Costs of Hosting a WordPress Site
There are many options these days, when it comes to hosting and maintaining a website. DIY site-builders like Squarespace and Wix are appealing for their affordable prices and ease-of-use. But they serve more as a “one-stop-shop,” lacking flexibility and having limitations.
However, the extremely customizable nature of WordPress is beyond comparison. The ecosystem of themes, plugins, SaaS tools, and other support services is quite vast. But the hosting options available can be overwhelming, to say the least.
The first things to consider when you’re ready to launch a website are where to host it and what top-level domain to purchase. Overall, hosting costs are going to vary, depending on the data storage and bandwidth needs of your site.
First off, we’ll assume that you’re registering a new domain and setting up a WP site with a managed WP host, instead of opting for another platform. And for some perspective on why you might want to choose WordPress vs. Squarespace, see here.
Initial Costs
Every professional web service out there will have some introductory deals. However, if you look beyond the marketing, you’ll notice some companies are more cost-effective and consistent with their offerings. Typically, they’ll offer tiered plans to grab your attention and help you get started.
That being said, sometimes it is worthwhile to take advantage of a great deal. You can always switch or upgrade after the introductory period. However, make sure you understand what you’re signing up for. Some require a lengthy contract, or have other stipulations. Even if the first year is inexpensive, regular pricing might be higher than other comparable services.
Initially, you can expect to pay $10 - $20 per year when registering a new domain. And hosting can cost anywhere from $15 to upwards of $250 per month on average. That primary ongoing investment in your internet property is what you’ll pay to maintain your domain and web hosting services. That’s anywhere from $190 per year, up to as much as $3000 annually, for a more premium enterprise level set up.
Buying Domains and WordPress Hosting
Many companies offer free or cheap domain registration and cheaper starting rates on hosting. This can make for a more economical start. However, the trade off is often found in the level of support, or fewer options with lower-tiered plans.
Obviously, the biggest players will be front-and-center, since they have the advertising budgets for it. Some are really great, and some leave much to be desired. But the experience of most web hosting services often depends on just a couple of things: the amount of support needed, and the server resources required.
If you’re adept at configuring server settings, working in cPanel, changing MX records, etc, you might be tempted to do all things. Perhaps you don’t need a lot of technical support from your domain registrar and/or web hosting service. Considering all the work involved though, you may want to offload those duties.
Options for Managed WP Hosting
Shared hosting is the cheapest option for serving up any basic site. Cloud-based hosting offers greater scalability. And a virtual private server or dedicated web server can be good choices as well. Though, to reduce the complexities, we’re just going to discuss managed WordPress hosting here.
Even if you’re technically proficient with everything front and back end, configuring server settings and performing updates is time-consuming. So paying a little more for managed hosting will pay off in the long run. Especially since up time and security are critical to the profitability of your business.
Ultimately, a good host could be the difference between launching a successful project and losing potential customers. If your server isn’t optimized for WordPress and ready to accommodate an influx of web traffic, you may experience slow load times and bandwidth restrictions. Or many visitors may encounter an inaccessible website right when up time is most important…never to return again!
Best Managed WP Hosts
Many would say that WP Engine is the best when it comes to managed WordPress hosting. Starting at $25 per month, their service runs on Google Cloud Platform and every plan includes a CDN. They also provide their proprietary Evercache system for speed and scalability. If you never want to be concerned about troubleshooting or configuring server settings, WP Engine is the way to go.
Bluehost is next in line, when it comes to the best of managed WP hosting services. And they’re a bit more economical as well. For a single site, you can get going for $15 per month. You also get twice as much storage, and their expert support is outstanding as well.
If your goal is to grow a large ecommerce site or need a highly scalable enterprise solution, consider Nexcess. They offer tons of bandwidth with their hosting packages, starting at 2 TB with their entry level plan. Aside from their generous bandwidth allowances, they also offer auto-scalability. And they won’t even charge for the first 24 hours of a surge in traffic!
Finding the Right Fit
Depending on your immediate and long term needs, you’ll definitely want to consider the WP hosts noted above. As mentioned at the beginning of the article, it’s certainly possible to manage your own self-hosted website. Though it’s more time-consuming and can be both less scalable and more vulnerable to security threats as well.
For the most dependable, scalable, and secure hosting environment for your site, move to managed WordPress hosting. Not only will your site be hosted on a server optimized for WordPress, but there are other benefits as well. Ultimately, it will provide peace of mind and more time to do the work you want to be doing on your site, for years to come.
