If you’re moving to WordPress from another platform, or a hosted platform to WordPress.org, one of the biggest questions I receive as a WordPress expert is,”Who do I host with?”. There isn’t one answer that is going to be able to cover everyone. WordPress is a very dynamic piece of software, and depending on what you’re doing with it, you’re hosting requirements may change. Let’s review the main things to consider when choosing a hosting plan:

  • Price – If your website gets 1.1 million hits/day but you only have a $20 hosting budget, this will pose a problem.
  • Support – Every second your site is down you’re losing time, money, and branding power. Great support is VERY important. If you don’t want to or don’t know how to upgrade WordPress.org, you should consider this.
  • Space – You may have just a couple of files or you may have lots and lots of high resolution pictures. You’ll need a place for these files to live.
  • Bandwidth – Even if you have just a couple of pictures, if they get accessed 2o million times, you’ll need to make sure you have enough bandwidth to handle the transfer.

My first consideration when choosing WordPress hosting is the number of websites I am dealing with. This usually gives you an idea of the bandwidth, databases, and space you’ll be needing. If you have only one site with a few visitors , you’d be in great shape using a service like Page.ly or a basic account at HostGator. However, if you have multiple sites with numerous visitors, you’re going to need something quite a bit more substantial.

1) Support. This isn’t doesn’t just come in the form of people you call when your site starts acting funny. There are many things that go on behind the scenes you’ll want to consider. The security of WordPress depends heavily on the servers in which it resides. If the host doesn’t update to the latest versions of PHP, mySQL, or apply patches to the linux operating system, you may find that your blog becomes the new home of some Russian hacker. Finally, WordPress itself needs to be updated. It’s very important that you keep current on your updates. In recent version, WordPress has added a one-click upgrade option, but your host must support and you must be do it. If you go with a hosting company like Page.ly, they’ll update the WordPress install for you automatically in addition to the server software.

2) Price. The prices for WordPress hosting can vary from a cup of coffee to a a few nights in a 5 star hotel. What you need to decide is how critical your site is. Can you handle 10 minutes of downtime per month? How about 2 hours? How about if you fluff up an upgrade and your site is down for 6 hours before support can help you? The “Cup of Coffee” plan isn’t going to have the same great response to problems or downtime that the “5 star Hotel plan” will have. If every minute counts, don’t skimp. If you just want to post pictures of your dog, the cup of coffee plan is fine, if you want to be on the front page of Digg everyday, you’re going to need something substantially more powerful.

3) Space. WordPress needs space. It doesn’t just need space on a hard disk, or space in RAM, it also needs space in a database, and it needs ‘space’ in the processing realm. Some of the premium themes available for WordPress are gorgeous, but extremely resource intensive. They resize pictures, ping other websites and process cron jobs behind the scenes. It’s very important your hosting can keep up with all of these or your site is going to suffer in speed and reliability. Google has now publicly said that they are considering speed as a factor in ranking, so if your site is slow, you’re jeopardizing your ability to rank highly in Google, and likely, other search engines as well.

4) Bandwidth. Bandwidth is a difficult concept to explain to laymen. The best way to describe it is to think of it as the water coming to your house. That water starts somewhere else and ends up in your tub, but you have to pay to get it there. That is the essence of bandwidth. Every picture, every piece of text, every video has to to travel to you. If you have just a few visitors, you’ll probably never consider bandwidth. If you hit the front page of Digg, you could eat up your bandwidth in a single day. Make sure you buy for where you COULD be, not where you are. That said, as much as we love Fluffers the cat sitting on your keyboard, she probably won’t make the front page of Digg.

Finally, there are intangible things you’ll need to consider when choosing hosting. Let’s say you have a host with super fast support, they always pick up the phone, but they are really big jerks. Having someone belittle your for 20 minutes while they tool around in your .htaccess isn’t my idea of fun. So you’ve got to consider the people you’re working with, the services they offer, and where you’re comfortable. Switching WordPress hosts isn’t as difficult as people would like you to believe, and if you’re unhappy with where you are, you should consider a change.