These days it is practically impossible to run a business without an associated website. If you are not represented online you are not only missing out on terrific marketing opportunities, you are also making it more difficult for potential clients that actually do know about you to find you and make use of your services. WordPress has been a favored platform for building sites for a while now, mostly because of its ease of use, reliability and the fact that it gives you a ton of options, which are still easy to implement. So if you are thinking about starting a website and have decided on WordPress, it wouldn`t hurt to know a bit about your hosting options.
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting might be a good option for you if you don`t believe you`ll have too much traffic and are not really worried about the security of your site. Shared hosting is probably the cheapest option out there, and since WordPress is not really demanding, the resources that you are allocated will probably be sufficient, provided that there are no significant spikes in your traffic.
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However, if you are planning on growing your website`s audience, want a good deal of control over server settings, and if you don`t want to be in risk of getting blacklisted as a spamming site because of some disreputable sites that you are sharing the server with, you might want to think about another option.
Dedicated Hosting
The most expensive kind of hosting, but also the one that gives you the most freedom, resources and control over the server settings. Dedicated hosting means that you`ll have the entire server for yourself and that there is pretty much no way that it will become overburdened, regardless of your traffic or the content of your site.
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However, if you don`t think that you`ll be getting a ton of visits and don`t need absolute control over all the settings, it may be a bit too pricey for most businesses.
Virtual Private Server Hosting
This is somewhere between the two previously mentioned types of hosting, both when it comes to price and the amount of independence you have. You are sharing the resources of a server with other sites, but you are allocated a fixed amount of those resources, and you are much more isolated from other websites than is the case with shared hosting. You also have the right and ability to manage some of the server settings, and you can easily upgrade to a more expensive plan if the need arises.
Managed WordPress Hosting
Managed WordPress hosting may be the best option for your WordPress site, as long as you don`t mind the price, that can, depending on your needs, be quite steep. With this type of hosting, most of the hosting issues are handled by different companies that ensure that everything is in order with your site. That means that you not only have excellent customer support that is constantly available, but also that you probably won`t need that customer support as all the issues are being handled by the company in question.
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This ensures maximum reliability and constant monitoring of the performance of your site. The price will usually depend on the number of sites you are running and the number of visitors that you expect you`ll be getting, but it is usually more than well worth what you are getting for it.