Nearly 24% of the websites on the internet today, run on the WordPress CMS. From intricate websites to entry level web portals and personal blogs, a wide array of websites are dependent upon WordPress. Typically, a WordPress website is hosted on a shared hosting order. However, that could lead to a fair share of problems. A few of them are –
✦ Computing resources of shared hosting may fall short to run a WordPress website optimally
✦ Shared hosting may not be enough to propel a website with high traffic.
✦ Security could be a concern, especially if the website deals in exchanging sensitive data
On the other hand, WordPress hosting is a type of web hosting that is primarily designed for a WordPress website. Priced higher than a basic shared hosting plan, the OS and software environment of WordPress hosting plans are carefully optimized and augmented to run a WordPress web
To get a better understanding, let’s have a look at the following example –
Rebecca is an artist and candle making is her hobby. She launched a blog on WordPress.com and started sharing tutorials on how to make candles at home. Soon she started receiving impressive web traffic and decided to move to WordPress.org on a basic shared hosting plan.
In the second phase, she wanted to add a WordPress video plugin to upload video tutorials. However, the computing resources of her shared plan were not compatible with the WordPress plugin, posing as a roadblock to her expansion effort. This issue is not unique to this case, thousands of website owners face this problem.
The computing resources of shared hosting is built in such a way that it can support a wide range of platforms like Joomla, Drupal, Magento including WordPress. Therefore, if you are looking to install a WordPress plugin or widget for your WordPress website, it may not work.
On the other hand, the software milieu of a WordPress hosting is fully optimized for a WordPress website and will support a broad range of plugins, themes, and widgets. Every aspect of the hosting environment is tweaked to support your WordPress website which promotes the performance of your online business.
Features to look for in a WordPress Hosting Plan-
As a business owner, you want the backing of a hosting plan which assures the best performance of your website. However, with so many hosting options out there, picking a plan which serves your purpose can be confusing. So, if you are looking to host a WordPress website which is critical to your online business, here are the five features that make running a website on WordPress hosting a breeze-
1. Website Backup
Getting the backup of your WordPress website is the first line of defense to protect the data of your website. Various tools are pre-installed / compatible with WordPress hosting that allows seamless website backup. Therefore, make sure that your hosting providers offer this feature in your WordPress hosting plan.
2. Automated WordPress Core Updates
Running your WordPress website on latest version of the software is critical from security and stability standpoint. WordPress hosting providers conduct regular updates. Therefore, your website is always secure and there are no threats.
3. Single Dashboard
This is eligible for those websites owners who are looking to host more than one WordPress website. Through this feature, a user can monitor and keep track of all the WordPress website through a single dashboard or cPanel. User also get access to WP CLI, which is a command line interface to perform any task on the WordPress admin. WordPress core is setup to update automatically if you are on a WordPress Hosting plan, without the need of user intervention. This is incredibly useful as the user can rest knowing their website is patched to latest version.
WordPress also provides a multisite feature, which allows users to create a network of sites on a single WordPress installation. If you have a performance oriented WordPress Hosting plan from one of the best hosting providers like ResellerClub, you will be able to use multisite functional effectively. The nature of multisite feature is such that it relies on performance and must be supported by the hosting provider for high visits per month.
4. Caching
This is yet another important feature of WordPress hosting that makes the loading of the website blazing fast. The inbuilt caching improves the overall performance of the website and enhances user experience on the website. Quick loading is particularly beneficial for e-commerce set-ups.
5. Managed WordPress Support
In the case of WordPress hosting, the support offered is highly reliable as well as quick. You don’t have to worry about website migration. The system administrators are well versed with the OS environment and responsible for maintaining, upgrade and optimize the hosting set-up to the optimum. Therefore, the performance of your WordPress website will never be affected.
6. Staging/Production Environment
This is yet another interesting feature of WordPress hosting. Webmasters have access to the blueprint of their WordPress website. This blueprint can be used to as a foreground to test future WordPress installations.
Conclusion
To sum up, it is safe to assume that WordPress hosting is a powerhouse for a WordPress website. The features of WordPress plans are much more advanced than regular shared hosting. While shared hosting is good for an entry level WordPress website, however, websites that require advanced computing resources a dedicated WordPress hosting is a better fit.
