Top 10 Best Australian Web Hosting & WordPress Hosting Companies

Looking for the best web host in Australia for your website, online store, or WordPress blog? Good! Because here I am going to show you which web hosting company is the best for small businesses and startups operating in Australia. Here is a quick summary comparison of the top 10 website hosts I have reviewed.

At the end of this article, I explain why the web hosting company in Australia you use can have a big impact on the potential success of your website.

Best Web Hosting in Australia in 2020

Here are the 10 best web hosting services in Australia right now:

1. Hostinger (Best & cheapest web hosting Australia)

Hostinger has made a name for themselves by offering one of the cheapest hosting services on the Internet.

• Very affordable prices, from just $0.99 per month.
• Data centers available around the world.

They offer solutions for business of all shapes and sizes. All of Hostinger web hosting plans allow unlimited websites, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited MySQL databases, and unlimited email accounts.

They also offer free Weekly Automatic backups. Their support team can be reached via email and support tickets.

Speed Test From Australia:

Pros:

• Very affordable pricing for everyone.
• Unlimited bandwidth, storage, and websites.
• Free domain name.
• 24/7/365 support available.

Cons:

• Much higher renewal prices than the sign-up prices.

Basic Plan Specs:

• Unlimited websites.
• Unlimited databases.
• Unlimited bandwidth.
• Unlimited emails.
• 24/7/365 support.

Hostinger Pricing: Starts at $0.99/month.

Get started with Hostinger

2. SiteGround (Best runner-up web hosting company Australia)

SiteGround is trusted by thousands of websites around the world. They have been in the business for a very long time and are known for their support.

• Hosts over 2 million+ domains.
• Best in class support.
• Super fast servers and speed.

Siteground offers web hosting services for business of all sizes. They offer Cloud Hosting, Shared Hosting and fully managed WordPress hosting.

All their plans offer free WordPress site migration using their migratory plugin. You can also contact their support team and ask them to migrate your site from any other web host to Siteground, this service costs $30.

Their support team is known for its fast response time and is rated as one of the best in the industry. I used to host some of my websites with Siteground. They used to reply to almost all my technical support questions in under 10 minutes. You can reach their support team via phone, email, and support tickets at any time of the day.

They offer a one-click install for hundreds of different software scripts such as WordPress and Joomla. They also offer a one-click install for free SSL certificates on all their plans. The best thing about SiteGround is its dedication to speed and performance. Servers are powered by Google Cloud Platform, NGINX Direct Delivery, and SuperCacher powerful in-house caching solution based on Nginx reverse proxy and Memcache.

Speed Test From Australia:

Pros:

• Really great support with fast response times.
• Free WordPress site migration using their plugin.
• 30-day money back guarantee.
• Free Cloudflare CDN.
• Free daily automatic backups, and restore.
• Unlimited MySQL databases, Emails, and Bandwidth.

Cons:

• Higher renewal prices.

Basic Plan Specs:

• One website.
• 10 GB Disk Space.
• Unlimited bandwidth.
• Free site migration.
• Free Let’s Encrypt SSL.
• Free Cloudflare CDN.

Price: starting at $6.99/month.

Get started with SiteGround

3. WP Engine (Best managed WordPress hosting Australia)

WP Engine is the trusted platform of choice for professional bloggers. They host some of the biggest news sites on the internet.

• WP Engine hosts some of the biggest websites on the internet.
• Trusted by over 60 thousand customers.

All their plans come with 35+ Genesis Themes for free. Genesis Theme Framework and Genesis Themes make it super easy to make professional-looking websites without writing any code.

You also get premium CDN on every plan, which boosts the speed of your website. WP Engine provides managed WordPress hosting. That means you can just set it and forget it. If you don’t like dealing with all the maintenance tasks that come with using WordPress, WP Engine is the best platform for you.

WP Engine’s offerings are highly scalable. Whether you get a few hundred visitors per day or literally millions per month, they have the infrastructure to deal with it.

Speed Test From Australia:

Pros:

• Trusted by big brands like Microsoft and Gartner.
• Over 35 Genesis Themes and Genesis Theme framework comes free with every plan.
• 24/7 live support available via phone, email, and support tickets.
• Easily scalable solutions.
• Free CDN service and SSL included with every plan.

Cons:

• Can be a little expensive for beginners.

Basic Plan Specs:

• One website.
• 25k visitors/month.
• 50GB Bandwidth.
• Free CDN.
• Genesis Framework and 35+ Genesis Themes.

Price: Starting at $28/month.

Get started with WP Engine

4. Kinsta (Best premium WordPress host Australia)

Kinsta is one of the absolute best managed WordPress hosting providers. They are trusted by some very big brands like ASOS, Freshbooks, Tripadvisor and Ubisoft.

• Free CDN & SSL with every plan.
• Trusted by brands like Asos, Freshbooks, Tripadvisor and Ubisoft.

All their plans come with free site migration service. You can ask them to migrate your site from other WP hosts to Kinsta for free.

You also get free CDN service on all plans. Their platform is built on Google Cloud Platform, so you can choose to host your website in one of 18 global locations available.

They offer free daily backups on all their plans. They also offer free SSL certificates you can install with just one click.

Kinsta’s WordPress hosting use Nginx and PHP 7 that make their servers faster than regular ones.

Speed Test From Australia:

Pros:

• Free SSL and CDN services included with all plans.
• Free site migration.
• Support available via email, phone, and support tickets.
• Trusted by companies like Ubisoft and Ricoh.
• Support for WordPress multisite.
• Automated daily backups.

Cons:

• Can be a little expensive for beginners.

Basic Plan Specs:

• 20k visits/month.
• 5GB SSD storage space.
• 50GB bandwidth.
• FREE CDN and SSL.

Price: Starts at $30 per month.

Get started with Kinsta

5. Cloudways (Best cheap Australian WordPress hosting)

Running your website on a VPS not only gives you a boost in speed but also offers complete control on the server. But it can be really difficult to learn to manage a VPS server on your own unless you are a developer.

Cloudways brings you the best of Managed Hosting and VPS servers. You get to host your website on your own VPS server and get great technical support 24/7.

• 24/7 technical support offered by experts.
• Host your website on a VPS server and gain full control.

Cloudways doesn’t host your website on their own servers. Instead, they allow you to pick a cloud VPS provider they support such as Amazon Web Services, Digital Ocean, and Linode.

Once you pick a VPS provider, you get to control your website very easily through CloudWays WordPress hosting and you also get great technical support available 24/7.

Not only that, but you also get free Cloudways CDN for your website on all their plans. They also offer free site migration and free SSL certificates.

Speed Test From Australia:

Pros:

• Choose from 5 different VPS providers.
• 24/7 technical support available via email and live chat.
• Free site migration and SSL certificates available on all plans.
• Free CloudWays CDN.
• Host your websites on VPS servers.
• Full control over your website and the server.

Cons:

• Not recommended for beginners.

Basic Plan Specs:

• 1 GB RAM.
• 1 Processor Core.
• 25 GB Storage.
• 1 TB Bandwidth.
• Free CDN and SSL certificates.

Price: Starting from $10/month.

Get started with Cloudways

6. A2 Hosting (Fasters servers hosting Australia)

A2 Hosting has been around for a very long time and is trusted by thousands of website owners around the world.

• Data centers available around the world.
• Trusted by thousands of website owners.

A2 Hosting service offerings include Dedicated Servers, Shared Hosting, Cloud Hosting, Email Hosting, and much more.

Their support team is available 24/7/365 via Email, Phone, and Support Tickets. They offer unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth on every plan. All their plans come with cPanel control panel which makes it easy for you to control your website and its content.

They offer one-click installation for software scripts like WordPress, Joomla, and Magento. They also offer free SSL certificates for all your website.

Speed Test From Australia:

Pros:

• Unlimited bandwidth and unlimited storage on all plans.
• Free SSL certificates you can install with just one click.
• All their servers use SSD.
• Anytime money back guarantees on all plans.
• cPanel Control panel.
• 24/7/365 support available.

Cons:

• Not as many features offered as other web hosts.

Basic Plan Specs:

• One website.
• 5 databases.
• Unlimited Storage.
• Unlimited Bandwidth.
• Free SSL.
• Anytime money back guarantee.

Price: Starting at $3.92/month.

Get started with A2 Hosting

7. Digital Pacific (Best Australian owned web hosting)

Digital Pacific is a web hosting company based in Australia. They offer Shared Hosting, VPS servers, and Dedicated Servers. All based in Australia.

• Primarily based in Australia.
• 24/7 Australian Support.

When you call Digital pacific support, you can be assured someone in Australia will pick up the phone. Their support is available 24/7.

All their plans offer cPanel to help you manage your website easily. They offer one-click installation for software scripts like WordPress.

Speed Test From Australia:

Pros:

• Green hosting servers.
• 24/7 Australian support available via email and phone.
• Their basic plan comes with 1GB Disk Space and 10GB Bandwidth.
• Solutions for businesses of all sizes.

Cons:

• Only annual plans. You can’t pay monthly.

Basic Plan Specs:

• 1 GB Disk Space.
• 10 GB Bandwidth.
• 2 Email Accounts.
• cPanel control panel.
• 24/7 support.

Price: Starting at $6.90 per month.

Get started with Digital Pacific

8. VentraIP (Cheapest Australian owned web hosting company)

VentraIP is an Australia based web hosting company. All their servers are based in Australia.

• Australian web hosting company with Australian data centers.
• Trusted by 150,000 customers.

VentraIP offers a 45-day money back guarantee on all their plans. All their plans offer unlimited email accounts, unlimited bandwidth, and unlimited databases.

Their basic plan offers 5GB SSD storage and 2GB RAM allowance. You also get free SSL certificates you can install with just one click on all your domains. They also offer free automated daily backups and free CDN service.

Speed Test From Australia:

Pros:

• Australia based web hosting company.
• Australian support team available 24/7 via email, phone, and support tickets.
• Free Cloudflare CDN and SSL Certificates.
• Free daily automated backups.
• Has been in business for 10 years.

Cons:

• Other hosts offer a lot more disk space for the same price.

Basic Plan Specs:

• 5GB SSD Disk Space.
• Unlimited Bandwidth.
• Unlimited Email Accounts.
• Unlimited MariaDB Databases.

Price: Starting at $6.95/month.

Get started with VentraIP

9. WP Hosting (Best Australian owned WordPress hosting)

WP Hosting is an Australian web hosting company that offers Managed WordPress hosting at affordable prices.

• Free DDoS attack protection.
• Australian data centers.

They offer a free site migration with every plan. They will migrate your website for free with Zero Downtime. Their 100% Australian support team is available around the clock via phone, email and support tickets.

They also offer free daily backups for all websites. You also get “Always On” DDoS attack prevention.

Speed Test From Australia:

Pros:

• 100% Australian customer support available 24/7.
• Australian Data Centers.
• Affordable WordPress hosting service.
• Free Daily backups with 15-day retention.
• Free CDN service.

Cons:

• Phone support not available on the basic plan.

Basic Plan Specs:

• 5GB Disk Space.
• Unlimited Bandwidth.
• Free Daily Backups.
• Free CDN service.

Price: Starts at $19/month.

Get started with WP Hosting

10. Bluehost (Best WordPress hosting for beginners)

Bluehost is one of the most recommended web hosts for professional bloggers. They are recommended by the official website for WordPress.

• Recommended by official WordPress website.
• Trusted by thousands of website owners.

Bluehost web and WordPress hosting services for business of all sizes. All plans offer unlimited bandwidth and free Let’s Encrypt SSL. Their support team is available 24/7 via email and phone. They also backup your website automatically every day.

Bluehost has been in business for over 10 years. They are trusted and recommended by professional bloggers. They offer 5 email accounts on the basic account and unlimited email accounts with unlimited storage on the premium plan. With the premium plan which is only $5.95 per month, you also get unlimited SSD storage and $200 worth marketing credit.

Speed Test From Australia:

Pros:

• Get a free domain name for the lifetime of your subscription when you sign up.
• Free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate for all your websites.
• Unlimited bandwidth even on the basic plan.
• 24/7 award-winning support team available via email and phone.
• Recommended by the official website behind WordPress.

Cons:

• Renewal prices are higher than sign up prices.

Basic Plan Specs:

• One Website.
• 50 GB SSD Storage.
• Unlimited Bandwidth.
• Free Let’s Encrypt SSL.
• 5 Email Accounts.
• Free Domain Name.

Price: Starts $3.95 per month.

Get started with Bluehost

Why Australian Web Hosting Matters

There are a lot of things that make a website slow 🐌.

But there’s one that has the biggest impact.

It’s called Latency.

If you want your website to be fast, you need to take care of latency.

Latency: The One Thing That’s Making Your Site Slow

When you visit a website, your browser has to connect to the target website’s server to download the contents of the web page.

The time it takes to download the contents of the web page depends on a lot of factors. But the most important one of them is latency.

Latency is the amount of time it takes for your web browser to connect to the webserver of the website you are trying to access.

This time depends on how far you are physically located from the target website’s server.

If, for example, you live in Australia and you are trying to connect to a server in the United Kingdom, there will be some latency between the connection.

The worst part about latency is that it adds up.

Every image, CSS file, JavaScript file, or video your web browser requests is delayed by latency.

This is true for your website as well.

As you can see in the above image, the time it takes to download a web page increases as the physical distance between the server and the user increases.

The easiest way to solve this problem is to host your website in a location that is the closest to most of your website visitors if not all.

Why You Should Host Locally

Although reduced latency is one of the biggest benefits of hosting your website locally, there are other benefits as well.

For example, when you call up your web host, you can be assured that a person in Australia will answer.

When you host your website with a local web host, your support calls won’t be transferred to some random call center. They will be answered by someone native to your country.

If you are wondering whether or not you should host your website locally, try to figure out where most of your website visitors are located.

If you own a local GYM, then most of your website visitors will probably be in the same country or even the same city.

On the other hand, if most of your website visitors are from some other country like Canada, then it makes sense for you to host your website in Canada and not in Australia.

Summary

If your website is slow, most of your visitors will leave and never come back.

Choosing a web host that will be nearest to most of your customers/visitors is the first and maybe the most important step towards making your website faster.

Can’t decide which Australian web hosting company to go with?

If you are a professional blogger who uses WordPress, go with WP Engine. They have servers in Australia and offer Managed WordPress hosting. That means you don’t have to deal with managing the server.

If, on the other hand, you are looking for affordable shared web hosting, I recommend going with Bluehost vs SiteGround hosting. They are both recommended by the official WordPress website as good web hosts. Their support team is available around the clock and can be reached via Email and Phone.