From eCommerce stores to creative portfolios and much more besides, WordPress’ open source framework, coupled with a wealth of third party themes and applications arms novice website owners with all the tools they need when creating a site to rival anything put together by a pro designer.

Yet there’s more to a great website than just the platform. Behind all that powerful functionality and eye-catching design lies perhaps the most important tool of all: Your web hosting.

Luckily for WordPress fans, many of the leading web hosts offer dedicated WordPress hosting solutions, tailor-made to ensure your site functions flawlessly and provides everything you and your customers need in terms of speed and security.

To help you pick the right one, here’s our guide to the best WordPress hosting packages available.

Bluehost

Enjoying an enviable reputation as an official hosting provider recommended by WordPress themselves, Bluehost’s introductory offer for WordPress users come in at only $3.49 per month.

Though that will go up to $5.99 p/m after the first time, that’s still not a bad price for unlimited hosting space, one-click WordPress installation and a free domain name.

With servers purpose-built for optimum WordPress performance, issues like bandwidth lag aren’t something you’ll have to concern yourself with Bluehost. After all, their promise of smooth performance and outstanding reliability is the reason WordPress teamed up with them in the first place.

Siteground

Garnering rave reviews among existing WordPress users, Siteground stand out from the crowd with a whopping 60% discount on their regular price for new users.

For that low price, you get all the usual features, including a free domain name, one-click installation and free transfers from your previous hosting platform. Beyond the norm, you’ll also benefit from industry leading security and unrivaled customer support.

Combine this with some of the fasted loading speeds of any hosting provider and advanced tools such as SuperCacher and Git, it’s no wonder Siteground is so well respected among the WordPress community.

Hostgator

Not far behind Site Ground, Hostgator‘s cheapest WordPress plan comes in at $3.96 per month for a period of three years. Their unlimited bandwidth and storage allocations rival any other specialist WordPress hosting plan you’ll find out there, whilst the promise of unlimited POP3 email accounts and 99.9% make them a great alternative if you’re not satisfied with a service like Bluehost.

Webhosting Hub

Competitively priced at $3.99 per month for your first term, Webhosting Hub really go to town when it comes to providing their WordPress customers with awesome value for money. Along with a free domain name and one-click installation, you’ll find access to over 1000 exclusive themes, the option to host multiple WordPress sites on one hosting account, and free transfers if you already have a site hosted elsewhere.

The Premium features you’ll find with all their hosting plans, such as free email accounts, MySQL databases and access to $1 per month data backup services are all present and correct with their specialist WordPress plan, making them a serious contender for the top hosting crown.

A2 Hosting

A2 may not enjoy the same kind of attention as Bluehost, Hostgator and the like, though what they lack in brand awareness they more than make up for with powerful, WordPress optimized hosting plans at prices to match any of the above.

Going one better than one-click install, your A2 WordPress plan comes with the platform already pre-installed, so you can get right to work on building your site, taking advantage of super fast loading speeds, 99.9% uptime and use of unlimited email addresses.

Whilst these aren’t the only options out there, they’re certainly among the best, and all mean that starting your new site has never been easier, or more affordable.