In the vast sea of hosting choices available today, it’s all too easy to lose your way. This article offers essential tips for selecting the ideal WordPress hosting. Keep reading to discover:
- The fundamental hosting types
- Factors to consider when picking a provider
Hosting Choices
First off, let’s delve into the primary features and distinctions among the basic hosting types on offer.
Free WordPress Hosting
Indeed, WordPress hosting can be had for free or nearly so. However, a discerning user knows that entirely free hosting is a myth, as server upkeep and support require time and resources. Consequently, you’ll end up paying for the hosting in alternative ways. Free hostings are often provided by individuals reselling a small portion of their server space. To offer you hosting sans cost, such providers might:
- Request you to display a banner ad on your site
- Ask you to insert a text link in your website’s footer
- Restrict your website’s traffic.
Clearly, the banners may have no relation to your website and could negatively impact your business. If the server is sub-par, it might struggle with numerous requests, causing your website to crash unpredictably. Moreover, free hosting lacks reliability as there’s no telling when the provider will cease sharing server resources, leaving you in the lurch.
We advise assessing your needs and opting for other reasonably priced alternatives. Investing in trustworthy WordPress hosting ensures peace of mind.
Shared Hosting
As the name implies, shared hosting involves sharing server resources with other websites hosted on the same server. Typically, shared hosting is the most cost-effective method to launch a site. It is economical because multiple sites share the space on a single server, making your website’s performance reliant on the server usage of other sites.
Some hosting providers purport to offer unlimited resources (like bandwidth or storage space) in shared hosting. However, as is often the case, ‘unlimited’ is a misnomer. As several websites share server resources, there are certain user limitations. Your site must not overload the server. Therefore, shared hosting isn’t suitable for websites anticipating substantial growth. Still, it’s a viable option if you need to create a landing page or a small website.
Managed Hosting
This type of hosting includes aid, or ‘management,’ with server resources. That is, a hosting company assists with software installation, server optimization, administration, and support. Depending on the selected provider, you can avail of hardware management, basic security checks, etc.
Managed hosting typically offers professional hosting solutions tailored to specific needs or software. Thus, you can avail of fully managed WordPress hosting. Experts will assist with WordPress-specific issues and offer back-end support, backups, and advice on optimizing your website or plugins for peak performance.
While managed hosting usually costs more than shared hosting, the enhanced security and specialized assistance it provides are generally worth the investment.
WordPress VPS Hosting
VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting means that you receive a virtual machine. The hosting provider assigns you a specific partition on a physical server computer. Even though multiple users share the server (as in shared hosting), you have greater control over the server and a reserved memory allocation.
So, unlike shared hosting, where your website’s performance is contingent on other sites on the same server, with VPS hosting, your website data isn’t affected by the sudden demands of other users’ websites. Plus, you typically get full root access to the server, allowing you to configure the resources to run particular software.
This option is worth considering for medium-sized businesses, intricate web software, and websites projected to grow rapidly.
Dedicated Server Hosting for WordPress
The term ‘dedicated’ signifies that you receive an entire physical server (a dedicated computer) from the hosting provider exclusively for your website. This grants you complete control over resources, including the selection of the operating system.
Dedicated hosting is ideal for websites with extremely high traffic or sites that require substantial computational power due to specific applications. As such, this form of hosting typically costs upwards of $100 per month. If you’re just getting started, dedicated hosting isn’t usually necessary.
Server Requirements for WordPress Hosting
When setting up a website on WordPress, it’s important to be aware of the basic server requirements, which include:
- PHP version 7.4 or greater
- MySQL version 5.6 or higher OR MariaDB version 10.1 or higher
- HTTPS support
These requirements are relatively straightforward. Any server that supports PHP and MySQL should be suitable for hosting a WordPress site.
Factors to Consider When Selecting WordPress Hosting
Your choice of web hosting provider can be influenced by various factors. However, any technical specifications provided by companies should primarily align with your project requirements. Thus, it’s critical to assess your individual (or project) needs to understand your expectations from the website and its user interface. Let’s explore more specific criteria and factors that impact the choice of a hosting provider.
Project Scale
If you anticipate growth in your website and business needs, it’s prudent to opt for a dependable solution from the outset. WordPress hosting solutions can cater to diverse projects or businesses based on their unique needs.
Consider a bookstore owner and a law firm both seeking a hosting provider. An online bookstore will require space to upload numerous products, keep them updated, and securely store customer information.
Conversely, a law firm’s website may not grow as rapidly; it could serve as a digital business card detailing the team, services, case studies, and contact information.
Number of Websites/Domains and Subdomains
It’s crucial to determine the number of websites you wish to host on a single server. Generally, the more sites you need, the higher the cost. Additionally, your provider may impose restrictions on subdomains. Therefore, if your project requires subdomains, ensure to verify how many you can have within your chosen plan.
Storage Space
As previously mentioned, storage space is often limited across various hosting options. Therefore, you should estimate how much data your website will store and whether you’ll need to increase storage space in the future.
Website Traffic
Your projected website visitor numbers are also important. Hosting providers typically specify the traffic levels their plans can accommodate.
Databases
Your hosting plan may have restrictions on the number of databases or their size, depending on the provider. So, even if ‘unlimited database’ is listed as a feature, it’s wise to check the database requirements.
Security
SSL certificates safeguard websites by encrypting data and ensuring it isn’t compromised, forged, or intercepted when customers input sensitive information. Many hosting providers include free SSL certificates in their plans.
Some providers also offer SSH (Secure Shell) to secure communication between the user and the remote server. With a secure encrypted connection, you can efficiently manage large files and databases.
This is vital for administrators and web developers as it allows secure direct access to the hosting account on the server. Enabling SSH also allows the use of SFTP for secure access, management, and file transfer.
Staging Platforms
Before launching a project, consider using a staging site or environment. This provides a space to test changes and mitigate errors that could occur when testing your web project on a local host. Some hosting providers allow you to create a staging environment and smoothly transition the site to live status.
Caching Mechanisms
In terms of hosting, caching serves as a go-between for the user and the server. When visitors access a website, the system checks if they have a cached version of the requested page. Caching speeds up webpage loading times, reducing the wait time for server requests and responses. If caching isn’t enabled, all requests go directly to the server. Therefore, caching primarily enhances page speed.
Additionally, caching reduces server resource usage as it doesn’t need to process every request. However, it’s important to periodically clear or refresh the cache. If your website content changes, updating the cache is necessary to prevent users from viewing outdated versions of the page.
Options such as automatic cache renewal when the page updates or at set intervals are available. Cache cleaning can also be done manually.
Backups
Regular backups facilitate automatic data recovery should anything go wrong. Depending on the account type and server specifications, backups can be made daily or every 3-7 days. The more frequently your website is updated, the more backups you’ll need.
Therefore, if your website changes daily, daily backups are advisable. Alternatively, less frequent data updates may suffice. Some hosting companies only offer automated backups as a paid add-on.
Backup timing is also significant. Some hosting providers offer nightly backups, ensuring that the website doesn’t slow down during peak usage hours.
Customer Support
Issues may arise while installing your WordPress website or other server errors. If your website goes down, waiting for support can result in potential customer loss. Therefore, 24/7 customer support is invaluable.
Support can be accessed via phone, email, tickets, or chat. Higher-tier plans often include expedited advanced priority support from experienced agents.
Page Speed as a SERP Ranking Factor
If organic Google traffic is crucial for you, consider your website’s page speed. In 2010, Google declared speed as a ranking factor for desktop results. By July 2018, this also applied to mobile search results. Thus, search engines assess user experience on websites. The quicker a site loads and responds to user queries, the higher its chances of ranking well in organic results.
Page speed varies depending on website content. Identical hosting resources can yield different speed outcomes for websites with clean HTML coding versus those with numerous plugins or poorly written themes.
Additional Features
Various hostings offer bonuses such as free domain names (usually for a year), custom WordPress themes for quicker website construction, and website builders. To appeal to businesses, some hosting providers include SEO tools, business emails, WooCommerce extensions, Google Ads, and Microsoft Advertising spend match credits in pricier plans.
Pricing
We recommend thoroughly examining pricing plans after determining your needs. This will help you understand what each company offers, select essential criteria, and prioritize what’s most important to you.
To attract customers, hosting providers offer special prices that typically apply for the first month or another introductory period. After this, regular prices may vary significantly from promotional ones. Therefore, it’s advisable to check:
- the duration for which discounted rates are applied
- the conditions for obtaining promotional prices (sometimes you’ll need to pay for one or even three years in one payment)
- the regular prices.
Final Words
In conclusion, when choosing a hosting provider for your WordPress site, several crucial factors need to be considered. Firstly, assess your storage and database requirements, and project your website traffic levels to ensure the hosting provider can meet these needs.
Secondly, prioritize security measures like SSL and SSH certificates, and consider whether you’ll need a staging platform for testing. Caching mechanisms and regular backups are essential to maintain your website’s speed and safeguard your data, respectively.
Don’t overlook the importance of accessible customer support in case of unexpected issues, and consider the impact of page speed on your site’s SEO ranking.
Lastly, remember to examine pricing plans thoroughly, taking into account any promotional offers. Make sure that the services offered align with your needs and priorities before making a final decision.