Shared, VPS or managed WordPress hosting?

Shared hosting for WordPress: how it works

With shared hosting, many websites live on the same server and share its processor, memory and storage. The host runs the server and its software, and you get a control panel (often cPanel) to install WordPress, manage files and set up databases.

Shared hosting has real strengths. It is quick to set up, easy to understand and usually the lowest-cost way to get a WordPress site online. Many shared plans also include email mailboxes and let you run other applications alongside WordPress. For a personal blog, a hobby project or a small site with modest traffic, it can be perfectly adequate.

The trade-offs come from the sharing and from how general-purpose it is:

• Resources are pooled to some degree, so the host sets limits on processes, memory or database connections to keep things fair
• Caching and security are general-purpose, designed to suit any kind of website rather than WordPress specifically
• WordPress care is mostly yours: updates to core, plugins and themes, caching plugins and security plugins
• Staging may need setting up yourself, through the control panel or a plugin

Modern shared hosting is often more isolated than its name suggests. Krystal, for example, says its shared hosting runs your site on a cloud server with dedicated CPU and RAM allocated to your account, and uses CloudLinux to keep accounts apart. The question for a business site is less whether shared hosting works, and more who does the WordPress work.

VPS hosting for WordPress: more control, more work

A VPS (virtual private server) is a slice of a physical server set aside for you alone. You get a reserved share of processor and memory, your own operating system and full administrator access. Many VPS products now run on public cloud platforms, which is why you will also see them sold as cloud VPS.

For WordPress, a VPS gives you freedom: choose your own web server, PHP version, database settings and caching, and tune them for your site. Developers and teams with Linux skills often like that control.

The cost of that control is responsibility. On an unmanaged VPS, you or your provider look after:

• Installing and updating the operating system, web server, PHP and database
• Configuring a firewall, SSL certificates and protection against brute-force attacks
• Setting up caching and a CDN for speed
• Arranging, testing and storing backups
• Monitoring the server and responding when something goes wrong, at any hour

Some VPS and cloud server products are sold as "managed", where the provider looks after the operating system and much of the stack. Cloudways is an example: it describes its product as managed cloud hosting for WordPress on the cloud provider you choose, with staging, backups and caching ready from day one, and says your site runs on its own cloud server. It is worth reading exactly what any managed VPS covers: the server, WordPress itself, or both.

Managed WordPress hosting: someone else runs the server

Managed WordPress hosting is built for WordPress, and the host runs the platform underneath it. Krystal, for example, describes it as hosting where it handles WordPress updates, backups, caching and platform-level security, while you keep control of your website, content, plugins and themes.

You still have full control of your WordPress site: its themes, plugins, content and users, and usually SFTP or SSH access for developers. What you no longer do is run a server. Typical features include:

• Server-level caching, often with a CDN, so you do not tune caching plugins yourself
• Security at server or network level: a firewall, DDoS protection and vulnerability scanning or patching
• Automatic daily backups with restores from the dashboard
• One-click staging, to test changes on a copy before they go live
• Migration help to move your existing site in
• WordPress-focused support from the host's own team

The trade-off is that managed platforms are WordPress-only and usually restrict some plugins that clash with their caching or backups. Our managed WordPress hosting guide covers what managed hosts include in more depth.

Side-by-side comparison

Each type of hosting can run WordPress well in the right hands. This table shows where the work and responsibility usually sit:

The right answer depends on what the site is worth to your business and how much of your own time you want to spend on it. For many business sites that take enquiries or orders, having the host run the server is the efficient choice.

Why does isolation between sites matter?

Isolation is the least visible difference between hosting types and one of the most important. If sites draw on the same processor and memory without limits, one busy or attacked site can affect the others. Isolation also matters for security: a compromised site should not be able to reach into yours.

Hosts handle this in different ways, and describe them in their own terms:

• Cloudways says your site runs on its own cloud server, and you can host several WordPress applications on that server
• Krystal says its managed platform spreads each site across multiple servers, with two containers per site and dedicated resources for each site, and uses CloudLinux to separate hosting accounts
• WP Engine lists a shared environment on its Essential plan and isolated resources on its Business and Enterprise plans

So "shared" and "isolated" are not simply cheap and expensive versions of the same thing. They are different ways of dividing resources, and each host sets its plans out on its own pricing page. For very busy sites, see dedicated WordPress hosting.

Who looks after updates, security and backups

Whatever hosting you choose, it helps to write down who is responsible for what. This is how the work typically divides:

Some managed hosts take on more of the WordPress layer than others. Krystal says its managed plans update WordPress core, plugins and themes automatically. WP Engine lists automated WordPress and PHP updates on every plan. Cloudways offers Site Manager Pro, which tests updates on a staging clone and rolls back if something fails. Our secure WordPress hosting guide covers the security side in detail.

When should you move up from shared hosting?

There is no fixed traffic number at which a site must leave shared hosting. These are the signs that it is time to look again:

• The site is slower at busy times, or slow pages appear without any change on your side
• You hit resource limits, or the host asks you to reduce usage
• The site now earns money: online sales, bookings or leads that matter if it goes down
• You are spending time on the server rather than the business: updates, caching plugins, security fixes
• You need staging to test changes safely before they reach visitors
• You run several sites and want them managed from one place
• A customer or auditor asks about security controls, backups or certifications

If two or three of those apply, a managed WordPress plan or a managed cloud server is worth a look. Moving up does not have to mean a big jump: most hosts let you change plan as you grow, and several describe how they handle traffic spikes without switching your site off. Our guides to cheap WordPress hosting and our picks for WordPress hosting in the UK cover how to compare value fairly.

Where each host fits

Here is where each host sits, using each host's own description of its product, A to Z:

None of these is the single right answer: each suits a different balance of control and convenience. Our WordPress hosting comparison puts the three side by side on data centres, backups, staging, security and support, and each host's own site lists its current plans and prices: Cloudways (opens in a new tab), Krystal (opens in a new tab) and WP Engine (opens in a new tab).