With more and more people going online in this technological era of the 21st century, WordPress has become one of the leading online softwares that offer businesses a niche in the content world. WordPress, which has grown to become far more than an online blogging platform, has been powering thousands of websites through its versatile Content Management System(CMS).
Today many renowned brands such as BBC America, Bloomberg professional, MTV News, Bata make wonderful use of the WordPress websites. Renowned personalities like Beyoncé, Usain Bolt, and Katy Perry have also utilized the amazing features of WordPress websites to reach out to their fans through their online presence.
Significance of WordPress Hosting
WordPress itself is free, but you need WordPress hosting and a domain name which can cost you money.
With a good WordPress hosting plan, your website can overcome various issues such as low speed, dead links, low scalability, old features, and downtime to convert a visitor into a potential customer.
Costs Associated with WordPress Hosting
While choosing your web hosting, keep in mind various parameters such as security, data backup, scalability, speed, etc. which are provided by different web hosting services such as Shared web hosting and Managed WordPress hosting. The costs of both the hosts are directly proportional to the services they provide. Now, to give you a much clearer scenario of expenses involved in WordPress websites’ creation and management, let us look at the costs associated parameters listed below:
Domain Registration
The first and foremost expenditure is for the domain name registration. While most users choose to register a domain with “.com” extension, you can opt for other extensions such as “.co”, “.tube”, “.site”, “.net”, “.me”, “.work”, “.shop”, “.link” and so on according to your needs.
Hosting
Though there are many types of web hosting, we are going to focus more on the Shared web hosting and Managed WordPress hosting, that are the most popular among others. Let us explore more about them and their costs.
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting packages come at affordable prices catering to the most common needs of the websites. However, the resources that you get in shared web hosting are divided among many servers that can impact the performance of the website. Also, if your website attracts more traffic in future, you will have no other option but to shift to other web hosting services.
Managed WordPress Hosting
To overcome the troubles of shared hosting and make the site work faster, one can opt for Managed WordPress hosting. Though a bit more expensive than Shared hosting, it offers you amazing services that are catalytic to the growth of a successful website. It gives the website increased security, high uptime, scalability options, daily backups and so on. Unlike Shared web hosting, Managed WordPress hosting caters to you in a specific way and provides expert support to manage your website.
An important thing to keep in mind when you decide to spend money on web hosting is never to choose a hosting plan just because it offers the lowest price available in the market. Make sure that you choose a plan that offers useful features with excellent customer service.
Themes
The look and design of your website is one of the most important thing that helps in leaving an indelible mark in the customer’s mind. WordPress offers free themes that are conveniently located within your WordPress Admin.
However, if you’re looking for superior quality themes, you can opt for Premium WordPress themes that are compatible with the latest WordPress version and have higher quality than the free themes.
As the latter is a paid service, it gives you several benefits such as unique design and better user interface. However, this step is optional and can be considered at a later period as well.
Plugins
The plugins in WordPress are amazing as they give you the chance to add features, style, and functionality to your websites. You can opt for either free plugins or the premium plugin according to your budget.
Premium plugins are available at different prices depending on the services and features that they provide. It is advisable to use premium plugins that are more suitable for a better performing website as they offer unparalleled support, upgraded features, and an overall higher quality product.
Security Services
There are both paid and free security services available for your website. With a free security plugin, you cannot be entirely sure about the security as your server is shared by many other sites which may pose a threat to you. If your site gets infected by malware, you will have to hire a professional to get rid of it and recover lost files.
Therefore, almost all WordPress professionals pay for Managed WordPress hosting that gives them the latest security plugins ensuring isolation from other sites. They also run various scans for malware and alert you about any suspicious activity.
Storage and Backups
Storage and backups play a vital role in the smooth functioning of your WordPress website. There can be times when your website falls under the threat of hacking, or your website may crash due to several reasons. This can lead to the loss of essential data.
Now, to save yourself from such unfortunate situations, you need to have storage and backup plugins from WordPress. Again, it is your choice to choose either the free ones or premium ones that come at nominal prices. As discussed earlier, the premium ones are always the versatile and the safest option for a lucrative website ensuring proper functioning and profitability.
It is clear that if you choose the right options, building and managing a WordPress website is not that expensive. However, if you are running a serious online business, then the additional cost will certainly be more than justified. For long-term results and higher profitability of your website, you always need to put more efforts on the resources.