of support you currently get or need, but you may want to consider WordPress Managed Hosting rather than simply Hosting.

Ps didn't say thanks for the pointers.

 

[Iain_Henderson]

Been with Guru for 2 years now and have no complaints. Would highly recommend.

 

[antropy]

If money is not a issue then going with a company that can put you on your own VPS will help with speed. As for support then word of mouth is the best option and that is something that has really helped us as once you can just pick up the phone to the hosting company life becomes a lot easier. Alex

 

[Inva]

If your site is doing so well and money is not an issue then why do you want to move? Do you have reason to believe server performance is slowing your site down? We have found this to be extremely rare!

I see some things that make little sense to me:
- Your budget seems to be very large and you are concerned about performance, but your website is WP, which is a platform known for bad performance and security. Why don't you have your own custom website/platform? WP is not good for serious or big-money projects!

- You say you plan to replace your "web guy" who i guess also made the website with freelancers on an ad-hoc basis. This is a very bad idea because they don't know your system like the one who made it and also too many unrelated people working on one system makes the code become like spaghetti and the whole thing to look like patchwork.

I think you have made the wrong decision in using WP but the solution is not to manage it yourself or put random people on it. It's unlikely a change in host or personnel is going to speed up your site, unless if your host was overseas and will now be nearer. But that can be helped by buying a CDN, which speeds up loading everywhere.

Unless you have serious reason to want to get rid of this person, i advise against it. Also i advise against employing freelancers for important jobs on big projects unless if you have worked with them before and know they can deliver good work.

"If it ain't broken don't fix it"

Good luck

 

[antropy]

Do you have reason to believe server performance is slowing your site down? We have found this to be extremely rare!

It's not that rare, especially with the big cheap hosts like 123-reg, 1&1, GoDaddy etc.

Paul

 

[Inva]

It's not that rare, especially with the big cheap hosts like 123-reg, 1&1, GoDaddy etc.

Paul

While it's true many big ones are pretty bad, they are usually for reasons other than site speed, like for example bad or slow support, resource limitations and such things. Their speed may not be top tier but (based on average website and expectations) it's not bad enough to warrant taking special measures (if they involve paying more).

I've only come across one host who really is terrible, Bluehost, the absolute worst. Now obviously i don't know every host out there, but one should be sure before blaming it on the host. Otherwise they may move and still not get the boost they hoped for.

 

[antropy]

While it's true many big ones are pretty bad, they are usually for reasons other than site speed, like for example bad or slow support, resource limitations and such things. Their speed may not be top tier but (based on average website and expectations) it's not bad enough to warrant taking special measures (if they involve paying more).

Oh yeah, forget good support from the big boys.

But we run tests such as:
http://www.php-benchmark-script.com/

And some of the big cheap ones are 10x slower than they should be.

I agree the website code is a bigger factor than server spec in determine site speed but there are many situations where optimising the code further isn't practical and good server specs are important.

Paul

 

[arnydnxluk]

Their speed may not be top tier but (based on average website and expectations) it's not bad enough to warrant taking special measures (if they involve paying more).

It's not necessary to pay more to escape bad shared hosting, you can just move to a provider who does shared hosting properly, at the usual market prices (sub £10/month). So if you are with a bad provider, it's probably worth making the switch - make sure best practices are being followed for both the website and hosting, all problems solved!

 

[webhostuk]

S

In a previous life I did work in a team that managed 500 big Unix servers, firewalls across Europe, a big SAN etc. So I'm not afraid of a bit of technology!

Wow thats nice, in that case even a Managed VPS or server should be good option for you, you can get it optimized as per your own requirement.

 

[quikshop]

Been with Guru for 2 years now and have no complaints. Would highly recommend.

Another vote for Guru; moved to them a few months ago and their service has been top drawer

 

[dx3webs]

If you need to be PCI compliant for your B2B site (it will of course depend on how / if you take payments through the site) and you choose a host that offers a managed service make sure your host is an accredited PCI Service provider.. asked to see their counter signed AOC. Other wise you are probably not PCi compliant yourself. And no, their own SAQ D AOC is not what you need to see.

 

[GURUCLOUD]

Been with Guru for 2 years now and have no complaints. Would highly recommend.

Thanks for that!

 

[Natasha Bishop]

Hello, Robert, I moved from Hostgator (before I was with Hostpapa) to HeartInternet about 3 years ago. My sites use to get hacked regularly (at least once a year) and I had no service for few hours a month. Since I moved to Heart - no hacking, speed improved and support is pretty good. I believe their hosting is all cloud. I would say they are good value for many.
I am on reseller band, but my guess is it's the same shared hosting they provide.

 

[webhostuk]

The best way to keep wordpress secured is by updating is to latest stable version, not using unwanted /outdated plugins or themes.
And server end security updated are to be taken care by service providers.

 

[evhow90]

TSO Host!

 

[fisicx]

TSO Host!

Noooooooo!

They are one of the worst

 

[evhow90]

I always had good experience with them personally,
Who would you recommend?

 

[TheWebDesignCompany]

Speedydot.co.uk are a good UK based Wordpress host.
They have phone lines for support and offer fast reliable service and will help you migrate the website over.

 

[TheWebDesignCompany]

TSOHost

Noooooooo!

They are one of the worst

Agreed, avoid them like the plague, they were good about 10 years ago and went seriously down hill since about 4 or 5 years ago

 

[webhostuk]

TSOHost

Agreed, avoid them like the plague, they were good about 10 years ago and went seriously down hill since about 4 or 5 years ago

Godaddy effect