How to Choose Hosting for WordPress website – A Step by Step Guide

Whether you’ve got an idea for a startup, are running an e-commerce store, or have an online business or a blog, almost every product and business requires a website in this day and age.

There are trillions of web pages being published every day and if you haven’t set up your business online, then you’re too late.

From building a personal brand to crafting a business, everything demands a website in order to create an online presence and once you’ve developed your website, bought a domain name and figured out a business plan, the next thing you need to do is host said website on the internet to make it available for clients around the world.

In today’s article, I will share my opinion on choosing the hosting for a WordPress website that may be the best for you and hopefully by the end of it you will be able to pick that perfect hosting.

What Is Web Hosting?

According to website.com, “Web hosting is a service that allows organizations and individuals to post a website or web page onto the Internet. A web host, or web hosting service provider, is a business that provides the technologies and services needed for the website or webpage to be viewed in the Internet. Websites are hosted, or stored, on special computers called servers. When Internet users want to view your website, all they need to do is type your website address or domain into their browser. Their computer will then connect to your server and your webpages will be delivered to them through the browser.”

In short web hosting creates a space for you to display your website on the world wide web and thus make it accessible for viewers, employers, customers and potential clients.

How Much Will Web Hosting Cost?

Web hosting could cost you anywhere between $9 to $100 per year depending on the hosting service used.

Usually, more expensive web hosts have exclusive features, not readily found on more common or affordable websites, that work to send your website to the forefront of a potential viewer’s gaze.

This higher cost will usually pay back the investment made into it by developing a sophisticated online presence, scaling your business more efficiently, and attracting more elusive clients.

How To Choose Hosting For WordPress Website – A Step By Step Guide

In this blog post, you will view the guidelines to choose a web host that suits your WP website the best. Following are four basic steps you should follow while choosing a web host:

Step 01: Make A Cost Estimation

The cost of the hosting plan comes first. You should always start by analyzing your budget and the needs of the website. Depending upon those, you should begin to form the decision about whether you should choose a cheaper or a more expensive hosting plan.

Take your time and make sure to carefully look at the features of the hosting plan you’ve got your sights on and don’t always run for cheaper plans.

Most people prefer to select the cheapest hosting plan to save money. But remember, the web hosts with higher costs pay back in terms of a more delux quality and more efficient performance.

However, you can choose a cheaper web host if you’re trying it out for the first time or hosting a website that doesn’t require the more high-end web hosts. In any case, if you’re running an online business, then I would highly recommend that you choose a more high-end web host since when your website runs smoothly, you attract more visitors which helps the business to grow and thus prosper.

The price of web hosting is often based on a number of features, including but not limited to, customer support, traffic handling and speed. The higher the price, the more smooth the features. You can’t expect the best hosting in just a few bucks honestly if you want the best of the best, you’re going to have to pay for it.

Initially, you can go for a budget-friendly hosting plan and upgrade your plan as your website scales up. There are also other web hosting plans that include virtual private servers (VPS), dedicated servers, managed VPS, managed dedicated servers and managed WordPress hosting. However, the price of the web host, of course, varies with the plan.

Step 02: Evaluate Features And Performance

The second step is to analyze the features of a hosting plan along with what your requirements may be. Select a web hosting which is suitable for the needs of your website. It is useless to select a feature-rich hosting which you may never fully utilise, it would be a waste of funds.

Therefore, analyze the required features for your website and on the basis of that, select a web hosting plan which is up to the requirements of your website.

To evaluate the performance of a web host, you must check for the up times, the bandwidth, fast servers, and enough disk space to accommodate your resources. If you compromise on performance, you will have to end up dealing with the downtime and other server-related issues.

Make your decision wisely as it will pay off later. Talk to a customer representative of the hosting provider, ask questions and consider advice in order to select the best hosting for your website. Also, read the reviews and ask friends for a recommendation.

Step 03: Quality Of Customer Support

The third step is to judge the quality of customer support provided by the web host company. This factor could affect your online business greatly so make sure to always survey their support system to see how active and friendly they may be.

Suppose your website goes down, who do you contact then? If customer support isn’t available, then will you allow the website to remain unavailable for potential visitors? Of course not.

A good web host gives 24/7 online support, along with interaction on call, email, and chat. They also take customer feedback to improve their support and are quick in responding to the client’s queries. Thus, choose a web host who has an effective customer help service and support.

Step 04: Types Of WordPress Hosting

The fourth step is to select the type of WordPress hosts. There are basically two types of hosts that can be used to host a website developed on WordPress. They are as follows:

  1. Managed WordPress hosting
  2. Traditional web hosting providers

1. Managed WordPress Hosting

Managed WordPress hosting provides hosting for websites which are developed on WordPress only. You can not host other websites through it.

This type of hosting works pretty efficiently since it is specifically made for WordPress websites. WPEngine is the prominent managed WordPress hosting provider right now!

Here are the 5 best Managed WordPress hosting providers.

2. Traditional Web Hosting Providers

Traditional web hosting providers offer to host for websites developed on any platform. These are cheaper and more popular than managed WordPress hosts.

You can buy these hosts and download WordPress in naught but a few steps. The popular web hosts of this type include BlueHost and HostGator.

There are millions of hosting providers for WordPress. But you need to choose the one which fulfills your requirements. Each hosting provider has a different plan and services. In order to choose the right hosting, you need to analyze your requirements initially.

Conclusion

It is extremely important to choose a web hosting for your website, blog, or any other business.

In this article, you learned the four simple steps to choose the right hosting for your WordPress website. The cost, features, performance, and customer support are important factors while choosing web hosting.

Be mindful in spending time on research and analyzing your needs. Later, it will help you in running a smooth website and strengthen your online business. Read more here!