Note

[1] Our fully-managed hosting packages cover all the below inclusively.

[2] These requirements relate only to WordPress sites, see our info here regarding other types of hosting.

WordPress Hosting Resources

Shared hosting with shared resources will not deliver fast-loading WordPress sites or cater to their resource needs. You need to ensure the hosting provider offers dedicated resources for your website.

WordPress hosting will need 1CPU and 1GB RAM at a minimum of dedicated resouces, more for larger sites. This level of hosting in Australia generally starts from around $400-$500 per year, and cloud hosting services can cost a bit more. Beware of the big providers that claim to offer these services at less cost than this, as in our experience with our clients they do not provide the resources they say they are.

WordPress Maintenance

WordPress sites require regular software and security updates. A lot of hosts claim this is managed automatically, yet managing updates automatically can be problematic as it is where a lot of clashes and incidents happen. Then, when these clashes/incidents inevitably occur, they will charge you to go and 'fix' what likely should never have happened (and unless you know what you are doing you will not be able to gauge whether what they want you to pay for this 'fix' is justifiable).

Instead, you want to find a host that manually updates the software and patches for you, knows your site well as a consequence and can easily keep the site running at its best. This minimises clashes and reduces costs overall. Generally this service will take around 6 hours per year for small to regular sized WordPress sites. Most places will charge you somewhere between $60-$120 per hour for this service.

Backups, Disaster Recovery & Security

Most hosts keep few full backups, favouring incremental smaller ones. In order to avert the most common upsets you want to have nightly backups for 14-21 days at a minimum, and at least some full backups going back a month or more. Sometimes an issue is not noticed for weeks and if a rollback is necessary you will need older backups.

A lot of hosting companies do not offer adequate backups, disaster recovery or suitable security essentials inclusively in their hosting packages, or apply limits to some options - so it is worth digging around a bit to find out where additional charges kick in, and how and where you are covered or not.

For example, a lot of hosts charge $50-$150 for a 'rollback' (an essential solution for some crashes) and several may be required to get your site back. This can add up very quickly. This service is one of several like it that is just included in our hosting as it should be with any credible hosting company.

Other Important Inclusions

You will need to cover your annual WordPress theme costs, this is usually @ $130 per year.

If you want your website to 'talk' to the search engines properly then various integrations and manual monitoring will be required. These sorts of maintenance packages start at around $200 per month.

You need to factor in support costs, too. Sometimes things go wrong with sites, it happens to all of them at some point. What does the host charge for addressing regular and not so regular errors with your site? Do they fix regular upsets inclusively or do they only offer assistance on an hourly rate? Or perhaps they expect you to have a developer?