In the otherwise fairly over-saturated market of content management systems, Joomla is most certainly one of the more versatile web builders for businesses and bloggers alike.
Joomla sites cater to various different audiences rather than strictly to those with the money or experience with a content management system to support themselves.
Naturally, this has made Joomla hosting services a fairly household name for anyone trying to launch an online presence.
Still, while the exciting part is understandably the web-building aspect, there are a few lesser-considered factors that may complicate things for anyone slightly less tech-savvy. Namely, the focus of this article is finding a reliable Joomla web hosting provider.
Imagine designing your first-ever website - fine-tuning every detail to perfection just for your site to run awfully once live, deterring anyone who happens to chance upon it before they even think about purchasing.
Ultimately, it's all about finding the best Joomla hosts to facilitate a smooth experience for anyone on your site, as well as ensuring their security.
So, throughout this article, we'll be covering a few of the best web hosts currently available, as well as how you can choose the right web hosting company and optimise your site once you've done so. Let's begin!
Table of Contents:
Factors to Consider When Choosing a Joomla Hosting Provider
It's no easy task to select the right hosting service, and that goes for all website builders on the market, not just if you have an existing Joomla website.
Because of this, it's vital you're paying specific attention to a few key factors that'll have a direct impact on your site's performance and user experience, not to mention your overall business growth.
Reliability
Firstly, let's begin with reliability. For anyone with prior experience running a website for ecommerce or even blogging purposes, you'll know the importance of having your site both accessible and operational at all times - no margin for downtime or unscheduled maintenance.
Think back to the frustration you feel anytime you've tried to access a site on the internet only to be met with a bunch of error messages and an infinite loading screen - is this something you'd ever want for your customers?
So, regardless of whether they're a free Joomla hosting provider or not, always try to choose a host with relatively robust infrastructure to eliminate any risk of downtime or other complications for your site viewers.
Performance
Since the rise and increasingly fast speeds of smartphones, we're all used to lightning-fast performance for any websites we visit on the internet, whether that's for social media or for browsing ecommerce websites.
Because of this, having a slow-loading website is about as appealing as sitting in traffic all day. It goes without saying that most users have little patience for sluggish sites in general, with many abandoning them after experiencing just a few seconds of lag.
To combat this, finding a hosting provider for your Joomla site that actively prioritises performance optimisation can make such a distinct improvement to your site's overall feel.
Make sure you are searching for features like solid-state drives (SSDs) so that your online store/blog stays seamless at all times, preventing bounces and cart abandonments.
Furthermore, you'll also want to find a host that can offer content delivery networks (CDNs) and server-level caching, but these can also come in the form of plugins, so we'll cover these in slightly more detail later.
Support Team
Whenever technical glitches start to strike, or you simply encounter some sort of problem with your website, you're going to need a hosting provider with reliable support to come and save the day (provided you're not already an expert on troubleshooting coding issues).
Ultimately, having prompt and knowledgeable customer support from your web hosting provider is the backbone for any positive experience to come out of Joomla.
Whether it's via live chat, email, or even over the phone, just ensure that the provider you decide on can offer 24/7 support from a team of Joomla-savvy experts.
As far as specific things they should excel at, the best Joomla web hosting providers should all be able to assist with any troubleshooting or security issues and guidance on how you can best optimise your website, too, if you're lucky.
Scalability
Your website isn't just a static entity; it actually has the potential to grow and evolve over time. As your business expands and your website begins to attract more and more visitors, it'll become increasingly apparent that your hosting provider must be able to handle the increased traffic without breaking a sweat.
Scalability, in the context here of web hosting, basically allows you to smoothly accommodate any of your site's growing demands by providing it with the necessary resources to run, such as additional bandwidth and server capacity.
So, choosing a hosting provider that offers flexible plans and seamless scalability is always a plus, ensuring that your Joomla site can handle spikes in traffic and scale up or down as needed without any stress or delay.
Understanding Joomla's Specific Requirements
Now, let's address the unavoidable elephant in the room – not every hosting provider out there is created equal when it comes to Joomla specifically. Due to some of its unique functionalities and structure, there are a few particular requirements for Joomla that not all hosting platforms may be able to provide.
For instance, Joomla relies on certain scripting languages for website development, like PHP and MySQL, so you'll always want to clarify with your hosting provider if they offer compatible versions of their service for either of these technologies.
And furthermore, Joomla typically performs best in an environment that can support Apache or Nginx, which are two of the most frequently used web servers on the internet. Because of this, you'll always want to ensure your hosting provider can accommodate things like this.
This is not to say you'll struggle to find a compatible web hosting company for your Joomla website, but rather to reiterate the importance of staying attentive when reading through your site's requirements.
You don't always need a provider that specialises in Joomla hosting specifically, but finding a web host that's familiar with its various nuances and can be optimised to support every feature can not be praised higher.
Regardless, though, ensure they at least have some experience in handling Joomla-based websites and can help you every step of the way.
Best Joomla Hosts on the Market
At the end of the day, you should be holding a lot of stock in whoever you end up choosing as your Joomla hosting provider, so take your time with your decision and ensure it ultimately reflects what's best for your business and its needs.
Most of the options on this list offer a thirty-day money-back guarantee on their web hosting plans, so there's no harm done if you decide it's not for you. Let's find the perfect match for your website!
1. GoDaddy
GoDaddy's one of the most popular web hosting services on the internet, providing a compatible environment for every popular content management system, including Joomla.
As far as the user-friendly interface goes, GoDaddy provides one of the most intuitive systems of all web hosts in the ease of navigation.
This allows them to cater for both beginner and more experienced website owners, even in terms of the installations, which can be done with practically one click.
Boasting impressive uptime guarantees and a global server network, they ensure your Joomla website is available to visitors around the clock. Their 24/7 customer support adds a cherry on top, making GoDaddy a reliable choice for Joomla enthusiasts.
2. Hostinger
As previously touched on, website speed plays a fairly crucial role whenever you're trying to capture and retain visitors, regardless of the nature of your website. Fortunately, this is actually where Hostinger comes into its own as a Joomla hosting provider specifically.
Hostinger has a particular interest in ensuring all websites can be run seamlessly fast, with heavy investment having been made into the infrastructure to provide all Joomla-based websites with optimal performance.
It's worth mentioning here that while Hostinger remains an exceptionally fast hosting service, it only outranks GoDaddy for speed within the North American region, with website speed being faster on European and Australian GoDaddy websites. Still, we're talking about the most marginal of differences here in terms of speed, and both of the web hosts are impressively quick.
Ultimately, Hostinger understands how important global reach can be for your website. With various different data centres globally, they're always ensuring that visitors of your site all get to experience lightning-quick loading times, regardless of the region they're viewing your site from.
It doesn't stop with the server speed, though, as Hostinger also provides a range of tools you can use for performance optimisation, giving you the power to fine-tune your Joomla site for the most speed.
Whether it's the built-in caching mechanisms or the content delivery networks, it's a fantastic choice for anyone looking to have a bit more freedom in their website and its performance.
Lastly, while Hostinger doesn't offer their customers a free domain name like other hosting packages might, their domain names start at £0.99, making them highly accessible for businesses of all sizes.
3. HostGator
When it comes to customer support, HostGator undoubtedly takes the prize out of all the other Joomla hosting providers we've listed.
From some of the more basic stuff like troubleshooting compatibility issues you might experience to learning how to fully optimise Joomla's performance, HostGator and their staff clearly pride themselves in their web designing expertise, guiding you through any potential hiccups along the way.
For Joomla, specifically, they're also well-versed in some of the more intricate features offered by the web builder, ensuring all the solutions that you receive are both accurate and tailored directly to your needs.
So, whether you're a seasoned pro or you're still fairly new to Joomla and could do with all the help you can get, HostGator's support system is there around the clock to back you up. Need some help with installing a Joomla extension? Maybe a template or help with customisations? They have you covered.
HostGator's team can be contacted via live chat, email, or phone, too, if you'd prefer to speak to a person directly. Regardless of the time of day, you can rely on their team to address your concerns both promptly and professionally.
Finally, HostGator offers the ability to supply your website with unlimited disk space/bandwidth, which is generally quite impressive for a web host with such cost-effective plans when it comes to pricing.
4. ScalaHosting
Whenever you're operating in a digital landscape where security threats are a constant concern, it's absolutely paramount to find a hosting provider that can actually prioritise website protection over everything.
Of course, ScalaHosting comes with a wide selection of other great web hosting features and plans too, but security is really where this platform excels the most - offering a hugely impressive array of features to keep your website safeguarded.
Let's look at a few specific examples of how unwavering ScalaHosting's commitment is to fortifying your Joomla website's security. Firstly, they employ advanced firewalls and real-time monitoring in order for you to keep an eye on all potential intrusions or threats.
Not only that, but ScalaHosting also has quite the system when it comes to preventing web attacks, employing SShield - a tool claiming to prevent approximately 99.9% of all malicious threats.
Interestingly enough, ScalaHosting actually managed to catch the attention of the Joomla co-founder himself, Brian Teeman (along with other industry experts and influencers), who has since moved all of his own websites onto their platform. Citing their security prowess as a driving factor, this endorsement ultimately speaks volumes about ScalaHosting's reliability and some of the confidence it can instil in its users.
5. InterServer
InterServer has built a fairly strong reputation for not only their reliability but all-around outstanding customer service too.
With their emphasis on a few different web hosting factors, such as quality hardware, optimised software, and proactive server monitoring, InterServer is clearly more focused on promoting a stable, non-flashy environment to get the job done rather than specialising in one specific field.
As far as their commitment to their users' security goes, InterServer throws in DDoS protection and malware scanning as part of their service, adding a further layer of protection to your website and its viewers.
Tips for Joomla Website Optimisation
Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)
Can you imagine what it's like to have your website broadcasted on a global scale, reaching audiences near and far, without so much as skipping a beat? That's the reality with Content Delivery Networks!
Essentially, these work by distributing your website's content across multiple servers worldwide, ensuring that your visitors can access your website from a server that's closest to their physical location. This not only reduces latency but also enhances the overall user experience.
Search Engine Optimisation
Nowadays, literally every website on the internet is competing with each other for your attention, making it all the more crucial to optimise your Joomla website fully for the amount of maximum visibility.
Try to stay informed with SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) techniques when it comes to using keywords for your articles, taking into account your website's structure and metadata, too, so that they're optimised for search engines.
FAQs
Can I Migrate My Existing Joomla Website to a New Hosting Provider?
Yes, most Joomla hosting providers offer some form of migration assistance or tools to help you seamlessly transfer your website. Look for providers that offer free website migrations or have comprehensive migration guides available. Ensure that the new hosting environment meets some of the more niche technical requirements of your Joomla version too.
Can I Use Shared Hosting for My Joomla Website?
For fairly small Joomla websites with low to moderate traffic, shared hosting can be a cost-effective option for small. Still, as your website grows, you might need to consider upgrading to a more efficient hosting solution like VPS or dedicated hosting to ensure better performance and security, not to mention scalability.
