If you have already made your decision – and WordPress is the content management system (CMS) of your choice, you have come to the right place. Because then you are probably asking yourself the next question – which of the many different hosting offers is right for my website and what I plan to do with it?
which of the many different hosting offers is right for my website
Web hosting
The largest offering can be found in the “normal” web hosting offers and discount hosting. These cheap tariffs sometimes start at just $10/month and are usually offered by large hosters.
The providers provide large servers for these tariffs. Where many customers are accommodated. The low prices come about through this “sharing” of the server. The provider only has to worry about a few large servers.
Service as a customer usually takes place via an automated user interface. Shared hosting often consists of several components such as hosting, database and email mailboxes. With this type of hosting, WordPress websites can be provided for a few euros per month.
Advantages: WordPress web hosting:
“Normal” web hosting is the cheapest option to provide your website online and is therefore particularly interesting for beginners who do not expect too much traffic on the site at the beginning.
Another aspect is the ease of use. The components and packages of the hosting contract can be easily managed using professional user interfaces. There is often the option to easily book, expand or cancel domains, mailboxes and other services.
This means you get a well-scalable system for a low cost. The service with web hosting plans used to not be ideal, but that has now changed and many hosts even offer live chats and support hotlines, often free of charge.
Disadvantages: WordPress web hosting:
Performance – the performance of the individual WordPress site suffers from the high number of shared places (shared hosts) on the server. Modern systems distribute the load and scale the performance of the servers used – but web hosting can never offer the services of a dedicated host or a shared host with a few users.
So if you value performance and good page speed, cheap web hosting is usually not the perfect choice. Security – if many users share a server, security gaps arise.
Of course, users cannot access each other’s directories – but if a WordPress site is hacked and the hackers get the user’s access data, any security gaps in the server can be exploited and other WordPress sites will be infected.
Managed WordPress hosting
With so-called managed hosting, the hoster, i.e. the server operator, “takes care” of setting up the website. The service does not stop here after the WordPress site has been set up and made available – but rather it keeps an eye on the performance, security and updates of the server hardware and software.
WordPress updates can often be automated. Managed WordPress hosting is the “all-round worry-free” solution for your WordPress site. This also has its price – managed hosting is usually significantly more expensive than web hosting – but it also offers a permanent service.
Advantages: Managed WordPress Hosting:
This type of hosting is suitable for website operators who do not want to worry about updates, security and backups themselves. This leaves more time to work on the actual website. Not with the work around it. Especially at a time when missed updates and missing backups cause downtime and security gaps, managed hosting is the solution to prevent such problems.
With most managed hosting plans, only a few users share a server. The users are often housed on isolated, virtual machines. This increases security. The performance is significantly better. With few users or dedicated hosts, these offers offer high performance even for heavily visited websites with high traffic.
Automatic updates and backups can be easily automated. Long-term backups – backups at high frequencies and with long storage periods are usually possible in high-quality tariffs. This is important to ensure that the WordPress website can be restored.
Disadvantages: Managed WordPress Hosting:
Higher costs – managing and personally supporting the hosts requires more work from the server operator. That’s why there are higher costs for providing the WordPress site.
Some hosts do not allow you to access your own data via an interface. For example, FTP access data must be requested. Although this creates even greater security, it is inconvenient if you want to access your data quickly.
Virtual and dedicated (cloud) servers
In the context of WordPress hosting, I would like to summarize both types in this article, as the operation does not differ significantly. We will write specific articles on the topic of servers.
With a dedicated server – you use a piece of hardware completely alone. So no performance has to be “shared”.
With a virtual server, the hardware is divided into several areas. Each of these areas is rented out as a virtual server. Users cannot access someone else’s area.
And what about a cloud server?
With a cloud server, the resources from a server pool are shared and a dedicated area is created from them. The advantage of this is that the performance of the server can be constantly changed.
Resources such as storage space can therefore be added. Modern data centers are increasingly relying on cloud structures, which is why virtual servers are usually cloud servers. The difference then only arises in the tariff options offered.
All variants of the server are also offered as managed servers . Managed servers combine the highest performance with the highest level of comfort and security.
Conclusion
There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to hosting your WordPress site. Depending on the project, size and number of visitors, one of the various solutions may be suitable