Are you looking for the best WooCommerce hosting to create your online store ?
Choosing the best hosting provider is one of the most important decisions you will make for your e-commerce business .
The typical shared hosting provider may not always be a good choice for WooCommerce. This is because you will need more resources, an SSL certificate, and a Woo Commerce-centric support platform. In this guide, we’ll help you choose the best Woo Commerce hosting for your online store .
What is WooCommerce hosting ?
For WooCommerce hosting, you need an optimized hosting solution that is equipped to handle Woo Commerce stores. Woo Commerce is the most popular e-commerce platform in the world .
It is used by millions of small and large companies around the world. It runs on WordPress, so you’ll obviously need a hosting provider that supports WordPress .
but that is not all.
You will need a domain name (such as dr-wp.com) and an SSL certificate to accept online payments. You will also need to optimize your back-end servers for WooCommerce for better performance .
As your online store grows, you will have to think about how you will handle this non-stop traffic .
The idea behind WooCommerce hosting is to offer a hassle-free way to create your online store. This leaves you free to focus on growing your business .
Think of it as a custom-built platform for your e-commerce store with an army of hosting engineers working in the background .
Pros and Cons of WooCommerce Hosting ?
WooCommerce hosting looks amazing but it has its pros and cons. Before making a decision, take a look at the pros and cons of WooCommerce hosting .
Advantages of WooCommerce
Hosting WooCommerce Ready – Hosting companies offer WooCommerce pre-installed with a ready-to-use layout. High Performance : Speed is not only important for user experience but also for SEO. WooCommerce hosting platforms provide faster load times for smoother ecommerce transactions .
Security : WooCommerce hosting plans come with an SSL Certificate. This adds a layer of security around the transmission of data from your client’s browser to your website .
WooCommerce Support We all need help now and then. With WooCommerce hosting, you get help from actual WooCommerce experts via email, live chat, or phone .
Hosting Features Apart from the specific Woo Commerce features, you get all the usual hosting features like unmetered bandwidth, huge disk space, email accounts, and more .
Now you probably think this all sounds so amazing, what are the disadvantages ?
Disadvantages of WooCommerce
Hosting Pricing : Prices for WooCommerce hosting plans are slightly higher than the average shared WordPress hosting plans.
Pre-installed software : Some advanced users may want to install WooCommerce themselves . The pre-installed software may also include ready-made WooCommerce themes and bonus plugins that some users may not need.
Maintenance : Not all WooCommerce hosting plans offer automatic updates. You will still need to set up automatic backups and install updates.
Now that you’ve looked at the pros and cons of WooCommerce hosting, you’re probably still wondering if this is the right solution for you ?
When do you need WooCommerce hosting ?
If you’re a beginner and don’t intend to sell more than a couple of items, you can go for a shared WordPress hosting account. We recommend Bluehost, which is one of the officially recommended WordPress hosting companies .
If you are a small business intending to open a fully functional online store, you will be better off with WooCommerce hosting .
Especially if you don’t know the technical side of installing and setting up WordPress and WooCommerce, choosing the right WooCommerce hosting will save you a lot of time .
As a business owner, you have the option to move to a limited shared hosting plan and then hire someone to manage the technical stuff or learn things as you go. This will take your time and you may end up paying more than you expected .
Your second option is to go the hassle-free route with a WooCommerce hosting plan. You will have a rapid-fire online store that is ready to go with no technical skills required .
At the end :
it comes down to your own priorities. If keeping the cost low is the most important factor, you can go for regular WordPress hosting .
On the other hand, if you want to start selling quickly, the cost of WooCommerce hosting makes sense and is easily justified .
Now that you’ve read all about choosing WooCommerce hosting, it’s time to make a decision .
To make the process easier, we’ve also handpicked the best WooCommerce hosting providers . These are the best ecommerce hosting companies that consistently rank highly because of their quality, performance, and excellent customer support, we give each of them a perfect rating of 5 out of 5 stars .
Best WooCommerce Hosting Providers
SiteGround :
SiteGround is one of the most popular and highest rated hosting providers in the WordPress community. They offer unique in-house WordPress speed and security solutions to make your site as fast and secure as possible. They are known for the best 24/7 support in the industry which is why they are an official recommended hosting provider for “WordPress” and “WooCommerce”. SiteGround features include pre-installed WooCommerce, free SSL, automatic upgrades, built-in WP caching, CDN, one-click staging, and GIT version control. It is also one of the few companies that offer website hosting with 3 data centers in the USA, Europe and Asia.
Bluehost :
Bluehost is ranked as the #1 web hosting provider for small businesses. They are an official recommended hosting provider for “WordPress” and “WooCommerce”. With Bluehost, you don’t have to worry about your website slowing down even when there is a lot of traffic. Our expert support is always available 24/7 to help via phone, email or live chat. On top of that, they offer a free domain, free dedicated IP address, free SSL for secure payments, pre-installed WooCommerce, and a free 2-hour setup call with a dedicated WooCommerce expert.
WP Engine :
WP Engine : is VIP WordPress Hosting. Their hassle-free hosting offers fast and powerful servers that can handle anything. Your website is practically hacker proof, and your amazing customer service makes you feel like royalty. They offer automatic security updates, daily backups, one-click restore points, automatic caching, high-level security, one-click staging area, and more. WPEngine is like having an army of WordPress experts at your side for help. Brands like HTC, FourSquare, SoundCloud, Balsamiq, and many others use WPEngine for their WordPress hosting. If you are a company that does not want to deal with the technical side of running your blog, WPEngine is the solution for you. Bonus: You can now get over 36 premium StudioPress themes and the Genesis framework for free with WP Engine all accounts
Liquid Web :
Started in 1997, Liquid Web has become a leader in managed VPS and cloud hosting. They are famous for their fast and high quality support, known as “heroic support”. All Liquid web hosting servers are highly tuned for speed, performance, and security making it a completely hassle-free hosting solution. Their new managed WordPress hosting option includes site staging, automatic updates, image compression tools, free SSL, powerful developer tools, and an easy-to-use control panel to manage all your sites in one place. There’s a reason big companies like Motorola, Red Bull, ESPN, Audi, and FedEx use Liquid Web .
HostGator :
HostGator hosts over 8 million domains and is one of the most popular web hosts in the industry. With a one-click WordPress install, 99.9% uptime guarantee, and 24/7 support, it’s a smart choice for every store owner. We consider them among the best corporate web hosting .
Best WooCommerce Hosting Comparison (2022)
Now that we’ve reviewed the above top WooCommerce hosting companies, you might be wondering which one is the best for your online store ?
To help you choose the best WooCommerce hosting for your ecommerce site, we’ve created some additional resources .
The goal here is to help you choose the right hosting company because choosing the wrong provider can cost you more money and headaches in the future.
WooCommerce Hosting Test
We know all this information can be very confusing. We usually receive a lot of emails from our users asking for a personal recommendation on a suitable Woo Commerce hosting for their online store .
If you would still like personalized assistance in selecting a WooCommerce hosting company, feel free to write to us using our contact form. A member of our team will get back to you within 24 hours .
Detailed WooCommerce hosting performance comparison
The main reason dr-wp users trust us is that our reviews are based on actual usage, real-time testing, and accurate data .
Instead of using information provided by hosting companies, we actually sign up for each WooCommerce hosting provider and thoroughly test their services .
We use professional third-party benchmarking tools and run comprehensive performance and reliability tests for each company, so we can help you choose the best WooCommerce hosting for your business .
For rigorous testing across all WooCommerce hosting companies, we create a sample site on each hosting provider. After that we install a default theme and populate the site with dummy data including images and media. In this way our tests are like an average website .
Here is the step-by-step process of testing :
First, we use Pingdom, the industry-leading website speed test service, to measure our website speed across multiple WooCommerce hosting companies .
Next, we use the Load Impact service to send virtual users (VU) to each website to see how the hosting server handles increased requests from multiple connections simultaneously. This helps us see how the individual WooCommerce hosting company is performing during peak traffic .
Last but not least, we use the Bitcatcha service to test server response times across several geographies including the United States, London, Singapore, Sao Paulo, India, Sydney, and Japan. This helps us determine the best WooCommerce hosting for any geographic location .
Now that you know our testing process, let’s compare the performance of the best WooCommerce hosting companies.
SiteGround :
SiteGround is one of the top rated hosting companies in the WooCommerce community. They offer a unique in-house security and performance improvement which is why they are an officially recommended WooCommerce hosting provider .
Here are the results of SiteGround’s performance tests :
As you can see in the test result, SiteGround’s test site loaded in less than a second (649ms to be exact) to a server in Dallas, Texas. Our test site is faster than 95% of the sites tested, which is incredible .
Next, we ran the Load Impact test on SiteGround’s servers. We gradually built up to 100 unique visitors at a time to see how the server would handle increased demands from multiple connections at once .
In this chart, the blue line indicates the number of active virtual users on the site. The green line is the server load time. SiteGround’s performance has been nearly consistent except for a high of 50 users on the site. It recovered quickly and page load time remained steadily low even with more users .
Next, we ran a response time test, and used Bitcatcha to test the most accurate server response time from different geographic locations .
SiteGround’s test site performed really well in the US and all other locations except Japan .
If your audience is in Asia, you can ask SiteGround to move you to their servers in Asia Pacific to correct this .
After our analysis, we found SiteGround to be a great WooCommerce hosting option for startups because their support is very helpful .
- Pros : Best WordPress support, good uptime, fast speed, and free SSL .
- advantages : Officially recommended by WordPress and WooCommerce
- Features : Free migration of the site
- Disadvantages : There is no free domain and GoGeek plan is a bit expensive
Bluehost :
Bluehost is one of the largest hosting companies in the world and an officially recommended WooCommerce hosting provider .
Here are the results of Bluehost’s performance tests :
As you can see in the screenshot above, the test site loaded in less than 2 seconds. This is faster than 85% of all tested websites. Considering that the test site wasn’t using any caching plugins or performance optimization tips, this score is pretty good .
Next, we ran the Load Impact test on the Bluehost site. We gradually built up to 100 unique visitors at a time to see how the server would handle increased demands from multiple connections at once .
In this diagram, the blue line indicates the number of active virtual users on the site, and the green line indicates the server load time. As you can see, the server load remained stable throughout the test even during peak traffic .
Next, we used Bitcatcha to more accurately test server response time from different geographic locations .
Response times for our Bluehost test site were exceptionally great in the US with less than a millisecond loading. Response time on other sites was slightly higher but less than a second .
If your target customers are in the US, this will greatly benefit your WooCommerce store .
We think Bluehost is a great WooCommerce hosting provider for starting your online store .
- PROS : 50% off WooCommerce Hosting + Free Domain + Free SSL
- Features : Officially recommended by WooCommerce and WordPress
- Advantages : Pre-installed WooCommerce site
- Cons : Support can be slow at times
WP Engine :
WP Engine is one of the most popular managed WordPress and WooCommerce hosting providers. They offer internal performance optimization, managed updates, and more .
Here are the results of WP Engine performance tests :
As you can see, the test site uploaded in less than a second to a server in New York City, New York. This is faster than 96% of all tested sites. Considering that we don’t need to install any performance optimization, this score is pretty good .
But how does WP Engine perform under traffic ?
We ran a Load Impact test on a WP Engine server where we gradually built up to 100 unique visitors at a time to see how the server would handle increased requests from multiple connections at once .
The green line represents the page load time and the blue line represents the number of users on the site. As you can see, our test site performed really well for up to 80 users, after which it started to slow down .
As you can see in the graph, WP Engine server performance remained stable throughout the test as the number of users increased .
After load impact testing, we used Bitcatcha to test the most accurate server response time from different geographic locations .
As you can see in the results, WP Engine’s server response time remained under half a second across all geographies. It was especially great in the United States .
In our detailed WP Engine review, we also evaluated customer support, features, and pricing. After our analysis, we found that WP Engine is the best choice for managed WordPress and WooCommerce hosting.
- Pros : Optimized for WordPress and WooCommerce with a stable, managed hosting platform
- Features : One-click staging environment, free SSL, and integrated support for adding a CDN service as an extension .
- And also the advantages : Excellent customer support and a dedicated hosting control panel .
- Cons : Prices are a bit higher for a beginner WooCommerce store, but totally worth the $$$ .
Liquid Web :
Liquid Web is another popular choice among the WooCommerce and WordPress community. They offer multiple levels of WooCommerce hosting plans including VPS, cloud, managed and dedicated plans with 24/7 support .
Here are the test results from the Liquid Web performance tests :
As you can see in the test result, the Liquid Web test site loaded in less than a second to a server in San Jose, California. This means that our site is faster than 91% of the sites tested .
Next, we ran a Load Impact test on Liquid Web servers where we gradually created up to 100 unique visitors at a time to see how the server would handle increased requests from multiple connections at once .
The blue line is the number of active virtual users on the site, and the green line is the server load time. As you can see, the server load remained stable throughout the test even during peak traffic .
Next, we ran a response times test to see how quickly Liquid Web servers responded to requests from different geographic locations .
As you can see in the results, the Liquid Web test site responded in less than a second. Response time was particularly higher in the United States .
After our analysis, we found Liquid Web to be a reliable WooCommerce hosting option for all sizes of online stores .
- Pros : Incredibly fast, powerful managed cloud hosting .
- Pros : Fully managed servers, including SSL, and excellent support .
- And also the advantages : It is easy to expand your business as your business grows . Great for businesses .
- Disadvantages : Pricing is higher than shared WooCommerce hosting providers .
HostGator :
HostGator is one of the best web hosting companies out there. They host more than 8 million domains .
Here are the results from HostGator’s performance tests :
As you can see in the screenshot, our test site loaded in just under a second to a server in Dallas, Texas. This is faster than 94% of all tested sites. Considering that the test site wasn’t using any caching plugins or performance optimization tips, this result is impressive .
Next, we wanted to test how HostGator performs during peak traffic ?
We ran Load Impact testing on HostGator servers. We gradually built up to 100 unique visitors at a time to see how the server would handle increased demands from multiple connections at once .
In this chart, the green line indicates when the page was loaded and the blue line represents the number of users on the site. As you can see, our test site performed really well for up to 80 users, after which it started to slow down .
It is quite normal for shared hosting environments where you share server resources with other sites on the server. As your WooCommerce store grows, you will need to move to VPS or managed hosting providers .
Next, we tested server response time from different geographic locations. We used Bitcatcha to more accurately test server response time .
As you can see, our test site responded in less than a second to all sites. In the US, the response time was only 37ms .
- Pros : Fast and reliable with good support
- Among the advantages : Free migration of the site
- Disadvantages : There is no free domain and renewal fees are higher
- Note : You will need to use a business plan to have a private SSL which is necessary to accept online payments
Best WooCommerce Hosting (Quick Summary)
Now that you’ve compared the performance scores of the best WooCommerce hosting companies, you need to decide what’s best for your ecommerce business .
To make it easier, we’ve created a table with a side-by-side feature list, so you can easily compare the best WooCommerce hosting companies .
In our in-depth WooCommerce hosting review, we believe that if you’re looking to start an online store, Bluehost is your best choice. Their plans are affordable, and include a free domain and free SSL for $6.95 per month. By far the best value .
If you have a medium to large e-commerce store, you must use WP Engine as it provides a completely hassle-free experience. While the cost is a little higher, it is well worth the money .
In fact, you can’t go wrong with any of the best WooCommerce hosting companies we compared above. They all offer blazing fast servers, great uptime, excellent support, and pricing for different budgets .