I know how essential and tough it is to choose a hosting provider, especially when you’re not much acquainted with web development.
If you’re a native of New Zealand, I have curated a list to help you choose the best web hosting in New Zealand.
In this post, I going to list some top web hosts for both: Shared Web hosting and Managed WordPress hosting in New Zealand, keeping in mind these considerations:
Is it obligatory to go with local hosting providers?
I am creating websites and blogs for more than 3+ years. And during that period I have learned it’s not necessary to prefer a local hosting provider over an international one.
Definitely, you are going to save some money but that’s gonna harm your business. Get ready to face server downtimes and deal with errors.
Why should focus on web hosting speed?
Suppose that your website goes slow for 1 second. It might seem like a “normal” thing, but it isn’t.
It’s simple math.
A 1 second delay means your page views decrease by 11%, which ultimately means losing 1/10 of visitors for every second your site is still loading. This proves why it is vital to choose a suitable web host for your website to maintain traffic and ensure your online success.
1. Bluehost: Great Web Host for Bloggers
Official Website | www.bluehost.com | |
Price | $2.95/month | |
Disk Space | 50 GB | |
Free Domain | Yes (For 1 Year) | |
Free Website Migration | Yes |
Bluehost is a popular hosting provider which offers host packages for multiple servers, including- Shared, WordPress, Dedicated Servers, and VPS.
You must have come across to some of its sister companies like HostMonster, iPage, and FastDomain.
All of its hosting packages come with user-friendly site builders which help and assist in creating a basic website.
The users can also experience the 1-click installation of WordPress, can install their themes, and start working.
Bluehost guarantees an uptime of 99.9%. Although some reports have been observed of some infrequent downtimes, it is not much of a concern.
The help center (or customer support) is full of guides and tutorials that are easy to follow. They can be reached through live chat, E-mail, and phone support.
Bluehost Hosting Plan & Pricing Details
We listed the options for Shared hosting plans below.
1. Basic Hosting Plan:
Priced at only $2.95/ month (usually priced at $7.99/ month), this is Bluehost’s cheapest plan which only allows for 1 website.
It also comes with a limited 50GB storage, unlimited bandwidth, 1 domain, and 5 parked domains, and seems good enough for websites with limited needs.
2. Plus Shared Hosting Plan:
Priced at $5.85/ month (the regular price is $10.99), this package includes everything unlimited- websites, storage, bandwidth, domains, and parked domains.
So, as you can see, this one has more value for money than the Basic plan.
3. Choice Plus Hosting Plan:
Like the Plus plan, this plan also comes with unlimited websites, storage, bandwidth, domains, and parked domains. What’s extra is that it also includes domain privacy and site backups (CodeGuard Basic).
You can get these features now only for $5.95/ month (the regular price is $14.99/ month).
4. Pro Shared Hosting Plan:
This is Bluehost’s most expensive plan and promises higher quality performance and client satisfaction. It only costs $9.95/ month for now (the regular price is $23.99/ month) and offers everything mentioned in the above plan along with a dedicated IP.
Note: All these plans come with free SSL certificates and free CDN use (CloudFlare).
Pros
Cons
2. Siteground: Best Web Hosting For New Zealand
Official Website | www.siteground.com |
Price | $6.99/Month |
Disk Space | 10 GB |
Free SSL Certificates | Yes |
Free Website Migration | Yes |
The reason I call Siteground the “Best Web Hosting” explains well its reach and trust over the world.
SiteGround was established in 2004 and has 2 million users worldwide. Their servers are very stable and employ the use of CDN as well (CloudFlare).
SiteGround comes with some great features like a 99.9% uptime guarantee. With 24*7 customer support, they try to assist their clients.
The team of experts is available to help via live chat, ticketing system, and phone support. With a comprehensive and sound knowledge base, they help in troubleshooting all your problems.
For companies who think about their customers, SiteGround tops at that too. They offer reimbursements to their customers accordingly for the downtimes.
Siteground Hosting Plan & Pricing Details:
Below we have laid down options for Shared Hosting Plans. Siteground also offers other hosting options such as WordPress, Cloud, Dedicated Servers, etc.
1. StartUp Plan:
For beginners, this plan is considered the best one. It starts at $3.95 per month on a discount but the regular price is $11.95/month.
However, it comes with only 1 domain and a generous 10GB storage space which also allows up to 10,000 visitors/ month.
2. GrowBig Plan:
This plan comes with premium features including an unlimited number of domain hosting and larger storage (20GB) and bandwidth.
It is certainly more powerful than its startup plan and allows for up to 25,000 visitors/ month at only $5.95/ month (the regular price is ($19.95).
3. GoGeek Plan:
For users with demanding needs, SiteGround offers this package at $11.95/ month (the regular price is $34.95).
It comes with unlimited domains, 30GB storage space, and up to 100,000 visitors/ month with additional premium features and speed.
Even though there are many outstanding features, we have listed some pros and cons of this web hosting.
Pros
Cons
3. A2 Hosting: Best Suited For 10K-100K Traffic
Official Website | www.a2hosting.com | |
Price | $2.99/month | |
Disk Space | 100 GB (SSD) | |
Free Domain | No | |
Free Website Migration | Yes |
A2 Hosting began in 2001 and since then it has been providing ultimate services to its customers.
The reason we included this here is because it managed to stay under the radar for so long time and we want you to consider it as one of your best options.
Apart from these amazing plans, A2 Hosting offers a commitment of 99.9% uptime, and their servers are very stable to deliver it.
With an unusual and amazingly fast 336ms average page load time, these plans ensure the proper working of your website.
Along with this, they offer an “Anytime money-back guarantee” even if you decide to cancel your plan after 30 days. It means that you’re free to cancel and quit the plan anytime, even after 30 days have expired.
Although if you want to cancel your subscription before your package renews, you’ll need to send them an email at least 15 days before the renewal date. If you fail to do so, your plan will automatically renew without any refunds or exceptions.
Another best part about A2 Hosting is its monthly billing cycle. A2 Hosting is one of the best monthly web hosting providers.
What makes a very good web host even better? It’s customer service.
Fortunately, A2 Hosting’s support team is very friendly to possess a huge knowledge base. Anybody can reach them via chat, ticketing system, and phone to avail of 24/7 assistance.
Still not convinced? You can check out a detailed A2 hosting review.
Depending on the plan that you sign up for, A2 Hosting also offers to migrate your sites from 1 to 25 sites free of charge. These power-packed features make A2 Hosting one of the best hosts.
A2 Hosting Plan Details
1. Startup Plan:
This package is the cheapest and only costs $2.99/ month. Although you can only use it to host 1 domain. However, it comes with unlimited storage and bandwidth, so it’s a win-win.
2. Drive Plan:
This hosting package provides 2 times the resources present in the Lite plan and is priced at $5.39/ month.
It is faster than the previous plan and you can host an unlimited number of domains along with its unlimited storage and bandwidth.
3. Turbo Boost:
You can already tell by its name that this is A2 Hosting’s fastest hosting package, though it comes with a turbo feature.
It currently costs $10.29/ month and you are allowed an unlimited number of websites along with its unlimited storage and bandwidth.
4. Turbo Max:
The Turbo Max plan is quite similar to the Turbo Boost plan but with a few upgrades. With the Turbo Max plan, you can accept better speed and performance.
Turbo Max plan got 5X server resources that ensure that your website doesn’t go down even during huge traffic spikes. The Turbo Max plan costs $14.99/ month and you will get all the features that are available with the Turbo Boost plan.
Pros
Cons
4. GreenGeeks: Best Green Web Host
Official Website | www.greengeeks.com | |
Price | $2.95/Month | |
Disk Space | Unlimited | |
Free Domain | Yes (For 1 Year) | |
Free Website Migration | Yes |
As the name suggests, GreenGeeks is a green web host. They’re environment-friendly as they use renewable energy to power their websites all across the globe.
This is a unique feature of having GreenGeeks as your web host.
For other unique features, we have listed down their hosting packages from their shared hosting option. They also offer WordPress, Reseller, and VPS hosting packages.
Other features which make this web host a trustable one is its uptime site speed and page loading times.
GreenGeeks is committed to keeping your site online 99.9% of the time with reliable servers which also contribute to the site speed and page loading times.
Some points to remember are that they also employ the use of CDN (Cloudflare) to make content accessible worldwide. Also, they use SSD hard drives instead of HDD (hard disk drives) as it is much faster and more reliable than the latter.
They have a very experienced support team with a vast knowledge base full of helpful articles and tutorials. The users can contact them through phone, e-mail, and chat.
We encourage you to try their 30-day money-back guarantee to fully test their services with minimal risks.
GreenGeeks Hosting Plan Details
1. Eco Site-Lite Package:
Priced at $9.95/ month (current price is $2.95/ month), the users are allowed to host just 1 domain along with unlimited storage and bandwidth.
This pack is suitable for users who are just starting out or simply want to establish a single site.
2. Eco Site Pro Package:
Those who find the Lite package limiting can go for this one. It comes with 2 times the power and features of the beginner version and works great for growing sites.
You also get unlimited domains, storage, and bandwidth with it.
3. Eco Site Premium Package:
This is GreenGeeks’ most expensive package which comes at $24.95/ month. However, you can get it for only $11.95/ month for now.
Apart from being super-fast and twice as powerful as the Pro package, the users can host an unlimited number of domains on it.
It also comes with unlimited storage, and bandwidth as well. It is an ideal package for demanding websites like online shopping stores.
Pros
Cons
5. FastComet Hosting: Great Customer Support & Performance
Official Website | www.fastcomet.com | |
Price | $3.95/month | |
Disk Space | 15 GB SSD | |
Free Domain | No | |
Free Webiste Migration | Yes (Same Day) |
FastComet was established more than 9 years ago and it aims to provide the Platform as a Service (PaaS) approach for SSD cloud hosting.
It is a considerable choice for beginners as it is easy to get started with, and makes everything easy with a clutter-free interface.
FastComet offers many hosting services according to your need like shared and dedicated hosting, and cloud VPS hosting across the global network.
FastComet comes with some great features like a “free domain name for life” (unless you keep your website hosted with FastComet). And if in case you already have a website at some other host, FastComet also offers hassle-free migrations to all their users.
They also offer encryption, firewalls, and anti-spam software and solve all malware problems of their customers.
The plans also come with free Cloudflare CDN. Free daily backups and 24/7 support would help you if you face any trouble, and the team will be available to help.
Their knowledge base is very strong and you can check their video tutorials to get the solutions to any of your problems.
With such great features and support, FastComet is surely one of the top web hosts for shared web hosting. For more information, you can visit www.fastcomet.com
FastComet Hosting Plan Details
1. FastCloud Plan:
At just $3.95/month, the users can get everything they need to start their online ventures with this package.
This plan comes with a single website, along with features like free website and domain transfer, cPanel & Softaculous, and 15GB SSD space.
2. FastCloud Plus Plan:
Starting at $4.95/month, this package provides the users with everything they need to support and drive their website growth.
It comes with multiple websites, a free website builder, domain transfer, cPanel & Softaculous, 25GB SSD space, and some advanced features.
3. FastCloud Extra Plan:
At just $5.95/month, with this package, the users can get advanced power, flexibility, and performance.
It comes with multiple websites, free website transfer, free domain transfer, cPanel & Softaculous, 35GB SSD space, Rocket Booster, and advanced features.
Pros
Cons
Best Managed WordPress Hosting
The previous section covered the cheapest Shared & WordPress hosting plans because the users share their server space with other websites.
But below you find the list of Managed WordPress hostings that are power-packed with more powerful server resources.
6. Cloudways: Affordable Cloud Hosting
Official Website | www.cloudways.com | |
Starting Price | $10/month | |
Disk Space | 25 GB | |
Free Domain | No | |
Free Website Migration | Yes |
The best cloud hosting provider Cloudways works as a bridge between the customer and the major cloud hosting companies, like DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, Amazon (AWS), and Google Cloud.
With incredible performance combined with a good CDN, this hosting provides you with great flexibility when you want to scale up or down your plans.
This is a quite good option for resource-intensive applications and websites like e-commerce sites.
Cloudways Hosting Plan:
1. Digital Ocean StartUp:
Having the lowest startup price at only $10/ month, this package comes with many essential features for a growing website and not just for startups.
It includes storage of 25GB storage, a bandwidth of 1GB, RAM of 1GB, and a processor of 1-core.
2. Linode StartUp:
This is the second cheapest plan offered by Cloudways and costs $22/ month. The users get storage of 50GB, a bandwidth of 2TB, RAM of 2GB, and a processor of 1 core.
3. Vultr StartUp:
If you’re still not satisfied with the features on the Linode plan, you can consider the Vultr package as it comes for $42/ month and with almost 2 times the power of the previous plan.
The users are provided with a storage space of 80GB, a bandwidth of 4TB, RAM of 4GB, and a processor of 2-core.
4. AWS StartUp:
Amazon’s startup plan comes with main features the same as Vultr’s, including the price. Hence, you’ll get storage of 80GB, a bandwidth of 4TB, RAM of 4GB, and a processor of 2-core.
5. Google Cloud StartUp:
All these plans are scalable and the cloud hosting is fast like Flash. Uptime is also great and cloud hosting rarely goes down. The support team is available 24/7 via e-mail (ticketing), phone, and chat.
They also offer a 3-day trial period to let you experience and check if Cloudways is really for you. Check the Cloudways website for more info: www.cloudways.com
All these plans are scalable and the cloud hosting is fast like Flash. Uptime is also great and cloud hosting rarely goes down. The support team is available 24/7 via e-mail (ticketing), phone, and chat.
They also offer a 3-day trial period to let you experience and check if Cloudways is really for you. Check the Cloudways website for more info: www.cloudways.com
Pros
Cons
7. Flywheel: Overall Best WordPress Hosting
Official Website | www.getflywheel.com | |
Starting Price | $15/month | |
Disk Space | 5 GB | |
Free Domain | No | |
Free Website Migration | Yes |
Flywheel, here, offers only dedicated hosting to their customers, which means that you’ll have a server all to yourself.
They provide a premium experience to their users who are ready to pay for such services.
FlyWheel Hosting Plan
1. Tiny Plan:
Ideal for small and simple installs, this is the basic plan of Flywheels. The regular price is $15/month and this plan allows 1 WordPress site with 5000 monthly visits, 20GB bandwidth, and 5GB disk space.
2. Starter Plan:
This is the most popular plan which comes at $30/month. You get 1 WordPress site with 25000 monthly visits. The plan also allows a 50 GB bandwidth limit and 10GB disk space.
3. Freelance Plan:
Another popular plan comes at $115/month and is the best choice for growing businesses as it provides up to 10 sites, 100,000 monthly visits, 20GB disk, and 200GB bandwidth.
4. Agency Plan:
Flywheel’s plans are optimized for WordPress and hosting comes with free SSL certificates. Their customer service is active 24/7 and possesses extensive knowledge about their products.
In case you wish to migrate your website from somewhere else to Flywheel servers, they will do it for free when you sign up for any of their plans. Although you’ll have to buy the email accounts or domain names separately.
You can get more info at www.getflywheel.com
Flywheel’s plans are optimized for WordPress and hosting comes with free SSL certificates. Their customer service is active 24/7 and possesses extensive knowledge about their products.
In case you wish to migrate your website from somewhere else to Flywheel servers, they will do it for free when you sign up for any of their plans. Although you’ll have to buy the email accounts or domain names separately.
You can get more info at www.getflywheel.com
Pros
Cons
8. WP Engine Hosting
Official Website | www.wpengine.com | |
Starting Price | $30/month | |
Disk Space | 10 GB | |
Free Domain | No | |
Free Website Migration | Yes |
WP Engine faces tough competition in the market full of WordPress hosting providers, but they still have managed to stay ahead because of its strong customer support and performance.
Being largely developer-focused, beginners might require a longer time to get used to the onboarding process.
Those who are familiar with WordPress will find its interface to be easy to navigate.
WP Engine Hosting Plan
Depending on the needs and status of the business, the users can choose from 4 hosting plans, which we have listed below.
1. Startup Plan:
Best plan for setting up a blog or a small website. It seems ideal and comes at $30/month, allows you to have 1 website with three environments, gets up to 25000 visitors a month, and gives 50GB bandwidth.
2. Growth Plan:
This is ideal for a growing business and comes at $115/month. It allows you to have5 sites with 3 environments per site, 200GB bandwidth, and 100000 visits for one month.
3. Scale Plan:
It is the best choice if you are looking for higher and extended services to expand your business online.
This plan comes at $290/month and gets you up to 15 sites and 3 environments per site, allowing 400000 visits a month, and 400GB bandwidth.
4. Custom Premium Plans:
WP Engine provides reliable and active support to its users as they can have access and learn more about the platform or solve any difficulty by exploring the articles uploaded on their website.
The support team is available 24/7 and can be reached via email ticketing (24/7), live chat, or phone (available at fixed times).
As they commit to ensuring every customer’s security, they provide free SSL certificates. They also update their firewall security and perform malware scans daily as a part of a routine security check.
You can know more at www.wpengine.com
WP Engine provides reliable and active support to its users as they can have access and learn more about the platform or solve any difficulty by exploring the articles uploaded on their website.
The support team is available 24/7 and can be reached via email ticketing (24/7), live chat, or phone (available at fixed times).
As they commit to ensuring every customer’s security, they provide free SSL certificates. They also update their firewall security and perform malware scans daily as a part of a routine security check.
You can know more at www.wpengine.com
Pros
Cons
9. WPX Hosting: Fastest Managed WordPress Hosting
Official Website | www.wpxhosting.com | |
Starting Price | $20.83/month | |
Disk Space | 10 GB | |
Free Domain | No | |
Free Website Migration | Yes |
WPX Hosting was established recently in 2013; hence, the services it provides are not much different than the other hosts.
Still, they are working better and constantly improving to provide the best to their customers.
The WPX Hosting plans come in three ranges. The users can choose monthly and yearly billing cycles at their ease. The yearly cycle often offers massive discounts on their prices.
All of the WPX Hosting plans have DDoS protection and offer both manual backup and 28-day automatic backups.
To ensure the safety of your data online, malware scanning and removal services also come with these packages.
They also include unlimited site migrations and unlimited SSLs. The users get USA + UK Hosting locations along with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Moreover, the 1-click WordPress installer and high-speed custom CDN ensure ease and high performance of the websites.
Along with a 99.95% uptime guarantee, WPX Hosting offers 24/7 response support through live chats, tickets, and calls in case anything goes wrong.
They have a vast knowledge base which they keep updating to assist their customers better.
Depending on the needs and status of the business, the users can choose from 4 hosting plans, which we have listed below.
WPX Hosting Plan
1. Business Plan:
It comes at $20.83/month when paid yearly and $24.99 when paid monthly. It allows 5 websites, along with 10GB storage, 100GB bandwidth, and WPX Cloud CDN.
2. Professional Plan:
It comes at $41.58/month when paid yearly and $49.99 when paid monthly. It allows 15 websites, along with 20GB storage, 200GB bandwidth, and WPX Cloud CDN.
3. Elite Plan:
It comes at $83.25/month when paid yearly and $99.00 when paid monthly. It allows 35 websites, along with 40GB storage, unlimited bandwidth, and WPX Cloud CDN.
Pros
Cons
Conclusion
With so many web hosting providers in New Zealand, it is tough to shrink your list and find the best web hosting in New Zealand for your website.
As you decide on the type of hosting service you want to use, remember to consider these features: server location, storage, uptime, support, backups, bandwidth, and the number of allowed domains/sites.
This will filter out the list better and would help you determine the best web host.
If you ask m-e I personally recommend BlueHost for websites having low traffic and WPX Hosting for high traffic sites.