TL;DR
Cloud infrastructure offers good performance and more importantly – reliability. Choosing a web host that relies on Google Cloud such as Cloudways or Kinsta can greatly reduce performance stress on the sites you're hosting.
1. Cloudways
Easy Cloud Platform Management
Where hosting is concerned, Cloudways is a bit different from your typical hosting provider. Instead of offering hosting based on a specific infrastructure, it offers you a choice.
At the moment, they carry five brands – including Google Cloud.
As a sort of middleman where Cloud hosting is concerned, Cloudways adds on server management to its list of services provided. Think of it as managed Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) where you get a custom dashboard, migration services, and more.
While this may sound great, it does of course increase costs significantly. For some, that might not be a price easy to swallow. However, it does help make Cloud hosting much easier to handle.
If you decide to host with Cloudways, you will be paying a premium. Yet this is an easy way to work with Cloud infrastructure while at the same time maintaining choice. This can be especially helpful to agencies and developers who may need a broader set of tools.
Read our full Cloudways review to learn more.
Why Host with Cloudways?
- Multi-infrastructure platform offering
- Managed services
- Powerful add-ons available
- Comprehensive backups
- Collaborative features
How Much Does It Cost?
- Entry Level – $19.91 per month (1.7 GB RAM / 20 GB storage)
- Mid Level – $44.10 per month (3.75 GB RAM / 20 GB storage)
All Cloudways + Google Cloud Plans come with managed daily backup, dedicated firewalls, user account management dashboard; and support unlimited application installation.
2. Kinsta
Best WordPress Hosting Performance
Even among niche web hosting providers, Kinsta is a beast of another nature. Not only are offering hosting plans only on Google Cloud infrastructure, but they specialize in WordPress deployments. Unless this is exactly what you need, Kinsta is out of bounds for you.
Having said that, the company does its job hair-raising well. As one of the hosts we monitor constantly, Kinsta regularly demonstrates speeds that are impressive on a service that’s so stable you can bet on it.
If you know that WordPress is your future, you can’t really go wrong with choosing Kinsta. It really simplifies Cloud for users, allowing you to focus on simply building your WordPress site. Thanks to Google Cloud Hosting scalability, you also won’t need to migrate elsewhere unless you plan to move away from WordPress.
Kinsta has taken a very complex task and made it exceedingly simple. The choice of WordPress as the foundation has enabled them to specialize in a big way – to the benefit of those hosting with them.
Read our full Kinsta review to learn more.
Why Host with Kinsta?
- Resource auto-scaling
- Free site migration
- Guaranteed hack-fix service
- WordPress-specific expert support
- 24 Global server locations
How Much Does Kinsta Cost?
- Starter Plan – $35.00 per month (1 WordPress install with 10 GB storage)
- Pro Plan – $70.00 per month (2 WordPress installs / 20 GB storage)
Kinsta prices their hosting plans based on the number of visits and WordPress installs. Starting at $35 and going up to $1,650 per month (annual subscription), Kinsta is priced as a high-end / enterprise hosting service. We do not recommend Kinsta to newbies and individual bloggers with multiple low traffic websites.
3. WP Engine
WordPress-Only Cloud Platform
Similar to Kinsta, WP Engine is competing in exactly the same very niche zone. They too have chosen to exclusively offer WordPress hosting plans. Looking beyond that, WP Engine pays more attention to WordPress than most others do.
Examples of this can be seen in the WordPress-specific value-added features. This includes access to the Genesis Framework for rapid site development, integrated local development environment, and lots more.
While this may sound fantastic, there are a couple of drawbacks as well. Given its focus on offering users the best in WordPress, some things you’ll regularly find on hosting aren’t available. Perhaps the most glaring is the lack of email handling capabilities on WP Engine.
As a premium name in WordPress hosting, WP Engine hasn’t limited itself to only Google infrastructure. Here you get Cloud-based WordPress hosting that uses a mix of very big names in the infrastructure space including Amazon Web Services (AWS) as well.
Read our WP Engine review to find out more.
Why Host with WP Engine?
- Leverages several Cloud providers
- Automated site migration
- Very developer-friendly
- Custom-built EverCache solution
- Fully managed service
How Much Does WP Engine Cost?
- Startup Plan – $20.00 per month (1 WordPress install with 10 GB storage)
- Professional Plan – $39.00 per month (3 WordPress installs / 20 GB storage)
4. Flywheel
Cheap WordPress-Only Cloud Hosting
Yet another WordPress-specific host, Flywheel brings down prices somewhat despite hosting on Google infrastructure. Hosting here starts from as low as $10/mo and stretches on virtually endlessly.
One thing to note if you’re looking at Flywheel plans is that features do differ across some of the options. For example, the migration dashboard is only available with their higher-end plans – along with phone support.
This means if you’re going to be joining them on the lower tiers you can’t expect all that much help. Still, it is a managed platform so there are limits to how badly you can mess things up. WordPress and plugin updates are all included.
Flywheel seems to have a very specific target customer segment in mind. Their service is advertised as being ideal for designers and developers who work with WordPress. Even if you’re not though, the raw service is still good for regular individuals.
Why Host With FlyWheel
- More manageable cost of entry
- Manage blueprints for fast deployment
- Optional extra management features
- Extensive support channels
- White glove client billing services
How Much Does FlyWheel Cost?
- Tiny Plan – $13.00 per month (1 WordPress install with 5 GB storage)
- Starter Plan – $25.00 per month (1 WordPress installs / 10 GB storage)
A Deep Dive into Google Cloud
Traditionally, web hosting providers rented server space in data centers. They would move in their servers and start offering web hosting plans. Then came along Cloud technology. While some try to offer it on their own, others instead moved to Google Cloud.
Google first started offering Cloud infrastructure in 2008. It was a move that made sense since their business required them a massive amount of hardware and connectivity. Since then they’ve grown it into a massive business.
What is Google Cloud?
As one of the biggest technology companies in the world, Google has a massive product range. So many things are powered by this behemoth today that we often take it for granted. Even the term “Google it” has become synonymous with searching for information.
While some companies may have chosen to focus on core competencies and outsourced the rest, Google felt confident enough to build everything they needed. This meant data centers, servers, and the international bandwidth to move massive amounts of data around.
Eventually, they built it to the extent they could even rent part of the infrastructure out as Google Cloud. This has today become one of the top three in the business. Racking in more than $20 billion a quarter, it’s been growing remarkably over the years.
Why Go with Google Cloud Hosting?
Google has produced so many mainstream products that its identity is so recognizable. This branding is perhaps their biggest seller, along with the excellent performance that much of the world has seen and experienced.
This simplicity, efficiency, and capability tie in well with a complex product like Cloud. Beyond that, however, the basis of the technology is much the same – it’s still Cloud. That means good performance, excellent scalability, and of course, cost-effectiveness.
Before You Switch
If all of this sounds too good to be true so far – you’re right.
There is a big catch in Google Cloud hosting, and it's the same catch as all other Cloud providers have. Unless you have some pretty advanced knowledge of servers and networks, managing a Cloud deployment will not likely go well.
For the individual, this means countless hours sunk into learning even how to construct your Cloud environment. For businesses who don’t have the luxury of time to learn, it means investment in IT expertise that will hit your bottom line hard.
Don’t let this turn you off though. As this list should tell you, there are many options available. Some like Cloudways integrate a third-party dashboard that makes management easier. Others like Kinsta or WP Engine offer comprehensive services that can vastly reduce technical strain on customers.
Final Thoughts
Hosting on Cloud infrastructure isn’t the exclusive domain of those that work with Google. Other big names include AWS and even Microsoft. Still, Google remains a big partner for web hosts that have decided to expand their offerings.
If this is a brand you recognize and trust, go ahead and sign up with one of the parents we’ve showcased here. Most of the services are tracked by HostScore and have proven to be not just fast, but strongly reliable as well.
