Is WordPress Hosting Worth it?

WordPress hosting is certainty a hot product within web hosting. With so many companies now offering WordPress hosting within their product range we look at whether WordPress hosting is worth it?

If WordPress can work within any hosting environment that supports PHP and MySQL do you need specific WordPress hosting?

To answer this let us first look at what it actually is. Often referred to as managed or optimised for WordPress. WordPress hosting will provide a hosting environment that has been built and optimised for WordPress. While it doesn’t have any particular requirements. Certain server setups can provide performance boosts to WordPress sites. At a minimum having a service that is optimised for WordPress is what any WordPress hosting plan should include.

Each hosting provider will have differing levels of service and features. The more features a service offers the more likely it will be referred to as managed WordPress hosting.

What is Managed WordPress Hosting?

Managed WordPress hosting will offer additional features that you won’t typically get in a standard hosting or optimised for WordPress hosting plan. Nearly all managed WordPress platforms will include:

• Automatic Installation of WordPress
• Auto-updates of plugins
• Robust Backups of WordPress

In addition to this Managed WordPress hosting can include:

• Integrated Server and WordPress Caching
• Staging Environments
• Higher level of security
• Integrated CDN

Looking at managed WordPress hosting at face value nearly all of these features can be created outside of a managed WordPress environment. Either via plugins or external services. Some of which may be free others at a cost. So let’s take a look at some of the benefits of managed WordPress hosting.

What are the Benefits of Managed WordPress Hosting?

The most significant benefits come from the increased hardware and caching performance WordPress providers provide. This is also the part is the area that cannot be created elsewhere. Directly improve site speed, compared to a general hosting provider.

Managed WordPress hosting generally is an all-in-one solution. For example, you may be running a caching plugin, site backup and CDN services. Many WordPress providers combine all of these with their service.

Furthermore, managed WordPress hosting can provide a more secure environment for your website. In terms of encouraging automatic updates of WordPress and plugins as default. Security holes in plugins are quickly eliminated, with your site and also others on the server.

The staging environment can also help with your site’s development. As avid WordPress users ourselves there have been countless times where you want to test certain features before making them live. WordPress staging allows for an exact copy of your website using the same environment your live site will use. Changes can be pushed to the live site once you are ready to make them live. This is oftentimes overlooked as a huge benefit.

Most importantly the benefit of good quality managed WordPress hosting service should always outperform standard shared hosting.

What are the disadvantages of WordPress Hosting?

Before we talk about the disadvantages of WordPress hosting. It’s important to realise that WordPress hosting plans are not all cut from the same cloth. Features, services and hardware can all vary. Some plans optimise for WordPress which is different to a dedicated WordPress hosting platform.

For many, the main disadvantage will be the cost. Managed WordPress hosting is more expensive than what you can get with many shared hosting plans. Typically these days we have become accustomed to unlimited everything. If you are running multiple websites the cost can add up quickly. It worth look at this in two ways quality over quantity and do the additional features outweigh the extra cost.

With a dedicated WordPress platform (opposed to optimised for WordPress) you can only run WordPress websites. So if you wanted to run a non WordPress website it would require a separate hosting plan. This can include separate apps and software you may run alongside your WordPress website.

Some WordPress hosting services also ban certain plugins so. Meaning you are less able to run what you like. If there are particular plugins you cannot do without considering this before signing up.

Is WordPress Hosting Worth the Extra Cost?

We briefly mentioned cost in the disadvantages of WordPress hosting. But let’s quickly take a look and see if choosing a WordPress hosting plan is worth the extra cost.

If your WordPress website is an important part of your business or a money site. Rather than a hobby, personal or information site then the answer is, absolutely. As the benefits in terms of speed, availability and ease of use more than justify the additional costs.

Things become a little more shades of grey when you run multiple websites, have low traffic sites or budget is a factor. The additional cost appears to become less clear cut. If you can justify the cost go for it, otherwise you will do fine with a standard shared or WordPress optimised hosting plan. As we mentioned earlier in our article many of the features WordPress hosting offers can for the most part be achieved through plugins or external services.

Is WordPress Hosting Right For Me?

If you run or plan to run a WordPress website then choosing a web hosting plan that has been optimised for WordPress or better still a Managed WordPress plan. There are clear benefits in doing so.

Deciding whether managed WordPress hosting or optimised WordPress hosting is the better option for you will depend on your circumstance such as budget, benefits of additional features and so on.

Which UK WordPress Hosts are worth considering?

You may be considering which UK WordPress hosting services are right for you. The following providers offer a range of managed and optimised WordPress hosting services.