Is VPS hosting good for WordPress?
A lot of factors contribute to having a functioning and responsive WordPress website. But your web hosting solution is arguably the most important one. Web performance and security are two crucial attributes of a website, and your chosen web hosting solution can directly impact these two factors, among many others. So, choosing the right web hosting solution can significantly affect your business. In this article, we discuss VPS as one of the most popular web hosting solutions and give you enough information to decide whether it suits your business.
What Is VPS Hosting?
A Virtual Private Server, or a VPS for short, is a widely used hosting solution popular among business owners, VPN providers, gamers, and traders. This type of hosting gives you access to a dedicated virtual server that’s only yours and completely isolated from other users. Simply put, it’s like partitioning the server into smaller sections and using each section for hosting purposes. Buying a VPS plan allows you to access a particular set of resources such as RAM, CPU, and storage. All of these are scalable, and you can upgrade your resources in a VPS plan as your business grows. VPS hosting is considered a powerful solution for small and big businesses with different website requirements.
VPS Hosting VS. Managed WordPress Hosting: Which Is the Best Option for Me?
There are several options for hosting a WordPress website, such as VPS and Managed WordPress hosting. These options both have a set of upsides and downsides; and specific differences that should be considered before making the final decision. We previously discussed the meaning of VPS hosting. Now, let’s learn a bit about managed WordPress hosting before comparing the two. Managed WordPress hosting is a hosting solution that’s exclusively used for WordPress. It’s possible to share a WordPress hosting environment with other users and get a single-tenant plan.
As mentioned above, the environment of managed WordPress hosting is only designed for WordPress websites. However, a VPS server can be used for general purposes. Since Managed WordPress hosting focuses on having everything from the server’s infrastructure to the software installed on it suitable for WordPress, it can improve the performance of WordPress websites. It also eliminates the need to manage and maintain a server. A VPS doesn’t offer this dedicated focus on WordPress and needs more technical knowledge to manage. These are the two most important advantages of a managed WordPress server.
The drawbacks of managed WordPress hosting:
The drawbacks of managed WordPress hosting mainly revolve around control level. Managed WordPress hosting doesn’t come with root access; and you can’t customize and alter your environment to fit your specific needs. Another control-level disadvantage is that most WordPress-specific environments, such as Jetpack and WordPress VIP; don’t let you install new plugins and third-party applications. A VPS, on the other hand, gives you the freedom to customize your server and take it to a level that works perfectly for your hosting purposes.
So, if you’re not tech-savvy with a rich technical skillset; then Managed WordPress hosting can be a good choice for your skill level and your business. But if you have what it takes to manage a server and want full control over your server, then A VPS is definitely what you need.
Check this article if you want to learn about the best VPS hosting for WordPress.
Things to Consider When Choosing Hosting for WordPress
To have the ultimate hosting experience, you should consider a few important factors before choosing a WordPress hosting plan. Here, we’ve listed the most important ones.
Scalability
Your hosting solution should be flexible enough to work with a higher workload and traffic spikes as your business expands in size. Because businesses go through different phases, a server should have the capacity to shrink or grow in resources like CPU and RAM. So, a scalable server is important for the dynamic needs of a website.
Cost
Cost is a permanent concern of hosting a website. Depending on the size of your business, the number of technical resources your website needs, and your budget, you can find different plans. Regarding the type of hosting, VPS is generally cheaper than managed WordPress hosting. With managed WordPress hosting, you outsource important tasks such as server maintenance and updates to the server provider. That’s why it generally costs more.
Support
Regardless of your technical expertise, you must ensure that the service provider offers adequate technical support. Generally speaking, the amount of support you get with a managed WordPress server is more in-depth and covers a variety of technical problems, from security to server performance. However, A good VPS provider may also offer the same technical support. So, it totally depends on the provider and their services.
Security
A good web hosting server with strong security measures can protect your website and users’ data. With a VPS, you’re responsible for your server’s security and choosing and installing powerful tools to protect the server against malware attacks, hacking, firewall attacks, etc. A managed WordPress server, on the other hand, usually comes with preinstalled tools for security purposes.
To Recap
In this post, we discussed the pros and cons of two of the most popular web hosting solutions for WordPress websites. VPS and managed WordPress hosting are powerful methods for hosting a server. But they don’t fit all types of businesses. This article discussed choosing the one that suits you and what factors to consider.
