If you are planning to start a WordPress site, the first thing you have to take care of is finding a reliable and flexible hosting solution.
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Any viable WordPress hosting should provide sufficient space to store your content and adequate bandwidth to handle the traffic to your site. The hosting provider must also offer up-to-date security tools to keep your valuable content safe.
Different hosting providers offer different domain names. As a rule, the .com names generate more traffic but are also more expensive. Alternatively, you can pick one that ends in .net or .org.
WordPress is first and foremost a CMS (content management system), so the hosting solution you choose should have a simple but functional design that’ll make your content stand out.
Top 5 WordPress Hosting Solutions for Your Blog
Shared Hosting
If you’re starting small, you don’t want to break the bank with a website hosting provider. So, you can look at it like finding other budding bloggers and sharing a server together. It’s like moving to a big house with a bunch of mates. You share the rent and the utilities, but each of you uses a different amount of resources.
In web hosting terms, the one whose WordPress site generates the highest volume of traffic shall benefit the most from the shared hosting, while the traffic to the less popular sites on the server will slow down.
In terms of online security, shared hosting provides the sanitary minimum and little else. If you’d like to have some advanced security features, you’ll have to ask your server mates if they agree to share the bill. Shared hosting is a good startup option, but as your WordPress site grows stronger and more popular, you might need a more reliable option.
VPS Hosting
VPS hosting is when you have some personal space for your WordPress website on a virtual private server. This means you don’t depend so much on the other users with respect to the server’s resources. You don’t have to worry about maintenance, and you only pay for the space you need.
VPS web hosting works best for WordPress websites that need more space than any shared hosting can provide, but at the same time, haven’t gained the necessary popularity and independence to warrant dedicated server hosting.
As a rule, this mid-tier hosting solution comes with mid-tier customization and online security features. Because you don’t have full access to the server’s resources, you may still be affected by any third-party protocol breaches that occur.
As long as the virtual private service can handle the traffic to your WordPress website, you can use this type of hosting as long as you want.
Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting is created by a number of servers linked together in a virtual cloud. Thus, your WordPress website will avail of these servers’ combined resources in terms of storage space, security options, and short page loading time.
If one of the servers in the cloud goes down for scheduled maintenance, its load is temporarily picked up by its peers in the cloud. In general, cloud hosting is a bit pricier than shared or VPS hosting, but the faster page loading times are definitely worth it. Besides, you can use the resources of all connected servers at a fraction of a dedicated server’s cost.
With cloud hosting, you can stop worrying about handling traffic spikes or unexpected server downtimes. Yet, if you’d like to have a super-customized WordPress website, cloud hosting has certain limitations, as it does not allow you to customize the root architecture.
Dedicated Hosting
This is the most expensive hosting solution for your WordPress site. If you go for it, you can be sure that the content you upload will get viral as soon as it hits the web. It will constantly generate loads of traffic and pay off the initial investment.
You should know renting a dedicated server from a hosting provider is a step you might want to take when you’ve got more than one WordPress website. Many people who opt for dedicated hosting have sites that engage tens of thousands of visitors every day. It’s a step they take when they’ve evolved from humble bloggers with creative flair into content tycoons.
Even if you make enough money to buy your own server, you may still want to use a dedicated hosting plan. This will let you save on a temperature-controlled server room and a server maintenance guy. You will have as much space as you want. You can organize your numerous blogs into as many sections and subsections as you want.
Should your cash flow dwindle, you can always rent out part of the server. On the downside, you are fully responsible for keeping your content safe on the server, so you’ll probably need to talk to an internet security expert.
And the Winner is…
Towards the end of this article, let’s lift the curtain and reveal that managed WordPress hosting is the best option on our list.
Managed WordPress Hosting
Managed WordPress hosting is a type of web hosting developed specifically for a WordPress website. The plan includes free WordPress updates, automatic content backups, and live scan for possible security threats. At the same time, managed WordPress Hosting costs far less than a dedicated server.
Managed WordPress hosting can be of the shared, VPS, or dedicated type, but its plans offer many WordPress-specific features like numerous one-click restore points, a single-click, one-click staging area, various StudioPress themes, etc.
Any managed hosting plan will give your WordPress website a highly-customized look. It will also load in less than a second and handle huge volumes of traffic with ease. Best of all, the customer support teams of these hosting providers consist mostly of WordPress gurus who can answer your specific questions with confidence and ease.
Some of the most popular and reliable WordPress hosting providers are WP Engine, SiteGround, Greengeeks and Bluehost. The last one has been around since 1996 and has established itself as a WordPress-recommended hosting provider.