What to look for in a WordPress Host
As a content management system, WordPress is by far one of the most powerful (and popular) platforms of its type available on the market today. Many people don’t realize, however, that the service itself is not necessarily a means to an end – in many ways, it is only the beginning. It is an important first step on the road to building the perfect website you’ve always wanted, but it is exactly that – a first step. Picking the right WordPress host is just as important, but no two WordPress hosts are created in quite the same way. Only by taking a look at what features a particular host offers, along with how those features align with your own unique goals, will you be able to find success in picking the right one to meet your needs.
Diving Deeper into the Options
When you begin your search for a WordPress host, one of the first choices you’ll have to make involves the TYPE of provider you’re looking for. You have a number of distinct options available to you, all of which service some very unique goals. These options include:
- Free Hosts
- Shared Hosts
- VPS Hosts
- Dedicated Hosts
- Managed Hosts
A free host is exactly that – free. It’ll give you access to the essentials you need to get your site up and running, but most of these deals come with some kind of stipulation regarding your relationship with the hosting provider. Some may require you to put a banner ad for their service on your site, for example. Others may require you to put a text link in the footer of your site to their own company. Under this arrangement, you give up a certain amount of control over the type of ads that run on your site in exchange for that “free” price.
A shared WordPress host is one where you will share space on one large server with a lot of other different sites. Doing this creates something of a “win-win” situation for everyone – the host gets to expand their client base AND they get to drive down costs for users. The biggest thing to consider about this, however, is that the resources you’re allocated are not unlimited – after all, there is only so much server space to go around. Someone who is using the lion’s share of a server’s resources will likely have to pay more than someone who isn’t. One mistake by the hosting provider can also negatively impact all sites in a shared arrangement, as well.
VPS hosting is also referred to as a virtual machine. Even though you’re sharing server space with other websites, you get all of the control you would have if you were running your own dedicated server. The issue here, however, is that this type of provisioning requires a large degree of technical know-how to properly deploy. If you know what you’re doing, VPS hosting is great – if you don’t, it may be more trouble than it’s ultimately worth.
Dedicated server hosting is exactly that – you get a physical server from your host to call your own. This is an ideal option for businesses that are seeing increasing amounts of traffic and want to be able to make sure that their site can handle it all without crashing. This also requires a significant amount of technical expertise in order to properly deploy.
Managed hosting is likely the ideal solution for all medium to large sized businesses who need a large amount of resources but who also do NOT want to have to run everything themselves. Essentially, you’re paying for your host to do all of the “brunt work” when it comes to your server. You pay for the resources and a monthly maintenance cost and the host takes care of things like upgrades, performance issues, maintenance and more. It’s more expensive than other options, but it’s also a great solution for businesses looking for as little hassle as possible.
Other Considerations
There are also a number of other considerations you’ll want to make during your search for the best WordPress host. One of those is speed – you’ll need to know that your host is providing you with adequate RAM, processing power, hard drive space and more to help guarantee smooth performance from your website.
You’ll also want to take a look at their support options. If something goes wrong, how difficult is it to get someone on the phone to fix the problem? This leads directly into the idea of “uptime,” or what percentage of the time your host can guarantee that your site will be online and working properly with no issues whatsoever. This number should be as close to 100% as it can possibly go.
In the end, the most important question to ask yourself when looking for a WordPress host is not “how do I find the best host, period?” Instead, it should be “how do I find the best host that is right for me?” Only by framing your search in that particular way will you be able to find a trusted provider who can give you the features you need and the flexibility you desire, all in an effort to ultimately empower you with the site your business needs when it needs it the most.
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