SuperbThemes has been a creative agency in the WordPress industry for many years. We wrote hundreds of articles sharing our insights about WordPress products and services with our readers. We don’t want to brag about ourselves, but we have some experience under our belt. Our articles depicted WordPress extensively, but we realized that this was not enough. You will have a better understanding of WordPress by getting familiarised with its competitors.
Joomla is one of the most performant WordPress competitors we want to introduce to our readers. We plan to write more articles about WordPress competitors and other tools to create websites, so stick with us to learn more! Start with this article about Joomla and the best Joomla hosting providers.
Joomla at Glance
Joomla is a free, open-source content management system (CMS) launched in 2005. It has gained dozens of awards since then, including Best Open Source CMS in 2021; Best Free CMS in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021; Best PHP Open Source CMS in 2007; and Best Linux CMS in 2005. Here is an incomplete list of Joomla distinctions. These numerous awards, in addition to millions of satisfied users worldwide, should attract your attention.
Similar to WordPress, Joomla is flexible and easy to customize. Joomla Extensions Directory has thousands of extensions to broaden the functionality of Joomla-based websites. It’s free and open-source, so every member of the community may contribute. Joomla is search-engine-optimized out of the box and loads pretty quickly. Use it for small websites, but it works great for mid and enterprise projects.
WordPress smashes the CMS market by a large margin—around 64% of CMS-based websites run on WordPress. Joomla has a considerably smaller market share, around 2.5%, but it’s a community you can’t ignore.
How to Choose the Proper Joomla Hosting
Joomla has similar requirements to other types of website platforms and CMSs. You don’t need to look for special specifications, but keep in mind the following criteria when you purchase hosting for your Joomla-based website.
Overall Performance
Most hosting providers claim that their platform is the fastest on the market. To some extent, all of them are right as long as there is no standard testing environment. Each hosting provider performs the tests in particular conditions to favor its stack. It’s normal, but the results aren’t necessarily of substance for the users. It’s better to look at the stack technologies used, the RAM, the storage available, and the CPU.
Uptime and Reliability
The reputation of your website is dependent on the reliability of the host. Periodic downtimes, server issues, or malfunctions affect the image of your brand. Search for a reliable host platform that ensures 99.99% uptime. Study the review websites to find out how your favorite hosts handled bad situations. (HINT: we reviewed the major hosting platforms, so you can take a look at our blog).
Security
Luckily, most hosting platforms treat security as a top priority and you don’t have to worry too much about security at the server level. Yet, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t implement security measures. Many webmasters take security for granted, which is a totally uninspired decision.
Support
Joomla experts might disregard this aspect because of their expertise. Casual and less-trained users should consider the quality of the support offered by the hosting platform. A host that offers 24/7 support, fast turnaround, and multiple contact modalities should be at the top of your list.
Cost
We all dream of nonrestrictive budgets, but most projects have tight budgets. Therefore, the price of the services is another factor that weighs into the overall equation of selecting the proper host.
Best Joomla Hosting Providers
You have an idea about the potential of Joomla and how to search for proper hosting. Now it’s time to itemize the best Joomla hosting providers. Here is our list—while it’s not exclusive, these are the best solutions according to our experiences. We are open to your suggestions, so leave a comment with your favorite Joomla hosts.
SiteGround
SiteGround is a top-class hosting provider that fully deserves your attention. You can’t go wrong with SiteGround, no matter the CMSs used or the type of project. It works for both WordPress and Joomla. Use it for a small personal blog or for enterprise projects. Check out our 360-degree SiteGround review to find out more about the entire suite of SiteGround services.
You may opt for either standard web hosting or cloud hosting for your Joomla website. The introductory prices are extremely competitive and you get real value for your money. For instance, the cheapest web hosting plan, StartUp, starts at $1.99/month and comes with the following:
- 10 GB web space;
- Unmetered bandwidth;
- Enhanced security;
- Free SSL certificate and CDN;
- Free email hosting;
- Daily backup.
It’s worth mentioning that SiteGround runs on Google Cloud infrastructure, so you can rest assured about performance and reliability. The only downside is the renewal prices, which are considerably bigger than the introductory ones. Indeed, this strategy is common to many other Joomla hosting providers, but it’s annoying for many people.
Hostinger
Hostinger is the ideal solution for people on tight budgets. Even though it’s on the cheap end of the spectrum, the hosting quality is impressive. The prices start at $1.99/month to host one Joomla website, but the next plan up is an out-of-this-world bargain. It sets you back $2.49/month and you get:
- 100 websites;
- 100 GB SSD storage;
- Unlimited bandwidth;
- Unlimited FTP accounts;
- Weekly backups;
- Free email hosting;
- Free SSL;
- A free domain name for one year.
You can host your customers’ websites on Hostinger at very low prices. It’s a huge deal if you create and maintain customer sites. Agencies should take a look at the Hosting for Agency section to discover more about the Hostinger proposals for agencies.
On top of that, a server-side cache accelerator and the installation of the latest PHP and MySQL versions ensure a blazingly fast loading speed for your website.
A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is another cheap but performant Joomla hosting provider. Take a look at our A2 Hosting review for an in-depth analysis of this platform. Depending on your preference, you may have pre-installed Joomla on your account or install it by using Softaculous. Joomla 3 and Joomla 4 are both supported.
The cheapest plan comes with quite impressive perks like free website migration, unlimited email accounts, 24/7/365 professional support, 99,9% uptime commitment, free SSL certificate, and website staging. A2 Hosting is a good choice even though you need more performance. In this instance, go for a pricer plan like Turbo Boost or Turb Max. Thanks to a high-performing stack in addition to a superior caching system, websites under these plans may load up to 20x faster.
Inmotion Hosting
Indeed, most users purchase WordPress hosting, so it makes sense for hosting companies to primarily focus on them. Yet, it’s not fair to neglect niche areas like Joomla. Inmotion Hosting doesn’t make this mistake and hasn’t left any stone unturned for Joomla users. A support section covers all their needs – from a basic installation guide to custom field creation in Joomla 4.
The Core is the cheapest shared hosting plan and includes 2 websites, unlimited bandwidth, 10 email addresses, and free SSL. The Pro is the most expensive shared hosting plan and sails with unlimited websites, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited email addresses, free domain and SSL, advanced caching, and free advertising credits. With a Core plan of $2.99 and a Pro plan of $12.99, Inmotion Hosting offers a pretty good deal. Inmotion Hosting is your partner even though you need more performant services. Dedicated servers or VPS ensures superior performance, but the cost is proportional.
Scala Hosting
Besides reliability, performance, and security, Scala Hosting impresses with its facile scalability. You can start a Joomla website with the cheapest web hosting, update to the superior plans if needed, and go for Joomla VPS for high performance. Simply put, Scala Hosting covers all the needs of a business, from early stages to maturity.
While the shared plans have pretty standard features like a free domain name, free SSL certificate, 20 GB SSD storage, and regular backups, VPS hosting is more attractive. sPanel is the cherry on top for VPS hosting. It’s an all-in-one platform to manage your websites simply and effectively. It replaces cPanel and is more powerful and intuitive. Less-experienced users will appreciate the user-friendly interface and the large set of options.
CloudAccess
CloudAccess doesn’t have the same fame as the above Joomla hosting providers, but it deserves your attention. Cloud hosting is the future, and your business should use the latest technologies to stay competitive. CloudAccess stores your site in the cloud and you manage your assets with Cloud Control Panel, a handy management tool. The interface is user-friendly and the site management is as simple as ABC. On average, people are scared by the applications managing cloud hosting. Cloud Access has broken this myth with its management app.
Still in doubt about CloudAccess? That’s quite normal, and the CloudAccess team knows it. As a result, anyone can test the platform in a 30-day trial, for free, no strings attached. You don’t even have to buy a domain name, because the site is hosted on a cloudaccess.host subdomain. There is no more transparent way to test the hosting services, so there’s no excuse not to take this host for a spin.
GreenGeeks
The Internet has its share in global pollution, and even though many people don’t realize it, the contribution isn’t negligible. We should do more to limit the overall pollution generated by the servers hosting digital assets. GreenGeeks is the most active Joomla hosting provider in this respect by offsetting 300% of the energy consumption. Do you believe that there should be a tradeoff between performance and going green? Not necessarily! GreenGeeks satisfies the requirements of most small and medium businesses. Consider switching to the GreenGeeks platform if you run a small or medium Joomla website and genuinely care about our future.
Shared web hosting starts at $2.95 and includes 50 GB space, unlimited bandwidth, 50 email accounts, a free SSL certificate, free CDN, nightly backups, a built-in cache, and one tree planted for each purchase. The features are similar to other hosting platforms, but you help more our ecosystem.
Wrapping Up
The above Joomla hosting providers cover all types of projects – be it a small or an enterprise website. You can go with well-known hosting providers like SiteGround or ScalaHosting and they will meet your expectations. Hostinger, A2 Hosting, and Inmotion Hosting provide excellent services at affordable prices. People who prefer hosting their digital assets in the cloud should take a look at CloudAccess. Environmental issues won’t be resolved in entirety by choosing GreenGeeks services, but it’s a small step forward towards a more sustainable world. Select the best Joomla hosting provider for your website, customize it, and share the address with us. We are deeply interested in visiting the Joomla websites created by our readers!
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