Best WORDPRESS Hosting Australia
(MARCH 2023 Update)

OUR PICKS FOR THE BEST WORDPRESS HOSTING IN AUSTRALIA 🇦🇺

We’ve reviewed the options and below we break down who we think is THE BEST WordPress hosting provider for WordPress websites in Australia. We’ve also included some other top tier web hosting providers who also provide good quality hosting at affordable prices, so let’s get into it!

Being an Australian agency experienced with WordPress website development we feel we know what Australian business owners require. As a result we know who are the best website hosting companies in Australia. We build a lot of WordPress sites for Australian customers across a range of different industries but the most important requirements for all are site speed, security & support.

Author: Jeremy Owen

Author: Jeremy Owen

Web Designer, Developer & SEO Specialist
Last Updated: March 16, 2023

Top Picks From Our Australian WordPress Hosting Review

  1. Siteground – Our choice for best overall WordPress web host for Australia
  2. A2 Hosting – Great value for money WordPress hosting with an excellent reseller hosting platform.
  3. Kinsta – Fantastic Managed WordPress Hosting option for websites that really need that next level hosting experience.
  4. Cloudways – Best hosting option for technical users with serious speed requirements as they are the fastest WordPress host in Australia.
  5. Hostinger – Cheapest WordPress host on this list whilst still providing a great web hosting service.
  6. HostPapa – Another good value web host that also happens to be one of the only green web hosting companies.
  7. WP Engine – Great Managed WordPress hosting provider for high traffic websites.

SITEGROUND

OVERALL BEST WORDPRESS HOST

It really is hard to argue against Siteground being the best overall WordPress hosting company for Australian websites. As an agency we have a tonne of options to choose from and we not only host all our client sites with Siteground but we also host our own website with them too.

We think it’s pretty simple. When you stack up all the features offered with the Siteground WordPress Hosting Plans and then evaluate the price, they just come out on top. Not to mention that WordPress themselves recommend Siteground as one of the best WordPress hosting options out there, and definitely the best value for money.
  • $4.99 / month (AUD)
  • Lightning Fast Servers - Sydney Data Centre
  • 30-Day Money Back Guarantee​

Pros

  • Australian Data Centre
  • Free SSL Certificate
  • 10GB SSD Disk Space
  • 10 Email Accounts
  • 24/7 Customer Support
  • 99.9% Uptime Guarantee
  • Lightning Fast Servers
  • Extra Levels Of Security

Cons

  • High renewal prices compared to sign up prices but still good value
  • No Free Domain Name

Fastest wordpress hosting relative to price

While it isn’t technically a WordPress specific solution, it sure feels like Siteground designed their tech stack to serve the ever growing number of WordPress website users around the world. Hosted on super fast servers within the Google Cloud Platform, Siteground also has their own WordPress plugin called Supercacher to ensure every WordPress site has a minimum level of performance from a speed perspective right out of the box.

EXCELLENT SECURITY

Siteground definitely have the best security amongst the lower cost hosting providers. They run malware scans daily and quarantine infected websites. You can even request an ad hoc malware scan by contacting their support team if you suspect your site may have been hacked.

They also run a custom WAF (web application firewall) and have their own custom built bot detection system that is constantly at work blocking spam and other unwanted threats.

Each WordPress hosting plan comes with Free SSL through Let’s Encrypt and while that has become much more common amongst web hosting providers these days, they were one of the first to offer it to their users, which shows how serious they were about security.

24/7/365 CUSTOMER SUPPORT

To say that the customer support is good would be a massive understatement. They have 24/7 support via live chat, phone & support tickets. In our experience their live chat response time is generally within a couple of minutes.

They also have an extensive knowledge base that covers pretty much all the standard questions users are likely to have about their hosting so you may not even need to contact support which is an added bonus. If you need that extra level of support you can choose the GoGeek plan or higher to receive advanced priority support.

CUSTOM dashboard

Somewhat recently, Siteground decided to move to a more simplified dashboard instead of the traditional cPanel which was very busy. Their new dashboard is much more intuitive for the less experienced user but still has all of the most important features you would want.

 

A2 HOSTING

BEST WORDPRESS HOSTING FOR RESELLERS

Next on the list and essentially our runner up is A2 Hosting who also provide excellent WordPress hosting services that are great value for money but they don’t have a data centre in Australia.

The reason they still so high on our list is that they have super fast servers and you can implement the next best thing to a local data centre and that is connecting your site to a content delivery network as their hosting is Cloudflare compatible.

  • $2.99 / month (USD)
  • Hassle-Free Money Back Guarantee

Pros

  • 24/7/365 Support
  • Free SSL Certificate
  • 100GB SSD Disk Space
  • 99.9% Uptime Guarantee
  • Fast Servers
  • Good Security

Cons

  • Email Hosting not included, must be purchased as an add-on
  • No Data Centre in Australia
  • Charges USD

LIGHTNING FAST SERVERS

While the entry level plans have SSDs for superior processing speed, why not opt for one of the plans that give you access to their Turbo Servers. Boasting 20X your typical hosting speed, these shared WordPress hosting plans limit the number of users per server to ensure max speed for your website users.

SOLID Security

As we said great security is a must these days and A2 Hosting do a great job keeping your website secure. Their security setup includes:
  • 24/7 Security Monitoring
  • KernelCare – Daily, Automatic & Rebootless Kernel Updates
  • Web Hosting Firewall
  • Reinforced DDoS Protection
  • Brute Force Defense
  • Auto-Heal Hosting Protection
  • Virus Scanning
  • Server Hardening
Whether or not you understand any of the above, just know that A2 Hosting have layers of protection to do everything possible to block malicious attackers. All you have to do is not choose an easy password for your WordPress user!

AROUND THE CLOCK SUPPORT

A2 Hosting’s Guru support team have got your back if you run into any issues. They provide support via live chat, support tickets and phone just like the other top WordPress hosts featured in this review.

HOSTPAPA

BEST GREEN WORDPRESS HOSTING AUSTRALIA

HostPapa are a super reliable WordPress host and another option that are excellent value for money. Now I don’t mean to discount all the other features we could promote but we felt it was important to note HostPapa’s commitment to being as environmentally friendly as possible in offsetting all the power used in their data centres and offices. They do this through the purchase of what are known as green energy certificates (tags).

In addition to this they also make our list due to offering Unlimited bandwidth, a free domain and SSL certificates, free site migration (if required) and a website builder.
  • $4.95 / month (AUD)
  • 30-Day Money Back Guarantee

Pros

  • Free Domain Name
  • Free SSL Certificate
  • 10GB SSD Disk Space
  • 10 Email Accounts
  • 24/7 Customer Support
  • 99.9% Uptime Guarantee
  • Fast Servers
  • Strong Security

Cons

  • Lower Level Plans Lack Features
  • No Australian Data Centre
  • Renewal prices are high relative to sign up price but still good value

HostPapa offer a range of different hosting options:

  • Shared Hosting – This is their standard cPanel offering
  • Optimised WordPress Hosting – Specifically optimised for WordPress
  • Managed WordPress Hosting – Enterprise-grade hosting built exclusively for hosting WordPress sites where speed, security & general performance are paramount.
  • VPS Hosting – Get more resources when you outgrow your shared hosting plan
  • Reseller Hosting – Perfect for agencies who are looking to host client websites.

24/7 SUPPORT

HostPapa’s support team is scattered across 37 countries around the globe, giving us confidence that their support team can delivery regardless of which timezone you happen to be in when you need to contact them. We have experienced other hosting companies only providing live support during business hours of the country they are located in so this is noteworthy.

They offer comprehensive support via phone, live chat and support tickets and the general consensus from their reviews is that they are some of the best in the business.

CHOOSE TO UPGRADE FOR INCREASED SPEED

All plans are hosted on SSD hard drives, which as previously mentioned provides increased performance when compared to standard hard drives. If you have the budget we would seriously consider upgrading to either the Pro or Ultra plan to access that next level of speed as well as some impressive additional layers of security.

A GREAT HOSTING PLATFORM FOR WORDPRESS

Overall, we think HostPapa is an excellent WP hosting option. They cover all the bases with multiple support channels, have great a uptime record and they make WordPress installation and operation a breeze which is why we thinking they are a good choice for WordPress hosting in Australia.

HOSTINGER

CHEAPEST WORDPRESS HOST FOR AUSTRALIA

If you’re looking for the best WordPress hosting based on price then Hostinger should definitely be your go to. The standard price for their premium hosting plan is $2.99 per month which is insane given the inclusions.

For what is essentially pocket change you can host up to 100 websites with free SSL certificates, unlimited bandwidth and what seems like unlimited email accounts (the max is actually 100 but who really needs that many?). You even get free domain registration if you require a domain name.

  • $2.99 / month (USD) - Premium Plan
  • 30-Day Money Back Guarantee​

Pros

  • Free Domain Name
  • Free SSL Certificate
  • 100GB SSD Disk Space
  • Up to 100 Email Accounts
  • 24/7 Customer Support
  • 99.9% Uptime Guarantee
  • Fast Servers
  • Good Security

Cons

  • Lower Level Plans Lack Features
  • No Australian Data Centre
  • Renewal prices are high relative to sign up price but still good value

SOME COOL WORDPRESS CENTRIC FEATURES

Hostinger are definitely committed to supporting WordPress. They make it easy to install WordPress with their one-click installation tool and also have their own WP stater site building wizard to speed up the process of getting your site live. In our opinion that’s a serious bonus for such a cheap hosting account.

In addition they have managed auto-updates for the WordPress core and all installed plugins with automatic update capabilities. Their extensive library of WordPress tutorials makes is a fantastic help for less experienced users making them a great option for WordPress hosting in Australia.

AN IMPRESSIVE PACKAGE FOR THE PRICE

Given the cost we were particularly impressed with the security offering from Hostinger. They have a CloudLinux and LVE containerized environment which many shared hosts don’t invest in, layered with complete DDoS protection against attempted hackers, which is excellent for a web hosting company offering such affordable web hosting plans.

Their user dashboard is a custom build, unlike the typical cPanel setup most low cost hosts tend to run. It is definitely an improved user experience as it is quite intuitive.

GREAT SUPPORT

Hostinger have a pretty extensive knowledge base but if you can’t find the answer to your question there, you can contact them 24/7/365 like most web hosts on this list.

THEY EVEN OFFER MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING

The WordPress specific offering from Hostinger is definitely impressive. Hosted on crazy fast LiteSpeed Servers and combined with the Lightspeed Cache Plugin to get 4x speed for standard WordPress pages.

The Business & Pro plans come equipped with a handy WordPress staging tool to help manage content and software updates without breaking your live site.

CLOUDWAYS
FASTEST WORDPRESS HOST IN AUSTRALIA

BEST CLOUD HOSTING FOR WORDPRESS

While cloud hosting is generally not going to suit inexperienced users, we felt that we really should include something for the developers and people running websites requiring a different level of performance and control.

Cloudways have created their own custom stack and loaded that on top of some super fast cloud hosting servers from wholesale providers such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Digital Ocean & Vultr.

WordPress developers who focus on more complex functionality will love the flexibility that Cloudways provide, they certainly provide the fastest WordPress hosting from a baseline speed point of view.

  • $12 / month (USD)
  • 30-Day Money Back Guarantee​

Pros

  • Fastest Hosting Provider
  • Great Scalability
  • 24/7 Support & Knowledge Base
  • Free SSL Certificate
  • Free Website Transfer
  • 25GB SSD Disk Space
  • 99.9% Uptime Guarantee

Cons

  • Expensive compared to the other hosting providers featured on this list
  • Less technical users may find their control panel challenging to use
  • Email hosting is not included, must be purchased as an add-on

CHOOSE YOUR LEVEL OF SUPPORT

In keeping with the theme of flexibility, Cloudways also offer you a choice of 3 different tiers of customer support. While most will probably find their base tier support outstanding, you can choose to upgrade your support package if you need a higher level of priority.

If you did decide to upgrade your support package, you can gain access to senior engineers to look into server errors, theme or plugin issues and they can even help with things like database optimisation.

MARKET LEADING SPEED

In terms of raw speed, Cloudways are the fastest on this list. They run on Nginx web servers and have some serious caching (Memcached & Varnish) to really reduce server response time. Couple these features with their custom WordPress caching plugin Breeze and you should have a well on your way to registering some pretty impressive Core Web Vitals scores.

SUPREME Security

The security from Cloudways is totally cowabunga man! Starting with the custom web application firewall which processes millions of requests per second. Cloudflare Enterprise protects against attackers at the edge while the dedicated IP ranges coupled with prioritised routing prevent DDOS attacks. All this while still maintaining speed and availability, it’s enough to have me quoting the Ninja Turtles!

KINSTA

THE MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING PROS

If you want to take things to the next level then Kinsta can definitely help you achieve that with their managed hosting offering, but it does come with a hefty price tag when compared to others on this list. That being said, if you have the budget then Kinsta is our pick of the premium hosting provider options.

They tick the data centre location box with a Sydney based data centre but they also utilise Cloudflare Enterprise to maximise speed and optimise security through dns obfuscation.

  • $35 / month (USD)
  • 30-Day Money Back Guarantee​

Pros

  • Super Fast Hosting
  • 24/7 Support & Knowledge Base
  • Daily Backups
  • Free SSL Certificates
  • Free Site Migration
  • 10GB SSD Disk Space
  • 99.9% Uptime Guarantee

Cons

  • The most expensive hosting provider on this list
  • No phone support
  • No email hosting included

LIGHTNING FAST SPEEDS

Site performance is a key focus with Kinsta and you’d expect that given the price tag. To start with they have 35 data centre locations across the globe, with one of those being based in Sydney which is great for Australian customers. 

Get page load speeds up to 44% faster than other server hosting options with a setup hosted on on Google’s Premium Tier Network with the highest quality CPUs. Speed is further bolstered by Edge Caching through their Cloudflare integration which cuts the load time on cached HTML by more than 50%.

PRIMO SECURITY

Kinsta also provide that next level of security with their hosting service. Two powerful firewalls from Google Cloud Platform & Cloudflare are in play at all times. Every website runs within it’s own isolated software container, meaning you aren’t sharing any server resources with another website, not even you own additional websites. This level of isolation guarantees that security breaches on other sites can’t affect yours, unlike with some of the really cheap shared hosting providers.

There is actually a dedicated Malware team at Kinsta, who’s sole purpose is the detect and prevent malware infections where possible. If you do happen to get hacked, these guys and girls offer a malware removal service so they will take care of cleaning your site up, which is usually something you’d need to pay a developer to do if you’re using a cheaper hosting provider.

SINGLE-TIER SUPPORT

Every website is treated as “mission-critical” regardless of whether you’re running a simple blog or an Enterprise level website. They use an online messaging platform to deliver friendly support with fast response times from WordPress experts.

Whether you need help with site migration, implementing redirects, backing up your site or investigating server error messages, the Kinsta support crew at just a click away.

WP ENGINE

NEXT BEST MANAGED WORDPRESS WEB HOST

The team at WP Engine hosting are another great WordPress host and definitely the market leaders in the managed WordPress space. There is some quirky things about their setup that don’t suit all websites.

They are great for general information websites but we have run into some issues with Woocommerce websites in the past. That being said they have more recently given more focus to Woocommerce specific hosting services so performance may have improved.

Overall they are a great web host for WordPress sites. They have daily backups, automated updates and a great one-click staging setup making it easy for major site updates.

  • $35 / month (AUD)
  • 60-Day Money Back Guarantee

Pros

  • Free Site Migration
  • Free SSL Certificates
  • 10GB SSD Disk Space
  • 24/7 Customer Support
  • 99.9% Uptime Guarantee
  • Excellent Security

Cons

  • More expensive than most hosts on the list
  • They have a disallowed plugins list which can be an issue if an important plugin for your site is on that list.

SPEED

WP Engine features plenty of benefits that make it a great choice for optimising speed on any WordPress site. Firstly, they also have a Sydney based Data Centre to give that first layer of speed. One of the biggest advantages of using WP Engine is its use of proprietary caching technology EverCache. This cutting edge technology utilises multiple layers of caching so that pages are delivered as quickly as possible with minimal latency.

SECURITY

As part of their security setup WP Engine provide services such as managed backups, malware scanning & removal, DDoS protection & SSL/TLS encryption. They also use a combination of network-level firewalls, malware scanning and removal, file integrity monitoring and other advanced techniques to filter out malicious requests before they reach your server making them a great managed WP host.

SUPPORT

WP Engine provide support via the usual channels – live chat, phone and support ticket. They support a decent array of potential issues including SSL certificates, general WordPress configuration questions, caching problems, slow WordPress performance and more. 

What To Look For In A WordPress Web Hosting Provider

There are a few features we reckon are imperative for WordPress users:

FAST SERVERS

Probably the most important thing in this day and age is to have as fast a web host as possible. Nobody likes waiting and with Google’s move to integrate Core Web Vitals performance into their algorithm for ranking in search results it is an absolute must to have fast WordPress Hosting.

SERVER LOCATION

If your website is primarily targeting users located in Australia then we recommend choosing a host with an Australian based data centre if you have the budget for it. We have included a number of web host options within this review that have Sydney based data centres.

Great Customer Support

You generally get what you pay for when it comes to customer support. Some WP Hosting companies provide amazing service, while others leave a lot to be desired. We’ve excluded the duds from our list to save you time wading through them.

Top Notch Security

This year has seen a dramatic rise in security breaches across the tech space so it makes sense that we would be including security as one of our top priorities when selecting WordPress hosting in Australia.

One-click Install For WordPress

The idea of having to manually install WordPress on your website is a farce these days. Any host worth their salt has an easy to use one click WordPress installation for every WordPress site.

Intuitive SSL Certificate Installer

Ensuring your website is secure for users to interact with is an absolute must so installing an SSL certificate through your web host really needs to be a simple process. You ideally want the ability to turn on a setting that forces an https connection for your users.

Managed WordPress Hosting vs Standard Hosting

Probably one of the key things to note is that there are two main different types of WordPress hosting and they come with very different levels of functionality and also price tags: 

Managed WordPress Hosting

There are companies out there who specialise in what is known as managed WordPress hosting. With managed WordPress the hosting setup is specifically optimised for WordPress websites. Hosting providers like WP Engine are a good example and they are arguably the best in the business when it comes to managed WordPress web hosting.

Shared WordPress Hosting

Comparatively there are what we would consider to be more standard web hosting services who have everything you need for running a WordPress website but you can also host other types of websites with their hosting plans.