If you are starting out new or are looking to renew your web hosting with a different provider – it might get tricky to choose the best WordPress hosting provider. In this blog, we have listed 5 points to consider while choosing your ideal web host.
1. Consider Your Web Traffic
The type of hosting you choose is determined by your business size, industry, and visitor footfall.
Here you share a server with others making it a cost-effective hosting option. However, it is ideal only if you consistently have low traffic.
Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting
VPS hosting mimics a dedicated server (more about it later) but is similar to a shared one.
VPS hosting uses virtualization technology, which installs a virtual layer on top of the (OS) operating system of the server to divide to make partitions in the server allowing each user to install their own OS and software.
It is costlier and more effective than shared Hosting and works well for medium traffic flow. Here’s some free trials to check out.
Dedicated Server Hosting
It is relatively the costliest option — it’s ideal for websites that consistently draw large amounts of traffic. Dedicated Hosting offers your website its own server giving you total control over your systems, security, etc. However, you will need a team of experts to manage this server.
Managed Hosting
Here, you don’t need a team to manage your server. Instead, a web host will manage your server (including operation, security, maintenance, etc.). For example, managed WordPress hosting – one of the best WordPress hosting providers, is popular in this category as these servers are specifically optimized to run WordPress websites.
Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting lets separate servers work together and behave like one large server. It works best for growing businesses — as web traffic increases, the cloud space can also be expanded. Also, it is cost-effective since you only pay for the amount of cloud space you need at any given time.
2. Server Reliability/Uptime Scores
According to Gartner, the average cost of IT downtime is $5,600 per minute!
No business wants its website to go down. It can lead to both a loss of business and reputation. To have your website up and running consistently, choosing a quality and stable web host provider is imperative.
Many server monitoring tools can help you learn about multiple metrics of your server like uptime, downtime, and uptime guarantees.
Look for a 99.95% uptime which is the industry standard, and anything below 99% should be avoided. Some of the best WordPress hosting providers can give you great server stability with 99.99% uptimes and above at a premium price.
3. Overhead Cost
Don’t ignore your web hosting renewal prices by only focusing on the initial costs.
Unfortunately, there is a practice for hosting companies to increase their renewal pricing. To avoid this, you can only jump to a new web host service every 2 to 3 years, which isn’t a very practical option.
Instead, find those web hosts with reasonable price hikes (ideally nothing above 100%). For instance, if the signup cost is $10/mo, then you shouldn’t be paying above $20/mo when you renew.
When it comes to the most cost-effective decision while buying a web hosting service, also keep in mind the following things:
- The company must offer a free trial to help you make an informed choice.
- Presence of a refund policy.
4. Essential Features
Best WordPress hosting will offer you these features:
One-click installer
It is a great tool for easily installing applications such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, etc. You need this feature if you’re not good with the technical aspects of web development and Hosting.
.htaccess File Access
You must have the ability to add your own .htaccess files to your directories. .htaccess files are configuration files used by the Apache server. They are used to password-protect directories, rewrite URLs, redirect pages, etc.
Shell Access
Advanced users might want to consider opting for a host that offers shell access which will allow you to log into your server from the command line over SSH.
With this, you’ll be able to securely copy files, change permissions for whole groups of files easily and quickly, and perform myriad other tasks. If you know you want this feature, you’ll know what to do with it.
For beginners, here’s a quick tip:
Ignore prioritizing Disk Space and Data Transfer Capacity when you’re just starting out since most shared hosting plans offer server resources (RAM and processing power) that are enough for small websites.
Instead, you can use third-party platforms such as Imgur, YouTube, Google Docs, and Drive to handle your images, videos, and documents for storage and bandwidth.
5. Backup Ability
Your web hosting provider must help you provide adequate backup. With all the security precautions globally, your website might still face some kind of crash, failure, virus, or hack that will take your website down.
That’s where a good backup policy comes in handy because you can always gain back access to your website after an incident.
Pick a web host provider that can restore your full site (or at least a major part of it) with minimal downtime to avoid any significant losses.
Some of the key questions that you might want to ask your web host about backups include:
- Are full backups conducted regularly?
- Is manual backup possible via the control panel?
- Can you use programs to create auto backups of your site?
- Can you restore the backup files yourself, or do you need the support staff to do it?
Conclusion
We hope these points will save you time, energy, and money by helping you make the right choice quickly. Sure, there are other points that need consideration, but the five mentioned above are an absolute must.
