When you search about Content Management System, you would often come across WordPress or Joomla.

Joomla is yet another choice of open source content management system to publish web content. It is considered as the second most used CMS after WordPress.

Joomla was first launched on 17th August 2005 and is written in PHP.

At the backend, Joomla uses Object Oriented programming and includes features such as RSS feed, caching, internationalization to name a few.

To its credit, Joomla supports over 8000 free and commercial extensions.

Before I get on the details of best Joomla Hosting, let me give a brief overview of what is different between Joomla and WordPress.

Joomla v/s WordPress:

WordPress as well Joomla are open source CMS platforms and cannot work independently.

Both require a web server or more specifically you need to choose a hosting platform.

Ease of Usage: Both these platforms are easy to use. The cPanel of WordPress has straightforward navigation and all apps support one-click installation. However, with Joomla, the cPanel is easy if you have prior web development experience.

Themes and Plugins: WordPress provides a good collection of themes and several plugins with useful features.

Joomla does not fall far behind WordPress. Joomla has fewer templates and extensions but is equally good for an e-commerce website, CMS as well as blogs.

CMS: Blogging is something that WordPress is well known for. WordPress has an easy to use a visual editor which can be used by blogger, marketing expert to manage the content.

Joomla is designed for complex web development. While Joomla has blogging capabilities, in the long run, Joomla may seem a more complex choice for blogging.

Support: WordPress is the most popular CMS and this is one of the reasons for the vast resources available for WordPress. This ranges from videos, tutorials and community help.

Though Joomla is less popular as compared to WordPress, still Joomla has an active community support. Along with this, Joomla also provides several video and tutorials on several topics.

Both Joomla and WordPress take security as a top priority and provide regular updates along with security plugins. Similarly, both provide in-built multilingual support.

Next, let me provide the best Joomla hosting options for your website.

1. Rochen.com

Rochen supports over 150 applications which include WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and Magento.

Rochen holds a Green Mountain Energy certificate for its eco-friendly technology practice.

The web host was first launched in 2000 and is headquartered in Dundee, Scotland, UK. To its credit, Rochen is the official web hosting partner for Joomla.

Uptime:

Rochen works out of multiple data centers located in the US and UK. It offers redundant server to ensure it maintains maximum uptime.

Over their services, Rochen does not offer any specific uptime guarantee. However, their premium web hosting guarantees 99.9% uptime.

In an event where the uptime goes lower than 99.9%, Rochen offers credits to its customer based on the terms of service.

Reliability and Security:

Rochen offers several redundant servers which are used in case of failures. It supports automatic server failover. CloudLinux OS is used in every server to provide a high level of reliability.

The services offer a WAF (Web Application Firewall) which provide protection against SQL injection, CSS attacks, and other common vulnerabilities.

Rochen offers automatic backup with its plan.

Rochen provides site segregation along with SSL and malware protection.

Backup Service:

Rochen supports vault backup. Files and database can be easily restored at any point.

Your Joomla website can be easily rolled back to an earlier date.

Rochen has automatic daily backups and can be restored for the past 30 days. At any point, users can download these backups from the cPanel.

Plans:

Rochen provides 4 different payment plans – Monthly, 1-year, 2-years, and 3-years. The 3-year plan being the cheapest starts at $4.95/month. This supports one site.

For multiple websites, the lowest pricing is $7.95/month for a period of 3 years. In either case, the renewal is slightly higher as compared to the starting price.

When you start, you get a discount, which makes the first-time pricing lower than the renewals. So, if you choose an annual plan, initially you would pay $76.77 and the renewal is at $83.40.

Customer support:

Rochen offers a separate support for sales and other queries. Sales support is not available 24/7, however, the other support is available 24/7.

Over the website, you would not find a separate dedicated help section or tutorials. This is something that is missing over here. You can also reach their customer support over email or can allow them to call you.

While they claim to have 24/7 support, this can be accessed only if you have registered with Rochel.

Overall customer support is not quickly accessible at all times and is restricted to only registered users.

2. 1&1 Joomla Hosting

1and1 hosting is a popular brand has been around for a considerably long time.

It is headquartered in Montabaur, Germany and provides a wide range of hosting services including Joomla hosting.

Uptime:

In terms of uptime, 1and1 does not commit any specific uptime metrics to form Joomla hosting. However, on an average maintains it above 99.95%

I have hosted my website on 1&1 hosting to monitor Uptime. See below the Uptime that I have recorded: Average Uptime:

• September 2018: 99.96%
• August 2018: 99.99%

Average Response Time:

• September 2018: 679 ms
• August 2018: 656 ms

I could not find any significant downtime over here.

Reliability and Security:

1and1 provides a lot of security features as part of the plan. A free SSL is included as part of even the basic plan.

The Pro Plan includes SiteLock which can also be added to the basic plan at a separate pricing. In order to provide reliable hosting, 1and1 provides redundant network connectivity with backup.

It includes geo-redundancy to ensure your data is maintained with secure backups. Every plan includes DDoS protection.

Backup Service:

Yes, backup is something you don’t need to worry about, with 1&1 Joomla hosting. Daily backup and recovery are included as part of the plan.

Additionally, 1and1 supports geo-redundancy which would place your data in geographically diverse locations.

Plans:

Joomla hosting has 3 plans – Basic, Unlimited Plus and Unlimited Pro. Each of these plans starts at $0.99/month, $4.99/month and $8.99/month respectively. These pricings are applicable if you choose a 12-month plan.

These plans renew higher than the initial pricing. So, the Basic plan renewal is at $7.99/month.

Similarly, the Unlimited Plus and Unlimited Pro plan renew at $9.99/month and $14.99/month respectively.

Customer support:

1and1 provides a hotline number to reach their customer support. It has a dedicated help section covering multiple topics.

This also has a live chat option which is available only if you start choosing any plan or you are an existing customer.

I tried checking the live chat option since this was not available I got the below message.

3. Hostinger Joomla Hosting

Hostinger supports Joomla hosting along with other hostings. It was launched in 2004 and is headquartered in Kaunas, Lithuania.

The company uses cloud-based hosting and guarantees a 99.9% uptime. Also provides a 30-day money back guarantee.

Uptime:

Hostinger guarantees a 99.9% uptime. The servers are optimized to provide significant performance.

I am also monitoring Hostinger server performance through my test website on Hostinger.

This is at par with what they guarantee. Full data for Uptime can be found here.

Reliability and Security:

With Hostinger, as the plan moves higher, the configurations are doubled. It provides SSD with every plan.

SSL is included as part of the higher end plan. Similarly, data backup is available only for the higher end plan.

For the basic plans, you can add SSL at $11.99 for a lifetime. You can add daily backup at $2.09/month and add CloudFlare protection at $7.50 for a lifetime.

Backup Service:

Hostinger supports backup services which are optional as part of the basic plans. The Business plan includes daily backup services.

The daily backup includes files, data, database, and emails. Restoration can be carried out using the control panel.

Plans:

Hostinger has 3 different plans- Starter, Premium, Business. The first-time pricing for each of this is $0.80/month, $3.49/month and $7.95/month respectively.

The first-time pricing includes at least a minimum of 50% discount for all the plans. The renewals for all the plans are higher.

Each of these plans renews at a pricing of $5.99/month, $11.95/month and $15.95/month respectively.

Customer support:

Hostinger has a dedicated tutorial section covering multiple topics of hosting interest. You can also use their live chat or raise a ticket.

However, the support exists only for paid clients. So, if you are not a Hostinger customer, then you would not be able to contact them through live chat.

At a separate pricing, it also has a priority support.

4. SiteGround Joomla Hosting

SiteGround has an array of hosting services support and includes Joomla based hosting. It was started in 2004 and is headquartered in Sofia, Bulgaria.

It caters to over 1,000,000 domains worldwide and has datacenters spread across Singapore, Netherlands, USA, and UK.

Uptime:

SiteGround uses the latest speed technologies with SSD to ensure significant performance and uptime. It offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee.

To measure uptime & speed of SiteGround’s hosting servers, I have purchased a domain from SiteGround.

It provides a good uptime.

The recorded uptime metrics for SiteGround, you can see here.

Reliability and Security:

SiteGround has 4 datacenters out of which you can choose. SSL and HTTPs are supported in every plan.

The basic plan supports free CloudFlare CDN and free daily backup. Also supported is a jHackGuard plugin.

Joomla SuperCacher is included as part of the more advanced plan.

Backup Service:

SiteGround provides backup services with all its plans. All its plans include free backup. However, restoration service is not included in the basic plan.

The other plans support free backup restores. The most advanced plan includes OnDemand backup restoration.

Plans:

SiteGround has 3 Joomla hosting plans – StartUp, GrowBig, and GoGeek. The pricing for each of these plans is – $3.95/month, $5.95/month and $11.95/month respectively.

The plans start at an affordable pricing initially. However, the renewals are higher priced. The StartUp plan renews at $11.95/month. GrowBig plan renews at $19.95/month and the GoGeek plan renews at $34.95/month.

Over a longer period of time, the plans seem to be more expensive.

Customer support:

SiteGround supports Sales chat and it can also be reached over phone. It commits to a 24/7 support with no wait time. Tickets can be resolved in less than 10 minutes is something that they commit.

So, I explored their live chat option. The wait time was less than 60 seconds. The customer support representative was quick to provide information.

5. HostGator Joomla Hosting

HostGator is another popular hosting platform and happens to be a part of Endurance International Group. It hosts over 9 million domains and supports over 400,000 customers.

HostGator was first started in 2002 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas, USA. HostGator is one of the few Green Hosting solutions available in the market.

Uptime:

HostGator guarantees a 99.9% uptime. It provides unmetered disk space with unmetered bandwidth.

While this is something they commit to, I have recorded the uptime through my test website on HostGator.

Overall it has good uptime except in August where it has taken a slight dip.

Reliability and Security:

Free SSL is included as part of every plan. To add on this also includes a free SSL upgrade.

With HostGator, you can have instant backups. Additionally, you can choose SiteLock monitoring at a separate pricing.

The plans also include Spam Assassin and Hotlink protection.

HostGator offers password protected directories.

Backup Service:

HostGator provides backup services. You can take backup at any point in time using the cPanel. On completion of backup, you would receive a downloadable link.

Similarly, restoration can also be carried out at any point in time. Site Backup can be selected at a pricing of $2/month and needs to be renewed every year.

This provides daily automated backup of files and database. This is powered by CodeGuard.

Plans:

HostGator supports 3 different plans- Hatchling, Baby and Business. The initial pricing for these plans is – $2.75/month, $3.95/month and $5.95/month respectively.

These prices are for the longest-term plans of 36 months. The renews are higher priced as compared to the initial pricing.

The renewal for the Hatchling plan is at $6.95/month. Similarly, the Baby plan renews at $9.95/month and the Business plan renews at $14.95/month.

Customer support:

HostGator has abundant support tutorials including video tutorials. You can reach their customer support through live chat or email.

It offers 24/7/365 support. The website also includes a HostGator dedicated forum.

I tried their live chat option.

The chat started almost immediately and the customer support representative provided some quick information.

CONCLUSION:

All the above-mentioned options for Joomla hosting are distinct in a certain way. So, in a certain way each hosting platform has its own positive aspects along with shortcomings.

What is common between each of this is a good uptime, backup services, and higher renewal rates as compared to the first-time pricing.

In certain cases, such as HostGator, Hostinger backup services are charged separately based on the plan you choose.

SiteGround and HostGator provide round the clock customer support for all, which is missing in the other hosting platform.

In terms of security, all the hosting platforms provide good support.

While Hostinger and HostGator do not provide all the security features as part of the plan, this can still be opted.

When it comes to features while these are all feature-rich, Rochen and 1&1 provide a range of developer supported features.

Finally moving on to the budget-friendly aspect. Each of this has an affordable initial pricing.

However, when it comes to the difference between the initial pricing and renewal pricing, Rochen is an affordable option in the long run.

Moreover, Rochen is the official partner for Joomla, which makes it a conducive option for Joomla hosting.