Hosting

Where to put a WordPress site.

Most small business websites do not need anything exotic. They need WordPress, hosted somewhere that takes backups, staging and updates seriously, run by a company likely to still be there in three years. This is what we tell clients when they ask where to put their site, including where we earn a commission and where we do not.

First question

Is WordPress the right answer here?

WordPress is a good fit

A site that is mostly pages and posts, updated by your own team, where you want to change your own copy without ringing a developer. Brochure sites, content-led marketing sites, and a straightforward online shop through WooCommerce.

WordPress will do, with care

Sites carrying a handful of custom pieces: a booking form, a members area, a directory. Entirely possible, and the cost is that every plugin you add is another thing to keep patched and another way for the site to break at an awkward moment.

WordPress is the wrong tool

Anything that is really an application wearing a website: complicated rules, heavy integration with your other systems, a marketplace, large volumes of data. Forcing that into WordPress produces something nobody can safely change later.

If you are in the third group, hosting is not your decision to make yet. Web & Platform Development covers what to build instead, and Code Takeover & New Features covers the case where something already exists and needs changing.

Choosing a host

Six things worth asking about.

Backups you have restoredEvery host says it takes backups. The questions worth asking are whether you can restore one yourself, how far back they go, and whether anybody has ever tried it. A backup nobody has tested is a hope, not a safeguard.

A staging siteSomewhere to try an update or a change before it reaches customers. Without one, your live site is the test environment and your customers are the testers.

Updates actually handledWordPress, its themes and its plugins need patching constantly, and out-of-date plugins are how most compromised WordPress sites got that way. Either somebody is doing this every month, or the site is quietly becoming a liability.

Support that knows WordPressGeneral hosting support will tell you the server is fine. That is usually true and almost never the answer. You want people who will look at the site itself.

Where it is served fromIf your customers are Australian, or you hold information with rules attached to where it sits, ask where the site and its backups are stored before you sign up rather than after.

How you leaveWhat it takes to move the site elsewhere if you change your mind, and whether you can export everything yourself. A host that makes leaving difficult is telling you something about the rest of the relationship.

What we point people at

Two sensible answers, depending on who runs it.

Both are Automattic products, which matters more than it sounds: they are the company that builds WordPress itself, so the hosting and the software are not two organisations blaming each other when something breaks. The difference is how much of it you want to run.

Managed WordPress hosting

Pressable

Pressable is managed WordPress hosting from Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, Jetpack and WooCommerce. Managed means the server side, the updates and the backups are their job rather than yours, staging is part of the product rather than an extra, and support is staffed by people who work on WordPress rather than on servers in general.

This is the one to look at if you want a normal hosting account: a site you or your developer control, the freedom to install what you like, and somewhere sensible to put several sites if you run more than one. WooCommerce shops included, which is the case where hosting quality stops being cosmetic and starts costing you orders.

Visit Pressable →

Referral link: we receive a commission if you sign up through it, at no additional cost to you.

Fully hosted WordPress

WordPress.com Business

WordPress.com is the version where Automattic runs the whole thing, from the hosting to the updates, and you deal with one company and one bill. The Business tier is the point at which you can install your own plugins and themes, which is what most businesses eventually need.

This is the one to look at if you want the least possible administration and are content to work within how WordPress.com does things. Check the current plan tiers against what your site actually needs, since what is included at each level moves around.

Visit WordPress.com →

Referral link: we receive a commission if you sign up through it, at no additional cost to you.

Whichever you pick, check two things that depend on your circumstances rather than ours: where your site and its backups are served from, and how the plan limits compare with your actual traffic rather than your hoped-for traffic.

How we are paid for this page.

This is a referral link

If you sign up through either link on this page, we receive a commission from Automattic. It does not change what you pay, and both links are part of the same programme.

The advice is the same either way

We would tell you the same thing without the arrangement, and the section above on when WordPress is the wrong tool costs us the commission rather than earning it. If you would rather we did not earn anything from your decision, go to either provider directly. Everything on this page still stands.

The account is yours

You sign up with the host directly, in your business's name and on your card. We do not sit between you and your hosting, and nothing about it depends on you continuing to work with us.

Not sure whether WordPress is the right answer?

Tell us what the site has to do. We will tell you honestly, including when the answer is that you do not need us for it.

Book a Strategy Call →