5 Best Joomla Hosting Providers
Powering around 3% of the websites on the internet, Joomla is a popular open source content management system that is mainly used for building small to mid-tier eCommerce sites, but it can be used to create virtually any type of website given that it supports all features of a modern website. Those looking for a Joomla hosting usually fall into one of the following two categories: first-time Joomla website builders and existing owners of a Joomla website that are looking to switch hosts. Whichever category you fall into, one thing is certain – finding the best Joomla hosting provider requires you to clearly define your needs and know the requirements of a Joomla website. Some users only take pricing into consideration, which is indeed an important aspect, however, as the hosting you choose for your website can have a lot of say-so in the success of your business, there are several other aspects you need to take into account when choosing one hosting provider over the other.
Hopefully this article will serve as a starting point in your search for the best Joomla hosting as it will give you some pointers on how to choose a web hosting for your Joomla website and which are the top 5 Joomla hosting companies that you should consider choosing.
How to Choose a Web Hosting for Joomla?
Pricing matters aside, there are a few other aspects you need to take into account in your quest for a Joomla hosting. Thus, a good Joomla hosting will provide the followings: technical support and expertise in configuring servers for Joomla, 99.9% server uptimes, plenty of server resources, and ability to upgrade your hosting plan whenever your hosting requirements change. Ideally, you’d want a hosting with Joomla working straight out of the box, so you won’t have to spend time on configuring the server yourself. At a minimum, you’ll need a Joomla web hosting account with PHP 5.3+ and MySQL 4.0+ support, and also a number of PHP extensions.
Joomla is also a CMS with higher server resource requirements than other CMSs, therefore, proper server resources are also important.
Another aspect to consider is how installation of Joomla works. Some providers allow you to select Joomla pre-installation with your plan, others offer 1-click Joomla installation, which is all the more important given that Joomla follows a different installation pattern than the “self-install” pattern of regular software that you’re perhaps accustomed to. The best Joomla hosting companies don’t require you to go through the fuss of uploading files, creating databases and setting up a configuration file, and they offer one click installation tools to get the job done.
In case you encounter difficulties, it’s also good to have specialized Joomla support at hand, so look into companies that offer this as well.
Now that you have an idea of what to look for in a Joomla hosting provider, let’s take a look at the top 5 web hosting companies for Joomla.
Best Joomla Hosting Providers
We’ve selected these particular providers based on their affordable, yet feature-packed shared hosting plans, as well as their Joomla-friendly hosting plans that were optimized specially for Joomla.
InMotion Hosting
During their 15 years of existence, InMotion have really gotten down the science of quality web hosting. Their focus on reliability, security and all the hosting features you can possibly need, makes them a top Joomla hosting choice.
Their shared business hosting plans are their recommended hosting for Joomla websites. You can opt for one of the following three plans: Launch, Power and Pro. All three plans come with the following features included: free domain name, free SSD drives, free data backups, Joomla installed for you during checkout, free one click installer and access to over 310 applications, SSH Access, 90-day money-back guarantee (which is more than what other hosting providers offer), Max Speed Zone enabled, code in more languages, secure IMAP email, and Google Apps integration. Plans also come with unlimited disk space and monthly transfers, free advertising credits, WP-CLI enabled. Plans differ in their number of MySQL & PostgreSQL Databases (2; 50; unlimited), number of website on one account (2; 6; unlimited), number of parked domains (6; 26; unlimited) and number of subdomains (25; 100; unlimited), and eCommerce readiness (only Power and Pro plans). The discounted price for each plan is as follows: $5.99/month for the Launch plan, $7.99/month for the Power plan, and $13.99/month for the Pro plan.
GreenGeeks
Founded a decade ago, GreenGeeks are a green, eco-friendly hosting provider that powers their service by using renewable energy. The company is based in California and ranks high among the best hosting providers in the USA, amassing an impressive number of awards during their existence.
Hosting plans at GreenGeeks come with a plethora of features, and both their shared hosting plan and Joomla optimized hosting plan is now available at the discounted price of $3.96/month. This is more than a generous offer considering the all-inclusive list of features we’re about to enumerate here for you: free domain name, 1-click install tool with access to over 150 ready to install applications, account hosted on SSD, SSH Access, free nightly backups, enhanced cPanel, secure email accounts, 30-day money-back guarantee, unlimited websites on 1 account, unlimited web space, free website migration, Fantastico & Softaculous Script Installer, Spam Assassin protection, website promotion packages, several included software apps, e-Commerce ready (Magento, OS Commerce, CubeCart, ZenCart, etc), password protected directories, Real Time Security Scanning, and many more! For a full list of features, please visit the provider’s website.
Their Joomla optimized hosting also includes free one-click Joomla installation, enhanced security, and 99.9% service uptime.
HostGator
HostGator is another top-notch Joomla hosting provider that has affordable plans with an impressive line-up of features that is sure to respond to your Joomla hosting needs. HostGator is also among the web hosting providers that have invested in wind energy to reduce server emissions. Their 100% Joomla compatible shared hosting plans are a good fit for your Joomla website. The most impressive features boasted by their plans include: unlimited domains (Baby plan and Business plan only) unmetered bandwidth and disk space, 45-day money-back guarantee, instant backups, $100 Google AdWords and $100 Yahoo/Bing credit, instant setup, unlimited MSQL databases, audio-video streaming, Image Magick, cPanel, SpamAssasin, 4,500 free website templates, Real Time Updates, latest cPanel control panel, OpenSSH, Private SSL and IP + own toll-free number (Business plan only), osCommerce, ZenCart, 24/7 Premium support via phone, chat, email, ticketing system, automatic weekly off-site data backups, 24/7/365 server monitoring, etc.
The pricing of the shared hosting and Joomla hosting are as follows: Baby plan – $3.45/month, Hatchling plan – $4.95/month, and Business plan – $8.95/month for shared plan or $9.95/month for Joomla hosting. Prices are discounted prices.
BlueHost
BlueHost is a hosting company that should be on everyone’s lists when searching for a quality hosting provider, be it for WordPress, Joomla or other CMSs. BlueHost are the top choice of many users looking for a Joomla-compatible hosting provider thanks to their many subscription plans devised to meet specific hosting requirements, and affordable prices. BlueHost is also a good choice for those looking to start with a simpler package and want to have the option to upgrade their hosting at a later time. BlueHost’s custom technology makes it easy for everyone to upgrade their account to VPS or dedicated server with just a click. Their shared plans are Joomla compatible thanks to the unmetered website space and bandwidth offered by some of their plans, and the resource protection technology implemented by BlueHost, which identifies websites that use excessive resources and temporarily re-assigns them to isolated systems, thus defending your website and mitigating the risks commonly associated with shared hosting plans. Their plans come with daily, weekly and monthly backups, as well as enhanced cPanel.
At BlueHost you can choose from three shared plans: Basic ($2.95/month), Plus ($4.45/month), Prime ($6.95/month). Prices are discounted prices. The plans differ in the number of websites they allow you to host on one account (1 vs unlimited), website space (50 GB vs unlimited), number of email accounts (5 vs unlimited), number of parked domains (5 vs unlimited) and subdomains (25 vs unlimited), email storage (100 MB vs unlimited). All plans come with unmetered bandwidth, 1 included domain. Higher tier plans (Plus and Prime) come with $200 in marketing offers, 1 Spam Experts, and the Prime plan also includes SiteBackup Pro and 1 Domain Privacy.
ASmallOrange
ASmallOrange is a US based hosting provider founded in 2003. They deliver powerful hosting services at affordable prices, and they aim to provide hosting plans for all needs, whether you need to host a small personal blog, a huge professional blog, or an eCommerce website.
All their shared hosting plans include: cPanel, Intel Xeon E5 Dual Hex Core processors and SSD driven storage in RAID 10 arrays for increased performance, 99.9% uptime guarantee, daily backups with multiple restore points for increased reliability, password-protected directories, IP blocking, hotlink/leech-protection for increased security. Their hosting environment is compatible with Joomla both in terms of software requirements and performance needs.
Shared hosting plans at ASO include: Tiny ($2.92/month), Small ($5/month), Medium ($10/month), and Large ($20/month). Higher tier plans include a free domain with the account and hosting for unlimited websites. Hosting plans differ in the amount of storage space their offer (500MB, 5GB, 15GB, 30GB), and bandwidth (5GB, 50GB,150GB, 500GB).
ASO is loved by users for the reliable and performant hosting environment they offer.
Conclusion
In this article, we’ve mainly focused on presenting the shared hosting plans that the 5 best Joomla hosting providers have to offer. If your Joomla website needs a dedicated or VPS hosting environment, feel free to check out the respective plans offered by each of the presented hosting provider. Whichever of the above hosting providers you end up choosing in the end, you can be sure that you’re choosing a best-in-line host for your Joomla website.
