Choosing the right WordPress hosting
WordPress hosting is a requirement to getting any WordPress website online. Website hosting comes in all shapes and sizes. Choosing website hosting can be as good as a guess for many who are just starting.
When it comes to hosting your WordPress website, there are a number of factors you need to consider. Whether it be reliability, speed or security, these factors are extremely important when considering WordPress hosting. These factors will ultimately help to determine the success of your website.
Generally the more you pay for reputable hosting, the more reliable, fast and secure it will be.
WordPress hosting companies provide a number of packages or levels of hosting that makes choosing the right hosting for you a bit easier.
What are my WordPress hosting requirements?
WordPress is relatively small in size and able to be run on a vast range of hosting servers. Most hosting servers allow you to install WordPress with built in server software.
WordPress recommends that your hosting supports:
- PHP version 7 or greater
- MySQL version 5.6 or greater
These two technologies are very common on website hosting so it is likely you will not need to worry. If you want to know and are unsure, you can simply send them a message asking if they support PHP 7 and MySQL 5.6 for WordPress.
Choosing WordPress hosting for your needs
Sure WordPress can be run on any number of servers with varying features and price points but the most important factor when determining what website hosting you should use is what do you need it for.
If you are running a personal blog with very little traffic or just starting out then you will need a far less powerful host than if you are running a high traffic international E-commerce store.
Free WordPress hosting
Avoid free WordPress hosting at all costs. There is almost always a catch when it comes to free WordPress hosting. Providers often force the website owner to put banner ads and ad links on their site in exchange for free hosting. The ads are paid for by someone else and the money is pocketed by the hosting provider.
If you are trying to portray a professional image for your website then having banner ads or links to random websites in your footer is not going to help.
When you ask the host for support, there is usually very little or no support provided. Additionally, the amount of pages your website can load before crashing is likely low and you do not know when the hosting provider will shut down their service.
If you are serious about your websites longevity then avoid free website hosting at all costs.
Shared website hosting
Shared website hosting is a good step up from free hosting and is a great place to start for new small businesses, and bloggers just starting out.
The reason why they call it shared hosting is because your website sits next to many other websites on the same server.
Servers are capable of hosting multiple WordPress websites at any given time. Shared hosting companies will try and efficiently place as many websites as they can on one server to make more money. You likely won't know what the websites are that are hosted on the server next to your website. Each website on the server is allocated a certain percentage of the entire hosting servers available resources.
There are a couple of downsides to be aware of when using shared hosting:
When your website is on shared hosting and starts to grow, the site may start to exceed the allocated resources provided on the shared server. This will usually result in the hosting provider sending you a nice email saying you need to upgrade to a larger more dedicated plan.
Due to all of the websites being hosted on the same server, when it comes to security, there can be issues created out of your control. If another website that is on the same server gets compromised, the attacker may be able to have access to your website too. This would have to be a serious hack but it is possible.
All good shared hosting providers include the necessary tools to diagnose and help prevent these downsides.
Shared hosting is a fantastic option for new websites and start-ups with very low cash flow. It allows you to get a website up without the large overhead and you can always upgrade your hosting when you are more comfortable or less cash strapped.
WordPress VPS Hosting
A WordPress VPS (Virtual Private Server) is a type of hosting setup where a single server is partitioned and setup so it acts as if it is running on its own as an individual server. This has added security and customization over shared hosting. The VPS server can be customized to your specific WordPress preferences without affecting any other VPS hosted websites on the same server.
VPS servers are better for medium sized businesses or bloggers who have begun to gain some traffic.
If you are not familiar with managing and updating servers then it is recommended that you choose a WordPress VPS hosting provider that manages the technical side of the server. This way security and maintenance updates can be applied without any issues.
WordPress Dedicated Server Hosting
A dedicated WordPress server is all yours. This means that you lease it from the hosting provider like all other WordPress server hosting but you get full control of the server. No other websites are hosted on the dedicated server unless you add it yourself.
WordPress dedicated servers are recommended for big businesses websites and blogs that have very high traffic. We do not recommend dedicated server hosting for bloggers and small businesses who are just starting out. It is easy enough to upgrade as your needs and traffic scale.
WordPress dedicated servers will require a system administrator to manage the hosting server. Most hosting companies will offer system administration as a service add-on but it is completely fine to manage it yourself if you know how. Regardless, it is imperative that someone does manage the server so that necessary updates and security fixes can be applied to it.
Most of the biggest websites on the web are hosted using dedicated hosting servers. The biggest websites in the world require multiple dedicated servers linked together in clusters to operate because of the amount of traffic they get and hosting power requirements.
Managed WordPress Hosting
Due to the popularity of WordPress, many hosting companies have decided to offer website hosting that is optimized purely for WordPress.
Only offering WordPress as the installable server software means that they can specialize in providing the best hosting that is optimized for WordPress. Managed WordPress hosting is hassle-free and the support is backed by WordPress experts.
Managed WordPress hosting providers take care of all the updates, security requirements and they may even create automated website backups for you.
This kind of WordPress hosting is definitely recommended however it doesn’t come cheap. You are paying more money than regular VPS hosting but the quality and service for the amount you pay is second to none. If you are just starting your blog, you might not be able to afford this which is completely fine. If/when you are ready, you can migrate to this hosting with just a few clicks.
Now that you are more familiar with your WordPress hosting requirements, it is time to decide which hosting you will choose.
WordPress hosting is incredibly important for any successful website. Make sure you choose reputable hosting that suits your needs and steer clear of free WordPress hosting. If you plan to create a website that will be generating sales for your business then you should consider WP Engine. If you do not need so much power then you can get away with good shared hosting with SiteGround.