WordPress Hosting vs WordPress VPS: Which is Right for You?

If you are new to WordPress, or an experienced WordPress administrator, it’s important that you choose the type of web hosting that’s best for you and your business. InMotion Hosting offers both a WordPress Hosting plan on WordPress-optimized shared servers and a Managed WordPress Hosting. Below we will look at what the plans have in common, the key differences between the plans, and some guidelines to help you decide which plan best fits your needs.

• WordPress Hosting and WordPress VPS Quick Reference
• What the Plans Have in Common
• Key Differences Between the Plans
  • Shared Plans are Cheaper but Share Server Resources
  • WHM and Multiple cPanels with a VPS Plan
  • Root Access and Server Management with the VPS
• Deciding What is Right for You
  • Start with Shared if you are New or Unsure
  • Experienced — Start with a VPS
  • Multiple Clients — Get a VPS

WordPress Hosting and WordPress VPS Quick Reference

What the Plans Have in Common

Both plans are powered by our UltraStack technology to give your WordPress site an optimized experience. This tech stack features Apache, NGINX reverse proxy, PHP workers and OpCode Cache Pools to deliver the best performance.

Whichever plan you choose, you’ll be on a WordPress Optimized Server, built from the ground-up to take advantage of NGINX Caching to make your site fast and responsive.

Both plans come with the Softaculous App Installer, with lets you easily install WordPress — and dozens of other programs — quickly within individual cPanels.

Key Differences Between the Plans

Shared Plans are Cheaper but Share Server Resources

The basic WordPress Hosting is a shared hosting plan. If you’ve never used Shared Hosting before, this means that each account shares server resources with other accounts. Modern server technology — and our team of Systems Administrators — all work to make sure that these server resources are evenly distributed and provide you with all of the resources you need. This is fine for most businesses, but when you have a high volume of traffic, a lot of data, or certain security concerns, shared hosting may not be right for you.

WHM and Multiple cPanels with a VPS Plan

Shared Hosting plans like our WordPress Hosting provide you with access to one cPanel account. If you find yourself running multiple sites, though, running everything out of one account can feel a bit cramped. This is especially the case if you are a web designer or reseller with multiple clients — you’ll be stuck doing everything from creating emails to managing files yourself.

All of our WordPress VPS plans give you the ability to create multiple cPanels — a set amount based on your specific hosting plan, with an option to purchase more cPanel accounts as you need them. This means you can not only provide your clients access to a personal cPanel, but also configure everything from bandwidth and disk space to basic account features available based on what a given site does and does not need.

Root Access and Server Management with the VPS

The level of control offered by a WordPress VPS account is useful even if you just have one primary business site. With a VPS, you have total control over server resources beyond that of a shared account. A WordPress VPS plan even gives you root access, allowing you to install new software onto your account at the server level.

Deciding What is Right for You

Start with Shared if you are New or Unsure

If you want to run your first website, are completely new to WordPress, or aren’t sure what you need, start with a shared plan like our WordPress Hosting. You can go a long way with just a shared cPanel account, and you’ll be able to learn all of the basics of administering a WordPress website — which will work the same regardless of what kind of server you’re on. If you decide you’re ready to upgrade, don’t worry — we can easily turn your shared cPanel account into the primary cPanel account on a VPS server.

Experienced — Start with a VPS

Are you comfortable with basic systems administration tasks — running backups, making sure software is updated, dividing up server resources, and other similar tasks? WebHost Manager makes it easy to learn new skills as you go, so go ahead and try out a WordPress VPS! You can start off by simply running your primary sites out of one cPanel and gradually expand to running and managing multiple accounts as you feel comfortable doing so.

Multiple Clients — Get a VPS

Do you have multiple clients? Do you want to offer your customers the ability to log in and make new email addresses, without having to call you up every time they hire a new employee? Do you have one client that needs significantly more server resources than the others? Give your clients – and yourself – more control. Switching to a WordPress VPS is a significant quality of life upgrade for you.