Choosing Google Cloud Platform (GCP) for Wordpress hosting is beneficial as it is enterprise-ready. It offers high scalability, tight security, top-notch performance, and complete control over deployment.
For data centers, you can choose servers across 40 regions, 121 zones, and 187 network edge locations, allowing you to select the closest server to your audience.
GCP also provides multiple advantages over a do-it-yourself (DIY) server. These advantages include the following:
- Provides more flexibility in terms of scalability.
- Offers cost-effective servers, helping businesses save money.
- Requires less technical expertise to manage the server and the site.
- Provides exceptional performance through cloud-based techniques like load balancing.
- Ensures robust security by offering firewalls, access control, and encryption, protecting the data and associated infrastructure.
If you choose a self-hosting solution, you will encounter problems such as scalability, security, and, most importantly, increasing costs.
Geekflare has researched and chosen the best platforms to host WordPress on Google Cloud based on criteria such as ease of use, customizability, uptime, managed features, backup options, affordability, and WordPress-focused features such as in-built cache, PHP version support, and one-click WordPress install.
- Kinsta – Best for High-Traffic WordPress Sites
- WP Engine – Best for Custom Hosting Solutions
- SiteGround – Best for Small to Medium Sites
- Cloudways – Best for Infrastructure Flexibility and Scalability
- Closte – Best for Infrastructure Flexibility and Scalability
- Flywheel – Best for Freelance and Agency Workflows
- Rocket Domains – Best for Integrated Domain and Hosting
- Wonsta – Best for Developer-focused WordPress Management
- Show less
You can trust Geekflare
Imagine the satisfaction of finding just what you needed. We understand that feeling, too, so we go to great lengths to evaluate freemium, subscribe to the premium plan if required, have a cup of coffee, and test the products to provide unbiased reviews! While we may earn affiliate commissions, our primary focus remains steadfast: delivering unbiased editorial insights, and in-depth reviews. See how we test.
Kinsta
Best for High-Traffic WordPress Sites
- Interface UsabilityBeginner-friendly
- CustomizationLimited
- Developer ToolsLimited
Kinsta Description
Kinsta is a managed WordPress hosting provider capable of handling high traffic. It uses reliable, fast, and secure Google Cloud servers for peak performance.
The platform takes advantage of the new high-performance Google Cloud Boosted regions, which offer access to faster C3D and C2 virtual machines.
These servers can serve WordPress sites 30-50% (in average response time) faster than regular regions, thanks to faster PHP execution and database requests.
This makes Kinsta ideal for high-traffic websites, such as eCommerce sites. Currently, Kinsta offers 8 boosted data centers, including Sydney, Ashburn, and Frankfurt. You can also select from its 27 regular servers, including Hong Kong, Mumbai, and Melbourne, for a total of 37 available data centers.
Additionally, Kinsta utilizes a high-performance content delivery network (CDN) (260+ available locations) and edge caching (time reduction by 49%) to load sites faster. The Early Hints feature on Kinsta lets you serve pages up to 30% faster.
As for WordPress-specific features, Kinsta provides an Application Performance Monitoring (APM) tool for one-click site troubleshooting. It supports the latest PHP versions 8.1, 8.2, and 8.3 (comes with a PHP selector for each site) to ensure a secure environment.
Kinsta Features
Offers performance optimization features such as Image Optimization, Continuous MySQL Optimization, Edge Caching, and Early Hints.
Provides enterprise-grade security with SOC 2 compliance and DDoS protection, fully-managed WAF, free malware removal, and multiple backup options.
Excellent built-in development features include access to an application monitoring tool, a one-click staging environment, site preview tools, and Kinsta REST API.
Free SSL certificate, custom and wildcard SSL support.
24/7/365 live chat customer support with 3 minutes average response time.
Free automated daily and system-generated backup with 14 days of backup retention on all plans.
Kinsta Pros/Cons
Flexible access management with multiple users
99.9% guaranteed SLA, ideal for high-traffic websites
Optimized for WordPress site performance
Costly compared to peers
No email or shared hosting
Kinsta Pricing
Kinsta WordPress hosting offers 3 pricing plans, as listed below.
Subscription Plan | Monthly Price | Offerings |
---|---|---|
Single-site plans | $30 | 1 WordPress install, 25,000 visits, 10 GB storage, 100GB CDN, free migration, 14 days backup retention. |
Multiple-site plans | $59 | 2 WordPress installs, 50,000 visits, 20 GB storage, 200 GB CDN, unlimited free migrations, 14 days backup retention. |
Agency plans | $284 | 20 WordPress installs, 400K visits, 50 GB storage, 800 GB CDN, unlimited free migrations, 30 days backup retention. |
Each plan offers additional installs, storage, and backup retention time. You can also purchase add-ons to improve server functionality, including Redis caching (starting at $100), extra backups (starting at $20), and so on.
WP Engine
Best for Custom Hosting Solutions
- Interface UsabilityBeginner-friendly
- CustomizationAdvanced
- Developer ToolsAdvanced
WP Engine Description
WP Engine is best suited for custom hosting solutions, including WooCommerce and headless WordPress sites. Since it supports headless WordPress, businesses can design the front-end technologies as per their needs, using technologies such as JavaScript frameworks.
With Google Cloud Platform as one of its server providers (also supports AWS and Azure servers), WP Engine is enterprise-ready and offers infrastructure capable of handling high-traffic sites. It provides access to 14 global data centers, including Oregon, Netherlands, Sydney, and TelAviv. Users can also choose from 200 global CDNs for faster site delivery, regardless of the visitor’s location.
As a completely managed service, WP Engine offers automated updates for themes, WordPress, PHP, and plugins. Furthermore, it also provides WordPress-specific support documentation that is rich in details and step-by-step guides.
WP Engine Features
Offers EverCache, a proprietary WordPress caching, for faster loading times.
Host close to your users with 14 GCP global data centers and 200+ CDN locations.
Completely managed hosting with auto-updates for plugins, themes, WordPress, and PHP versions.
Resolve issues instantly with 24/7 phone and live chat access.
Seamlessly migrate from another host with 40+ technical health checks and white-glove onboarding.
Complete protection against external threats with managed web application Firewall (WAF) and DDoS protection (optional add-on, need to purchase separately).
Auto-renewing SSL and SSH access.
Meets international compliance and security standards with annual SOC 2 audits and ISO 27001 certification.
Access to developer tools such as Git, a one-click staging environment, easy backups and restoration, automated site migration, and easy-copy site features.
Automated daily WordPress backups and 99.99% SLA.
WP Engine Pros/Cons
Fast load times with 99.99% SLA
Offers access to premium WordPress themes
Handles traffic spike with ease
No free domain
Entry-level plan lacks phone support
WP Engine Pricing
WP Engine offers 5 plans, as shown below. Each plan comes with a 60 day money-back guarantee.
Subscription Plan | Monthly Price | Offerings |
---|---|---|
Lite | $13 | 1 install, 5K visitors, 5 GB local storage, 20 GB Bandwidth |
Professional | $40 | 3 installs, 75K visitors, 15 GB local storage, 150 GB Bandwidth, offers chat and phone support |
Growth | $77 | 10 install, 25K visitors, 20 GB local storage, 240 GB Bandwidth, offers chat and phone support |
Scale | $194 | 30 install, 400K visitors, 50 GB local storage, 550 GB Bandwidth, offers chat and phone support |
Core Hosting | $400 | Custom Offerings – Contact Sales for Tailored Requirements |
SiteGround
Best for Small to Medium Sites
- Interface UsabilityBeginner-friendly
- CustomizationLimited
- Developer ToolsLimited
SiteGround Description
SiteGround is ideal for small to medium sites due to its affordable and managed services. It provides automated setup, upgrades, and migration so that you can focus on your business. Furthermore, the platform offers excellent 24/7 support via live chat, phone, and ticket.
For data centers, you get to choose from its 11 data centers strategically located across the globe, including London, Los Angeles, Ashburn, and Singapore – all powered by GCP infrastructure, ensuring fast response times, easy scalability, and 99.99% uptime. To provide reliability, it offers daily backups.
Performance-wise, SiteGround has implemented faster PHP executions and high-performing MySQL that aid in fast loading times (up to 30% faster). It also offers a free 1-click CDN.
Additionally, they offer multiple managed WordPress features, including
– Free WP Auto-Install
– Free WP Auto-Migrator
– Speed Optimizer WP Plugin
– Security Optimizer WP Plugin
– WordPress Auto Updates
– eCommerce Enabled
– WP-CLI and SSH.
SiteGround Features
Comes with a free domain, free SSL, free email, and free CDN.
Supports up to 30 daily backup copies with an easy restore option.
Provides managed WordPress hosting with automated setup, updates, and migration.
Security features such as WAF, anti-bot system, SSL, and geo-distributed daily backups.
Offers multiple WordPress-focused features, including Auto-Install, Auto-Migrator, Speed Optimizer, Security Optimizer, and WordPress Auto Updater.
Instant response through its 24/7 customer support, live chat support, phone, and ticketing.
SiteGround Pros/Cons
Offers free email, custom domain, CDN and SSL
Responsive 24/7 customer support
Easy to use for people with non-technical backgrounds
30% faster PHP is not available on the basic plan
1 GB limited database impacts larger projects
High renewal price
SiteGround Pricing
SiteGround comes with 3 plans, which include the following:
Subscription Plan | Monthly Price | Offerings |
---|---|---|
StartUp | $2.99 | 1 website, unmetered traffic, 10K visits monthly, 10GB web space. |
GrowBig | $4.99 | Unlimited websites, unmetered traffic, 100K visits monthly, 20GB web space, plus 30% faster PHP, and staging and on-demand backup copies. |
GoGeek | $7.99 | Unlimited websites, unmetered traffic, 400K visits monthly, 40GB web space, plus 30% faster PHP, white label clients, free private DNS, on-demand backup copies, staging + Git, the highest tier of resources, and priority support. |
If you want excellent performance, we suggest the GrowBig plan, which provides 30% faster PHP.
Cloudways
Best for Infrastructure Flexibility and Scalability
- Interface UsabilityIntermediate
- CustomizationAdvanced
- Developer ToolsAdvanced
Cloudways Description
Cloudways provides infrastructure flexibility, offering other cloud hosting providers, including Vultr, Linode, AWS, and DigitalOcean. So, Cloudways makes it possible to quickly change your cloud provider or opt for a multi-cloud setup.
The platform is slightly challenging for beginners due to its multiple cloud offerings. However, it does offer easy-to-use one-click installation, staging, backup/restore, cloning, and scaling options. It is also managed, meaning that Cloudways takes care of initial server setup, maintenance, and updates.
Cloudways is a good choice for hosting high-traffic websites as it offers both performance and scalability. For performance, it provides PHP 8.1-ready servers, optimized stack with advanced cache, NVME-based Google Cloud storage, built-in WordPress cache, and Cloudflare Enterprise CDN. Additionally, you can choose any of the GCP servers (available in 40 regions and 121 zones).
For developer tools, Cloudways offers plenty of choices, including Cloudways RESTful APIs, Git support, Cloudways bot (real-time health monitoring tool), built-in Composer, and access to optimized stack, including Apache, MySQL/Maria, NGINX, and PHP-FPM.
Cloudways Features
Offers managed services, including auto-healing, initial server setup, and automated updates.
Comes with free SSL and free migration.
Supports automated configurable backups.
Completely secure thanks to IP whitelisting, database security, SSL, dedicated firewall, regular security patching, and 2FA support.
24/7 customer support via live chat and ticketing system.
Performance-optimized with built-in caches, optimized stack, Breeze plugin, PHP 8 ready, Cloudflare, and SSD cloud storage.
SSD cloud storage
Cloudways Pros/Cons
Ability to choose the cloud provider of your choice
99.99% uptime and 200-440 ms loading speeds.
Auto-scaling WordPress hosting
Slightly more complicated than traditional hosting
Prices are on the higher side
Doesn’t offer email hosting
Cloudways Pricing
Cloudways GCP pricing starts at $37.45/month. The starting plan offers 1.75 GB RAM, 1 core processor, 20 GB storage, and 2 GB bandwidth.
Closte
Best for Infrastructure Flexibility and Scalability
- Interface UsabilityBeginner-friendly
- CustomizationAdvanced
- Developer ToolsAdvanced
Closte Description
Closte is a great pick for businesses with flexible requirements and scalability needs. It offers a pay-as-you-go model, where you pay for what you use, reducing the overall costs by almost 50%.
Under the hood, Closte uses Google Cloud Platform, focusing on WordPress hosting. It provides automated updates, a staging facility, robust security, built-in CDN support, and Litespeed-powered performance.
As Closte uses GCP, you can choose from the large fleet of GCP servers spread across 5 continents, including North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, and Africa.
Closte Features
Smart automated platform which makes site management easy.
Offers built-in performance with Google and LiteSpeed technologies.
Provides managed servers with automated updates, managed OPcache and Object-Cache for reduced MySQL queries, and improved PHP execution time.
Provides all GCP performance features, including Google Cloud CDN, Cloud DNS, QUIC (HTTP/3), Google’s Brotli compression, and distributed cache.
Free migrations are carried out by experienced developers.
Offers robust security with automated daily incremental backups, WAF, CloudScan (real-time malware detection) and DDoS protection.
Comes with plenty of developer tools, including GIT/COMPOSER, WP-CLI, Logs, Database, SSH/SFTP, staging environment, live debugging, and support for multiple/custom PHP.
Closte Pros/Cons
Free to start with no credit card required
Provides all GCP scalability and performance features
Pay-as-you-go model
Knowledge-base is non-existent.
Sending-only email service
No live chat support and a slow ticketing system
Closte Pricing
Closte offers a pay-as-you-go model. Your monthly expenses depend on resource usage, including CPU, memory, CDN, and disk usage. On average, Closte costs $12/month for handling 25,000 monthly visitors.
Flywheel
Best for Freelance and Agency Workflows
- Interface UsabilityBeginner-friendly
- CustomizationAdvanced
- Developer ToolsAdvanced
Flywheel Description
Flywheel offers WordPress-tailored services. It is best suited for freelancers and agency workflows, as it has a well-designed custom dashboard, 24/7 support, and a reliable yet scalable GCP infrastructure.
Thanks to this GCP infrastructure, users get access to all GCP features, including the ability to choose machine type, take advantage of Cloud SQL, a managed SQL service, and multiple configuration options with complete root access.
Flywheel is developer-friendly, with access to one-click staging, workflow tools, blueprints (site settings, plugins, and theme setups duplicate), and site cloning. It also works well for designers who want to design websites and sell the service to their customers.
Flywheel Features
Offers free migrations for all your sites.
Takes full advantage of GCP infrastructure to provide fast-loading websites.
Comes with FlyCache, a custom caching technology.
Offers WAF, free SSL and malware removal tools.
Excellent developer-friendly tools, including one-click staging, blueprints, and site cloning.
Ensure automatic nightly backups (30-day retention) and a one-click restore option.
24/7 customer support via live chat and ticketing system, accessible directly from the dashboard.
Flywheel Pros/Cons
Great workflow management tools
User-friendly interface
24/7 customer support via live chat and phone
Doesn’t offer phpMyAdmin
Backend access is limited
Premium pricing
Flywheel Pricing
Flywheel offers 4 plans, which include the following.
Subscription Plan | Monthly Price | Offerings |
---|---|---|
Tiny | $13 | 1 WordPress site, 5K monthly visits, 5 GB storage, 20 GB storage |
Starter | $25 | 1 WordPress sites, 25K monthly visits, 10 GB storage, 50 GB storage |
Freelance | $96 | 10 WordPress sites, 100K monthly visits, 20 GB storage, 200 GB storage |
Agency | $242 | 30 WordPress sites, 400K monthly visits, 50 GB storage, 500 GB storage |
For customized requirements, you will have to contact the Flywheel sales team. You can also opt to use their paid add-ons for additional functionality, such as Performance Insights and Managed Plugin Updates.
Flywheel provides a 60-day money-back guarantee on all its yearly plans. It also offers a standard 14-day demo site for prospective buyers.
Rocket Domains
Best for Integrated Domain and Hosting
- Interface UsabilityBeginner-friendly
- CustomizationLimited
- Developer ToolsLimited
Rocket Domains Description
Rocket Domains provides integrated domains and fully managed WordPress hosting with the Google Cloud Platform. It offers business email and takes full advantage of Google’s most active data centers across 4 continents, including London (UK), Eemshaven (Netherlands), Singapore, Frankfurt (Germany), IOWA (USA), and Sydney (Australia).
As Rocket Domains provides managed services, you get features like free migration, automated updates, business emails, caching speed optimization, one-click WordPress installation, and dedicated support (via a ticketing system).
Additionally, Rocket Domains offers robust security with free SSL, WAF, and Rocket Cloud DNS. The platform also proactively updates servers to protect sites against zero-day exploits (especially those using trusted external IP addresses).
Rocket Domains Features
Utilizes Google’s SSD persistent storage to mitigate server failure and load websites faster.
Offers WordPress-ready extensions including one-click WP Install, free migration, daily automated backups, and advanced caching plugin.
Provides security with free SSL, WAF, WP CLI + SSH, all manageable through dedicated security plugins.
Helps deliver faster sites with a global DNS network that includes DNS Shield and 100% uptime.
Improves developer productivity with tools like WP CLI + SSH, Staging, Git, one-click backup and restore options.
Rocket Domains Pros/Cons
Comes with integrated domains
Offers business email
Includes fully managed WordPress
Marketing jargon on the website is confusing for buyers
No live chat support
Rocket Domains Pricing
Rocket Domains has 5 pricing plans, which are shown below.
Subscription Plan | Monthly Price | Offerings |
---|---|---|
Rocket Starter | $20 | 1 website, 5 GB web space |
Rocket Booster | $49 | 3 websites, 15 GB web space |
Rocketeer | $99 | 6 websites, 40 GB web space |
Rocket Cloud | $138.75 | 8 websites, 40 GB SSD space |
Rocket Cloud+ | $145.90 | 10 websites, 60 GB SSD space, 5 TB data transfer |
They also offer a free hosting plan that lets you host 1 website with a limitation of 250 MB web space and 1500 visits monthly.
Wonsta
Best for Developer-focused WordPress Management
- Interface UsabilityIntermediate
- CustomizationAdvanced
- Developer ToolsAdvanced
Wonsta Description
Wonsta is a developer-focused managed WordPress service provider that gives developers access to the Google Kubernetes Engine. This allows developers to fully utilize Google’s Cloud CDN and Premium Tier Network to deliver fast-loading WordPress sites.
The platform deeply integrates with GCP to provide horizontal autoscaling, with the option to choose from Google Cloud’s 2 clusters: South Asia and North Europe. Furthermore, you can use its website management free of charge, and you only need to pay when utilizing the scalable WordPress hosting option.
Wonsta Features
Offers free migration and SSL.
Complete free website management solution.
Extensive scalability options.
24/7 monitored environment with free Google Cloud Armor for DDoS protection.
3 free backups.
Free SSL certificate and development domain.
Comes with Wonsta Business Analytics.
Wonsta Pros/Cons
Completely utilizes the Google Cloud infrastructure for peak performance
Excellent site loading speed
Unlimited free website migrations
No WordPress-specific features
Interface and features are confusing for beginners and non-technical users
Wonsta Pricing
Wonsta’s Scalable WordPress hosting pricing starts at €7.45/month (approx. $8.29/month).
Best GCP WordPress Hosting Comparison
The table below compares the GCP WordPress Hosting platforms in this list, based on their starting monthly price, uptime guarantee, staging environment availability, and caching type.
Platform | Rating Geekflare’s ratings are determined by our editorial team, considering various factors to help you choose the right business software for your needs. | Starting Monthly Price | Caching Type | Uptime Guarantee | Staging Environments | Explore |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kinsta | $30 | Edge caching, Server-side caching | 99.9% | Yes | ||
WP Engine | $20 | EverCache | 99.99% | Yes | ||
SiteGround | $2.99 | SuperCacher, NGINX-based static and dynamic cache, Memcached | 99.9% | Yes | ||
Cloudways | $37.45 | Memcached, Varnish, Redis | 99.99% | Yes | ||
Closte | $12 | Uses WordPress caching plugin, LSCache | 99.95% | Yes | ||
Flywheel | $13 | FlyCache | No advertised uptime guarantee | Yes | ||
Rocket Domains | $20 | Advanced caching plugins | No advertised uptime guarantee | Yes | ||
Wonsta | €7.45 | Default caching | No advertised uptime guarantee | No |
Benefits of Hosting WordPress on Google Cloud
Hosting WordPress on Google Cloud offers 5 main benefits, as shown below.
- High Performance: Thanks to enterprise-ready GCP infrastructure, businesses get high performance out of the box. It helps websites load faster and manage high traffic without any downtime.
- Security: GCP follows industry-level security practices. WordPress Hosting through GCP provides built-in WAF and DDoS protection. Moreover, administrators can set up daily backups and restore them when needed.
- Stability: GCP offers excellent uptime and availability, with a focus on redundancy.
- Scalability: Hosting WordPress on GCP allows developers to alter the compute engine for scalability. This helps high-traffic websites handle spikes (by allocating more server space and bandwidth) during popular events, without worrying about downtime.
- Total Control: Hosting WordPress on GCP gives you full control over the server. Administrators can use root passwords to customize the private server to their needs.
Can I Host WordPress on AWS?
Yes, you can host WordPress on AWS (Amazon Web Services) and launch a WordPress Instance with Amazon Lightsail. However, if you’re looking for a less technical approach, we recommend Pagely, Nestify, and ScalaHosting as the hosting solutions.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Yes, you can use WordPress on Google Cloud. You can host it yourself or choose hosting platforms such as Kinsta, Cloudways, and Flywheel. These platforms provide managed WordPress using GCP, eliminating the intricacies of using a DIY server.
You can choose any popular cloud hosting provider, such as ScalaHosting, Kinsta, SiteGround, and WP Engine. They come equipped with built-in WordPress-focused features, such as managed updates, initial setup assistance, configurable resources, built-in cache, staging sites, and 24/7 customer support.
However, before choosing a cloud hosting provider, check the pricing plans, performance, features, and customer support. These key factors decide which cloud hosting provider will fit your requirements.