The Best Joomla Hosting: Who’s Right For Your Site? [Updated: 2024]
The best Joomla hosts offer easy or automatic Joomla installation, servers optimized for Joomla deployment, and generous bandwidth and disk space allowances. See our top picks for Joomla hosting.
We’ve written expert reviews of over 380 hosting providers and researched over 1,500 hosting plans. We selected the hosts with plans that offer easy Joomla installation and Joomla-specific perks.
We also explored the experiences of real users, and which Joomla hosts they think are best. Using our expansive database of over one million words of genuine customer reviews, we’ve identified the top hosts for Joomla.
What Is Joomla Web Hosting?
The free, easy-to-use, and customizable Joomla provides you with a multitude of site-building options, and is available with most web hosting plans.
Think WordPress is the only game in town when it comes to CMS (content management systems)? Sure, it’s pretty popular, mostly because it’s so user-friendly. But even WordPress has its limitations.
That’s where Joomla comes in. A powerful, yet easy to use, open source software CMS, Joomla’s advanced options allow for extensive customization. This makes it popular among web publishers, businesses, and developers.
Joomla is ideal for the development of portals, blogs, and corporate websites. It can also be developed into an e-commerce platform, an application bridge, or a dynamic web application. Developers can extend the default features and code custom parts in PHP (hypertext preprocessor) and MySQL (My structured query language).
How To Choose Joomla Web Hosting
The majority of shared hosting and VPS hosting plans will come with a cPanel control panel. Very few host services advertise Joomla hosting specifically, but Joomla can be installed on just about any hosting service.
The two biggest Joomla competitors are WordPress and Drupal. They are both open source and written in PHP. Most of the applications that can be built on one platform could be built on any of them.
If you are just setting up a blog and nothing else, you should use WordPress.
If you need the features built in to a specific distribution of Drupal, like CiviCRM, choose Drupal.
If you are not a developer and you need something new built from scratch, it is best to find a developer and let them select a platform.
Because you have several options when selecting a Joomla host, you must look for the following features:
Support for PHP and MySQL database
SSD (solid state drive) disk space and caching for speed
Why it’s best: Low prices with unlimited disk space and bandwidth on many plans
Bluehost is a good option when looking for a web hosting company if the price is the most important concern to you. You can install Joomla on any of their packages, and the prices are as low as they come. You also get a free domain name and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
The tradeoff is that their server performance is nothing special, and the support team and documentation aren’t quite as good as the other two options. If your site isn’t going to get much traffic, that may not be a big issue.
Bluehost offers unlimited disk space and bandwidth on many of its hosting plans, but that really means you’ll get as many resources from your shared server as needed unless your site impacts other customers. You’ll need a VPS or dedicated hosting plan if you have high traffic..
Pros and cons of Bluehost
Pros
Over two million sites
Lots of hosting options
Simple upgrades
Free anti-spam solutions
Integrated Cloudfare support
Digital security features included
99% uptime guarantee
Cons
No automatic daily backup
No monthly billing on shared hosting
Longer wait times for tech support
Fee for migrating from another host
No Windows hosting
What customers are saying about Bluehost
Bluehost is a reputable provider offering shared and VPS hosting. The company is easy to use, affordable, and has a great uptime. It is geared toward entrepreneurs and small online startups. Billing might be confusing, but it has solid customer service for any issues.
Why it’s best: Amazing support documentation with detailed tutorials
SiteGround is the official demo host provider of Joomla. You can sign up for a demo account on Joomla’s website, which will set up a site on SiteGround that is free for you to use for 90 days. That says much about Joomla’s confidence in their software running on SiteGround.
You can install Joomla on any of SiteGround’s plans with just a few clicks, but they’re one of the very few hosts that display Joomla-specific plans.
These plans come with features to make Joomla sites run better and easier to manage. To start with, they provide a free custom-made extension that enables SiteGround’s SuperCacher on some of these plans. This speeds up your site significantly. Each server also comes with Cloudflare CDN built in.
Pros and cons of SiteGround
Pros
99.9% uptime
18+ years experience
Premium support for small businesses
Easy-to-use admin interface and features
CDN included on all hosting packages
Cons
No dedicated servers or VPS
Limited disk space on some packages
Monthly prices are a little high
What customers are saying about SiteGround
SiteGround is a reliable web hosting company with fast speeds, a user-friendly interface, and solid customer service. Some customers are not thrilled with the price increase and backend support, though.
InMotion Hosting is a great web host company if you plan to create a Joomla site for a U.S. business or nonprofit foundation. All customers receive 24/7/365 support, which is good no matter your location.
InMotion Hosting has two data centers located on either coast of the U.S., which is why most of its customers are in the U.S.
To further appeal to small businesses, they offer a free domain and hundreds of dollars in free advertising credits with each hosting plan. To top it off, you have a 90-day money-back guarantee to decide if you’re happy or not.
Pros and cons of InMotion Hosting
Pros
Fast loading speeds
Dedication to open-source
Full lineup of hosting options
24/7 technical support
Cons
No Windows-based hosting
Facilities only in the U.S.
No free automatic backups
What customers are saying about InMotion
InMotion Hosting’s high-performance hosting, support team, features, and customer service are well-liked. Prices are fair, but can fluctuate.
Joomla is a free and open-source content management system written in PHP. By “free,” it is meant that the software is available without cost and also without restriction. By “open source,” it is meant that the source code for the application is available for review and modification. Open source also refers to the method of development. The software is developed by an open community of developers, not a private corporation.
What kind of websites can I build with Joomla?
Almost any kind of content-focused website would be a good fit for Joomla. Many experts say that Joomla is especially good as the basis for an e-commerce or social networking site.
I’m a beginner. Is Joomla a good choice for me?
Maybe. But other options might be better. Joomla is easy enough to learn but is more popular with developers than inexperienced users. If you use a platform like WordPress, which has a larger base of beginner users, you might find getting help and tutorials about your specific issues easier.
Does Joomla have the functionality I need?
Probably. Joomla has over 8,000 extensions. Additionally, a very robust hook and filter system is in place that makes it easy to add functionality and develop new extensions as needed.
Can I make a Joomla website look how I want it to?
Yes. Joomla has over a thousand free themes, many of which are customizable. It is also relatively easy for an experienced developer to build a new theme based on a custom design, and there are many professional developers you can hire to do this for you. Alternatively, there are many tutorials if you want to learn to do it yourself.
How do I decide between Joomla, Drupal, and WordPress?
Most of the applications that you can build on one platform could be built on any of them. Sometimes, there is a specific reason to use one platform over another. For example, if you are just setting up a blog and nothing else, you should use WordPress. Or if you need the features built into a specific distribution of Drupal, like CiviCRM, your choice should be clear.
However, if you are not a developer and need something new built from scratch, it is much better to find a developer you like and trust, then let them select a platform based on their comfort level and the needs of the specific project.