Hosting for WordPress : Myth Buster for WordPress Optimized Hosting

Hosting for WordPress or more aggressively advertised and marketed as WordPress Optimized Hosting technically does not exist, it is Hosting for PHP-Driven website, nothing more or less. As most do not understand the basics of server side things, terminologies associated with Networking, the clever marketers, affiliates make a huge money by reselling some web host’s (who owns the physical data-centers) tricky words. There are tricks to make test website load very fast, fully live on some web page testing tools. It is important to understand what you are paying for.

Hosting for WordPress : Myth Buster for WordPress Optimized Hosting

WordPress needs very less resource and can run on a server with only 256 MB RAM, officially the requirements are :

We call the combination of Apache web server, PHP, MySQL running on Linux as LAMP Stack or Simply LAMP.  Sometime, instead of Apache2; nginx HTTP Server is used. On these platforms you can run any similar PHP-MySQL softwares like from our list – List of Open Source PHP MySQL Based Blogging Softwares. Definitely, there is some WordPress specific tweaks are needed, for that purpose; you can hire a Page Speed specialist or ask for some free recommendations – that is your one time cost. These tweaks, apart from the general (not WordPress specific) server side tweaks usually are dependent on :

1. A nicely coded theme
2. Lesser number of installed plugins
3. Lesser HTTP requests
4. Proper usage of WordPress specific functions for better page loading speed

Hosting for WordPress : The List of Hugely Abused Terminologies

So, Hosting for WordPress does not exist. You should look for a reliable host, usually for flexibility; Rackspace, HP or Amazon are mostly used now – all has Pay as You Go Model. Rackspace even for unmanaged will do the basic server configuration for you. You must understand the point – you must know what is the Service Level Agreement of the original host (who has the data center).

Traditional web hosts usually have a control panel cPanel or Plesk or something else. Most usually are for – in simple language – hosting multiple websites on a single server. For serious websites, one website on one server is recommended for various reasons. Alternatively, you can use Heroku, OpenShift etc. PaaS services – they starts from fully free plans. For PaaS, you need a bit knowledge about git and too busy website might face issues (it was reported by one of our reader).

Variously terminologies are abused by these WordPress Optimized Hosting providers, here are some :

1. Managed : There are levels of management. Networking Management, DNS Management are usually free by all IaaS providers. Device, that is your server management can be also managed, usually they goes paid with extra $100 per month for any number of servers. No IaaS has CMS specific support, you might need someone to nicely configure WordPress – that is hardly one time requirement; may be you can employ or hire someone for monthly, everyday checkup.
2. Performance : Everything has some metrics, what is / are their metrics for labeling performance?
3. Secured : Linux is itself secured! Securing is actually both hardening WordPress and configuring the firewall, like your own computer.
4. Uptime Management : None in this World can give warranty on Uptime Management. The full network can be made down – you probably heard about such disaster for Amazon.
5. HTTP Caching : Actually, in most cases; HTTP Caching is done by the load balancers, DNS etc. HTTP Caching is a part of normal phenomenon for DNS. Load Balancers are usually never required.
6. Support : We have checked, none of the testimonial providers ever used any high end own setup, they used blue, green , yellow etc. hosts. It is unlikely to be unsatisfied by using Rackspace Managed Hosting. Unmanaged also has some fanatical support. If you run a server for 3 hours, it will actually cost very less – few cents. There are thousands of tutorials online – you might not like our tutorials.
7. Most measures Page views not computing cycle or bandwidth : Actually, the bill becomes more for bandwidth usage on either single tenant or multi tenant environment. If you offload to a good CDN – Akamai or Rackspace Cloud Files, your billing will be reduced.

If you want to buy soap for while you need toothpaste, we have no issue. Test the service WordPress Optimized Hosting provider’s own website against webpagetest.org, most will fail at initial reduced time of loading. Most uses Amazon and NetDNA; Amazon lags far away in technology, right at this moment from Rackspace, Dell, Fujitsu and other leaders. We will prescribe better plan for you at lesser cost to higher cost :

1. A website is your own property – the server should be rented by you with proper SLA.
2. If your budget is very low, blue, green , yellow etc. hosts can work great if you properly optimize WordPress, use CDN, they will perform better.
3. If you can take risk, at budget you can try Rackspace, HP or Amazon to spin up server and do trial and error tests. All has free tier of usage for developmental purpose.
4. If you can not take risk or has more requirement (s) – go for Managed Rackspace.