How To Find The Right WordPress Hosting?

WordPress is very different from other content management systems, because the entire CMS makes relatively high demands on the hosting environment. The great scalability of WordPress therefore also demands quite a bit of resources, and not all hosters can fulfill these ideally. In recent years, there has therefore been a huge trend for WordPress-specific hosting.

This basically means nothing other than that the corresponding hoster makes optimizations that specifically serve WordPress and should accelerate the CMS in operation accordingly. Starting at the software of the web server to the hardware and equipment used, everything is then exactly as WordPress should find it in the ideal case.

When choosing a hoster, however, there are many things to consider and the fact is unfortunately also that not every adjustment helps equally. What seems to be important for WordPress and what is to be neglected, my article shall explain to you.

Not all WordPress hosters offer real WordPress hosting

First of all, something very important to start with. Not every WordPress host that titles and presents itself like this is one. There are many web hosting packages that only get a new name, but have no customizations for WordPress itself. Here, many hosters make it easy for themselves accordingly, but this does not work in everyday life and does not bring any advantages when hosting WordPress.

So always make sure that you don’t just get a renamed hosting package, but really an environment that is meant to serve WordPress specifically. If you are not familiar with this area at all, then you can and should definitely take a look at the other rates of the respective provider to make appropriate comparisons. What exactly has been optimized for WordPress here? Where are the differences to normal hosting?

This way, you can quickly find out if there are actually optimizations that were only made for WordPress. If not, it is probably an ordinary hosting package where a WordPress 1-click installation has been set up. However, this has absolutely nothing to do with real WordPress hosting. What WordPress values and which factors are advantageous here, I’ll show you separately now.

Important decision factors for WordPress hosting

So that you know what matters in WordPress hosting, I would like to tell you first of all three important points that can act as decision factors. The sections each deal with two related topics that I think should receive special attention when it comes to WordPress hosting.

Technology & Performance

Technology and performance is of enormous importance when hosting WordPress. This is because the CMS eats up a lot of power and is very compliant with the server’s resources due to its dynamic nature.

Because WordPress relies entirely on MySQL, the database must be correspondingly fast. This is a typical weak point in hosting, but with WordPress it immediately becomes a bottleneck in terms of performance, as the CMS pulls almost all of its content from the MySQL database. WordPress also benefits from new PHP versions more than other systems.

Software requirements:

• Apache/nginx or Litespeed server
• Current PHP versions are extremely important. PHP 7.4 or equal PHP 8.
• HTTP/2 is mandatory

Hardware requirements:

• CPU or cores
• RAM
• Disk space

PHP and MySQL are the most important factors for WordPress. Make sure that the hoster regularly and promptly updates the latest PHP versions and does not wait too long.

ATTENTION: If you want to run a WooCommerce store, plan additional server resources.

Support & assistance

Another big point is the matter of support. You can always tell how good a company is when you have a problem and need help. A little tip from me is to make a request in advance and test how calm, professional and correct the support is to you. Ask a few annoying questions and also check to what extent you get direct support.

• Are backups made daily?

Good WordPress hosters help here very concretely and know their stuff. Bad hosters always just give you a standard answer. In addition, they do not answer WordPress-specific questions, but only those about the hosting itself. The latter would be too little for me at a WordPress hoster. I expect more than standard support.

Service & Ratings

The operation should not be underestimated. There are simple systems and complex servers that still need to be configured by you. The advantage of WordPress hosters should be that you do not have to worry about the technology and its settings. Rather, it is usually the case that WordPress benefits from certain configurations and these are professionally preset accordingly.

WordPress hosting is now once something more than just a web hosting package with 1-click installation of WordPress. Unfortunately, there is also the latter still with the label WordPress hosting, although selbiges this name does not deserve. So pay attention to reviews from real customers, test reports and how well the whole thing is operable. As a rule, you can and should test any WordPress hosting first.

Different types of WordPress hosting

Technology, support and operation play a separate role in WordPress hosting and must be considered accordingly. But what else is there? Here I look now first of all at the different types of WordPress hosting. What makes sense at all with WordPress and what to look out for?

Managed Hosting

For beginners, the so-called managed hosting is ideal. These are packages that are managed by the hoster itself and usually have their own admin interface. So you don’t have to struggle with the server settings and you get a particularly simple and intuitive interface for administration. If there are problems or a new PHP version, the hoster will install it. Managed hosting is hosting where you hardly have to take care of anything technical yourself.

Pros: No stress with administration
Cons: Special settings and adjustments to the server are usually not possible

Shared hosting

Shared hosting is also managed hosting, but with one difference. While with managed hosting you also get a server for yourself alone, with shared hosting it is split up. Then several users share a server. With bad hosters, care is not always taken to ensure that the resources are used fairly. With good hosters, this roughly balances out.

Pros: Cheap and easy to use
Cons: Shared resources often lead to downtime when there is a rush of visitors

Dedicated hosting

The so-called dedicated hosting concerns the strong root servers. So, you get your own server that you don’t share with anyone and that you can set up and customize according to your needs. For WordPress this is not always useful, rather for large portals with connectivity or own software that should run on the server. The prices are accordingly high, but for that you get the server then just exclusively for you and your project provided, which is why you get the full performance.

Pros: Hardware completely for you alone and individually configurable
Cons: Very expensive, complicated and for most websites simply disproportionate and unnecessary

What does it matter when it comes to a WordPress hoster?

For me personally, the answer is simple. WordPress hosters should, in the best case, either specialize only in WordPress hosting or customize their packages very strongly and individually to the CMS. If it’s just a web hosting package marketed as WordPress hosting, it won’t do anyone any good in the end and most importantly, WordPress won’t get any benefits from it. In the end, all we want is fast WordPress performance.

In addition, WordPress changes often and strongly with its updates, which is why adjustments to the infrastructure or prerequisites are always necessary. Especially, current PHP versions and a fast MySQL database are sometimes crucial for WordPress. At the same time, extra services also play a role, such as backups, caching and staging.

WordPress hosters therefore have a specially developed server-side caching, special backup systems or staging instances that can be used quickly and easily. Normal hosters cannot keep up with this in any way. So in the end, what matters most is that the provider knows WordPress and is serious about its optimizations.