Ultimate guide to WordPress hosting

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:

* Prices accurate as of April 2025

New customers can get amazing deals for the first 3 to 6 months of their hosting plan, including WordPress Hosting and Shared Web Hosting plans for just 49p/month!

Paid vs. free WordPress hosting

If you’re on a tight budget, you may have been drawn to the promise of free WordPress hosting services from some providers, but these offers tend to be too good to be true. There are plenty of cheap WordPress hosting options from reputable WordPress hosting companies, including our own range of affordable WordPress Hosting services, so these are definitely a better option if you want to keep costs low. 

Since these cheaper offers are still from reputable WordPress hosting companies, you’ll still benefit from the same service-level agreements (SLAs) that other customers get, including minimum uptime guarantees, response time guarantees and clear cancellation terms.

Here are a few significant drawbacks to be aware of when considering free WordPress hosting services:

1. Third-party branding

As you’re not paying for the service, you’ll likely have to include the name of your hosting provider within your domain name, which can impact how your site is perceived. This type of domain name can look very unprofessional or potentially scammy to customers, which can negatively impact your traffic and conversion rates.

Visit our blog to learn more about how to choose a good domain name for your business. You can also discover our complete guide to domain management for even more tips on domain hosting for your WordPress site.

2. Slower performance

Many free WordPress hosting providers intentionally restrict bandwidth to try and encourage users to upgrade to a paid service, so you might find your site struggles to cope with high levels of traffic. Again, this can negatively impact user experience and conversion rates.

3. Less support

With a free WordPress hosting service, you won’t have access to the technical support that the paid equivalent can offer. If something goes wrong, the onus could be on you alone to fix it. And if you struggle to fix technical issues yourself, you could be facing a significant amount of website downtime.

4. Less reliable

In addition to the risk of downtime from technical issues, you might also find you don’t have the same level of 24/7 guaranteed uptime with free WordPress hosting. Paid providers work hard to ensure there’s minimal disruption to your site’s performance, but there’s no financial incentive for free WordPress hosting companies to do the same.

How to choose the best WordPress hosting

With all of the above issues to be thinking about, how can you confidently choose a good WordPress hosting plan from a trustworthy provider? The key is plenty of research!

We’re here to help you expand your WordPress hosting knowledge and find the best WordPress hosting services for you. So, before deciding on which type of WordPress hosting and which provider to go for, you’ll want to do your own research to compare the different options available, and we’ve given you a head start with our list of key factors to look into. 

Below, there’s a few factors for you to consider, including security, scalability, performance, and pricing. 

1. Pricing

Pricing is possibly one of the highest priorities on your list, and it all depends on where you are in your business journey. You’ll find that price points between hosts will vary, so it’s best to collate a list of features and corresponding costs to find the right fit. You may discover that providers start off nice and cheap, but will quickly scale and end up costing you more in the long run.

Keep an eye out for hidden fees, such as additional charges if you exceed your bandwidth limit or opt for security add-ons. On the other hand, introductory offers can be a good way to save money in the short term as you test out a WordPress hosting company.

2. Security

With data protection becoming even more of a focus in recent years, you’ll want to ensure that your own – and your customers’ – data is kept safe and secure. For top-notch WordPress security, be on the lookout for features such as:

• Free SSL certificates
• Malware protection
• DDoS protection
• Secure shell (SSH) access
• WAF (Web Application Firewall)
• ISO 27001-certified data centres

3. Scalability

When you’re first starting out with your website, you’re probably prioritising low costs – which is absolutely fine! However, as your business starts to grow, an affordable WordPress hosting option can actually limit your performance if your hosting struggles to keep up with traffic. You might even suffer an outage if your site can’t handle high levels. So to counter this, you’ll want to choose a WordPress host that can support growth and allow you to scale as you grow or in direct response to increased traffic demands.

4. Performance

The performance of your website impacts everything, and we mean everything – whether it’s how well you rank in search engines, how people convert on your website, or even how they navigate through it. To stop people becoming frustrated and clicking away from your website never to return, you’ll want to go for the maximum uptime possible – at least 99%. 

If your site isn’t reachable, it could have a negative impact on your traffic, sales, and customer happiness. Check your chosen provider’s minimum uptime guarantee in their SLAs to ensure you’re getting the reliability you need.

5. Support

If things go wrong, you want the reassurance that help is going to be available when you need it most. Whether you’re a complete beginner who needs a little reassurance along the way, or you go into a full-blown-panic when your website’s down at 2am, that expert support is important. 

When you choose any of our hosting plans, you’ll benefit from 24/7 customer support, so you can keep your website running smoothly at all times, even if you experience an issue in the middle of the night at the weekend!

Frequently asked questions about WordPress website hosting

Can you host websites with WordPress?

You can either host your WordPress website directly with WordPress by choosing a hosting plan on WordPress.com, or you can choose a WordPress hosting plan from a third-party provider like Fasthosts. The second option will give you more freedom to choose from a wider range of WordPress hosting services and WordPress hosts.

Alternatively, you can self-host WordPress by downloading the WordPress source code from WordPress.org and installing it on a generic hosting plan, such as VPS hosting or dedicated hosting.

Web hosting vs WordPress hosting: Which is better?

This entirely depends on your personal needs and preferences. WordPress hosting may be better for you if you want extra WordPress support, optimised server resources for the WordPress CMS (resulting in better speeds and performance), and extra features like pre-installed plugins and themes. However, if you want full control to customise your server however you want, non-WordPress hosting is probably best for you.

Can I choose my own plugins and themes with Fasthosts WordPress Hosting?

Of course! Whilst we provide the option to install our recommended WordPress plugins and themes to make things easier for you, you’re still totally free to install your preferred ones. If you’re new to WordPress and don’t know which plugins to get, make sure you read our guides to the essential plugins for WordPress, top plugins for ecommerce stores, top plugins for WordPress functionality, and how to pick the best WordPress theme.

Remember that WordPress plugins and themes can introduce security vulnerabilities if you’re not careful about installing necessary updates and choosing software from reputable sources. For more WordPress security top tips, read our guide to WordPress plugin security.

How much does WordPress hosting cost?

Prices can vary widely between WordPress hosts and types of hosting plans. Always do your research and compare lists of features and prices to check you’re getting the best deals.

Here at Fasthosts, our WordPress Hosting plans start at just £6 per month for our basic WP Go package, increasing to £8 and £19 per month for our WP Plus and WP Advance packages respectively. 

On a tight budget? No problem! Check out our affordable WordPress Hosting packages for unbelievable deals. New customers can start at just £1 per month (for the first 3 months) for WP Go and WP Advance, or an incredible 49p per month for WP Plus (for the first 6 months)! This means you’ve got plenty of time to try out our WordPress hosting services before committing to higher payments.

Why not choose free WordPress hosting?

As explained earlier, free WordPress hosting services come with significant downsides such as unprofessional domains, weaker security, poorer performance and a lack of reliable uptime guarantees. To keep site visitors happy and improve your search engine rankings, you need WordPress hosting from a reputable provider like Fasthosts.

Can I migrate my WordPress site to another host?

Absolutely! If you aren’t getting the best deal with your current WordPress host, you can transfer your WordPress website to a new hosting provider if you find a better package elsewhere. Site migrations are always free here at Fasthosts, and we endeavour to transfer everything as quickly and smoothly as possible to ensure minimal disruption to your website.

Think WordPress hosting could be right for you? Discover the UK’s best WordPress hosting right here at Fasthosts. Take a look at our range of affordable WordPress packages starting from just 49p a month, or get in touch to find out more about what’s included.