Web Hosting for CBD & Cannabis Startups

When it comes to websites we always advise you use WordPress as a CMS and WooCommerce as an eCommerce platform, for this we have tried nearly every local EU and US host out there.

SiteGround

A very reliable and long standing web host, the are the best for a startup or sites with under 25k users a month, so of the things we like:

• Very well priced
• Perfect turn key solutions, from CDN, to image caching and all those things you dont want to have to worry about
• Super fast relative to speed
• We have 1-2 issues a year, previously with smaller local hosts we could see this number of issues per week or even day if those small hosts were having issues

https://www.siteground.es/hosting-wordpress.htm

WPEngine

A little more expensive but very hands on customer support, a very polished backend/solution perfect for self managing huge sites, but it lacks the control SiteGround give, but has all the same features, we especially like:

• The service and live chat
  • Recently this has been gated by a bot, which is less than ideal, an attempt to make you fix the issue yourself is not support
  • The agents are a mixed bag but when good they are excellent, they will fix issues, add/remove plugins and do more than any other host to actually resolve issues
• Their hosting rarely has issues, since 2019 we have seen a handful of errors on a few sites hosted with them but all were minor blips
• Compared to larger local hosting, dedicated servers etc this is a fraction of a % of the errors you would have, for high traffic sites this is a great host
• As of 2021 there is a headless option, which may sound a bit odd, but this is an idea of a cached CMS, this is one thing folks are attempting in the WP space but its proved to be very troublesome, hosts like WPE are more likely to lead than follow, this is always the case with the more expensive options in hosting, generally they are researching and improving the stack constantly. This is one serious pro for both hosts they are moving with the CMS’s needs rather than profit and margins.

https://wpengine.com/smb/

Summary

• WordPress as a CMS is a must, most folks will use WooCommerce to sell or drive footfall to dispensaries or vendors.
• Local hosting is a bad idea all up, we dont like to be negative but we see lots of clients on sub par hosting, after receiving old/poor advice from IT companies with business models from the 90s
• Please note none of these links are affiliate links, our review is our own opinion and we are not in any way affiliated with either of these companies, we have used their services and currently do.
• Many hosts do not allow CBD products be sold, for more info please contact GG