Maintaining a WordPress site or blog is a demanding task, requiring attention to content creation, marketing efforts, site aesthetics, social media engagement, and more. However, before diving into these aspects, it’s crucial to ensure your WordPress site runs flawlessly and that your current managed WordPress hosting provider doesn’t create obstacles or complications, along with understanding their advantages and disadvantages.

For those new to hosting, determining the appropriate service level can feel overwhelming due to the numerous factors involved. However, it doesn’t have to be an intimidating process. Similar to any decision-making process, there are non-negotiable requirements, and once you’ve identified a few options that meet those criteria, you can delve into the specifics to refine your choices.

Imagine selecting a restaurant: the primary considerations are the cuisine type, location, and pricing. Once you’ve discovered a few establishments that align with your preferences and budget, you can delve into aspects like reviews, ambiance, and menu choices. Additionally, you might have an app that requires app hosting.

Choosing a web host follows a similar principle: Certain deal-breakers will initially narrow down your options, and then specific details will guide you towards the most suitable choice for your requirements.

This article will examine four hosting categories: Shared Hosting, VPS (Virtual Private Server), Dedicated Hosting, and Managed WordPress Hosting. We’ll cover their definitions, distinguishing features, cost implications, advantages, disadvantages, ideal use cases, and—crucially—when to avoid them.

Shared Hosting

Analogy: Shared hosting can be likened to McDonald’s in the hosting world. The product isn’t inherently bad (we all enjoy a burger occasionally), but it’s not suitable for every situation. It’s more of a cost-effective, quick solution without any premium features.

Shared hosting operates on the principle that small websites require few resources. A shared server accommodates hundreds, if not thousands, of users, each potentially hosting multiple websites. This results in an affordable product that lacks power and often encounters issues due to overcrowding.

Cost

Based on an analysis of eight reputable hosting companies chosen as representatives of this hosting category (listed later), the average cost of a shared hosting plan is roughly $9.50 per month. This excludes any introductory discounts these companies might offer (more on that later).

A Small Orange offers the most budget-friendly regular price at $2.92 per month. For a more robust option, MediaTemple provides hosting for 100 websites and 20GB of storage at $20 per month.

Generally, a monthly investment of $10 should secure a decent-quality shared or managed WordPress hosting service.

Advantages

The most significant advantage of shared hosting compared to other types is its affordability. While it may not have many other strengths, the price alone can justify opting for shared hosting in various situations.

Disadvantages

Most issues with shared hosting stem from sharing resources with numerous other users and websites, leading to four primary problems:

• Other websites on the server might consume a disproportionate amount of resources, leaving fewer resources for your websites and resulting in slowdowns or complete halts.
• Security breaches in one account could potentially impact yours. Even with robust security measures on your website, server-level vulnerabilities might still affect you.
• Uptime and reliability can be significant concerns in shared environments. Since other websites might overuse resources or cause security issues, you’re not only vulnerable but also uncertain about when problems might arise.
• Sharing an environment means lacking complete control over server configurations, resulting in a one-size-fits-all setup. While this might suffice for small websites, you’ll require extra oomph as you grow.

Although other issues exist, most originate from the shared nature of managed WordPress hosting, highlighting the challenges of a shared environment.

Getting Started

Exercise caution with shared hosting pricing. Many providers offer introductory discounts that expire upon the first renewal. For instance, Bluehost offers a starting plan at $2.95 compared to the regular price of $7.99.

Paying for a single month only grants you that month’s discounted price. You could opt for a three-year prepayment, but that requires an upfront payment of $106. Therefore, carefully evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of WordPress hosting.

When to Choose Shared Hosting

Shared hosting remains the only option if your budget doesn’t allow for VPS or managed WordPress hosting (discussed later). While this hosting type tends to have more downtime and reliability concerns, it doesn’t necessarily mean constant website outages.

Previously, I hosted my sites on Bluehost, and while the performance wasn’t exceptional, my sites maintained an uptime of 99%, sufficient for launching my business.

Downtime can significantly impact revenue. If you’re working with a limited budget, don’t wait for a VPS; start with a shared account and upgrade when feasible.

For low-traffic, less critical websites, shared hosting provides an affordable way to maintain an online presence. Personal blogs, client test sites, archived projects, and projects under development are well-suited for shared environments.

Shared hosting also suits newcomers who don’t require high performance. When starting, your website might not attract many visitors initially. As your traffic gradually increases in subsequent months, you can begin with a shared host to minimize costs and switch when your site gains more traction.

If you’re new to web development and your site isn’t business-critical, I recommend opting for the most affordable plan to gain experience. It offers valuable learning for future situations when you might need to decide between a $100 or $150 VPS plan or managed hosting. Again, carefully assess the advantages and disadvantages of WordPress hosting.

When to Avoid Shared Hosting

Shared hosting falls short in terms of reliability, resources, and security. If your website is mission-critical and you can afford a higher hosting tier, avoid shared hosting.

Determining when to avoid shared hosting is straightforward: If none of the points in the “When to Choose Shared Hosting” section apply, it’s best to steer clear.

For e-commerce sites, I recommend using a non-shared environment. If someone can’t access your blog, you lose a visitor; if they can’t access your products, you might lose a sale.

Understanding WordPress Hosting: Advantages and Disadvantages

Having experienced both sides—as a hosting user and in a management role at a hosting company—my advice is to understand what you’re paying for.

Don’t expect miracles with a monthly hosting budget of $5-$10. All reputable shared hosting providers (discussed later) are generally ethical companies. They won’t engage in malicious activities like purposefully take resources from your website.

These are legitimate businesses offering affordable products. While the product might have inherent flaws, it provides thousands of customers with a decent online presence.

To illustrate with numbers, Bluehost has an uptime of around 99.4%. While this might not seem impressive compared to higher-tier hosting, it essentially means experiencing 14.4 hours of downtime every 100 days. This translates to 8.64 minutes of daily downtime, which is far from catastrophic.

VPS Hosting

Analogy: Continuing our restaurant theme, VPS hosting can be compared to The Cheesecake Factory. It might not earn Michelin stars, but it’s a solid choice. Regardless of your preferences, you’ll likely find something appealing on their extensive menu and leave satisfied. Although you might not choose it for hosting your most important clients, using the advantages and disadvantages of WordPress hosting as a guide can be helpful.

The Technicalities

VPS (sometimes called cloud hosting) shares similarities with shared hosting but utilizes more robust technology to isolate users on the same physical machine. Unlike a shared server potentially accommodating thousands of users, VPS systems typically host 5 to 20.

The lower user count already implies reduced risks from the “bad neighbor” effect, but the crucial aspect is how this separation is achieved. VPS systems employ a hypervisor to manage each user’s virtual system.

In simple terms, this prevents one user from monopolizing resources at the expense of others. For instance, on a machine with 16GB of RAM and eight users, each user would be allocated 2GB. If one user exceeds their 2GB allocation, their site might experience issues, but other websites on the same machine would remain unaffected.

Cost

VPS hosting prices vary significantly, unlike the consistent pricing for WordPress hosting. After analyzing the most affordable plans from nine providers (listed later), the average cost is around $25 per month. This includes a few extremely cheap $5-per-month plans that we wouldn’t recommend.

A decent entry-level VPS should cost between $20 and $30. The $50 to $100 tier can comfortably handle most websites, but if you require additional power, VPS plans options can reach thousands of dollars.

What You’re Paying For with Managed WordPress Hosting

With VPS systems, you’re essentially paying for three main aspects:

• The VPS technology itself, providing isolation, scalability, and enhanced security.
• Resources like memory, storage space, and bandwidth.
• A “premium” due to VPS servers accommodating fewer users compared to shared hosting, making them financially less efficient to operate.

The second point is crucial, as you need to understand your website’s resource requirements. If your website generates 4TB of bandwidth, DigitalOcean’s $5 plan with its 1TB bandwidth limit won’t suffice.

Advantages: WordPress Hosting Pros and Cons

The positive aspects of VPS hosting primarily stem from the “V”—Virtualization. This allows for superior isolation, scaling capabilities, and security. Let’s delve into some of the advantages:

• Virtual instances receive dedicated resource allocations, eliminating uncertainty and facilitating better resource planning.
• While not impossible, malicious code spreading across multiple virtual instances through the hypervisor is incredibly rare. You can be confident that security issues on other accounts won’t affect yours.
• Since resources are allocated instead of shared, VPS systems systems can scale rapidly, making them suitable for websites experiencing dynamic growth.
• A virtual instance is essentially a self-contained software layer encompassing the operating system and other necessary components. From a flexibility standpoint, it’s comparable to having your own dedicated server, granting more control over your environment.

Disadvantages: WordPress Hosting Pros and Cons

There aren’t inherent downsides to VPS systems. Any perceived disadvantages should be evaluated in the context of your website’s specific goals. We’ll discuss some potential drawbacks, keeping in mind that these vary from project to project.

• For highly specialized sites where you might require hardware-level control, dedicated hosting might be a better fit. VPS systems, while flexible, aren’t infinitely so.
• If you simply need a quick and easy place to host a website, VPS systems might be unnecessarily expensive.
• If you’re hosting a WordPress website, explore managed WordPress hosting as an alternative. While VPS offers more flexibility, managed WordPress hosting’s highly optimized nature might provide an edge in usually beats VPS regarding speed and security.

When to Choose VPS Hosting

Deciding whether VPS is right for you shouldn’t be overly complicated, as you can often determine this through a process of elimination. Ask yourself these questions:

• Is my project small-scale, a test site, or on a tight budget? In other words, does it possess characteristics that make shared hosting suitable? If not, we can rule out dedicated hosting as the next step.
• Does my project demand a highly customized environment where I must handle all system administration tasks, such as OS updates and package installations? Do I possess the necessary expertise to independently manage a server?

If the answer to either of these questions is “no,” we can eliminate dedicated hosting. If the answer is “yes,” I encourage careful consideration. Unless you’re proficient in server management, you risk creating a poorly optimized environment where a pre-configured VPS would be far superior.

This leaves us with managed WordPress hosting. Firstly: Is your website built on WordPress? If not, VPS is the clear choice. If so, weigh the advantages and disadvantages of managed WordPress hosting discussed below to make an informed decision.

My stance is this: For a WordPress website, I would almost always opt for managed WordPress hosting, especially if I intend to generate income from it. Otherwise, I might host some WordPress sites on a VPS for cost savings.

VPS Hosting Cons vs. Managed WordPress Hosting: Pros & Cons

There’s no scenario where I’d advise completely against VPS in favor of managed WordPress hosting. VPS systems scale exceptionally well, so you can find a plan that suits your needs even if your website receives millions of views. For all but the highest-traffic websites (think The New York Times) or businesses with incredibly specific requirements (like major banks), VPS plans are a solid choice.

With VPS, the question isn’t “Should I avoid it?” but rather “Would something else be a better fit?” In most cases, you can’t go wrong with VPS. When in doubt, it often serves as a reliable fallback option, provided you have the necessary server management knowledge.

VPS Hosts

VPS plans are offered by almost all hosting companies, but the quality of service can vary significantly for VPS servers. Here are eight well-regarded companies known for providing reliable VPS hosting services:

Dedicated Hosting

Analogy: Dedicated hosting is akin to building your own kitchen instead of dining out. It requires a high level of expertise, but it allows complete customization of both the environment and the final product to meet your specific needs.

The Technicalities

When you choose dedicated hosting, you’re essentially purchasing a physical server and a place to house it, with minimal maintenance included. Once the hardware is set up, you’re responsible for everything from installing the operating system and web server software (Nginx, Apache, and associated components) to managing its operation.

While the hosting company will typically replace faulty hardware (which should be infrequent), you’re responsible for all other maintenance tasks remotely.

Cost

Comparing the most affordable plans from five well-known hosting companies (listed below), the average cost is approximately $125. The cheapest option comes from Hetzner at $52, which, as you might expect, offers limited resources.

We recommend a minimum budget of around $130. Prices can reach $500 or more for mid-range solutions and even tens of thousands for high-end servers.

Advantages

Dedicated servers offer two primary benefits: You have exclusive use of the server, and you typically receive significantly more bandwidth.

Being the sole user eliminates concerns about the “bad neighbor” effect. You can also forgo certain software complexities, such as hypervisors (which manage multiple VPS instances on a single machine), and fine-tune the entire environment from hardware to software to your liking. You can implement custom malware scanning and tailor other security measures to your specific needs.

Dedicated hosting is particularly beneficial if you require bespoke monitoring tools or have a highly specialized deployment process, as you have complete control over the setup.

Disadvantages

The most significant drawback of dedicated servers is the responsibility of managing everything yourself. This requires either extensive technical expertise or a reliable system administrator (who would have complete access to your server), adding to your costs.

Other hosting types handle many management tasks for you, including software updates, security patches, PHP version switching through a user interface, regular backups, and more.

You likely won’t receive these services with a dedicated server. While managed dedicated solutions exist, they come at a premium price.

Another disadvantage is the potential for longer resolution times in case of hardware failures. While VPS systems can often redistribute workloads to mitigate the impact of a failing RAM module, dedicated servers require physical replacement of the faulty component.

When to Choose Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated hosting isn’t necessary for most websites. Even large projects can often function seamlessly on a robust VPS solution.

However, if you have an exceptionally large website with specific requirements that necessitate a full-time system administrator, dedicated hosting becomes a consideration.

It’s also beneficial for large websites utilizing separate servers for their front-end, back-end, and potentially even media storage, as it allows for the creation of redundant, independently operating systems.

When to Avoid Dedicated Hosting

Avoid dedicated hosting if you lack the technical expertise to set up and manage a hosting environment from scratch or cannot afford to hire a qualified system administrator.

Remember that an environment that’s 90% tailored to your site is significantly better than a poorly implemented solution cobbled together haphazardly.

Many website owners desire sophisticated features like load balancing or dedicated hosting because they believe their site deserves the best, but this is often misguided.

Most website owners underestimate the true meaning of “large” in the context of web hosting. A website generating a million dollars annually and attracting 10 million monthly visitors isn’t necessarily “large” in terms of resource requirements. With efficient coding, it could run reliably on a $250-per-month VPS plan.

Managed WordPress Hosting

Analogy: Managed WordPress hosting is comparable to a wedding catering service. Unlike a restaurant, it offers a tailored experience but with some inherent limitations.

Managed WordPress: The Technicalities

Managed WordPress hosting is a specialized hosting service offering a range of WordPress-specific features. While the underlying server can be either shared or VPS, this shouldn’t be a primary concern as the hosting provider should excel at maintaining the service.

By specializing in a single application—WordPress—providers can streamline their operations. They can optimize their entire environment, from hardware to software, for enhanced WordPress performance, mitigate security risks, and offer powerful, user-friendly features.

Cost of Managed WordPress Hosting

Among the four leading companies specializing in high-quality managed WordPress hosting (listed below), the most affordable plan comes from Flywheel* at $15. However, this plan only accommodates up to 5,000 monthly visits, making it suitable for very small websites.

For a genuinely viable entry-level plan from a specialized managed WordPress host, expect to pay around $29, which can accommodate most websites. However, if you require a more robust solution for a website with around 100,000 or more monthly visitors, be prepared to spend upwards of $100 per month. Note that managed WordPress hosting costs can easily reach thousands of dollars per month for websites demanding significant server resources, such as those with millions of monthly visitors.

Advantages

Managed WordPress hosting offers numerous advantages. Most stem from the provider’s sole focus on WordPress, enabling them to fine-tune their systems and develop valuable management features. This typically results in faster website speeds and improved resource utilization.

These hosts usually mandate the latest WordPress version, ensuring your site remains up-to-date and better protected against security vulnerabilities. They might also restrict certain plugins known to cause problems or pose security risks.

Caching exemplifies how managed WordPress hosting can significantly enhance your website. Some hosts implement highly optimized server-level caching systems that consistently outperform plugins like W3 Total Cache. You might even be prohibited from using such standard caching plugins to avoid conflicts with the host’s more efficient internal systems.

Managed WordPress hosting provides superior support for WordPress-related issues compared to general VPS or shared hosts. This is unsurprising, considering their exclusive focus on WordPress, which becomes immediately apparent when interacting with their support teams.

Disadvantages

The most significant drawbacks are the reduced flexibility and higher cost compared to VPS servers. The same features that enhance security (enforced WordPress versions, plugin restrictions) can sometimes feel restrictive for certain websites.

Additionally, specialist WordPress hosting limits you to WordPress. You can’t easily add a Joomla or Drupal site for testing or create a static HTML-only website. While some hosts might technically allow this, it’s not their primary focus.

When to Choose Managed WordPress Hosting

Managed WordPress hosting is often the optimal solution for WordPress websites. Consider these factors when deciding:

• Is it a crucial website? If not, investing in expensive hosting might be unnecessary. For a personal blog, the difference between a 2.8-second load time on a VPS and a 1.9-second load time on managed WordPress hosting might not be significant.
• The number of websites you can host on a single account is often a limiting factor, often restricted to just one. Therefore, reserve this hosting type for websites that genuinely require it.

Beyond these considerations, if you have a high-traffic or mission-critical website and prioritize smooth, reliable performance, opt for managed WordPress hosting if you can accept its minor limitations.

When to Avoid Managed WordPress Hosting

Again, there aren’t many reasons to avoid this type of hosting. For WordPress websites, managed WordPress hosting usually makes the most sense. However, if budget constraints are a major concern or you need to host multiple websites in a single location, a standard VPS hosting plan might be a better fit.

Managed WordPress Hosting: Final Thoughts

Similar to how no single restaurant caters to everyone’s tastes, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for web hosting. The ideal hosting type depends heavily on your goals, project requirements, the project’s importance, anticipated resource usage, budgetary constraints, and careful consideration of each hosting type’s advantages and disadvantages.

Remember that switching hosting providers is relatively straightforward, and many reputable WordPress hosts offer free migrations. This allows you to experiment and find the perfect hosting solution for your needs.