The Best PHP Hosting Services of 2026

Hostinger offers the best PHP hosting for all your WordPress and web application needs. It’s fast, it’s secure, it’s dead-simple to use for most people, and it’s a pretty good value for the money.

But if you want slightly cheaper, faster, and more secure PHP hosting, you should go with IONOS. For reliable, easier PHP hosting at a slightly higher price, SiteGround is a great choice. We’ll go over our top picks for the best PHP web hosts in this article.

The best PHP hosting services

Compare the best PHP hosting services

Best for	Best for overall value	Best for developers	Best for expanding your business
Star rating	4.9 AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.	5.0 AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.	4.7 AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.
Starting price	Starts at $2.99/mo	Starts at $2.99/mo	Starts at $1.00/mo
Money-back guarantee	Yes — 30 days	Yes — 30 days	Yes — 30 days
SSH access
Git integration
Uptime guarantee	99.9%	99.9%	99.99%
Monthly visits	25K - 200K	10K - 400K	Unlimited
Number of websites	25 - 100	1 - unlimited	1 - unlimited
Storage	25 GB - 100 GB	10 GB - 40 GB	10 GB - unlimited
Free SSL certificate	On all plans	On all plans	On all plans
Free domain for a year	On all plans	On all plans	On all plans
Learn more	Get Hostinger Read Hostinger Review	Get SiteGround Read SiteGround Review	Get IONOS Read IONOS Review

Hostinger: Best for overall value

What we liked

Beginner-friendly: Hostinger’s interface is simple, and it guides beginners through the basics. It also lets you install a variety of PHP apps and CMS options with just a few clicks. In fact, it is one of the easiest web hosting services.

Great performance: Hostinger’s servers are tuned for speed. It offers, among other optimizations, the LiteSpeed server software, which is tuned for PHP performance.

Good WordPress integration: While you can install just about any PHP CMS you like, there is a big emphasis on WordPress integration. And since the vast majority of PHP users run WordPress, WordPress-specific optimizations, tools, and site templates will be useful.

What we didn’t like

No PCI compliance: This means the servers aren’t rated for storing your customers’ financial info. If you want to sell things online, you’ll need to accept payments via a third-party service such as PayPal, Stripe, or Square.

Test results

Hostinger’s performance left nothing to be desired. The site loading times were good, our test site maintained a flawless uptime, and the average server response times were steady and fast. The stress test results were very successful, with an average server response time of 14 ms.

Star rating summary

Hostinger nailed our review process, scoring highly in all three of our most important categories: performance, features, and security. Like so many others, we found Hostinger to be a great service in just about every way.

SiteGround: Best for developers

What we liked

Very easy to use: SiteGround’s UI is designed for beginners, while still offering advanced options for developers. Installing WordPress takes just a couple of clicks, and SiteGround includes speed and security optimization tools specifically built for WordPress. Or you can install another PHP CMS if you like.

Great support: SiteGround’s hosting plans are all managed, which means its IT team handles all the technical stuff for you. Our own experiences with the support team showed them to be fast and helpful, which is what you’re looking for in a service like this.

Useful features for devs: For WordPress devs, there’s WP-CLI, so you can manage aspects of your WordPress installs via the terminal. And for all devs, SSH access is included with every plan, as well as easy Git integration.

What we didn’t like

It’s expensive: SiteGround is both built and priced like a premium product. With shared hosting plans that renew at $17.99/mo, SiteGround is more expensive than the vast majority of hosts out there. However, the quality of service is worth it for many.

Test results

Our SiteGround testing could have gone slightly better. The actual website experience was smooth, with great loading times, and the stress test performance was solid, though not mind-blowing. But there were a couple of service interruptions during our testing period, and the average server response time varied wildly, pointing to some server instability.

Star rating summary

SiteGround snagged high ratings in almost all categories, including our top three most important ones. The user interface, while very good, could have been slightly more intuitive at some points. Otherwise, our review was great, matching that of most of SiteGround’s customers.

IONOS: Best for expanding your business

What we liked

Easy WordPress install: IONOS’s shared hosting plans have a pretty easy-to-use interface in general, and there’s a quick and easy way to install the most common PHP CMS, which helps. IONOS is a cheap, fast WordPress host, and if you don’t need some of the performance tools offered by the competition, IONOS might be for you.

Wide variety of hosting options: If you need to run a PHP app on infrastructure that grows with your business, IONOS offers excellent value on its VPS and cloud hosting plans, which give you full control over your PHP hosting environment.

Great site analytics: As a side note, IONOS’s shared hosting includes a handy analytics package built in. You can keep track of how users behave on your PHP site without going through a third party, which can be quite handy.

What we didn’t like

Lack of certain performance tools: IONOS’s shared hosting plans don’t use LiteSpeed servers like Hostinger does, and there’s no free CDN included. However, there’s nothing stopping you from installing any server tech you want if you go for one of the VPS, cloud, or dedicated server plans.

Test results

IONOS handled our tests with no issues. Fast site loading times, 100% uptime, and perfectly reasonable average server response times all make a pretty picture. The stress test results weren’t stunning, but they were quite good.

Star rating summary

Our experience with IONOS was quite good across the board, with high scores in the performance and security categories. The feature set wasn’t quite as complete as it could have been, so IONOS loses half a point there, but otherwise we absolutely recommend it.

How do you choose the right PHP hosting plan?

This depends somewhat on your skill level. If you’re just starting with your first WordPress site, you’ll want to focus a bit more on hosting plan features like storage, bandwidth, and easy CDN integration. The technical details are best left to the host.

If you’re developing your own PHP app or are running a site that expects to see tons of traffic, that changes things. You’ll want to look for the following:

• Hosts that advertise performance-focused tech, such as LiteSpeed servers (or at least Nginx) and PHP-FPM
• Information on the hardware like the CPU cores, RAM, and the number of PHP workers (background processes) you can run at once

Bottom line: The best PHP hosting service

Hostinger is our top pick for PHP hosting, thanks to its overall usability, strong performance, and WordPress-optimized features. If you’re starting or just want to get your favorite PHP-based CMS or app up and running with minimal fuss, Hostinger makes that easy.

But if you’re not worried about the price and want an even more hands-off hosting experience, SiteGround is a great alternative. Conversely, if you want some of the best value for the money and don’t mind doing things a bit more manually, IONOS may be the option for you.

FAQs