To make sure your website is accessible on the internet, you need a web hosting provider. Your web host provides server space to store all of your website’s content, including HTML and CSS code, images, and all other types of files. Plus, your web server also connects internet users to your site.
There are many different types of web hosting services to suit different customers, and one of the most popular options is WordPress Hosting. This specialised WordPress hosting service is perfect for those who use the WordPress content management system (CMS), helping to optimise site performance, improve security, and make web hosting more accessible to beginners.
According to recent stats from W³Techs, WordPress has a sizable 43.6% market share of all websites, and it’s for good reason too. With so many website owners relying on WordPress, choosing a WordPress hosting plan seems like a no-brainer. But what exactly is WordPress hosting, what are its benefits and drawbacks, and is it the right choice for you? Discover everything you need to know about WordPress website hosting in this complete WordPress hosting guide.
What is WordPress hosting?
In simple terms, WordPress hosting is a type of web hosting designed especially to host a website which is powered by the WordPress CMS. As it stands, there’s no industry-wide definition of ‘WordPress hosting’, and with so many different providers on the market, what you get with your hosting can vary quite widely.
With WordPress hosting, your server resources are optimised for WordPress websites to ensure optimum performance and page loading speeds. As well as this, WordPress hosts typically offer additional tools like pre-installed WordPress plugins to make it even easier to set up and manage a WordPress website – even if you’re a total beginner.
As WordPress hosting is designed for the platform itself, you get optimal performance for your sites and can easily stay up to date with the latest WordPress releases. Plus, many providers (like us) include lots of extra benefits like 24/7 support, a free domain, free SSL certificates and automatic backups that keep your sites safe.
However, this doesn’t mean that you have to have WordPress hosting if you’ve got a WordPress website. You can host your WordPress site on a huge variety of hosting plans, including shared hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting, cloud server hosting and more.
Many hosting providers (like us!) offer one-click WordPress installers on their web hosting control panels, so dedicated hosting, VPS hosting and shared hosting customers can all install WordPress on their servers within minutes. This is called WordPress self-hosting, and all you need to do is download the WordPress source code for free and upload it on your server (or use your host’s one-click installer if they provide this).
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org: What’s the difference?
If you want to choose WordPress hosting, there are two different pathways you can go down. You can either choose the hosting offered by WordPress at WordPress.com, or choose a separate provider’s hosting packages. This is why there’s both a WordPress.com website and a WordPress.org website.
If you look at WordPress.com vs WordPress.org, you'll find that WordPress.org acts as a resource centre. Here, you can download the WordPress source code for free to create your own WordPress website. However, to make your WordPress website accessible on the internet, you’ll need to pay for a web hosting package separately from a hosting provider of your choice. This is called WordPress self-hosting because you’re sorting out your hosting by yourself instead of using WordPress’ hosting.
On the other hand, if you go to WordPress.com, you’ll find a range of managed WordPress hosting plans with a range of monthly fees. This means you can download WordPress and sort out your hosting in one go, but you’ll be restricted to what WordPress can offer you. You may find that third-party hosting providers (like us) offer better performance or features you’re more interested in, which can make it worthwhile to self-host WordPress instead. Plus, downloading the WordPress software from WordPress.org is super easy and completely free, and many third-party hosting providers offer one-click WordPress installers with their hosting packages to make this process as painless as possible.
Throughout the rest of this guide, we’ll be discussing self-hosting WordPress by choosing a WordPress hosting package from a third-party provider.
The different types of WordPress hosting
When it comes to self-hosting WordPress, there’s more than one type of package on offer. To suit a diverse range of customers, providers can offer plans with different resource levels, security measures, and monthly costs.
So, what are the specific types of WordPress hosting you can choose from? We’ll run through the different types out there so you can decide which one is right for you and your site.
1. Managed WordPress hosting
As we mentioned earlier, WordPress hosting tends to look a little different depending on the provider, but many companies, including WordPress.com, offer a specific service called managed WordPress hosting. Managed WordPress hosting is pretty much what it sounds like. Your WordPress hosting provider will manage the technical details of your server and site for you, including tasks such as:
- WordPress installation and core updates
- Website performance optimisation
- Handling server and site security
- Automatic backups
- Configuring themes and plugins
- Maintaining server hardware
- Performing other day-to-day maintenance and administrative tasks
With these technical tasks taken care of, you’ll have more time to focus on the tasks you’re truly interested in, such as building your website, creating content, marketing your brand, and communicating with site visitors. Plus, choosing managed WordPress hosting gives you peace of mind knowing that a team of experts is working on keeping your site running 24/7. Not only is this great for web hosting beginners who don’t have a lot of technical knowledge yet, but it’s also a huge relief for those who are used to hosting websites, as crashes and downtime can be very stressful for anyone!
However, these benefits come at a cost. Much like other managed hosting services, managed WordPress hosting is more expensive than unmanaged plans because you’re paying for the extra technical support. Ultimately, it’s up to you whether you think the extra cost is worth it.
2. Unmanaged WordPress hosting
As you can probably imagine, an unmanaged WordPress hosting plan doesn’t come with the same level of technical support, but the advantage is that your monthly costs will be lower. You’ll be in charge of all server software maintenance – including installing updates, scheduling backups, configuring security settings, and installing themes and plugins – and your hosting provider will only be in charge of maintaining the actual server hardware in their data centre.
Unmanaged WordPress hosting is a great choice for those who want to save some cash or have more control over their server configuration. For example, if you’re a more experienced hosting customer, you may prefer handling server maintenance yourself so you get more control over how your server environment is configured.
3. Semi-managed WordPress hosting
You’ll also come across semi-managed packages, like our WordPress Hosting, which is the best of both worlds. For example, we look after the platform and take care of any necessary updates while you’re free to build your sites your way with whatever themes and plugins you like. This gives WordPress pros the opportunity to flex their skills and make changes themselves, while still having the support of an expert team to fall back on.
4. Shared WordPress hosting
Shared WordPress hosting is similar to the more well-known shared hosting, but it’s specifically designed to work alongside WordPress. With shared hosting, multiple customers share storage space and computing resources on the same physical server, which means costs can be shared between customers. This makes shared hosting much more accessible for hosting beginners, but the major downside is that you’re sharing resources with other sites. This means that if other sites on your server are using more than their fair share of resources, this can lead to poorer performance and loading speeds for your WordPress website.
However, the optimisation for WordPress with a shared WordPress hosting package will make performance run smoother, so this shouldn’t be a major cause for concern – especially if you only have a low-traffic site like a personal blog. Therefore, choosing shared WordPress hosting is a great idea if you want to keep costs down and you don’t need a huge amount of resources for your site. But if your site starts to grow and experience performance issues, then it may be time to upgrade to a more powerful hosting plan like VPS or dedicated WordPress hosting.
5. WordPress VPS hosting
If you know you’re going to need a little more power behind your WordPress hosting, and you want the added bonus of more privacy, WordPress VPS hosting may be the way to go. A VPS – or Virtual Private Server – gives you dedicated resources without the high price tag of a dedicated server. This is because you’re still technically sharing a server with other hosting customers, but each customer’s virtual server environment is totally isolated through the use of server virtualisation technology. This technology splits a physical server into multiple virtual machines (VMs), and each one can independently run its own operating system, server settings and resource allocations.
Therefore, with a VPS, you won’t need to share any server resources with other customers, so you won’t be impacted by traffic spikes on their sites. Plus, since you’re fully isolated, you can set your own security settings and keep your data totally private. If you want greater control over configurations, better storage and bandwidth, and more room to scale, a VPS for WordPress is a solid solution for high-traffic websites and growing businesses.
You can discover more about this type of server in our guide to VPS hosting.
6. Dedicated WordPress hosting
For performance that just doesn’t compare, and complete control over your server, dedicated WordPress hosting is your best option. You’ll have an entire server dedicated solely for your website, giving you superb performance and security, and plenty of customisation possibilities.
A dedicated server is fully equipped to handle complicated websites that experience a high level of traffic – ideal if you run a resource-intensive app, multiple websites or a large enterprise. Of course, these speedy load times and locked-down security measures come with a price – dedicated hosting does tend to cost a lot more than its counterparts.
You can learn more about what dedicated hosting is in our previous guide.
7. Bare Metal WordPress hosting
Bare Metal WordPress hosting is often confused with dedicated hosting because both will give you access to an entire server, but the technology is actually slightly different. Our Bare Metal Servers run on our CloudNX infrastructure to give you total flexibility and scalability – including down-to-the-minute billing to make sure you only pay for what you use. If you want the power, security and control of a dedicated server with the flexibility of a cloud server, Bare Metal hosting is perfect for you.
8. Cloud WordPress hosting
Like a VPS, a cloud server gives you access to an isolated virtual environment with your own resources. But unlike VPS hosting, cloud hosts your website across an entire network of servers instead of just one server. This means that if one server in the global network experiences a fault, there are other cloud servers in the network ready to pick up the slack and keep your website up and running, giving you excellent uptime and reliability.
Plus, as mentioned above, cloud infrastructure allows you to only pay for what you use and instantly scale your resources up or down as needed. Therefore, if your WordPress site experiences seasonal traffic fluctuations, WordPress cloud hosting is a great fit.
However, there are some concerns with security and privacy in the cloud – especially public cloud – so you’ll have to weigh up the pros and cons. Alternatively, you can set up your own private cloud network for your business, but this can be costly and time-consuming.
9. WooCommerce hosting
Do you use WordPress to run an ecommerce website? If so, you probably use the highly popular WooCommerce ecommerce plugin to sell online.
WordPress hosting is still a great option for you, but did you know that you can get WooCommerce Hosting that’s optimised specifically for your WooCommerce store? Our WooCommerce Hosting packages come with WooCommerce pre-installed and plenty of amazing features – including free domains, free SSL certificates, unlimited bandwidth, free migrations, seller-friendly plugins, and much, much more!
If you’re new to WooCommerce, check out our step-by-step guide to a simple WooCommerce setup. And if you’re looking for even more ecommerce support, discover everything you need to know about selling online in our ultimate guide on how to build an online store from scratch.
Who is WordPress hosting for?
While you can successfully launch a WordPress site with a generic hosting service, or by hosting WordPress on your own server, opting for third-party WordPress hosting is a great move that can make website management much easier.
WordPress website hosting is particularly suited to any business or individual short on developer resources. For example, it’s perfect for freelancers building multiple WordPress sites at the same time. Similarly, managed WordPress hosting services can tick all the boxes for companies that don’t have an extremely knowledgeable team of developers in-house.
What’s the difference between web hosting and WordPress hosting?
If you hear web hosting and WordPress hosting used in the same sentence, it’s important to know that these terms don’t mean the exact same thing. Web hosting is an umbrella term for every type of website hosting service in the industry, and is often used as a catch-all for any or all of the below:
- Shared hosting
- VPS hosting
- Dedicated hosting
- Cloud hosting
- Bare Metal hosting
- Managed hosting
WordPress hosting refers to a type of purpose-built web hosting that’s pre-configured for the WordPress CMS. In short, every element of WordPress hosting is designed for maximum compatibility, to minimise glitches and optimise performance.
You can find a huge range of WordPress hosting services from different WordPress hosting companies, all powered by different server technologies – including WordPress VPS hosting, dedicated WordPress hosting and more.
However, if you can’t find a WordPress-specific hosting plan that works for you, remember that you can always choose the option of self-hosting WordPress. This will involve choosing a generic hosting plan from a third-party hosting provider, such as generic VPS hosting or shared web hosting, and then downloading the free WordPress source code from WordPress.org to install on your server. Alternatively, providers like Fasthosts offer one-click WordPress installers in their hosting control panels, so you can install WordPress straight from here in just a few minutes. It really couldn’t be easier!
Benefits of WordPress hosting
If you do choose WordPress hosting from a third-party provider, rather than hosting your own WordPress, there are a number of benefits waiting for you. Here are just a few of the core advantages our own WordPress Hosting offers:
1. Simple setup
Enjoy a quick and simple setup with automatic WordPress installation, or make the most of our free migration service. Get one-click setup for a wide range of plugins and customisable themes, giving you more freedom over how your site looks and functions.
2. Better security
WordPress has become one of the most popular CMS options, and with this comes direct attacks from hackers. With WordPress being a commonly infected CMS, partly due to the large number of users, security is more important than ever. Many WordPress hosting options, like our UK-based platform, are monitored 24/7 by in-house engineers, providing the highest levels of security.
3. Free backups
Keeping your site secure is vital, but so is ensuring that it’s regularly backed up. That’s why we offer backups and restoration at no extra charge. No matter what happens to your site, your data is safe.
4. Fast loading speeds
Opting for a WordPress hosting package will not only help in terms of WordPress optimisation, but it’ll also load your site faster. With page load speed being the difference between a customer staying on your website, or looking elsewhere, getting it right is key. We offer a 386ms page load time for our WordPress hosting packages (which is pretty fast if you ask us).
5. Automatic updates
Updating your site manually can be a hassle. Luckily, there’s no need to keep up with manual system upgrades. WordPress hosting comes with free automatic updates for bug fixes and more. This means that your site will always have the latest version of WordPress, along with new plugins and themes.
6. Hosting multiple sites
Looking to host several different sites within one hosting package? With WordPress hosting, you have the option to host up to ten different websites, ideal for agencies and freelancers. Keep all of your WordPress optimised sites in one place.
7. Support from experts
Unlike hosting your own WordPress, using a provider like us means that you'll get support from our team of experts who are available around the clock. Any questions you have can be directed towards our dedicated and friendly customer support team.
Downsides of WordPress hosting
One of the main features of WordPress hosting is that it was developed for websites that use WordPress. So if you want to create a site with a different CMS, you’ll be better off opting for a different web hosting service depending on your platform of choice. For example, if you’re a Joomla or Drupal fan, you could check out our Joomla Hosting and Drupal Hosting plans to find an option that’s specifically tailored to your preferred CMS.
You may also find that WordPress hosting comes with a higher cost compared to the likes of shared web hosting due to the WordPress-specific functions, features and services. Plus, WordPress hosting is customisable, but only to a certain extent – especially if you’re using a shared hosting plan, as the provider may put a limit on the installation of additional software.
However, because of the ease of use and improved site performance that come with WordPress hosting, you may find that the slightly higher costs and being locked into a particular CMS is totally worth it – as long as you’re definitely intending to stick to WordPress for the long haul.
Ultimately, WordPress hosting can either be the complete wrong choice or easily the best hosting plan for you depending on what you’re looking for as a customer, so make sure you spend some time thoroughly considering your requirements, future plans, and the available hosting options on the market before making any decisions.
Should I choose web hosting or WordPress hosting?
Web hosting refers to all types of hosting services, including shared hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting and more, whereas WordPress hosting is a specific category of web hosting that’s optimised for WordPress websites. However, just because you use WordPress doesn’t mean you have to use WordPress hosting – you could self-host WordPress on a shared server, dedicated server or VPS if you prefer.
There’s no bad option here – your decision simply depends on what’s best for your personal needs and circumstances. Therefore, to help you make this decision, you need to ask yourself some questions about what you’re looking for:
- Do you want to use WordPress to build a website? If not, WordPress hosting isn’t for you. Learn more about how to host a website, how to choose a web host, and how to build a website on our blog.
- Do you have a small budget? If yes, you may prefer to save a bit of cash by self-hosting WordPress on a shared server rather than opting for a WordPress hosting plan – which can cost more due to the WordPress-specific functions, features and services that are included. Alternatively, you can shop around for cheap WordPress hosting plans.
- Do you feel comfortable handling server maintenance yourself? Hosting beginners may prefer the extra WordPress support you get with WordPress hosting services.
- Do you want the fastest page speeds possible? To fully optimise your page speeds and performance, you may prefer the fastest WordPress hosting and dedicated or VPS hosting plans, which are either optimised specifically for WordPress or have extra resources to help you handle high traffic loads. Shared hosting won’t give you the power you need, but it’s more than adequate for lower-traffic sites – and much cheaper too.
When choosing between generic web hosting and WordPress hosting, it’s important to know the different price ranges involved. This table shows the price ranges of different hosting services here at Fasthosts:
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