It's crucial that you choose the appropriate hosting package for your specific needs otherwise your site might not function optimally or you could be paying over the odds for your site. Shared and WordPress hosting are two common types but how do they differ and how you know which is best for you and your website? To help you figure this out, in this article, we are going to compare the two.
Overview
Shared hosting is most popular with smaller websites and blogs, and it’s one of the most common types of hosting because it is the most affordable and very user-friendly. If your website does not require a large amount of resources or server customization, shared hosting can be the perfect solution for your needs, and your gateway to the world wide web especially if you've not made up your mind on what website builder or CMS to use.
The WordPress hosting is designed to host websites which are using the WordPress content management system (CMS). Known for its speed, reliability, and increased security, WordPress hosting allows you to focus on your content while the host handles all of the optimizations for WordPress on the server. A subset of this is managed WordPress hosting which, as its name implies, is a hosting service for WordPress that provides hosting but additional management features like updates to WordPress plugins .
What are the advantages of shared hosting?
Shared hosting has many advantages. To begin with, it's the cheapest form of hosting because you share your server with other sites. This in turn creates another advantage: as lots of customers use the same space the host has to keep tabs on security giving you an extra pair of eyes over your site. This is really only an advantage if you don't have a site that is highly sensitive to intrusions because if managed correctly using a server isolated from other tenants is the more secure option still.
The other advantage is accessibility and user friendliness. Most people using shared hosting are setting up their first website. Due to this hosts make shared hosting super accessible and easy to use.
And lastly, while there are restrictions on shared hosting, it is more versatile than WordPress hosting as you have the option to install and use other website builders and CMSs.
What are the advantages of WordPress hosting?
WordPress hosting brings a whole new level of performance to your website. As it only houses WordPress websites, the server can be optimised in such a way as to allow for advanced server caching. This enables your website to perform at the highest possible speed. This speed optimisation can improve SEO which may ultimately boost your ranking on Google allowing you to be found by many more people.
Keeping your online home up to date is an important part of managing and running a successful website. WordPress hosting provides auto-updates, ensuring better security while giving you one less thing to worry about when it comes to your business’ website.
Also, with a managed WordPress provider, you get a support team that not only understands WordPress but are experts in it. Furthermore, the WordPress host will save you a lot of time and effort by taking care of basic site optimization on your behalf, so you don’t have to rely on a slew of plugins to achieve the same result.
While plugins in themselves aren’t troublesome, it’s always a good practice to use as few as possible for better performance. And you can be sure that the WordPress hosting provider has carefully vetted the plugins to make sure they are of the highest quality and are fully secure.
Despite all these precautions, if something were to happen to your website, WordPress hosting generally provides free automatic backups. This gives you peace of mind, knowing that at any time you can restore your website to what it was in the past. The ease and worry-free features make WordPress hosting stand out from other hosting packages.
What are the disadvantages of shared hosting?
Shared hosting can host several hundred websites on one server, which can negatively affect the overall resources and speed of your website. If your website goes viral and you receive a huge traffic spike, due to resources being shared, your website may experience long load times, leading to downtime.
Another aspect of shared hosting is security. Because your website is on a server with many other websites, there is no way to ensure that all maintenance and security updates have been run across all websites. This opens a potential security threat to your website because you cannot manage other website’s security or content management systems.
Shared hosting does not allow server customization due to the effect it can have on other customers’ websites, thereby requiring you to use the default server settings configured by your hosting company.
What are the disadvantages of WordPress hosting?
WordPress hosting is restricted to only hosting websites built with the WordPress content management system, meaning that any other CMS can’t be hosted on WordPress hosting.
Due to server configuration, WordPress hosting generally restricts the overall amount of disk space that you can use. It can also restrict the number of websites that you host on your account. This can be a disadvantage if you have a website which is large in size.
Similar to shared hosting, WordPress hosting also restricts server customization, as the server is highly optimized to allow for the ultimate in loading speeds.
And finally, WordPress hosting typically costs more than shared hosting.
Which hosting type is the best for my website?
- You want to use a different CMS outside of WordPress. If you want to use Drupal, Magento, OpenCart, or any other CMS, shared hosting may be your best option.
- You have a modest or limited budget. Shared hosting is the least expensive, it can be a perfect hosting package if you are working on a restricted budget.
- You want to start small and grow over time. Starting small with shared hosting can be a perfect way to begin, as most hosting companies will allow you to upgrade as your website grows.
We recommend using WordPress hosting if:
- You are using WordPress as your CMS. Unfortunately, you cannot use other types of CMS with WordPress hosting.
- You want to manage a medium-sized website or online store. WordPress hosting offers impressive speed and uptime for medium to larger-sized websites. This is perfect for e-commerce, business, intranet, and community websites.
- You want to manage your website content, but not your website’s server security. Providing auto-updates, free automatic backups, as well as increased server security, WordPress hosting allows you to focus on your content and not the technical server details.
Conclusion
Many website owners start off using shared hosting. This gives you the ability to get your website live and available for visitors to view. As the most affordable hosting in the market, shared hosting is usually the best option for small websites.
On the other hand, WordPress hosting has advantages. Whether you are a business owner trying to get started or you are an experienced website developer, WordPress hosting should definitely be given consideration when choosing web hosting. Its superfast speeds, as well as enhanced security features, allow WordPress hosting to stand above shared hosting in many areas.
A lot of the time shared hosting is already optimized for WordPress because WordPress is what is most likely used on it and the WordPress hosting plan is simply a shared hosting plan with some features not related to WordPress excluded. This can help hosts troubleshoot issued you have as it excludes a lot of possibilities. So, if you notice that the shared and WordPress hosting of the host you're looking at looks identical, it's because other are optimized for WordPress.
