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5 Best High-Traffic WordPress Hosting Providers ?️?️?️?

? What to look for in high-traffic WordPress hosting

Before we get into the list, let’s quickly run over some considerations for hosting a high-traffic site, as it will give you some insight into why we chose the hosts that we did:

? Smart caching:

Caching is a great way to speed up your WordPress site and lessen the load on your server, which is especially important for high-traffic sites.

While there are plenty of great WordPress caching plugins that can help you implement caching at the application level, a more performant approach is often to serve cached content at the server-level, because it completely eliminates the need to load WordPress/PHP when serving cached content.

Dedicated resources:

Most cheap WordPress hosts are able to offer budget prices by having you “share” resources with other sites on the same server. That’s fine for a low-traffic site, but it’s not a good option for high-traffic WordPress sites.

Instead, you want dedicated resources that are only for your site. While a dedicated server can get you those resources, a more popular approach that you’ll see is to use cloud hosting from Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform, or other cloud providers. You still get dedicated resources for your site, but it’s much easier to scale and reconfigure if needed.

? Nginx:

Nginx is a web server and reverse proxy that’s especially popular for high-traffic websites because it can often out-perform the popular Apache web server in high-traffic situations.

While Apache is the overall market leader in the web server space, Nginx is by far the market leader when you look at the top 1,000, 10,000, or 200,000 most-trafficked sites. So for a high-traffic site, you really want a host that uses an Nginx stack.

?️ Scalability:

If your site is high-traffic now, there’s a good chance it might be even higher-traffic in the future. To be able to address that, high-traffic WordPress hosting should make it easy to scale your plan up as needed.

Most of the hosts on this list utilize cloud hosting infrastructure, which makes it easy to add resources when you need them.

Uptime:

Uptime is important for all websites, but it’s especially important for a high-traffic website because the impacts of downtime are magnified. Down for thirty minutes on a low-traffic site? You might impact a couple of visitors. On a high-traffic site? You could negatively affect hundreds or thousands of visitors.

Don’t just accept words on the marketing copy – look for an actual service legal agreement (SLA) that guarantees a specific uptime and comes with options for redress if the host can’t meet that guarantee. Typically, you’ll get a refund or credit if a host can’t meet its uptime guarantee.

? Content delivery network:

A content delivery network (CDN) helps speed up your global load times and lessen the load on your server by delivering static content from a network of servers around the world, rather than just the single server where your site is hosted.

Many premium WordPress hosts now offer integrated CDN functionality to improve performance without forcing you to integrate with a third-party CDN service.

?️ Best WordPress hosting for high-traffic sites

Here are the hosts that we think provide the best high-traffic WordPress hosting options:

  1. Kinsta (kinsta.com)
  2. Pagely (pagely.com)
  3. WP Engine (wpengine.com)
  4. Pantheon (pantheon.io)
  5. SiteGround (siteground.com)

1. Kinsta (kinsta.com)

Kinsta high-traffic WordPress hosting

Kinsta is a popular managed WordPress host that uses infrastructure powered by the premium tier of the Google Cloud Platform, which is the same infrastructure that Google uses for its own services.

In addition to performance-focused architecture for high-traffic sites, Kinsta also offers convenient features for WordPress users like easy staging, automatic daily backups (or more frequent, for an extra charge), and a custom hosting dashboard.

Kinsta is where we host the CodeinWP blog, and you can learn more in our detailed Kinsta review. CodeinWP receives over 10,000 daily visitors, which I think qualifies as “high traffic”.

? Key features for high-traffic sites:

  • Nginx web server.
  • Server-level caching via Nginx FastCGI cache.
  • Google Cloud Platform infrastructure.
  • Built-in CDN powered by KeyCDN.
  • Easy scalability because Kinsta lets you upgrade or downgrade your plan.
  • Elasticsearch and Cloudflare Railgun add-ons for improved performance.
  • Transparent overages. Kinsta will never cut your site off for a traffic surge – you’ll just pay a transparent overage fee based on your usage.
  • 99.9% uptime guarantee on a monthly basis via an SLA.
  • Detailed analytics dashboard to monitor usage, along with New Relic monitoring.

⭐ High-traffic WordPress sites hosting at Kinsta:

  • CodeinWP (that’s us)
  • Ubisoft
  • TripAdvisor
  • FreshBooks
  • Buffer

? Pricing:

Kinsta has a ton of plans for various needs, so this is by no means a full list.

Like some other managed WordPress hosts, each plan comes with a monthly visit limit. Kinsta will not shut off your site if you exceed this limit, but you will need to pay overages and/or upgrade to a higher tier. The overage is $1 per 1,000 visitors over the limit:

  • Starter – $30 per month for 20,000 visits (not really high-traffic WordPress hosting, but this is the entry-level plan)
  • Business 1 – $100 per month for 200,000 visits
  • Business 3 – $300 per month for 400,000 visits
  • Enterprise 1 – $600 per month for 1,000,000 visits

You’ll get two months free if you pay annually.

? Go to Kinsta

2. Pagely (pagely.com)

Pagely hosting for high-traffic WordPress sites

Pagely is one of the oldest managed WordPress hosts and a pioneer in the space. While many WordPress hosts have gone “down market” to offer more affordable plans for casual users, Pagely has actually gone “up market” and focused on quality and services rather than price.

Pagely’s prices definitely aren’t cheap, but you probably aren’t looking for the cheapest option if you want the best WordPress hosting for high-traffic sites.

? Key features for high-traffic sites:

  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) powered infrastructure.
  • Premium DNS powered by Amazon Route 53 for faster page load times.
  • Nginx web server, though you can also use Apache with Nginx in front to act as a reverse proxy.
  • 100% uptime guarantee via an SLA. This is the highest uptime guarantee of any host on this list.
  • PressCache which serves cached content from a global network of edge servers. Think of it kind of like caching and a CDN combined.
  • On-demand image optimization to speed up load times.
  • Serverless WordPress hosting option via Northstack

⭐ High-traffic WordPress sites hosting at Pagely:

  • Booking.com
  • Visa
  • Garmin
  • Virgin Atlantic
  • Nginx (yes, the website for the high-performance web server hosts at Pagely)

? Pricing:

Pagely offers both VPS and enterprise plans. Here’s a sample of the prices:

  • VBURST-1 – $199 per month
  • VPS-1 – $499 per month
  • VPS-1+ [HA] (High Availability) – $1,249 per month
  • Preconfigured Enterprise plan – starts at $2,500 per month
  • Custom clusters – starts at $5,000 per month

You can get 5% off if you pay annually.

Pagely does not put any arbitrary limits on the number of visitors you can have per month.

? Go to Pagely

3. WP Engine (wpengine.com)

WP Engine

Fueled by a $250 million investment in 2018 and a recent acquisition of Flywheel (formerly a competitor), WP Engine has definitely cemented its spot as one of the most popular and well-known managed WordPress hosts.

WP Engine brands itself as a “WordPress Digital Experience Platform,” which I guess is to signal that it’s more than just hosting. For example, you get the popular Genesis framework and child themes for free, thanks to WP Engine’s acquisition of StudioPress.

WP Engine also comes with plenty of convenient managed WordPress features, like automatic backups and staging sites.

? Key features for high-traffic sites:

  • Server-level caching via Varnish and Memcached.
  • Performance monitoring via New Relic and a dedicated Page Performance tool to find weak points when your site is under load.
  • Built-in CDN service for faster global load times and reduced server load.
  • Nginx server stack.
  • AWS cloud infrastructure.
  • 99.95% uptime guarantee via an SLA (excluding any “excused downtime,” which includes scheduled and emergency maintenance).

⭐ High-traffic WordPress sites hosting at WP Engine:

  • AMD Developer Central
  • Under Armour
  • Jobvite

? Pricing:

WP Engine offers three pre-set plans, as well as a custom plan for larger needs.

Like Kinsta, each plan comes with a monthly visits limit, and you’ll need to upgrade (or pay overages) if you go above that limit. WP Engine’s overage fee is identical to Kinsta at $1 per 1,000 visitors over your limit:

  • Startup – $35 per month for up to 25,000 visits
  • Growth – $115 per month for up to 200,000 visits
  • Scale – $290 per month for up to 400,000 visits
  • Custom – talk to sales if you need to handle more visitors

You’ll get two months free if you pay annually.

? Go to WP Engine

4. Pantheon (pantheon.io)

Pantheon premium WordPress hosting

Pantheon is a popular managed WordPress host that offers scalable infrastructure built on the Google Cloud Platform. In that respect, it’s similar to Kinsta, though Pantheon uses a different tech stack on top of Google Cloud Platform.

In addition to a high-performing technology stack, Pantheon also builds in lots of convenient features like multiple staging environments, automatic backups and updates, and more.

? Key features for high-traffic sites:

  • Nginx web server.
  • Server-level caching via Varnish and Redis.
  • Elastic hosting, which makes it super easy to scale your site up to handle traffic spikes. Learn more about Pantheon’s elastic approach.
  • Global CDN built into your hosting, powered by Fastly.
  • Application performance monitoring via New Relic.
  • Guaranteed 99.95% monthly uptime via an SLA but only for Elite plans.

⭐ High-traffic WordPress sites hosting at Pantheon:

? Pricing:

Like Kinsta and WP Engine, Pantheon plans come with a traffic limit, and you’ll pay overages if you exceed that. Pantheon’s overage charges are significantly higher than those two hosts at $2.50 per 1,000 visits:

  • Basic – $41 per month for up to 25,000 visits
  • Performance – four tiers, starting at $160 per month and ranging up to $916 per month. Visit limits range from 25,000 to 300,000 visitors per month
  • Elite – you ‘gotta talk to sales. Can handle up to 10 million monthly visits

All prices assume you prepay annually, which can be a hefty upfront investment.

? Go to Pantheon

5. SiteGround (siteground.com)

SiteGround Cloud hosting

SiteGround is probably best known for its budget-friendly managed WordPress hosting plans, that pack advanced features like staging, server-level caching, automatic updates, and more into one low-priced package.

SiteGround’s shared plans work for high-traffic WordPress sites to a point. The highest-tier GoGeek plan supports ~200,000 monthly visits, and smart caching/optimization can help you go above that.

However, a better option for high-traffic sites is probably SiteGround’s cloud hosting plans, which offer dedicated (and managed) resources at an affordable price point. (More on cloud hosting here.)

? Key features for high-traffic sites:

  • Server-level caching with Nginx and Memcached.
  • Dedicated resources and easy scalability on the cloud plans (not so much on the cheaper shared plans).
  • 99.9% uptime guarantee on an annual basis via an SLA.
  • Free CDN integration via Cloudflare.

⭐ High-traffic WordPress sites hosting at SiteGround:

? Pricing:

SiteGround does not apply any arbitrary visitor limits. SiteGround does list estimated visits for its shared plans, but those are just estimates, not hard limits.

On shared plans, SiteGround’s actual limits involve CPU usage, while cloud plans don’t have arbitrary limits because you’re paying for dedicated resources:

  • GoGeek shared plan – $11.95 per month promo pricing/$34.95 per month regular pricing. Good for up to ~200,000 monthly visits (remember – that’s not a hard cap, just a rough estimate).
  • Cloud hosting – ranges from $80 per month to $240 per month depending on what resources your site needs.

You can also configure your own custom cloud plan. SiteGround has a calculator tool to help you estimate the price based on your needs.

? Go to SiteGround

? What’s the best high-traffic WordPress hosting?

That wraps up our thoughts on the best premium WordPress hosting for high-traffic sites. They’re all high-quality hosts, so your choice really just comes down to your specific needs and budget.

To help you compare these five hosts, here’s table summarizing key details for each host:

Wp-dd.com

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