How to Choose the Best WordPress Hosting in 2020
You want to find a good WordPress host for your WP site, but which one do you go for? What even is a WordPress host? How do you choose the right WordPress hosting package? Yes, this can be quite complicated, especially if you are new to the world of web hosting and WordPress hosting.
Choosing the right type of hosting, the right tier of package, and the right host itself can all be very challenging, so this is what we’re going to discuss in this article. With the below tips and explanations, you should be able to come to a decision that works best for you and your site.
What is WordPress Hosting – Do I Need it?
You might be wondering about the differences between regular web hosting and WordPress hosting, and whether or not you need it. The minimum requirements to run a basic WordPress site are very low, and for the most part, virtually every host should be able to handle a WP-based site — all it takes for a host to handle WordPress is PHP version 5.2.4 and MySQL 5.0.15 (or higher).
A WordPress host is one that is specifically designed to meet the performance and security needs of WordPress. While most regular web hosts can deal with WordPress no problem, many are not optimized to do so, and while basic functions will usually work just fine, you won’t be able to get as much performance for a WordPress site out of a regular host than out of a WordPress-specific hosting service.
There are also many WordPress hosting services which offer additional features such as automatic WordPress software and plugin updates, plus one-click WordPress installs, which normal web hosts usually do not have.
While it may not be 100% necessary to use a WordPress hosting service for your WP-based site (as opposed to a regular web host), it is recommended to do so. Using this kind of hosting service is going to make your life easier and it will enable your site to function much better as well. What is also important to note is that there are different kinds of WordPress hosting, and to make the best choice for your needs, you should be familiar with all of them.
Types of WordPress Hosting
Before you choose any one WordPress host for your needs, there are a variety of types of WordPress hosting services that you need to be familiar with. There are 4 types of WordPress hosting packages you can go for. These include shared hosting, managed hosting, virtual private servers, and dedicated bare metal servers. Let’s take a look at each type so you know what you are getting into.
1. Shared Hosting
The most basic option at your disposal is the shared hosting option for WordPress. This is the lowest type of WordPress hosting package you can go with, and they often come in at rock bottom prices. There are some WP hosting services out there that offer shared hosting packages for just a couple of dollars per month.
Of course, this low price tag is something to consider, and it’s usually a good option for very small, basic, and beginner websites. Yes, this kind of hosting does come with low prices, but keep in mind that the service is not going to be fantastic. What you will have to deal with is sharing a server with hundreds or potentially thousands of other websites.
This may be fine if you have a small site with limited traffic, but as your website grows in size and it gets more visitors on a constant basis, you will start to run into problems. With so many sites running on the same server, you can expect long loading times and a slow performance in general.
Think about it this way — if a hosting company charges $3 for shared hosting, and the server costs $600 to run per month, the hosting service will need to have over 200 sites on the same server just to turn a profit. Bandwidth allocation is always going to be an issue with so many sites using the same server.
Another issue which shared hosting servers are often faced with are support issues. With so many people using the same server while paying low prices, if you need customer support, you will probably end up waiting for days to receive answers to questions or assistance for your problem.
Who Shared Hosting is Best For
If you are a small business or blog, you want to build a small website, you don’t expect too much traffic, and your budget is very limited, a shared WordPress hosting package is probably what you want to go for.
2. Managed Hosting (Shared)
The next step up from basic shared hosting is managed hosting. In terms of the price, you can expect to pay around $10 per month for a bare bones package, but there are a lot of improvements and additional features available which you will have to pay for. Some managed WordPress hosting service packages that come with all of the bells and whistles, can cost up to $3,000 per month or more.
In terms of the server, as is the case with shared hosting services, your site will share a server with others. However, unlike with basic shared hosting, you can expect that there won’t be hundreds of sites running on the same server; there will be more than one site on the same server, but nowhere near as many as with basic shared hosting. One big benefit is that overall website speeds and performance are usually better with managed hosting than shared.
What is important to note is that while basic shared hosting usually applies to a variety of products or website types, managed hosting is usually very product specific, or in other words, WordPress-specific managed hosting. Let’s take into account that well over 20% of websites out there run on WordPress, so there is a lot of demand for WordPress managed hosting.
The clear advantage with managed hosting, as opposed to basic shared hosting, is that it is “managed,” which means that they deal with most of the back-end tasks you would normally have to deal with. These managed services usually help the user optimize site performance and web presence in a variety of ways including security, speed, uptime, plugin updates, or updates, and more.
Some Services to Expect with Managed Hosting
There are a variety of services which you can expect a managed WordPress hosting package to provide you with. These include the following.
Security – Managed hosts usually always keep WordPress instances up to date, they’ll provide security against malicious themes or plugins, and they help prevent hacks and close security holes. Managed hosts will usually always ensure that core files are kept up to date in order to prevent security threats.
Support – When you have a basic shared hosting service, getting support for basic issues may or may not be possible. However, with managed WordPress hosting, you can expect to receive high-quality advice and assistance for a variety of specific issues which you may be experiencing.
Backups – One of the biggest advantages you will get with a managed hosting service is that the host will back up your website for you, usually on a daily basis. This is very important, because if a server crashes or shuts down for any reason, there will be a backup of your site stored and ready to go.
Caching – Most managed WordPress hosts come with their own caching systems that are much faster than plugin-based caching systems. Caching can be done in a variety of ways, but it’s always usually very technical and fairly complicated. Having a managed hosting package to take care of this for you is ideal if you are not tech savvy.
Who Managed Hosting is Best For
Managed WordPress hosting is ideal for people running large websites, especially for businesses or e-commerce websites. This is a bit more expensive than basic shared hosting, but you also get a team of experts providing support, most of the back end is taken care for you, and websites generally perform very well, although you will still share resources with others.
3. Virtual Private Servers
The next type of WordPress hosting is VPS or the virtual private server. With VPS, there is one physical server which hosts a number of virtual servers, and each virtual server is isolated from the rest. As with shared hosting, you share a physical space with other servers or websites, but you get a virtual space all to yourself.
Keep in mind that the difference between VPS and dedicated servers is that with dedicated servers, a client leases an entire server without sharing resources with anyone else, whereas with a VPS, you will be sharing resources, such as CPU, RAM, and other such things.
What is very useful about virtual private servers is that the virtual space is dedicated to you and only you, and moreover, these packages are generally highly customizable. These services can start at as little as $5 per month for a basic VPS package, but can also become infinitely more expensive, such as if you choose to go with a managed VPS.
As with a basic managed WordPress hosting plan, with a managed VPS WordPress hosting plan, most of the back-end aspects are taken care of for you, but of course, this will cost. The best aspect of the virtual private server is that you can fine tune and modify it to fit your exact needs. On the other hand, you generally need to be quite familiar with a-Linux based environment to make modifications.
Be aware that these virtual private servers, the basic ones, usually do not come with much support. Also, due to the fact that hardware resources are shared with other virtual private servers, if there is another site overusing resources, this may negatively impact your site’s performance. Just remember that VPS can come with no support at all and they can come in fully managed packages that do most of the work for you.
Who VPS is Best For
If you want a relatively cheap way to get a very flexible and customizable hosting package that can be fine-tuned to meet all of your needs, with the option to spend more cash for a fully managed VPS, this may be right for you. Just keep in mind that the level of support you get will depend on whether you get a basic package or a managed one, and moreover, you will need to be fairly proficient with Linux.
4. Dedicated Bare Metal Servers
The other type of WordPress hosting is the dedicated bare metal server. This is kind of like VPS in the sense that you have your own virtual space, but it also takes it up another notch, as here you also have your own dedicated physical resources; there is a full physical and virtual server dedicated to your site.
The obvious benefit is that you don’t share resources with other people and other sites, thus usually allowing for the best website performance possible. Just like with other types of WordPress hosting, there are many tiers of packages including those where you have to do most of the work and maintenance, as well as managed accounts where the host takes care of the heavy lifting for you.
However, on the other hand, unlike with any of the other types of hosting, you may have to deal with hardware failures when they occur, and if you don’t have the drive mirrored on another drive, getting the site up and running may take hours or days. It wouldn’t be the first time that a dedicated server crashed and causes days of downtime.
That said, with dedicated servers, website performance tends to be top notch, very fast, and greatly reliable. The biggest downside to these is generally the high price associated with them.
Who is Dedicated Hosting For?
Dedicated hosting is best for very large websites and business, such as an e-commerce site that gets thousands of visitors per day. However, this is not something you would go for if you just want to run a small and basic site. This is a high performance and costly WordPress hosting option designed for clients with demanding websites.
Features to Look For
Let’s just go over a quick rundown of the some of the most important features and factors to take into account when choosing the best WordPress hosting for your needs.
- Uptime
- Bandwidth allocation
- Speed
- Customer service
- Support
- Hosting type – (shared, managed, VPS, etc.)
- Cost
Conclusion
Remember to always weigh your own needs against the services which a WP host can provide. It’s also important to estimate how large you expect the site to be, how many visitors you plan on getting, and how much content you have on it. Choosing the best WordPress hosting service and package for you is going to depend on your requirements.
Not only that, but what kind of hosting you go for is also going to depend on your budget, as well your skillset. For instance, if you don’t know the first thing about managing plugins, security, and the basics, you’ll probably want to go for a managed service that does most of the heavy lifting for you.