Top WordPress Hosting FAQ
If your site currently runs on WordPress, then you’re probably in the market for a hosting environment that caters to WordPress. Managed WordPress hosting is a relatively new development and caters to sites that only run on WordPress.
Still, this kind of hosting isn’t going to be the best fit for every style of website out there.
Below we answer your most common questions related to WordPress hosting, so you can decide if it’s going to be the right fit for your website.
1. What is WordPress hosting?
WordPress hosting is a style of hosting that’s completely configured to WordPress sites. Most hosting environments, unless you opt for a dedicated or VPS server, have more general configurations. This setup won’t be optimized to your individual site.
Since WordPress is a pretty lean framework, WordPress hosting helps you to make the most out of this.
2. What are the benefits of WordPress hosting?
If you’re a WordPress user, then opting for WordPress hosting can be incredibly advantageous for your website. Below we look at some of the biggest benefits.
- Improved performance as every aspect of the server environment is optimized for a WordPress installation.
- Better security as the server is optimized to the unique security configuration of WordPress, instead of just running basic security protocols.
- Most WordPress hosting environments have dedicated teams of WordPress experts managing the servers, so it will always be up to date.
- With the dedicated team of WordPress experts behind you, you’ll have a team that understands the ins and outs of your site and server, so customer support will be a breeze.
3. What are the negatives of WordPress hosting?
WordPress hosting isn’t the perfect solution for every site owner, even if you’re running WordPress. For starters, it’s going to be more expensive since it’s a customized hosting solution.
If your site is small and doesn’t receive a lot of traffic, then you probably won’t see that big of an improvement in performance.
Also, some WordPress hosts limit the number of customizations you can do to your site and even limit which plugins you can install. So, if your site requires a plugin that’s on the host’s restricted list, then you may need to look elsewhere for hosting or choose a different type of hosting plan.
4. Who would benefit from using WordPress hosting?
If you currently run a mid to high traffic WordPress site and are seeing a decline in your performance, then you could definitely benefit from WordPress specific hosting.
Most high-traffic WordPress sites that switch over to WordPress hosting will see an overall improvement in their performance and loading speeds.
5. What’s the difference between shared and managed WordPress hosting?
Shared WordPress hosting is basically a hosting environment that has a few WordPress-specific optimizations and offers easy WordPress installations. Most shared hosting environments offer some form of WordPress optimization since it’s such a popular CMS.
Managed WordPress hosting is the next level of WordPress hosting. This style of hosting essentially takes care of everything related to your WordPress site. It commonly includes features like site upgrades, improved WordPress performance, virus scans, backups, and more. With managed WordPress hosting everything related to your hosting environment is done for you.
6. How does WordPress hosting differ from other forms of hosting?
WordPress hosting, particularly managed WordPress hosting, is completely engineered to provide the optimum hosting environment for WordPress sites. Mostly, it differs from other hosting environments by the setup and software configurations.
7. Can I use WordPress hosting without a WordPress site?
Managed WordPress hosting is only available to WordPress site owners, while shared WordPress hosting is generally more variable, depending on your host. Most shared WordPress hosting environments are generally basic shared hosting with WordPress add-ons. So, you could technically be using a shared host that also hosts other WordPress sites.
Hopefully, the answers above have helped to answer the most common questions you have related to WordPress hosting.
Any questions we didn’t answer above? Please share in the comments below or learn more about HostGator managed WordPress hosting plans here.
Kevin Wood writes about technology and human potential. You can find him at his virtual homes Wooden Writing and Counter Culturist.