What do you need to know about WordPress hosting and shared hosting? Which is better? Go over this concise discussion and get to know which one is better for you. Get more acquainted with each of these options and find out which one provides more advantages in serving your needs.
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What is WordPress Hosting
Managed WordPress hosting refers to a hosting environment particularly intended to serve the needs of WordPress websites. While there’s slight variation – typical WordPress hosting plans provide the following advantages: great speed, high level of security, up-to-date servers, dedicated server, and greater uptime.
Hosting specifically intended for a WordPress site or blog is fast because every aspect of it has been optimized to best serve the needs of a WordPress website. In terms of security, it is deemed highly secure because of the individualized attention given into managing this kind of setup. Additionally, it’s usually more up-to-date because hosting companies usually see to it that their servers are running the most recent software. There’s also great uptime since server resources are not being be shared with a lot of websites.
This kind of setup, however, is not free from drawbacks. For one, managed WordPress hosting is usually more expensive than shared hosting. The customized hosting solution generally entail higher costs. Additionally, the customizations can limit the things you can do with your site. For instance, there are some WordPress hosts that prohibit the use of specific plugins or extension software. If your site requires a specific software for your site upgrade or overhaul but it’s not supported by the host, you will end up having to change plans or look for another web host that can accommodate your site’s software requirements. More importantly, if you go for managed WordPress hosting, you will be limited with WordPress. You cannot switch to a new content management system as you please.
What Is Shared Hosting?
Shared hosting, as the phrase implies, means a web hosting service that accommodates several websites on one server. It’s the economical way of publishing several blogs or websites. The web host accepts several customers to use a common server. Server resources can be shared by hundreds or even thousands of various websites operated by different customers. This means the server with have to deal with usually huge amounts of traffic. Worse, if one or a few websites get traffic spikes because of a viral post or because of DDoS attacks, all the other websites hosted on the server will be affected. Having a shared hosting setup is like opening numerous opportunities for attacks or degraded performance. Also, even shared hosting service providers admit that it is prone to hacking attacks and other malicious activity that negatively affect the websites hosted on the server.
Shared hosting is not going to be the best option if you are aiming for security and reliability. However, it is considerably less expensive. It also has its set of advantages. There are even those who say that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages for most customers. The list of advantages include the non-need for server administration and maintenance, cPanel and other user-friendly applications to make site management easier, and support for PHP and MySQL.
Which Is Better?
So which should be your choice? Unfortunately, there’s no definite answer for this question. The right choice depends on your needs and the cost you are willing to pay for. Both options have their benefits and drawbacks. Deciding on which has more benefits or drawbacks has to be prudently thought out in relation to your needs and budget.
If you are not under any budget limitation and you intend to run WordPress sites in the long run, going for WordPress hosting is the no-brainer answer. However, if you need to put cost efficiency as a major factor to consider, you will have to go for shared hosting plans. Just make sure that you choose a dependable and reputable company. Always ascertain that you will be entrusting the hosting of your sites or blogs to a shared hosting service provider that can guarantee the security of your sites and ensure very minimal downtimes.
Managed WordPress hosting and shared hosting are there as options. Either can’t be a wrong choice per se but you are bound to make a wrong choice if you just randomly decide on which one to get. It is very important to properly know your needs and meticulously examine your options to know which one is better for you.