Often overlooked, web hosting is one of the key components of every successful website. Choosing the best WordPress hosting for your needs can improve your SEO and increase sales. There are various different types of WordPress hosting options available such as Free, Shared, VPS, Dedicated, and managed WordPress hosting. In this guide, we will help you choose the best WordPress hosting for your website.
Our goal with this guide is to share our 5+ years of experience and insights on things you need to consider when choosing a hosting company for your business.
To help you make the right decision, we have done a good research on what you need to setup an optimal wordpress site for your business or client.
- What are the wordpress hosting requirements ?
You will be surprised to hear that WordPress is a very light-weight script, and it is compatible with almost all good web hosting companies. The simple requirements that WordPress put forth are:
- PHP version 7.4 or greater
- MySQL version 5.6 or greater OR MariaDB version 10.2 or greater
- HTTPS support (SSL)
Due to the popularity of WordPress, all of the best web hosting companies come with easy 1-click install options for WordPress.
- Things to consider when choosing a wordpress hosting provider
Speed, security, and reliability are all important factors that you need to consider when choosing your WordPress hosting. However, the most important factor that you should consider is “Your Needs”. Evaluating your needs before purchasing your WordPress hosting can save you hundreds of dollars.
Evaluating Your WordPress Hosting Needs
As we have mentioned above, there are different types of web hosting services available such as Free, Shared, VPS, Dedicated, and Managed. Let’s take a look at each of these options to determine which is the best solution for you.
Free WordPress Hosting
There are free web hosting available, but almost all of them have some sort of catch. Usually, you can find free WordPress hosting being offered in online forums or small groups. In most cases, these are managed by an individual who is reselling a small part of his server space to cover up some revenue. Often the catch is that you have to put their banner ads on the site. Some may ask you to put a text link in the footer of your site. These folks will sell that banner ad or text link to cover up the cost of your free space along with pocketing the profits. The biggest downside of having a free host aside from the ads is that they are unreliable. You never know when this person will stop offering the free service. They can leave you hanging at any time. If you are serious about your website or business, then avoid Free WordPress hosting at all costs.
Shared WordPress Hosting
Shared hosting is by far the most popular type of WordPress hosting used by beginners. It is the most affordable and quite frankly a good starting point for new users. Shared hosting is where you share a large server with a lot of sites. By having multiple sites on the same server, hosting providers can offer the service at a more affordable rate. The biggest catch that we see with shared hosting across all providers (including the ones we recommend below) is the unlimited resources. There is no such thing as unlimited. While it says unlimited, you still have usage restrictions. If your site starts to take up substantial server load, they will politely force you to upgrade your account. If they don’t take this action, then it can have a negative effect on the overall performance of other sites hosted on the same server. It gets back to conventional wisdom. As your business grows, so will your overhead cost.
Shared web hosting is the best solution for small businesses and starting bloggers.
WordPress VPS Hosting
Virtual Private Server (VPS) refers to a virtual machine. It is a method of partitioning a physical server computer into multiple servers with respect to the individual customer’s need. Even though you are sharing the server with a handful others, this gives you almost as much control as a dedicated server. It also has the privacy of a separate physical computer and can be configured to run specific server softwares. Often developers, intermediate users, and medium-sized bloggers utilize VPS to scale their websites. If you do NOT have any technical knowledge, then you need to make sure that you purchase a managed VPS. This means that the WordPress hosting provider manages all system upgrades, and they are available to assist you if needed.
VPS hosting is best for medium-sized businesses, high traffic blogs, and aspiring designers/developers.
WordPress Dedicated Server Hosting
Dedicated server is a physical server that you can lease from the hosting provider. This allows you to have full control over the server including the choice of operating system, hardware etc. You DO NOT need a dedicated server if you are just starting out. Once your site is receiving a significant amount of traffic, only then you should consider upgrading to a dedicated server. Learnwebdesign.ng runs on a dedicated server network by Namecheap. If you do not employ a system administrator or have no experience with servers, then we recommend that you get a managed dedicated server. WordPress hosting providers who offer managed dedicated servers employ full-time system administrators that maintain your servers. Along with doing software updates, they also do server monitoring, offer phone support etc. Most top websites use clusters of dedicated servers.
WordPress Dedicated Servers are best for extremely high traffic blogs.
Managed WordPress Hosting
Due to the large number of users using WordPress, several web hosting providers have chosen to offer managed WordPress hosting. An account with one of these providers only allows you to host WordPress based sites and nothing else. The benefit of managed WordPress hosting is that you do not have to worry about ANYTHING. They optimize your site for performance, make sure that your site is secure, and keep regular backups. On top of that they advise you if a specific plugin is having a negative impact.
Bottom line, managed WordPress hosting is hassle free fast WordPress hosting with high-quality support from staff with lots of WordPress experience. While all this sounds amazing, the plans for managed WordPress hosting is usually on the higher end of the scale. For example a personal account with a popular managed WordPress hosting provider costs $29/month where you can only host 1 site (getting maximum of 25,000 visitors per month). The next level higher where you are allowed multiple domains will cost you $99/month. A person starting out a blog cannot afford this.
Managed WordPress hosting is great for established bloggers who can justify the expense with their revenue. It is for people who do not have the skills/time to deal with the technical side of things. We recommend Namecheap for managed WordPress hosting, they have a nice wordpress package called EasyWP.
Now that you know all of your WordPress hosting options, it is time for you to make a decision. We run several sites that get millions of pageviews per month. We have tested and worked with many web hosting companies in the industry.
Best WordPress Hosting Provider
Namecheap wordpress hosting
EasyWP is the fast, affordable Managed WordPress Hosting solution for everyone.
learnwebdesign.ng
WordPress Hosting FAQs
Having helped over 400,000+ users start their website, we have answered quite a lot of questions. Below are some of the answers to the most frequently asked questions about WordPress hosting.
Do I need WordPress hosting to start a website?
If you want to build a WordPress website, then you need web hosting. Your hosting server is where your website files are stored. Every website that you see online uses a web hosting provider.
Are there any free WordPress hosting providers?
Yes there are several free website hosting companies out there, but we highly recommend that you stay away from them. In most cases, free WordPress hosting providers put advertisements on your website. They may even distribute malware to your users. Last but not least, they can shut down your website at anytime without any notification. Avoid anyone who offers to give you free WordPress hosting, specially if you are serious about your site. Here are 36 reasons why having a “free website” is a bad idea.
How much does it cost to build a WordPress site?
The cost to build a WordPress website varies based on your needs. It can range from $100 to as high as $30,000. We have created a detailed guide explaining how much does it really cost to build a WordPress website.
Do I need to have my domain and WordPress hosting from the same provider?
No. You can purchase your domain from a domain name registrar like Namecheap.com, GoDaddy, etc and use one of the WordPress hosting providers listed above. However if you don’t have a domain already, then it’s easier to use the same provider (specially since many are offering a free domain with hosting).
Can I use these WordPress hosting providers for an eCommerce site?
Yes you absolutely can. All WordPress hosting companies that we recommend above offer SSL certificates which is what you need for running an eCommerce website. If you’re looking for specialized eCommerce web hosting, then you may want to look at our comparison of the best WooCommerce hosting.
How to secure my WordPress hosting account?
Your web hosting account is where your website files are stored. So it’s very important that you secure it. The best way to secure your WordPress hosting account is to use a strong password and avoid logging in from public locations (unless you’re using a VPN). We also recommend that you follow our ultimate WordPress security guide to protect your site.
How do I install WordPress on my WordPress hosting account?
Every WordPress hosting provider that we recommend comes with 1-click WordPress install. You can follow our step by step guide on how to install WordPress on your host.
Do I need a cPanel WordPress hosting?
cPanel is a type of control panel that a lot of WordPress hosting companies use. No you do not need cPanel, but it does make things easier in terms of installation, managing email accounts, etc.
With that said, a lot of hosting companies are now building their own custom hosting platform dashboards to make overall site management easier, and offer a managed WordPress hosting like experience for startups.
This allows them to offer better functionality and deliver a more user-friendly experience
How much traffic can these WordPress hosting companies handle?
These WordPress hosting companies handle billions of impressions a month.
The amount of traffic your website can handle really depends on the WordPress hosting plan that you’re on. Most shared hosting plans can comfortably handle 1000 to 2000 visitors per day as long as your website is optimized for performance.
As your website grows, your WordPress hosting provider may ask you to upgrade to either VPS hosting or managed WordPress hosting plans.
If you’re just getting started with blogging or creating a new website, then you can literally go with any of the WordPress hosting companies in our list, and their lowest plan will be able to handle your website traffic.
Can I switch my WordPress hosting provider later?
Yes, you can absolutely switch if you’re unhappy with you WordPress hosting company. Most WordPress hosting companies offer free migration services which makes the process fairly smooth. However if you want to do the migration yourself, then you can follow our step by step guide on how to move WordPress to a new host with no downtime.
Does my WordPress hosting datacenter location matter?
Some of the WordPress hosting companies that we recommend give you an option to choose your data center. The location of your data center does make a difference on your website performance for specific geographic location.
If majority of your audience is in United States, then you want to choose a data center in U.S. If a large portion of your audience is in Europe, then you should choose a data center in Europe.
If you are not sure, then just choose U.S for now. You can always use a WordPress CDN to speed up your site for various geographic location.
Should I purchase monthly WordPress hosting plans or commit long-term?
You will notice that almost every WordPress hosting company offers huge discount for choosing long-term plans. If you are serious about your website, then you will likely keep it for more than a month.
We always recommend against choosing monthly WordPress hosting plans because they cost almost twice as much. It’s a better deal if you choose 12 month or 24 month plan.
Do I need any WordPress hosting addons?
Often WordPress hosting companies will try to upsell you on a wide-variety of services such as drag-and-drop website builder, professional email, SEO tools, etc. You really don’t need these services when you’re starting out.
We recommend that you uncheck everything in the order process and only purchase what you really need: WordPress hosting.
You can buy these WordPress hosting addons if you need them in the future, but often there are free alternatives available for most of those features.
To see the alternatives, here is our list of must have WordPress plugins (most have free versions).
Do WordPress hosting companies offer professional branded email address?
Yes, most WordPress hosting companies will give you the ability to create a free busines email address. However we recommend that you use Google Apps (also known as GSuite) because it’s more reliable. See our step by step guide on how to setup a professional email address with Google apps.
Do these WordPress hosting companies offer website backups?
Yes, every WordPress hosting company claims to keep daily backups of your website. However from our experience, we advise our users to install a WordPress backup plugin to keep their own backups because you can never be too safe.
What is wp-cli that’s offered as part of my WordPress hosting?
WP-cli is a command line interface for WordPress that allows you to update plugins, configure multisite installations and much more, without using a web browser.
It’s a developer tool that most beginners don’t need, but it’s good to have in case you plan to hire a developer because it will speed up their workflow.
Most reputable WordPress hosting providers include wp-cli along with SSH access and staging + Git tools to help improve the website development workflow.
Are there other WordPress hosting providers that are not listed here?
Yes, there are literally thousands of WordPress hosting solutions out there, and we simply can’t list them all here because that would create more confusion and cause choice paralysis for non-techy readers.
We hope that this guide helped you choose the best WordPress hosting services for your website. If you have a WordPress hosting question that we didn’t cover in our tutorial, then please send us a message using our contact form. One of our team members will respond back within 24 hours.
Need helping start your WordPress blog? Take advantage of our free WordPress blog setup service.
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