Top 7 WordPress hosting providers for agencies: Boost your client sites

WordPress is the content management system (CMS) of choice for many agencies that build and manage clients’ websites due to its extensive functionality and customizability. But while WordPress can help you create stunning, functional websites for your clients, the true potential of these sites is only unlocked when paired with the best web hosting. 

A good host ensures your sites load fast, stay up and running, and are secure from potential threats or attacks. Conversely, the wrong choice can result in slow load times, frequent downtimes, and many other technical issues that could tarnish your agency’s reputation.

Whereas agency WordPress hosting is designed for web development agencies managing multiple client websites, managed WordPress hosting handles server maintenance, security updates, and performance optimization automatically.

In this guide, we’ll spotlight seven top-tier providers, explaining what makes them the best WordPress hosting for agencies. These specialized hosting plans include features like white-labeling, staging environments, and centralized dashboards for multi-site management. By the end, you’ll know exactly which host can scale with your agency’s growth and make managing clients a whole lot smoother.

How to choose the best WordPress hosting for your agency

Selecting the right WordPress hosting provider for your client websites involves several crucial considerations that can significantly impact your agency’s success.

Agency-friendly features

When evaluating hosting providers, look for those offering features specifically designed for agencies:

• White-label capabilities allow agencies to brand the hosting experience as their own.
• Direct client billing enables automated invoicing and payment collection for clients.
• Staging environments let agencies test changes before pushing them live.
• Multi-site management dashboards provide centralized control of all client websites.
• Team collaboration features include granular permissions and activity tracking.

Speed and performance

People expect websites to load fast and will leave if it takes too long. As per Google, it is now expected that 53% of visitors will abandon a page that takes longer than three seconds to load–a quite drastic number that keeps increasing over the years, making speed a priority. 

Managed WordPress hosting optimizes site speed through server-level caching and CDN integration. Strategic data center locations reduce latency for target audiences, whilst advanced caching mechanisms serve previously viewed content within milliseconds. To guarantee fast speeds, ensure your hosting provider has:

• Adequate server resources, including CPU, RAM, and storage, to handle your client’s website traffic and data needs
• Strategically located data centers near your clients’ target audiences to reduce latency
• CDN to ensure fast content delivery worldwide
• Advanced caching mechanisms to serve previously viewed content more quickly to users

Security and reliability 

Enterprise WordPress hosting includes automated backups, malware scanning, and proactive monitoring. Daily backups ensure quick restoration within minutes of any issues. These requirements are critical – security and reliability form the foundation of any serious hosting solution. Your chosen provider should offer comprehensive security features, such as:

• Malware scanning, built-in firewalls, and DDoS protection
• Daily automated backups with simple restoration options
• 99.9% uptime guarantee to ensure your clients’ sites remain accessible and minimize the risk of lost revenue
• Granular access control options to limit client permissions based on their technical expertise and needs

Scalability and flexibility

Your hosting provider should offer flexible resource allocation and easy plan adjustments to accommodate your site expansion:

• Ability to add extra system resources like CPUs, bandwidth, SSD storage, and RAM to handle the increased loads
• Support for unlimited websites or flexibility to either upgrade or downgrade the plan as per changing agency requirements

Customer support

Technical issues are inevitable and can crop up at any time. When that happens, you want a dedicated team by your side, ready to assist. The best WordPress hosting for agencies comes with:

• 24/7/365 customer support that’s accessible via various channels like phone, live chat, and email
• A support team technically proficient in WordPress and hosting-related issues

Pricing

The costs of hosting will vary between different providers. While it’s natural to be drawn to low prices, take time to understand what those numbers really mean. Consider what features are included in each plan, whether there are hidden costs for essential services and if it is aligned with the value provided. When a provider offers a clear, condition-free money-back guarantee, it could be a good sign indicating their confidence in their service quality.

Companies that offer the best WordPress hosting for agencies

Now that you’re ready to choose a WordPress host for your agency, here are a few options worth considering.

Please note that the pricing information listed below is accurate as of the publication of this article but is subject to change. 

Multi-site management dashboards centralize control of multiple client websites. Agencies managing 10+ sites benefit most from centralized dashboard features. White-label capabilities remove hosting provider branding from client-facing interfaces.

1. Liquid Web 

Liquid Web stands out with over 25 years of hosting expertise and is one of the most comprehensive hosting solutions for agencies. Liquid Web offers white-label hosting with custom branding options for agencies. The Partner+ Program includes free agency website hosting. Staging environments are available for all WordPress installations. The company offers one of the broadest ranges of hosting plans in the industry, including:

• Managed WordPress hosting
• WordPress dedicated server hosting
• WordPress cloud VPS hosting
• VMware private cloud hosting

Whether you’re looking to host a few WordPress sites or want to deploy a complex multi-server hosting environment, you can trust Liquid Web to have a custom solution for your needs. 

Key agency features:

• White-label hosting capabilities and direct client billing options
• Free hosting for agency websites through the Partner+ Program
• Integrated development tools including staging environments
• 100% network uptime SLA with 1000% compensation guarantee
• Free CDN add-on, SSL certificates and daily backups
• Advanced security with integrated firewalls, DDoS protection, malware scans, routine security updates
• 24/7/365 customer support on multiple avenues, including live chat, phone, email, and tickets

Liquid Web’s support staff comprises WordPress experts, along with Microsoft, Juniper, Red Hat Linux, and Cisco-certified technicians who are greatly competent in all things web hosting. With Liquid Web, you don’t need to hire a separate SysAdmin — the company support considers itself an extension of your team.

Best for: Agencies seeking all-around high-quality features and premium customer support.

Price: Managed WordPress hosting starts at $10.75/month for up to three sites for three months, then $43/month.

2. Kinsta

Kinsta is a managed WordPress hosting provider that uses Google Cloud Platform infrastructure. Kinsta offers 35+ global data centers for agencies managing international client sites. MyKinsta provides a custom dashboard for managing multiple WordPress installations.

Key agency features:

• 35+ global data centers and 260 CDN Points of Presence
• Custom MyKinsta management tool
• Team collaboration features with granular access controls
• Staging environments for all installations
• Cloudflare web application firewall, daily backups, and DDoS protection
• Free SSL with automatic renewals
• White-label hosting options
• Free agency website hosting

Best for: Agencies prioritizing speed and performance.

Price: Starts at $340/month for 20 WordPress installations.

3. Cloudways

Cloudways allows unlimited website installations on agency hosting plans. The platform supports DigitalOcean, Google Cloud, and AWS infrastructure choices. Cloudways boasts an impressive client portfolio of over 12,000 agencies and 500,000 WordPress websites.

Key agency features:

• Choice of premium cloud providers (DigitalOcean, Google Cloud, AWS) with unlimited website installations
• Pay-as-you-go pricing model where you are charged only for the resources you consume
• Advanced caching and Cloudflare Enterprise CDN for website performance and speed
• SSH and SFTP access and WP-CLI support
• Automated backups, SSL certificates, bot protection, end-to-end encryption
• Automatic WordPress updates with a guaranteed 99.9% uptime.

Best for: Agencies needing scalable, flexible hosting solutions

Price: Starts at $14/month (DigitalOcean)

4. WP Engine

WP Engine is a trusted managed hosting provider for WordPress, currently powering over 1.5 million WordPress sites.

Key agency features:

• Free premium WordPress themes and plugins and one-click staging environments
• Automated website migration tools for sites transitioning from another host
• Scalable infrastructure powered by Google Cloud, AWS, and Azure to handle high traffic
• Fast loading speeds with EverCache CDN and automated WordPress and PHP updates
• Free SSL certificates, easy site transfers to clients, and daily and on-demand backups

Best for: Agencies needing premium site-building tools and design features

Price: Agency plans start at $96/month (billed at $1150/year).

5. Flywheel

Flywheel specializes in WordPress hosting for agencies, offering innovative tools and features designed to streamline agency workflows. Flywheel’s Blueprints feature packages custom configurations as starter templates for new projects. The result is a smoother handoff between setup and site testing, all within the same platform – and that’s not the only nod to convenience the platform provides. One-click staging creates instant testing environments for client sites.

Key agency features:

• Team collaboration tools with real-time activity feeds and flexible permissions to manage sites, edit files, and update databases
• ‘Blueprints’ feature for packaging custom configurations for plugins or themes as a starter set for future projects
• One-click staging to production
• Global data centers, WordPress-optimized servers, caching engine, and CDN compatibility for faster speeds
• Free site cleanup after hacking
• Security features like free SSL certificates, nightly site backups, and free site clean-up in case of hacking

Best for: Agencies focused on team collaboration and workflow efficiency

Pricing: Freelance plans start at $96/month (billed at $1,150/year) for up to 10 sites. 

6. Pressable

Designed exclusively for WordPress and WooCommerce, Pressable offers a user-friendly platform with robust security features.

Key agency features:

• User-friendly and intuitive dashboard for site management
• Jetpack Security Daily is included in each plan, with features like daily backup, malware scans, and brute-force attack protection.
• 100% uptime SLA and fast speeds with global CDN and worldwide data centers
• Managed migrations, free SSL certificates and 24/7 expert support
• Flexible plan options allowing for upgrades or downgrades as needed

Best for: Agencies focusing on security

Price: Starts at $37.5/month for three WordPress sites(billed annually at $450).

7. Pagely

Acquired by GoDaddy in 2021, Pagely is an enterprise-grade managed hosting provider for WordPress that delivers exceptional performance and scalability for growing agencies.

Key agency features:

• Advanced development tools (SSH, Git, WP-CLI), custom PHP extensions, and system crontab access
• SSL management, advanced network security, and automatic daily backups
• Staging environments and full server management
• Security and performance analytics

Best for: Agencies requiring enterprise-level performance and security

Price: Starts at $94.08/month (billed annually) for up to 5 sites.

Final thoughts: The best WordPress hosting for agencies

Managed WordPress hosting is the best option for agencies managing multiple client sites. These platforms handle technical maintenance while agencies focus on design and development. Agencies concerned about having enough headroom to expand their portfolio without technical bottlenecks needn’t worry. Agency-specific hosting plans scale from 5 to 50+ client sites efficiently.

Each of the web hosting companies we’ve looked at here brings a unique set of strengths to the table that can enhance your WordPress agency’s offerings and guarantee client satisfaction.

However, if you’re looking to collaborate on a deeper level and maximize the benefits from your provider, you should check out Liquid Web. We combine comprehensive agency features with stellar support and powerful infrastructure. In addition to exceptional site performance, security, and top-tier support, Liquid Web comes with an attractive agency partner program with exclusive perks and benefits such as a dedicated account manager, commissions that scale as your business grows, and a partner directory listing to increase your visibility and potentially attract more clients. 

Ready to elevate your agency’s hosting game? Contact our team to discuss how we can help create a WordPress hosting solution tailored to your agency’s specific needs. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to upgrade your existing hosting setup, we’re here to help you make the right choice for your business.

Related Resources

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