WordPress Specific Webhosts: Are They Worth They Money?

June 29, 2008 |

by Chris Channing

WordPress, perhaps one of the most popular blogging platforms to date, isn’t exactly the first priority of every webhost around. Many webhosts are too general to provide optimal support for a specific product like WordPress. But if you value your blog, and are serious with its development and growth, looking for a webhost with WordPress-specific options would be in your best interest.

Features To Look Out For In WordPress Hosting

Above all else, WordPress should be simple to install. Several different administration panels allow for the instant installation of the script, such as cPanel. cPanel is run on the vast majority of all webhosts, so nearly every webhost user should have access to WordPress.

When it comes to security, bloggers prefer WordPress-specific webhosts. This is mainly due to the fact that when important security releases are circulated, normal webhosts aren’t always the first to get their auto-installers updated with the new information. WordPress-specific webhosts are much more “on the ball” in this sense, as they are always kept updated on new releases.

Where general webhosts tend to fail bloggers is in the upgrade category. Auto-installers such as Fantastico (packaged with cPanel) offer easy ways to upgrade, but the configurations, themes, plugins, and other content will be lost in the upgrade as files are overwritten. Clearly, WordPress specific hosts get the win here, since they take previously configured files into account when upgrading.

Anyone WordPress user that has been on the front page of websites such as Digg.com know that with excessive demand comes downtime. This is because WordPress is database driven- meaning that if a lot of people are on your blog at the same time, it is bound to go down. WordPress-specific webhosts take this into effect and offer better performance and efficiency at the database level.

Bloggers Get Added Bonuses

One of the biggest benefits of WordPress hosts is the fact that they tend to offer free content to WordPress users. You shouldn’t be surprised to see free WordPress themes, plugins, and content from these webhosts. Try finding these benefits from normal webhosts- odds are you won’t.

The great thing about getting free themes from WordPress hosts is the fact that no one else has them. This means that you can have a professionally designed blog at no extra cost, compared to the hundreds of dollars it would take to get a custom WordPress theme designed and coded.

When a blogger gets a custom design laid out and coded, it becomes apparent that the webhosting route would have been much cheaper. Not a bad tradeoff, considering that there will be very few other blogs with the same theme as yours.

When we add the score up, it seems that the WordPress hosts come out on top. But be sure to get quotes from several sources before making your decision. After all, a website is only as good as its host!

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