Background Story
Like magic, while I was searching all over the Internet for a new host for my many sites, ShortPixel announced that they were going to offer hosting.
Curious about this new kid on the block but from a trusted WordPress plugin for image optimization. Surely, of all people they would know how to make a site super fast and at $5 / month, it was not a huge risk to take.
As the new kid on the block, a very, very crowded block, they have some shoes to fill. Shared hosting is a mammoth of an area with dozens of companies promising A+ speeds. Managed hosting is incredible and what everyone with a serious website should have but it is expensive, especially when you have more than one site to host.
This leaves many, myself included, with a dozen or so sites to host and options between slow, shared hosting, with questionable support or expensive managed hosting that is likely more than needed for many of the sites.
For the review, I migrated over to the ShortPixel Hosting, a smaller, but Elementor heavy site, the site that is basically my LeadPages site. This site has all of my landing pages for everything from collaborations to tripwires.
What Is ShortPixel Hosting?
ShortPixel, with years of experience in optimizing WordPress websites, is now proud to present a hosting solution exclusively designed for WP site owners. They bring the experience of having worked with tens of thousands of WP site owners since its beginnings. They have developed a range of top-notch tools that will accelerate even the slowest WordPress sites. Their hosting plans come equipped with the widely recognized ShortPixel plugins and a global CDN. In addition to this, their support team is always on standby to assist you in any way possible.
Features
Features mentioned on the website include free migrations, global CDN, Caching, cPanel, SSL Certificates, and backups. All these should be standard in any hosting package, ShortPixel does deliver on these features.
- FREE transfer for all your websites
- Global CDN support with or without ShortPixel plugins
- Free malware detection and removal
- LiteSpeed Enterprise Caching
- 24/7 support
- cPanel
- Free SSL certificates
- Unlimited cronjobs, databases, FTP & SFTP accounts
- phpMyAdmin
- WordPress Toolkit – 1-click WordPress deployment, staging, cloning and more
- SSH access
Pros / Cons
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My Testing
As part of my testing, I did two live shows clicking around and learning on the fly how the ShortPixel Hosting works. You can view both videos on my YouTube channel!
First Look
Part 2
Bottom Line
My overall review is that the hosting part of the ShortPixel family is not quite ready for prime-time and possibly should have just been released as a beta product. The onboarding for hosting seemed like it was quickly put together and not even launched at the start. Support was super friendly, but finding how to contact was a bit challenging. Lastly, account management is missing, you can pay for hosting but so far it seems like contacting support is needed to cancel or upgrade or change anything. Again the ShortPixel Hosting is an early product in a well established WordPress company, so there were greater expectations.
All in all, the site is relatively fast, the integration with ShortPixel is fun and easy, and the pricing and settings are transparent and straightforward. It is not super beginner friendly, confidence around basic hosting settings is required to get up and running without relying on support. In addition, familiarity with cPanel is a must, and knowing your way around DNS options and cPanel options for SSL certs, PHP settings, MySQL, and more is a major plus.
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BY TECHIE MAMMA