Over the years I’ve tried various web hosts, started to find faults in those webhosts and moved on to others. This is just a log of what hosts I’ve used and how/why I used them.
GoDaddy
I started with GoDaddy and HostGator because they were the cheapest and most popular at the time. They offered shared hosting for under $10/month. I soon realized how slow and outdated their servers can get.
WPEngine
I found WPEngine because I needed a more secure server. They offered free fixes if your website ever got hacked, automatic WordPress updates (before WordPress had automatic updates built into core), and also a support team that was knowledgable about WordPress. They were great except now I think their support team moved to the development team and their new support team isn’t as experienced as before. Their servers are also a bit more crowded than before, but for most static business websites their caching allows websites to still load pretty fast.
Kinsta
Kinsta was a necessary host for a website that was getting 502 and 504 errors on WPEngine. Having a guaranteed amount of resources on Google Cloud Engine’s premier tier helped resolve those issues.
Cloudways
Cloudways also used Google Cloud Engine but at a way cheaper cost. They didn’t have as many of the tools as Kinsta and WPEngine, but speed-wise they were just as fast. The amount of flexibility Cloudways provides for the affordable costs is awesome.
MediaTemple
MediaTemple seemed like a good choice with their fancy website, plus I was on a VPS plan. However, load times weren’t as fast as the other managed WordPress hosts. After switching a website from MediaTemple to Cloudways, my suspicions were confirmed. The website loaded in half the time on Cloudways.
Who’s the Best?
So the web hosts I use now are Kinsta, Cloudways and WPEngine. Each have their own advantages and disadvantages. You can read more about them here.