How to Choose the Best Web Hosting for Photographers?

A beginner’s guide on how to choose the best web hosting for photographers. Learn what is web hosting, what are the different hosting options available to you, and which are the best WordPress web hosting companies for photographers.

Best Web Hosting for Photographers

Are you looking for the best website hosting for photographers? Choosing the best web hosting is crucial for your business, but it can be difficult. The sheer number of available hosting options can make picking the right one a confusing process. This article can help you choose the best web host for your photography business. 

At Envira Gallery, we’ve helped over 150,000 photographers and artists showcase their work online. With years of experience, we understand just how important it is to choose the best web hosting company. And, we want you to know exactly what you’re signing up for when you choose your web hosting. 

That’s why the goal of this article is to help you make an educated decision about which web hosting is best for your photography website.

What is Web Hosting?

Why do you need web hosting as a photographer? What is it, and why is it important?

In layman’s terms, web hosting is space you rent in a computer server for storing and displaying your website on the internet. It is a core requirement for building your photography website in WordPress.

Essentially, your web hosting service showcases your business and portfolio website to the world! Without web hosting, your site wouldn’t reach an audience, and no one would see your stunning photography.

There are several different types of hosting options you can choose from, including shared, VPS, dedicated and managed WordPress hosting.

If you’re never heard of these types of web hosting before, that’s okay! We’ll discuss each type below so you can make the most educated decision about which best fits your photography business. We’ll also share our recommendations for the best web hosting companies for photographers.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is a popular choice for photographers because it’s affordable and easy to set up — even for beginners.

As the name suggests, shared hosting allows you to purchase shared space on a large server to host your website. Because your website shares the server space with other websites, the hosting providers can offer you the service at a more affordable price.

While it’s standard practice in the hosting industry to advertise unlimited storage and resources, please know that hosting services have usage restrictions in place. Most small businesses will never exceed them. But, if you do, then you will be asked to upgrade your plan. 

If you are just starting out with your photography website, then shared hosting is a great and affordable option. Don’t overpay for an advanced hosting plan that you don’t need as a beginner. 

VPS & Dedicated Web Hosting

VPS stands for a Virtual Private Server. A VPS web hosting is the next step above shared hosting. 

With VPS web hosting, you’ll still share server space with other people. But, there will be fewer people accessing your server as there are with shared hosting. That means you get more control over your server settings. And, you’ll have better access to the resources provided by the VPS hosting service.

With Dedicated hosting, on the other hand, you get a whole server to yourself that hosts just your photography website. As you might guess, a Dedicated hosting package can become quite expensive, especially if you have a large website. 

Both VPS and Dedicated hosting are designed for tech-savvy website owners who need more space and more server control. If this article is your first foray into the world of web hosting, these hosting options are likely too complex for your needs. 

Managed WordPress Hosting

Did you know that WordPress powers over 34% of all websites on the internet? Its popularity amongst photographers and other business owners led to the creation of a new industry called Managed WordPress hosting.

Managed WordPress hosting appeals to so many WordPress users because it makes hosting and running your website 100% hassle free. Your Managed WordPress website host will take care of all your hosting needs. That includes monitoring the performance and security of your website to creating backups and more.

As you can expect, one of the perks of WordPress hosting is top-notch support from the most experienced WordPress developers and engineers.

On average, it costs 10x more than a simple shared hosting plan, but for many, the benefit far outweighs the cost.

Managed WordPress hosting is a good option for websites of all sizes, especially when the owner has little to no technical knowledge or time to troubleshoot web hosting issues.

A Managed WordPress hosting allows you to focus on what you do best — run your business! The hosting experts will take care of the rest. 

Now that you know what web hosting options are available to you, let’s look at some of the best web hosting for photographers. To help you make the best decision, we’ve created a list of some of the best web hosting sites that are a perfect fit for your photography website.

Best WordPress Web Hosting for Photographers

We’ve tested just about every major web hosting company in the market. Below are the hosting companies we recommend as the best web hosting for photographers.

SiteGround

best web hosting for photographers siteground

SiteGround is legendary for their high-quality web hosting service and 24/7 top-rated customer support. Founded in 2004, they specialize in managed web hosting services for WordPress, WooCommerce, and other open-source software on a high-performance Google-cloud-powered platform, which is perfect for photography or gallery websites.

SiteGround guarantees an easy website start with their automated WordPress Starter solution or professional site migration from their experts. You will be able to conveniently manage your photography site with their intuitive Site Tools control panel, and take advantage of plenty of useful tools like daily backups, SSL certificate, email accounts, WordPress auto-updates, SG Optimizer speed-boosting plugin, CDN, Staging, and more.

If you work with other people on your website, SiteGround gives you the option to add collaborators easily and set their access rights. Last but not least, SiteGround maintains a security-first approach by having a 24/7 team of system administrators, an in-house AI anti-bot solution, a web application firewall, and an advanced monitoring system.

We have partnered with SiteGround to ensure a smooth experience with Envira Gallery.

Nexcess

Nexcess Hosting

Nexcess started in 2003 out of a garage in Michigan (USA) and has grown over the years due to its immense performance, class-leading technology, and customer service.

In 2019 LiquidWeb acquired Nexcess and brought the teams together, and merged technologies to make one of the best platforms available for hosting WordPress websites.

Nexcess sites come with incredible benefits for any photographer or visual creative. There are plenty of tools and features at your disposal. Its WordPress hosting comes with auto-updates with visual regression testing, one-click staging, iThemes Security Pro, free SSL certificates, CDN, image compression, lazy loading and so much more.

What makes Nexcess stand out from all other hosts is its unique auto-scaling technology. No matter what comes your way, your site will stay online, run fast, and never let you down. But you never know when a disaster might happen, and that’s where their 24/6/365 support comes in handy. No matter the day or time, assistance is a chat, email, or phone call away.

Finally, if you work with other people on your website, Nexcess gives you the option to add collaborators easily and set their access rights.

We have partnered with Nexcess to ensure a smooth experience with Envira Gallery. Please note that in order to use the pre-installed Envira Gallery and Envira Gallery WooCommerce Addon, a valid license is required and must be activated.

Hostinger

One of the most popular hosting providers available today, Hostinger caters to 29 million website owners in over 170 countries. Thanks to their 50-second customer support response time and their 99.9% uptime guarantee, they’ve secured a 98% customer satisfaction rating.

They offer virtually every hosting option you might need, including WordPress, Shared Web and Cloud hosting, as well as VPS and Minecraft hosting.

Their mid-range shared web hosting plan comes with unlimited websites, 20 GB of disk space, unlimited bandwidth and email accounts, and free weekly backups — all for less than $5/month!

HostGator

best web hosting for photographers hostgator

HostGator is an industry leading web hosting company that hosts over 9 million websites. With 1-click WordPress installation, 99.9% uptime guarantee, and 24/7 support, it’s the best for anyone who’s starting out. We host several of our own websites on HostGator.

WPEngine

best web hosting for photographers wpengine

WPEngine is the leading managed WordPress hosting provider. They offer automatic security updates, daily backups, one-click restore points, automatic caching, top-tier security, one-click staging area and more. If you are a business owner who doesn’t want to deal with the technical side of running your WordPress site, then WPEngine is the solution for you.

Even some of the largest companies trust WPEngine with their web hosting needs, including Yelp, AMD, MyFitnessPal, SoundCloud and others!

Kinsta

best web hosting for photographers kinsta

Kinsta provides scalable Google Cloud servers built for security and speed with lightning-fast architecture, free backups and constant uptime monitoring. It’s an ideal choice for those who want an easy hosting solution for WordPress that’s lightweight and low-cost.

WPX Hosting

best web hosting for photographers wpx hosting

WPX Hosting is a top-ranking hosting platform that offers unlimited free SSL certificate, email addresses and site migrations, free malware removal and a UK location option for photographers outside the US. Consistently ranked #1 on G2 and Trustpilot, WPX Hosting provides a hosting service you can trust to keep your WordPress site running smoothly.

Plus, WPX Hosting boasts a 37-second response time for support issues! But, their 1-click WordPress installation makes hosting your own website so easy, that you may never need to consult their support team.

WPX Hosting is a great choice for WordPress users who want a trustworthy host provider that puts customer service at the forefront. 

Bluehost

best web hosting for photographers bluehost

Bluehost hosting company provides web hosting at all levels. That makes them the perfect choice for photography business owners looking to expand their web hosting knowledge. Choose from shared, VPS or dedicated hosting plans ranging from $2.95 to $79.99/month to fit your budget and your needs. 

Their scalable Shared hosting option includes unlimited bandwidth, free SSL certificate, parked domains and subdomains, storage and more. 

A2 Hosting

best web hosting for photographers a2 hosting

Like Bluehost, A2 Hosting offers hosting packages for every business owner, including Shared, WordPress, VPS, Reseller and Dedicated hosting. With their Shared Hosting plan, you’ll get your site hosted on their Turbo servers, which boast speeds up to 20x faster than regular servers. Their control panel lets you monitor your site and reach the support team 24/7.

We recommend A2 Hosting for photographers who would like to test the waters before committing to a host provider. A2 Hosting offers an anytime money-back guarantee on their hosting packages, so you don’t have to worry about losing money if you’re not happy with the service. 

Inmotion Hosting

inmotion hosting

Inmotion Hosting is a long-time host provider with 17 years in business as a top-rated hosting service. They offer fast web hosting for websites of varying sizes on secure servers protected by custom firewalls. Their shared hosting and WordPress hosting plans for small businesses are perfect for your photography website. 

Their smallest WordPress hosting plan for just $6.99/month already offers 50GB of SSD storage, access to plugins and themes by BoldGrid and unlimited email accounts! 

Plus, Inmotion also offers to help you start your WordPress photography website by building a one-page site, designed by experts, in just 2 days! The site will come optimized for desktop, mobile and tablet browsing and costs a one-time fee of just $99. 

Choose Inmotion Hosting if you need help getting started — with web hosting and with web building!

Conclusion

Now that you have chosen the best web hosting for your photography business, it’s time to build your WordPress website with WordPress. You’ll need the perfect WordPress theme, a great domain name and your web host to get started on your own website for professional photographers.

To save some time on research, check out these related articles on website building:

We hope this article has helped you learn how to choose the best photography web hosting. If you like this article, then please follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more free WordPress tutorials.

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