Getting the right hosting for your WordPress site

A common concern for people who have a website is security. There are a lot of misconceptions out there about a wide range of CMS’s (including WordPress and Drupal) that they are insecure. Now, yes it’s true that at times there have been weaknesses in the code that can be exploited by would be hackers, but an often overlooked area of website security is the server that the website is hosted on. There are a large plethora of website hosting businesses out there providing very, very cheap website hosting with great sounding 99.99% up time guarantees.

The problem with some of these hosted environments however, is the lack of attention to detail in areas such as server updates and security. You’re also more than often sharing server space with multiple other companies with their own websites.

Now, if you’re on the same server as other sites and one or some are using archaic code, you are potentially at risk. Should a hacker compromise their website and also then get access to the server, then you are affected by the lack of somebody else’s security/code quality. On the flip side, if your hosting provider is cutting costs by not applying the most recent updates to the server software and maintaining the hardware, then again your site could be at risk from hacking or downtime.

This is why we recommend to all of our clients that they seek to get a dedicated hosting environment. This doesn’t always have to be expensive and we often recommend clients look at what is termed as a Virtual Private Server (VPS) or a Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS). Virtual servers allow you to  save money by not having to invest in the hardware of a fully fledged dedicated server.  You are still getting a dedicated server experience with your host, at a more cost effective rate.

We also recommend that the hosting package you select is fully managed and comes a service level agreement from the provider. It should ensure that they will continue to maintain the server, security, updates, patches, hardware and that you also have good support response times.

If you need some help choosing a server supplier we do offer hosting through preferred partners, so feel free to get in touch.

Have you have any hosting nightmares or wins? Comment below.