WordPress Hosting: Pros and Cons for Small Business Websites

WordPress is the top choice among small businesses that build and manage their own websites. However, due to their relatively smaller operations, they often do not have enough time and resources to manage their WordPress sites.

Thats where a service like WordPress Hosting comes in. WordPress Hosting enables small businesses to access a hosting environment built specifically for WordPress sites. It also offers a few valuable add-on features that can be availed for a fee.

If you are a small business owner and are considering a WordPress hosting solution, here are all the pros and cons you should know about.

Pros of WordPress Hosting for Small Business Websites

Let’s tackle the benefits first.

Optimized Performance

Optimized performance is very important for any business. Your site’s performance affects the user experience and the site’s SEO ranking on Google.

WordPress hosting plans are optimized for WordPress sites. Along with 100% uptime, these solutions offer WordPress-specific features such as automatic updates as well as pre-installed plugins and themes. These ensure your setup and installations remain smooth and easy. They also offer specialized caching that enables fast WordPress hosting.

Security Features

WordPress hosting is the go-to solution for ensuring website security, especially if your site handles personal data. These hosting solutions are equipped with built-in measures such as vulnerability scanning, web application firewalls, and automatic plugin updates to reduce vulnerabilities.

Providers like Hosted also offer security solutions such as Patchman, Monarx, ImunifyAV, and BitNinja. They can also help you add SSL certificates to your website. As a bonus, you have the added assurance of getting hack recovery assistance if you ever need it.

Web Hosting Management

Dont have the technical expertise to tackle web hosting? No worries!

From the migration of your WordPress site to running your hosting server and other backend tasks, everything is managed by the hosting solutions provider. This means that you can stay focused on improving your website’s design and content to attract more customers.

Backup and Restoration

Hosting services perform automated daily backups and updates along with easy restoration solutions. These enable businesses to restore data instantly without having to worry about running or maintaining backups.

Scalability

WordPress hosting plans are ideal for small businesses with plans to grow or host resource-heavy websites. They enable site owners to access more storage, bandwidth, CPU, RAM, and other necessary resources that are necessary when anticipating growing traffic.

Tailored Support

Most service providers offer dedicated support as part of their WordPress hosting plans. Their expert support teams are equipped to handle every issue and query regarding the maintenance, management, and troubleshooting of your WordPress site.

This is a must for any small business thats getting started with WordPress.

Cons of WordPress Hosting for Small Business Websites

There are certain drawbacks associated with WordPress hosting services.

Plugin Limitations

WordPress hosting providers can restrict which plugins and how many of them you can run. While this is typically due to performance or security concerns, it can limit your site’s functionalities.

Cost

The prices of WordPress hosting plans are slightly higher compared to web hosting solutions. This is because of the tailored hosting service and features offered.

Of course, WordPress hosting is still a cost-effective alternative to self-hosting if you are a small business.

Unnecessary Customizations and Features

Since WordPress hosting solutions are designed for WordPress sites, they’re able to offer more customizations and features than other web hosting solutions. While these are great for your website, only teams with the appropriate resources and expertise can use them properly.

For small businesses, these are often unnecessary and overwhelming because their site performance needs are much lower.

Limited Number of Sites

If you want to host more than one WordPress site, make sure your WordPress hosting plan supports it.

The majority of WordPress hosting providers only cover a single website in their entry-level plans. So, make sure to check the number of websites covered and the pricing of their mid-tier plans.

Lacks Email Hosting

Most WordPress Hosting plans do not offer email hosting. So, you’ll need to look for a separate email hosting provider to tackle emails for you.

While there are WordPress hosting providers that offer email hosting in their services, you’re still better off if your WordPress hosting plan can also accommodate emails.

Limited Storage

Limited storage is another issue with WordPress hosting solutions. However, it isn’t necessarily a problem for every business.

If your site runs large media files, you want to ensure that your hosting solution offers ample disk space to support your needs.

In general, most providers offer between 5GB and 50GB of SSD storage in their entry-level plans.

Is a WordPress Hosting Solution Right for You? Assess Your Needs

WordPress Hosting solutions come with pros and cons. While they are a better deal for small businesses than self-hosting, the best hosting solution depends on your specific needs.

The bottom line? Make sure you are aware of your business requirements and growth plans before signing up for a service!