Right Hosting for WordPress – Choosing from Shared, VPS, Dedicated or Cloud

Multiplicity in types of hosting can make the job of finding the right option to host a WordPress site quite overwhelming. However the sheer variety of options facilitates choice of an appropriate solution that perfectly matches your requirements.

Although one’s own Linux based server can nicely cater to your WordPress requirements. However, it may be too difficult an option due to a steep learning curve. In addition many WordPress site owners prefer to enjoy easy life by choosing an appropriate hosting plan such as shared, VPS, dedicated, or cloud hosting in addition to a CDN resource.

Depending on the project at hand one can choose a particular hosting option even though, technically all are suitable for WordPress hosting. However, in order to be able to choose the right alternative, one should have in depth knowledge of differences between these principal types of hosting.

Shared Hosting- Brief Review

In shared hosting, a hosting provider packs multiple accounts by setting up a physical server. As the name itself implies, every customer has to share all resources including space. Due to presence of a plethora of websites on a single server, every account has access to a very small portion of the server.

Shared hosting resembles a dormitory that accommodates a large number of inmates. It is an ideal arrangement for website owners with limited resource requirement and budget restrictions.

There are many benefits of shared hosting that can help WordPress sites depending on their needs. The foremost advantages are its affordability and convenience. Users need not be concerned about security and maintenance of sites since the hosting provider looks after entire management of shared hosting. Shared hosting also provides common tools that are already installed for benefit of users.

One can instantly get started with shared hosting. Users need not be technically proficient in website administration because the hosting provider offers excellent technical support. In the event of any technical glitch, the provider will ensure that the same is attended to without delay.

Having detailed some of the advantages of shared hosting, let us focus on cons. It is possible that your neighboring sites may not be as security conscious as you. In the event of other accounts getting hacked, your site is also going to be exposed to the resulting threat as the entire server gets compromised. Moreover, in the absence of a dedicated IP address, your account stands chance of getting blacklisted due to illegitimate activities of other sites.

Restricted access to settings is an important demerit of shared hosting. Shared hosting does not provide its accounts with root access, thereby preventing users from accessing advanced settings.

By sharing vital resources including bandwidth, there could be instances of bottlenecks due to excessive consumption of resources by other accounts, leading to bottlenecks.

Although shared hosting may not sound an ideal option for majority of WordPress site owners, it can support websites with limited hosting requirements and a meager traffic.

Understanding VPS hosting

Virtual Private Server hosting is identical with shared hosting since both are multi-tenant environments. In comparison with shared hosting, VPS hosting allows larger space and resources due to limited number of shared accounts per server. Users are also offered choice of either a managed or unmanaged VPS hosting. Managed VPS hosting relieves you of all server admin related tasks including security, maintenance, and server configuration.

In case of unmanaged VPS hosting, users are assigned all responsibility of server management without any support from the provider. This makes unmanaged VPS as an ideal choice for users with sound technical proficiencies since there is no guarantee of any tech support in the event of any technical issue.

Greater availability of resources and a root access are important benefits of VPS hosting in comparison with shared hosting. Users are allowed to access hidden files and can alter settings. In the event of additional resource requirement, users of VPS hosting are able to upgrade plan without need to migrate to a new server. Security of hosting continues to remain an important concern even in VPS hosting.

This is primarily because of a shred environment. However, security standard is definitely better in VPS hosting than shared hosting because there are fewer accounts on a single server than in shared hosting. Even in terms of affordability, VPS hosting is not too pricey, although it is slightly costlier than shared hosting.

VPS hosting is the right choice for websites that receive low to moderate traffic and with need to add multiple plugins and pages. You can also think of running multiple sites because of sufficient availability of space.

If a company needs to launch its WordPress site with a high degree of complex design and does not project huge growth in number of visitors in very near future, then a VPS can be a right choice to host such a site.

VPS hosting is also preferred for websites that need custom plugins or custom applications. It also allows considerably higher traffic than a shared hosting.

Dedicated Server Hosting- Independent and Powerful

If you do not want any of the resources shared by any other website, then you should rent a dedicated server that accords complete control of the server to you so that all server resources including space, CPU, memory are reserved only for you. Dedicated hosting also allows freedom to implement any changes to server configuration. Similar to VPS hosting one can choose between a managed or unmanaged option in dedicated server hosting.

Dedicated hosting can also be used to create reseller hosting accounts. Every aspect of dedicated hosting has a superlative attribute including implementation of security parameters that can be defined according to user choice.

The major drawback of a dedicated hosting solution is the lack of scalability and affordability.

If you are running a mission critical website that needs implementation of exclusive security measure or a complex web application, then a dedicated hosting solution is a right option for hosting.

Content Delivery Network and Cloud Solutions

Cloud is an entirely different ball game and is offered as a cluster of networked servers. It guarantees redundancy of storage and instant scaling of resources in response to the requirement. In a CDN service, there are number of edge servers that can be loaded with mirrored content for instant distribution to remote users.

VPS hosting needs to be considered for majority of WordPress sites and if the organization’s hosting requirement demands more resources, then you can opt for dedicated or cloud hosting.

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