How to Choose Your WordPress Hosting Provider?

You may wonder why you should choose a WordPress hosting provider when your website is ready to go live.

Is there any need to choose a hosting provider? Aren’t all web hosting the same? Isn’t hosting just a fancy term for a “folder” on a computer where your WordPress site content is stored and served live? If so, can folders be distinct or more memorable than other folders?

To be honest, that’s wrong.

Hosting can quickly become a nightmare if you end up not choosing the right hosting provider for your WordPress website. Your website could lag, have an irritating percentage of downtime, lack backups, and be vulnerable to hacks and malware.

So, in this article, we will uncover the art of choosing the right hosting provider for your WordPress website so you can always sleep peacefully knowing that your website is safe and thriving.

Factors to Consider When Choosing a WordPress Hosting Provide

Hosting is a crucial part of every WordPress site. It’s the living and breathing space of your WordPress site. Your WordPress site can never be live for others to access if it’s not on a hosting server.

You may think all hosting servers are the same and the hosting provider you choose shouldn’t matter, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Hosting space may come off as “just folders” in computers called servers, but did you know that some providers use cheap or outdated servers?

Many disappointments and disadvantages are usually associated with the words “cheap” and “outdated.” Cheap and outdated things overheat easily, they hang and crash frequently, they are slow and can’t handle multitasking, they are not reliable, and they have obsolete security against vulnerabilities (think about what could go wrong if you have outdated antivirus software on your personal computer), etc.

So, if you choose the wrong hosting provider, probably because it’s cheaper, your WordPress website will inherit and exhibit all of these negative traits when you make it go live.

Now, let’s go over some important factors you should consider and look out for before you choose a good hosting provider for WordPress. 

A. Performance and Speed

Do you like getting stuck in traffic? Do you like waiting at the end of a long line? Do you like slow Internet speed? Do you want your pizza to get delivered hours after you ordered it?

In this generation, speed is everything. No one wants anything that will waste their time. Delay is dangerous.

Do you need more time to deliver your service? Then, you have yet to start a business in this era.

The same applies to your WordPress website. A website is flagged with poor user experience if it needs more speed. 

“To provide a good user experience, sites should strive to have a good score (90-100)”. — Google Lighthouse performance scoring.

The first call of action regarding website page speed is usually the hosting. If you check a website for its speed on tools such as GTMetrix and Google Pagespeed insights, you will discover that your WordPress hosting contributes to a performance metric called Time to First Byte (TTFB).

Time to First Byte (TTFB) is a fundamental metric gauging the duration from when a web resource is requested to the arrival of the first byte of the response. It aids in detecting instances where a web server exhibits sluggishness in responding to incoming requests.

When choosing a WordPress hosting provider, look for one that offers fast loading times and reliable performance to ensure your website runs smoothly.

You should opt for a WordPress hosting provider that can deliver a TTFB of 0.8 seconds or less for hosted sites.

B. Reliability and Uptime Guarantee

Imagine you want to make a Google search for a quick fix. But you get a “website not available” error instead of getting your desired answers. How will that make you feel?

Now, put yourself in your website visitors’ shoes. Imagine that was your website. How would that experience make your visitors feel?

It’s a no-brainer that downtime can lead to losing visitors, revenue, and credibility. Therefore, your WordPress site needs to be accessible 24/7. Visitors should be able to access your site for any information whenever they want to.

To achieve this, choose a hosting provider that guarantees but delivers up to 99% uptime to minimize downtime and ensure your website is always accessible.

C. Scalability and Resources

Choose a hosting provider that offers scalability options to accommodate your website’s growth and provides sufficient resources like storage and bandwidth.

A host with limited scalability is not ideal for your website, which may face resource limits as it expands. This can lead to slower performance, more crashes, and trouble handling increased traffic.

D. Security Features

Security is a very important part of a WordPress website and should not be treated lightly.

If your hosting provider can not provide adequate security, your website could be easily vulnerable to hacking, malware, and data breaches, even if you have installed premium WordPress security plugins.

Without proper security, your website may face consequences like sensitive data compromises, a bad reputation in your industry, and financial losses.

You need to choose a hosting provider that offers robust security features such as SSL certificates, Web Application Firewalls (WAF), advanced DDoS protection, and regular backups to protect your website from cyber threats and provide a safe browsing experience for your users.

E. Expert Support

Opt for a hosting provider with quick and responsive customer support available 24/7 to assist you with any technical issues or queries. 

Having a reliable support team with sound experience can make resolving issues or managing emergencies much more doable.

If your website is experiencing downtime and you need more support when you need it, your website could be better.

Extended periods of downtime or unresolved technical issues can negatively impact your online presence and dissatisfy your customers.

Steps to Choosing the Right WordPress Hosting Provider

Now, let’s quickly cook up a recipe that you could always follow to choose the right hosting provider for your WordPress site.

1. Assess your website’s needs

What kind of website are you building? Have you evaluated and understood the requirements of your website in terms of traffic, storage, performance, and growth? 

Doing this will help you determine the type of hosting that suits your website needs, especially in the long run. 

For example, a simple blog may perform well on shared hosting, but an e-commerce website will perform better on a VPS and best on a Dedicated hosting.

2. Research and compare hosting providers

We have already given you critical criteria to look out for when choosing a hosting provider. When you come across any hosting provider, even if it’s popularly recommended, look critically into it and compare it with different hosting providers regarding features, pricing, and customer support. Then, you can find the one that aligns best with your website requirements.

3. Read reviews and testimonials

Reviews and testimonials are easy and reliable ways to get the actual reputation of any hosting provider, and they save you tons of research work.

Read reviews and testimonials from other users sharing their experiences with various hosting providers, and you will get an idea of the provider’s reliability, performance, and overall customer satisfaction.

4. Consider your budget and long-term goals

When starting a website, there are bound to be budget constraints and long-term goals. You need to evaluate and put them into consideration before choosing a hosting provider. But ensure you pick a hosting provider with the right features and affordability balance.

5. Make an informed decision

After considering all the factors above, decide which WordPress hosting provider to use based on your website’s needs and budget.

Types of WordPress Hosting

After choosing the right hosting provider for your WordPress site, you are going to face the next challenge of picking a type of hosting plan.

There are four main types of WordPress hosting to consider. Each type has advantages and is suited to different website needs.

A. Shared Hosting

As the name implies, shared hosting is where multiple websites share resources on a single server.

It is a cost-effective and usually cheapest option for small websites with moderate traffic.

B. VPS Hosting

VPS hosting provides a virtual server dedicated to your website only, offering more control and resources than shared hosting. It’s pretty costlier than shared hosting and is ideal for websites that require more flexibility, traffic, and scalability, e.g., e-commerce websites.

C. Dedicated Hosting

With dedicated hosting, you have an entire server dedicated solely to your website. This option is expensive but provides maximum control, security, and performance, making it suitable for high-traffic websites or large businesses.

D. Managed WordPress Hosting

This type of hosting is specifically optimized for WordPress websites, and the host handles technical aspects related to servers, like updates, SSL, backups, and cybersecurity, allowing you to focus on creating content and growing your website.

In short, it is all about offering hosting plans that are streamlined and customized for efficient WordPress delivery.

InstaWP Live is a good example here. It is a cloud-based managed WordPress hosting solution designed for WordPress users seeking dependable and high-speed hosting for their WordPress websites.

InstaWP Live: High-Speed Managed WordPress Hosting Solution

InstaWP Live hosting plans come with built-in CDN, automated WordPress edge caching, real-time failover, and a network of global data centers, all of which are optimization features that drastically reduce page load times.

It also offers a comprehensive range of security features, including DDoS protection, Web Application Firewall (WAF), Automated Backup, and 99% Guaranteed uptime, providing an exceptional hosting experience for users.

Additionally, it’s packed with an advanced tooling suite, such as SSH, SFTP, WP CLI, and PHPMyAdmin, to enhance your development process.

Conclusion: Choose Wisely for Website Success

Always take the time to select the best hosting provider for your WordPress website’s success. Before choosing a hosting provider, consider its performance and speed, reliability and uptime, scalability and resources, security, and provided technical expertise and support, and enjoy a fantastic website experience.