Did you know that an average of 1.8 billion websites are online at the same time each day? The truth is that’s only possible thanks to web hosting.
If you’re planning to launch a new WordPress site in the near future, one of the costs you’ll have to account for is WordPress website hosting. So, how much should you budget to spend?
Well, the truth is that the average WordPress hosting cost can vary between just a few dollars and over $1,000 per month, based on a number of different factors. Fortunately, you’ve come to the right place for guidance.
Keep reading to learn more about the factors that affect WordPress web hosting costs, whether you’re launching a new site or just looking to switch providers.
The Size of Your Site
Most WordPress hosting sites will offer a few different plans based on your site’s needs. Simply put, the bigger your site is the more storage and bandwidth you’ll need from your hosting provider.
If your site only has a few simple pages and doesn’t get much traffic, then you won’t require as much space on a server as a larger, more frequented site would. That means you can get away with a relatively cheap hosting plan.
The Type of Hosting Plan You Choose
Each WordPress hosting provider will offer different types of plans, but generally speaking, you can expect to see the following hosting options available to you:
- Shared hosting
- VPS hosting
- Dedicated hosting
Shared hosting is ideal for smaller sites since you won’t need as much space. In this case, you’ll pay a smaller monthly hosting fee because your site is on a shared server with other small websites.
VPS hosting is better for sites that are a little bigger and that get more consistent traffic. If you choose a VPS hosting plan, you’ll still be on a shared server, but it will have fewer sites on it, so you’ll have more bandwidth for your site.
Finally, a dedicated hosting plan means that your website will be on its own server, so you won’t have to worry about sharing bandwidth with other sites. While it’s the most expensive hosting option, you really only need it if you have a big site that gets a lot of daily traffic.
The Number of Sites You Have
Most people only have one website, so that helps to keep hosting costs down. However, if you plan to have multiple sites, then you’ll need more space and bandwidth to host all of them.
In that case, you’ll likely have to pay for hosting per site. So, for example, if you have four websites, you can expect to pay four times the amount of hosting as you would for a single site since they all take up space.
If you do plan to have multiple sites, make sure you choose a hosting provider that gives you the ability to host more than one at a time.
The Amount of Security You Need
Next, think about the amount of security you need for your site. While all websites need to be secure, a simple blog site will require much less security than a site that accepts credit card payments or personal information.
Most WordPress hosting sites will offer firewall protection for their servers, giving you some peace of mind, but if you need additional security features, you may be able to upgrade your plan to pay for an SSL certificate or other levels of protection.
The Hosting Provider You Choose
One of the most significant factors in how much you’ll pay for WordPress hosting is the hosting company you choose since they each set their own prices and likely offer a range of different plans.
So, why not just choose the cheapest hosting provider you can find? Well, as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. While that doesn’t mean that you should opt for the most expensive hosting provider, it also doesn’t mean that the cheapest one is always the best option either.
To help you make your decision, research a few different hosting providers to see what they about uptime, customer service, and speed. Then, think about what will happen if there’s an issue with your site being online. Will it be easy for you to contact someone from your hosting service? Or will you be stuck on hold for hours?
It helps to read customer reviews as well so you have a better idea of what to expect from a particular company. Ideally, you want to find a hosting provider with excellent customer service who will keep your site online and fast, so you don’t lose out on potential customers. Check out trustgeeky.com to learn more about great WordPress hosting services.
The Add-on Services You Need
Finally, consider if you’ll need any add-on services. Many WordPress hosting providers offer additional features as an all-in-one service provider.
For example, if you plan to sell products on your website, you may need eCommerce features like an SSL certificate or certain premium WordPress plugins to help you manage your products.
Other features that hosting providers may provide include the following:
- Automated backups
- Email addresses from your domain name
- Bandwidth scalability as your site gets more traffic
- Automatic malware removal
- Domain name
- WordPress plugins and themes
Before you make your final decision on where to host your WordPress site, make sure you have a full understanding of what services are available to you and what’s included in the monthly cost you’ll pay.
Determining the Average WordPress Hosting Cost
After reading through this guide to the different factors that affect the average WordPress hosting cost, we hope you have a better understanding of why costs can vary so much. Keep these factors in mind as you choose a hosting provider to help make sure you get the best possible price.
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