Best Joomla Hosting

Matthew Rogers

Author: Matthew Rogers

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Last Updated: April 2021


As a web agency with a LOT of hosting accounts (we have countless side-projects and like to experiment), we’ve got a pretty good idea of what defines a great web hosting provider. These are our best Joomla hosting providers, great hosting without breaking the bank.


Web Hosting CompanyOverall RatingPrice/mo.FeaturesWebsite
siteground29.3/10$3.95 (Temporary 67% Discount)10 GBPowerful, Fast, epic support, + 30-day money-back guarantee! = Win!Grab Your Discount
hostgator8.7/10$2.78UnlimitedCheap + Unlimited Disk Space!Visit Site
A2HostingLogo8.5/10$3.92 (down from $7.99)UnlimitedUnlimited Disk Space!Visit Site
inmotion8.3/10$4.19 (40% discount)UnlimitedExperienced, reliable, slightly more expensive.Visit Site
Dreamhost8/10$7.95UnlimitedGreat performance & supportVisit Site

Best Joomla Hosting 2021 Reviews

1. SiteGround

SiteGround logo


Website: www.siteground.com
Price: $3.95
Disk space: 10 GB

We believe the best Joomla hosting provider is SiteGround. They’re one of today’s top hosting companies for a good reason – it comes with a lot of features that website owners, designers, and developers are looking for. Here are just some of them:

  • 99.99% uptime guaranteed
  • Super-fast loading time
  • All plans come with SSL certificates, CDN, and email accounts, among others
  • 24/7 support via helpful articles, phone support, email, and live chat
  • Supports over 500 apps
  • Integrated with popular website builders like Joomla, WordPress, Weebly, Drupal, etc.
  • 30-day money back guarantee

As you can see above, SiteGround gives its users a lot to be happy about. And the good news is that they can truly deliver on what they promise.

Should you decide on getting one of their packages, know that they currently have three plans – StartUp, GrowBig, and GoGeek. You can go for their StartUp plan if you’re just starting out – it’s very affordable and quite powerful. Just know that you can only have one website with this plan.

If you want to subscribe to a more powerful package, choose between the GrowBig and GoGeek plans. With said packages, you can have unlimited websites and have bigger storage spaces as well.

Pros

  • Discounted prices for new accounts
  • Free SSL on all plans
  • Built-in SEO

2. HostGator

HostGator logo


Website: www.hostgator.com
Price: $2.75
Disk Space: Unlimited

Are you considering HostGator as your web hosting provider? The Company has become a popular choice for many because of their many outstanding features such as the following:

  • 99.9% uptime guarantee
  • Fast loading time
  • Customer support via knowledgebase, forums, emails, phone, and live chat
  • 1-click installation of popular apps
  • 45-day money back guarantee

Users will also find that HostGator is easy to tinker with from the backend. Their cPanel is organized and user-friendly – you’ll surely get the hang of it in a matter of time even if you’re new to website creation. And of course, you can always contact their support team in times of trouble. HostGator actually has one of the most responsive customer support.

Also, notice that they’re giving their users up to 45 days to decide if HostGator (or the plan that they chose) is the right one them. Other hosting providers only give 30 days for their money back guarantees (30 is the most common). We simply advise new HostGator customers to quickly try out their sites so as not to waste those 45 days.

Pros

  • Good customer support
  • Fast-loading pages
  • Easy to use

Cons

  • Upselling (upon signup) is very aggressive
  • A domain name is not included in their packages
  • Uptime can sometimes fail

3. A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting logo


Website: www.a2hosting.com
Price: $3.92
Disk space: Unlimited

A2 Hosting has become a favorite among website builders for the following reasons:

  • 3 pricing plans to choose from
  • Multiple server locations to guarantee high-speed loading of pages
  • Customer support through various methods (live chat, phone, email, etc.)
  • Option to use an A2 Hosting subdomain if you want to postpone getting your own domain name
  • Free migration

When choosing one of their plans, know that the packages are more or less described by their names. The Lite plan is for websites with minimal needs (it can actually host just one website). The Swift plan is faster than the Lite plan and can handle unlimited websites as well. As for the Turbo plan, it’s even faster than the Swift plan and can also host unlimited websites.

A2 Hosting also offers a 30-day money back guarantee to its users. We suggest really using their services in those 30 days so as not to waste the opportunity of getting your money back.

Note also that you can terminate your plan at A2 Hosting at any time. However, A2 requires its users to submit a cancellation request to Company 15 days before the renewal date. Now, this is really important as failing to do so will allow the Company to charge you for your next billing period (with no option to refund).

Pros

  • Free SSL certificate
  • Flexible options
  • Good customer support

Cons

  • Strict cancellation policy
  • Extremely high renewal rates
  • The free site migration only applies to one website

4. InMotion Hosting

InMotion Hosting logo


Website: www.inmotionhosting.com
Price: $6.39
Disk space: Unlimited

People who are considering InMotion Hosting are attracted by some of their features such as the following:

  • Guaranteed uptime of 99.95%
  • Fast server speed for fast loading of pages
  • Customer support via ticketing system, phone support, and live chat (among others)
  • Supports open source projects
  • Supports e-Commerce
  • Free data backups
  • 30-day money back guarantee

A2 Hosting provides its users with decent web hosting, that’s for sure. However, as far as the free data backups, know that they have a limit of only 10GB. So, if you exceed this limit, the system won’t be able to back up your data. They do have a tool for this, however, but you’ll have to manually do the backup yourself.

Another one of their nice features is that they have a built-in wizard for connecting with Google apps (e.g. Gmail, Drive, etc.). So, it takes the hassle of doing all those things one by one (and makes it super easy for beginners).

As for their pricing plans, you’ll be glad to know that each one comes with unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth. Yes, even their cheapest plan (but it can only have one website as a limitation).

Pros

  • Good SEO
  • Good security
  • Good customer support

Cons

  • The free data backup has a limit
  • No guarantee of uptime during a site migration
  • Signing up is difficult (the verification process takes time)

5. DreamHost

DreamHost logo


Website: www.dreamhost.com
Price: $2.95
Disk space: Unlimited

Here are just some of the things you’ll get when you purchase a plan from DreamHost:

  • Free domain (for annual payments only)
  • Site speed is fast
  • Customer support through helpful articles, discussion forums, ticketing system, and in-house support team.
  • Uptime guarantee of 99.96%
  • Environment-friendly programs

DreamHost does perform well when it comes to their uptime commitment. Their fast-loading pages are also good for SEO. Those who are particularly concerned about the environment will find DreamHost’s efforts as a green Company particularly appealing. They’re guaranteed carbon neutral in their operations and are also energy star certified.

As for their subscription plans, you’ll find it easy to choose as they’re only offering 2 plans – Starter and Unlimited. Both plans provide unlimited everything (storage and bandwidth) but the Starter plan is only allowed to host one website. So, choose the higher-priced plan (Unlimited) if you intend to have more than one website.

Still, if you’re looking for an easy-to-use hosting, DreamHost may not be good for you. It comes with its own version of cPanel which (in our opinion) is not really user-friendly.

Lastly, if you’re concerned about apps, know that they at least have 1-click installations for popular CMS like WordPress and Joomla.

Pros

  • Reliable support team
  • Above average uptime
  • 97-day money back guarantee

Cons

  • cPanel and dashboard are not that easy to understand
  • There are only two plans to choose from
  • Site transfer is not free

Joomla hosting: How To Find The Best One!

To find the best Joomla hosting for your site, you’ll need to look into the most important features that should go with your hosting package. That’s exactly what we’ll talk about in this post as well as some terminologies that you may not be aware of.

Server Location

Your hosting Company’s server location matters – and it matters a lot. If the servers are not in the same location as your business, data transfer can be delayed. This can also affect the loading time of your site pages.

And so, if you live in the U.S., it would be advisable to pick a USA web host. Same goes for other countries, so if you live in Canada, look for the best Canadian website hosting services, or if you live in Australia, a quick search for web hosting Australia will give you what you need. If not, there’s another option – find a hosting provider that uses a CDN.

CDN stands for Content Distribution Network. The cached version of your site is stored here, and it can be distributed to different parts of the world quickly (as they have network servers in different countries).

Your option, therefore, is to get a hosting provider with an integrated CDN system. One such service is called CloudFlare – it’s free and easy to set up as well. If your chosen Joomla host has this feature, it doesn’t matter where its servers are located.

Server Uptime

You want your Joomla hosting service to be reliable, right? Well then, get one that guarantees around 99.9% uptime. There are not a lot of hosting Companies that can deliver on this, so do your research well. You can actually find uptime figures and information by searching on Google.

SSL Certificates

SSL sertificates

Your website should have an SSL certificate if you want your site visitors’ personal information secured. The thing is, more people will trust your site if it does carry an SSL certificate. How will they know? Well, instead of just the typical http in the URL, sites with SSL certificates will have an https. The “s” means that the site is carrying an SSL certificate.

We all need secure sites these days – with hackers stealing information from unsuspecting users and different types of virus going around. It’s more likely that people will trust going (and going back) to your website when they see that extra “s” on your website address. In fact, even Google places great importance now on SSL certificates and consider it as a ranking factor for SEO. See, there’s no reason for you not to get one.

If you’re considering getting a hosting plan from a Company that uses Let’s Encrypt, know that such service provides for a basic SSL certificate. All you need to do is go to your account’s control panel and activate it.

Fortunately, a lot of Joomla hosting providers include SSL certificates in their plans. If not, we advise purchasing this service to make sure that your website is secure.

Speed

You want your web pages to load quickly as it affects user experience as well as your site’s SEO. For speed, it’s quite enough just to focus on the server location and CDN we mentioned before. However, if your chosen Joomla hosting provider wants to give you more – that’s an added bonus.

The truth is, hosting Companies have many different ways of optimizing speed. They can create custom scripts, especially for Joomla, for one. Some hosting providers also give more CPU resources to their customers.

Disk Space

Note that disk space is important – but it’s not that important if you’re just building a blog or a business site. Those types of sites typically don’t require a lot of storage spaces – in fact, big businesses will often find 1GB of disk space more than enough. It’s the e-commerce and membership sites with forums that do require a lot of storage space.

And so, we want you to be wary of hosting packages that include unlimited disk spaces even on their cheapest plans. Remember to check on their other added features as such plans usually come with a lot of shortcomings (they use the unlimited disk space as a distraction). Note that similar problems can also be found on free hosting offers.

Bandwidth and Data Transfer

Large bandwidths ensure faster data transfer. Your needs on this will depend on your type of website. If you intend your Joomla site to handle a lot of downloads (music, videos, PDFs, and the like), you’ll indeed need high bandwidth (unlimited would be good). Prioritize this feature in such a setting.

Customer Support

If you’re going for a popular and reputable Joomla hosting provider, there’s a big chance that help articles are easily found all over the internet. They usually have a knowledge base of articles (with questions/ answers and problems/ solutions) and forums as well. These are all good if you’re not encountering major problems – but when you do, you’ll need help asap. That’s why we recommend seeking a hosting Company that has 24/7 phone support or live chat.

Joomla: The Details


Joomla hosting can be supported by the basic features of most hosting plans. Joomla can be easy to install, in some cases it is even automatic depending on the hosting site you choose. And, the simpler the installation the better the Joomla Host. Because the best Joomla hosts have optimized their servers for quick and easy Joomla deployment, offering not only copious amounts of bandwidth, but also disk space allowances. The best Joomla Hosting will have experts who are well versed in the workings of Joomla operations as a major part of their support staff.

Joomla: What Is It?

Joomla is a multifaceted CMS you can use to build your website, that is not only simple to utilize and customize for your site, but it is also free. It revivals even WordPress in user-friendliness. But when compared Joomla is a much more powerful content managing system (CMS) and doubles as framework for application building. And with its advanced options that allow for wide-ranging customizations, web publishers, businesses, and developers alike will find great use from choosing Joomla hosting.

What is Joomla Commonly Used for?

With Joomla, businesses can personalize and manage countless lists, like store inventories, product catalogues, and custom reservation systems to name a few. And on top of these business-friendly features, Joomla is mostly known for how convenient it is as a CMS. It can be used not only for internet sites, like web-blogs and personal and corporate sites. But can also function perfectly for in-company intranet systems that are a huge benefit to employees and can help them stay connected and up to date on their company’s inner-workings. It’s perfect for developing corporate websites, blogs, or portals. E-commerce sites can benefit greatly from it and Joomla can be utilized in the creation of dynamic web applications.

Joomla compared to Similar CMS’

Joomla is great to help create a website with, but you want to locate a hosting site that is able to support it as a scripting option, which shouldn’t be too difficult because it is most hosting plans included Joomla. It’s free to install and does so with just the click of a button. Joomla works a little differently than WordPress, but there are constant comparisons because both are usually offered for free with most web hosts, and both can be utilized to host many differing content types, so, both of them are good web development platform. However, Joomla has the ability to be used as a base for applications. in addition to its popular uses. So, in addition to being a CMS it has the ability to work as an outline for web applications. This is because the site uses the traditional model, view, controller (MVC) structure which does not have to be affiliated with CMS, meaning you can use Joomla as content management system or as a platform for web application development. Or you can use both functions together.

How Joomla Got Started

With new versions of Joomla coming out every six months, the original Joomla was started back in 2005 splitting from Mambo CMS. Joomla 1.5 was released in 2008 and 3 following 4 years later in 2012. Joomla relies on its web of developers to keep its software up to date.

Joomla Hosting FAQ’s

What is Joomla and how is it developed?

Joomla is a CMS that is coded in PHP that has a source code that is easy to review and modify. It was created by an open group of developers and the data is free to download without any cost or restriction.

What is a CMS?

CMS is short for content management system. This application allows its users to create web content and gives them the ability to store, edit, and display the content they create. Most of the time, the CMS includes a graphical interface for users to add or edit content. This could be for website pages, images, blog posts or any content type able to be uploaded. A database is available that is able to store content, and templates can be found that displays the content to the site visitors.

Just how popular is Joomla?

Joomla is very popular. Joomla’s CMS is second only to WordPress in popularity. Running close to 30 million websites on the internet.

How well-supported is Joomla?

Joomla is very well-supported. With commercial companies offer Joomla consulting and support. Joomla is completely documented, has a forum created by the community, holds events, workshops, and even has its own magazine.

What type of websites are able to be built with Joomla?

You can use Joomla to build almost any type of website that is content focused. Professionals in the field believe Joomla is nearly perfect for the uses need in creating ecommerce and social networking sites.

How is CMS utilized in ecommerce?

The products that show up on ecommerce sites are seen as a type of content.

What are some sites that aren’t usually seen as having content as its basis?

A couple examples of non-content based sites are applications based off the web that are used for editing audio, video and other types of media, heavyweight data analytics, and apps that can run on physical devices aren’t content-based.

I’m just starting out with this stuff. Is Joomla good for me to choose?

Perhaps. Joomla is simple to learn and start off with, however, there are some options that are more fitting for your experience level.  Joomla is usually the go to choose for developers rather than inexperienced users. WordPress platforms, are more user-friendly for beginners and would have more resources for you to use to help if you should come across any issues.

If I’m just Starting a blog. is Joomla the platform I should use?

Joomla might be a little too much if you’re only planning to start a blog. There’s a possibility that WordPress is a more fitting option because it is geared towards blogs.  However, it is quite possible to use Joomla as the groundwork for a blog, especially if that blog is a subsection of a bigger site. In that case, Joomla would be the best option.

I looking for some specific functionality, could Joomla have it?

Most likely. With extensions nearing 8,000 and a system that makes adding new extensions and functionality super easy, Joomla is very likely to have the functions you seek.

Can I customize a site to look how I want with Joomla?

Yes. There are free themes offered on Joomla nearing a thousand that you can use to develop your site, in addition to many of them being customizable. Any experienced developer can construct brand new themes and create a unique design, plus there are many experienced developers that can customize a theme for your site, and ways for you to try it on your own if you’re willing to learn.

Is setting up a new site with Joomla hard?

No. Most web hosts have one-click Joomla installation that you can access via your control panel. And if you don’t have the installation wizard, setting it up is still relatively easy.

I have a web hosting account; can I use Joomla on it?

Most likely. Joomla requires features that are already supported by most host companies: PHP and MySQL. However, it is best to check with them first. It’s typically not a good sign if web hosts don’t meet these basic requirements and could be an indicator that the host you have isn’t very good. The only exception being specialized hosts.

If I didn’t want to use Joomla, what are some good alternatives?

Joomla has to major competitors: Drupal and WordPress. They are coded in PHP and are considered open source like Joomla.

How does the Best Joomla Hosting stand when compared to WordPress?

Either one can stand above the other depending on the kind of functions you want your website to accomplish. If you a simple website that doesn’t require the site visitors to interact with it, then WordPress is for you. However, if you need something more custom and able to engage with different content types, Joomla is what you need.

How does the Best Joomla Hosting stand when compared to Drupal?

With this option, as well, it hinges on the functions you want your site to accomplish that determines which platforms stacks up the best.  Joomla is a lot more popular than Drupal. If you want to integrate more custom content and create a dynamic yet common site, then Joomla is most likely what you need. However, if you’re creating something completely new from scratch, with tons of customized functions and logic, then Drupal should be your go-to platform option.

How can I decide whether Drupal, Joomla, or WordPress fit my needs?

It all depends on how engaging, custom, and interactive you need your site to be. If you want to simply make a public blog that doesn’t include anything else, then WordPress is what you need. However, is you want more built-in features, especially if they are features of Drupal, then that should be your choice. But if you’re not sure exactly what you need, or the level of customization you want, then it’s best to let a web developer decide the platform that fits your needs best.