If you own a WordPress site or want to build one, at some point, you will go through the process of hiring hosting for your website. At that time, it will probably be inevitable to go through the dilemma of choosing between WordPress hosting or traditional shared hosting.
In both services, the variety of resources and companies available can leave any specialist confused about which to choose. After all, since my site is/will be made on this platform, should I choose WordPress or shared hosting?
In this article, we will show the main differences between these two types of hosting and try to help you choose the best option. Continue with us and find out!
What is Shared Hosting
As its name implies, a shared site hosts store sites from multiple clients on the same server. Thus, the clients share the resources of the hosting server in question.
This is the most used hosting service in the world and has existed practically since the internet was created. Its popularity is because it is an extremely cheap service. The reason is that many clients can share a single hosting server.
As you can imagine, depending on the number of clients using a shared server, it may be overloaded. Therefore, the hosting companies must impose limits and conditions of use. Otherwise, many customers could harm. Imagine, for example, if a single site consumes all the resources on that server. This is where the extensive “but” of shared hosting lives: depending on the resource consumption of the site, shared hosting may not be able to handle the message, causing the site to be down.
This is not to say that shared hosting is terrible and should avoid. On the contrary, shared hosting can be suitable for various site types, including sites made using WordPress. If your hosting provides the platform and site manager resources, you need to worry about performance and optimization basics; a WordPress site might host for many years on shared hosting.
What is WordPress Hosting
The WordPress content manager has been gaining more and more space among people who want to build their websites. Perhaps because of the ease of use and the number of resources available, its popularity has been increasing. Currently, 27% of all websites use WordPress. An impressive number, isn’t it?
Aware of this growing demand, some hosting companies have created specific services to fulfill websites on the WordPress platform. This hosting is usually called WordPress Hosting. Each company, however, seeks to develop a complete solution.
Thus, it is possible to find WordPress hosting services with distinct features, as we will see below.
WordPress Hosting Differentials
First, it is essential to remember that the most popular shared hosting on the market is fully compatible with WordPress. Companies went beyond rice beans to offer true differentiators and put together practical solutions for the typical WordPress user profile.
The first point is that WordPress is installed by default in WordPress hosting. If this is not the case, automatic installation is available from the service control panel. Likewise, WordPress version updates are done automatically. In a standard WordPress installation, only security updates perform automatically. This aspect of WordPress hosting can be a significant differential for those who do not want to worry about any system maintenance.
In general, WordPress hosting is also differentiated by the infrastructure offered. While many shared hosting provides file storage in traditional hard drives, it is common to find SSD disk storage in the platform like dedicated hosting. This type of storage offers faster access to site files (such as images) since the hard disk has no moving parts.
Still, it is possible to find servers with other performance features in this respect. Cache enabled by default, NGINX reverse proxy server, and PHP 7 are some examples. It is worth remembering that WordPress.org officially recommended version 7 of PHP in late 2016. WordPress.org is the official organization that maintains the WordPress platform, releases updates, and concentrates the official WordPress documentation.
Another essential item adopted by default in the exclusive hosting for WordPress is the adoption of SSL/HTTPS. This security item, which aims to encrypt the data exchange between the server and the visitor’s browser, has become almost mandatory for any site. Especially after Google has announced that SSL is among the factors of ranking a page. At the end of 2016, the actual Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress, also announced that new features would be implemented and would depend on this technology.
Nestify has already adopted this security feature as a standard in new installations in the US.
But the differences do not stop there.
Among the features offered in WordPress dedicated hosting, we can find daily backups, version control, which allows undoing changes made to the site (and that were not satisfactory), and features for developers such as WP-CLI, Git, and others.
After all, WordPress or shared hosting?
The answer to that question is: it depends. Although WordPress hosting offers extra features, which makes it quite attractive to platform users, it is possible to keep WordPress sites in shared hosting and still get excellent performance. For this, the responsible for the website should be concerned with various issues related to the performance and security of the site. These things already come ready in the WordPress hosting.
Another essential aspect that must weigh into the decision is the financial aspect. Shared hosting can be very cheap, starting at $ 10 a month. WordPress hosting, in general, is a bit more expensive, and the price can get a lot saltier. So this is an issue that should be heavy along with other aspects.
In short:
Hire a WordPress hosting if you:
- Do not want to worry about WordPress installation;
- Do not want to worry about WordPress version updates;
- You want to have frequent backups (without having to configure anything);
- You want to have security features, such as malware protection (without having to configure anything);
- You are willing to pay a little more for differentiated service.
Hire a shared hosting if you:
- You do not see any problems installing and updating WordPress on your own;
- You are willing to configure performance features, such as a cache plugin, manually;
- You are eager to configure/hire security features such as SSL/HTTPS;
- Want to pay little for hosting (and still have a quality service).
Conclusion
The WordPress or Shared Hosting dilemma is current and reaches an increasing number of users as the system’s popularity grows.
WordPress hosting brings, by default, several of these resources, which can be of great help in many ways. This benefits laypeople who do not want to worry about updates and other configurations and experts who will have advanced development tools at their disposal.
On the other hand, it pays a little more for this service, which can discourage some and stimulate the realization of configurations and optimizations on its own. For those who wish to worry about writing and leaving the rest to the experts, there is no question that WordPress hosting can be a good option.
