What to look for in WordPress hosting provider

The traditional term web hosting refers to all businesses that offer housing, serving, and maintaining files for websites online. Web hosting refers to all types of hosting services available, this includes everything from dedicated and shared hosting to cloud hosting, and VPS hosting. On the other hand, WordPress hosting is a type of web hosting that provides servers and resources specifically optimized for WordPress websites. You do not necessarily need a WordPress-specific hosting to launch a successful site with WordPress. However, WordPress hosts often offer useful tools and features that can help your website perform better in the long run. So if you are looking for a WordPress hosting provider there are a few factors you should consider before you make a final decision.

This article will provide you with the 5 most important things you should consider when making your choice.

Easy to Use Control Panel

The control panel is the easiest way you can manage and monitor all the WordPress hosting services you use. The superiority and functionality of the control panel can vary depending on the hosting provider you choose. The basic elements of a control panel include domain and DNS management, subdomains, Add-On domains, file manager, mailbox management and logging and monitoring tools. Even though you should make sure that the hosting provider covers the basic elements, it is also a good idea to look for a hosting provider with more advanced control panel features. Some of the more advanced features can be security features, TLS/SSL, ModSecurity, Custom Error Pages, Managing Databases etc. Make sure not to choose a WordPress hosting service that uses outdated control panels as you may experience security issues and less than expected performance. The best way to evaluate a website control panel is to try it out. Most hosting providers offer a live online preview or free trial run where you can test the functionality and the user-friendliness of the control panel.

PHP7

PHP 7 is the newest version of the most popular programming language PHP. PHP7 ensures fast website loading and more efficient scripting that will make sure your website runs flawlessly every time users access it. WordPress is completely compatible with PHP 7, most of the core of the WordPress software is written in PHP. So make sure to look for a hosting provider that supports PHP 7 this will seriously reduce the latency and response time of your site. There are WordPress hosting providers that will allow you to easily select a PHP version of your choosing or upgrade to the newest version.

Wide range of features & backup

Automatic WordPress backups means you can schedule backups on daily, weekly or monthly intervals and let the backup tool do the backup for you. This is a far safer option than relying on the manual backup methods. If you are doing updates or adding plug-ins to the WordPress core it is very important to do previous backups since they often involve security patches. This way you have a guarantee that your site can be completely restored if any problems or crashes occur. Another important factor of a good WordPress hosting provider are the features it offers. Look for a hosting provider with a wide range of features and make sure you are included in the hosting plan you choose, paying extra for additional features can drive up you monthly costs.

Good Web Server Stack

A Web stack is a collection of an operating system, a programming language, database software and a web server required for web development. All good WordPress hosting providers need to have a decent web server stack with all kinds of caching mechanisms built into it, so they can optimize your website’s performance. Consider technologies that enable both static and dynamic component configurations. This way the performance of the application will be seamless, even when users increase or when you add more features.

Overall Performance

A higher level of an overall performance of a hosting provider can directly influence the success of a website. Maintaining high levels of performance at all times is the most important task for any hosting provider out there. Only experienced and reputable WordPress hosting providers can guarantee you an amazing performance. If you want to know if a hosting provider has a good overall performance make sure you check their requests per second (RPS), the page loading time, throughput, error rate and response time. A good way to do is to read reviews, check testing sites or try out their free trial runs.

Conclusion

Choosing a hosting provider is an important decision that requires a lot of research. This article highlights the five essential factors that determine the quality of the hosting service that you will get. Once you find a provider that offers all of the above mentioned features you can read a couple of reviews to see the experiences their customers have. If you do all that you are on a great track to creating a good and reliable WordPress website.