WordPress has been the most loved CMS and continues to be. Indeed, the main reason for WordPress being famous is the ease of use, open source, management ability for content, flexibility and adaptability.
However, having the best hosting services is vital to make the best of all WordPress offers. Different hosting services are available, including VPS, shared, dedicated, and others.
Therefore, to help you choose the best option for your website, we shall discuss the hosting requirements for WordPress.
WordPress is known for its lightweight script that makes it compatible with most reputed hosting companies.
The best hosting companies offer an easy one-click install option for WordPress. However, you must consider some critical points while choosing the best yet cheap WordPress hosting services.
The necessary hosting requirements include database, disk space, RAM, processing power etc. Before a detailed overview, you can have an idea of the following.
- RAM at least 512 MB
- PHP 7.4 or higher version
- CPU at least 1.0 GHz
- MySQL database version 5.015 or higher
- At least 1 GB of disk space
- Nginx or Apache web server with mod-rewrite module
- Support for HTTPS
Read on to further understand the essential features you must be wary of.
1. Web server
The hosting requirements for WordPress include a web server that refers to hardware that works along with the software that stores the website data on the physical computer-based server.
- Hardware web server
Contrary to what the name suggests, the machine’s brand does not matter. Some hosting providers may use windows, and others may utilize macOS or Linux.
Furthermore, processing power, RAM, and disk space are more important factors. However, you must ensure that your hosting provider regularly upgrades their hardware and have well-managed data centres.
- Software web server
The software of a web server is responsible for fetching the data stored in the hardware and presenting it to the end-users. Nginx or Apache makes the suitable choice for web server software options.
2. RAM
A server’s service highly depends upon the RAM (Random Access Memory). RAM is one of the critical hosting requirements for WordPress because it serves as a bridge between the CPU and hard disk.
It prepares the data received from the hard disk and sends it to the CPU. Hence, higher RAM capacity results in more data storage in the processing area, which makes the server processing significantly faster.
The optimal RAM capacity for WordPress hosting services is 512MB. Navicosoft offers RAM storage ranging from 512 MB up to 1 GB.
3. PHP
It is advised to have the latest version of PHP. However, the optimal PHP limit for WordPress hosting needs some discussion. By PHP memory limit, we refer to the memory allocated on the webserver to process the PHP-based operations.
Having allocated PHP memory removes the chance of RAM-hogging resources that may crash your website. Hence, when you get cheap WordPress hosting, the hosting companies decide the PHP memory limit on the server.
64 MB of PHP limit suffices the hosting requirements for WordPress standard installation; however, hosting services also offer up to 256 MB.
Furthermore, wordPress stands out for its ability to integrate different plugins; having better PHP space is always the best approach. Hence, the applications, plugins, and themes may be installed smoothly on the server.
4. CPU
CPU refers to a processing chip inside server hardware. The Central Processing Unit serves as the command centre for any server and decides how many processes a server will operate at what speed.
For example, your WordPress website will do just fine with a CPU of 1.0GHz processing power. Notably, it stands for a website with no added functionality possessing power.
Mostly processing power is not the main issue, but the number of processes a server can run is the primary concern. Processing is the ability of a server to multitask, which decides the server’s overall performance.
As mentioned above, the hard disk passes on the data to the CPU and facilitates data access easier for RAM.
Therefore, sufficient CPU capacity is also one of the hosting requirements for WordPress websites.
As we have understood how CPU capacity works for better hosting services, it is clear that more CPUs improve performances. Two cores can perform twice as many processes as a single-core CPU.
Therefore, most hosting companies offer more CPU cores with the package upgrade for better performance.
5. Database
As far as the best suitable database is concerned, WordPress operates the best with MySQL version 5.6 or MariaDB version 10.1. However, here we mention some applicable practices relating to databases that you may try with your cheap WordPress hosting for better performance.
- Store your database on a solid-state drive
- Automate your database backups
- Have a check if your server facilitates the multi-user environment.
- Always prefer choosing a host with auto database optimization.
6. Disk Space
The hosting server allocates specific storage space for a website on the hard disk. However, according to the hosting requirements for WordPress website, only 1GB is enough. Indeed, it is an unexpectedly meagre value that allows you to find a hosting provider even more quickly.
When you plan to add resources to the core WordPress app, such as themes, plugins, and other media, these features take up significant space on the disk.
The hard disk serving as the storage unit determines the speed of processes and data loading on the CPU. Processing speed is often deemed the most critical factor for server performance. However, the speed and number of operations on a server are owed to the processor.
The disk type and storage space hosting requirements for WordPress website depend upon its potential for growth. Indeed, a website for a large-scale business continuously growing in terms of product pages and blog posts would need more disk space.
On the contrary, hosting requirements for a WordPress blog with small-sized images will be minimal disk space. Furthermore, the hardware type used in the server will also define the website’s performance. It can either be a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or a Solid State Drive (SSD).