Recommended VPS hosts for WordPress
So you’re using WordPress and you are getting a nice amount of traffic, say a few hundred visitors a day. Maybe you love running many of the great plugins that add extra functionality for your visitors. There’s just one problem: your server is struggling with the load and your site isn’t just slow, it’s ssslllooowww!
Shared hosting maybe inexpensive but resources are limited and security can be compromised. Dedicated servers are very powerful, can require high levels of technical knowledge for customization and are extremely expensive.
VPS hosting can be the happy halfway house
Virtual private server (VPS) hosting could be a solution if you have outgrown your shared hosting and don’t need to move to a dedicated server. It is the best option for small to medium sized businesses. A site hosted on a VPS gets its own RAM and disk space, however, it shares the processing capacity (CPU) with other sites.
Remember, Google includes a site’s speed into it’s algorithm – so a faster running site is not only advantageous to your visitors but also may push you higher in the search engine results pages.
I contacted hundreds of WordPress experts to ask them about their experiences and recommendations. Speed, reliability, ease of use and quality of support are important factors when looking for a host and came up again and again when talking to the experts.
Here are the most recommended VPS hosts
Here I’m listing the VPS hosts that were recommended by the pool of WordPress experts. I include a short synopsis of the specs, usability and pricing for the entry level packages.
- A2 hosting Inexpensive and their support comes highly recommended. 128 MB RAM, 1 GB storage, 100GB bandwidth for $10.46/month. You can get cPanel with higher specs for $17.46/month.
- Dreamhost Reasonably priced, good support, fantastic recommendations. This is my choice! 300MB RAM, unlimited space and bandwidth. Dreamhost have their own award-winning user’s control panel. For $15/month.
- Wiredtree Expensive but good. Intel Dual Xeon (8 CPUs), 512MB RAM, 40GB RAID-10 storage, 1000GB bandwidth, 4 dedicated IPs and cPanel for the base price of $49/month.
- Linode Knowledge of the command line is helpful as they do not offer a GUI out of the box. 360MB RAM, 16GB storage, 200GB bandwidth for $19.95/month.
- Liquidweb Their VPS plans start at $60/month and include cPanel as well as root access, 384MB RAM, 20GB storage, 400GB bandwidth, 4 IP addresses.
- MediaTemple The (dv) starts at $50/month and uses Plesk as a control panel. The (ve) at $30/month is for more advanced web developers that may find a control panel a hinderance.
- Rackspace Their users had nothing but good things to say about Rackspace. Cloud Sites™ runs on a series of clusters so it has redundancy and protection built in. When you upload your site or web based application, multiple instances of it run so that even if an entire server goes down your site stays up and running. They have their own cloud control panel proprietary GUI to navigate you through the clouds. Cloud Sites™ start at $149/month.
- VPS.net By default everything is command line; cPanel is an extra $10 a month. 376MB RAM , 10GB storage , 250GB bandwidth for £15/month per node. (I don’t know why they have the monthly price in pounds but the cPanel extra in dollars!) But again, their users were extremely complimentary.
To command line or to control panel?
A web host control panel (such a cPanel) provides a graphical interface designed to simplify the process of hosting a web site. It makes it easier to, for example, move files around, or set up or import MySQL databases necessary for WordPress. Alternatively you can type command lines through a Secure Shell (SSH). SSH is a network protocol that allows data to be exchanged securely between two networked devices. Anything you can do via cPanel is also doable via SSH without the overhead of the HTML, imagery and web server processing so it is therefore quicker.
Personally, I find the WYSIWYG nature of the control panel more familiar and intuitive, however, I’ve been using SSH as well and it can sometimes be a better way of doing things.
Conclusion
Deciding on a VPS host for WordPress is no easy business. There are many things to consider. Above all make sure you pick a host that other WordPressers recommend. If you have any other recommendations or questions be sure to make them known in the comments section!
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Incredibly informative and interesting article.
Very well written..
What I liked:
You delivered all the information efficiently and easily. And even today being incredibly tired, I could absorb all of the info and remember.
Compare now with other blogs where they waffle and waffle (also about their cats) where they write *not* because deep down they want to convey valuable info to others – but more for self-glorification, for Google’s sake – stupid PageRank obsession (haha what fools, they are!)
Thanks Rob, I truly learnt something new today .. Keep it up!
Thank you, Henry for your truly encouraging remarks! I’ll keep on plodding away. All the best!
This was a good idea for a blog article, Rob. For the novice site owner, it can be easy to get confused by hosting plans and the response frequently is to go for the very cheapest option, which may not suit the site’s needs.
Thank you, Tracey, I spent a good month researching this and, you’re right, it can get very confusing! Hope all’s well with you.
Very interesting list you have there. I am very thankful for your effort so that I didn’t have to go through the trouble of researching these myself! Thanks.
It would also be helpful to have information on a website hosting’s downtime. We all know how their downtime is not only frustrating, but potentially devastating for online businesses.
Cheers.
Thanks, Jamie, good point about downtime. Not surprisingly, I’ve always found that information quite hard to come by and then when you see it (excuse the cynicism) how do you know it’s true?! But an interesting factor to write about on another day. Cheers.
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Thanks for VPS list. I will a2hosting
Thanks Rara, hope it works out well.