Hosting for WordPress Product Guide

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The Hosting for WordPress Journey

Six phases, in the order you’ll actually do them. Start at phase 1 if your account is brand new, or jump in anywhere if you already know where you are.

1

Welcome & Orientation

~15 min

Get your bearings across the three places you’ll work: your Account Management Panel (AMP) for billing and account tasks, cPanel for hosting tools, and the WordPress dashboard for your site itself. Depending on your plan, WordPress may already be installed and waiting for you.

2

Install or Move Your WordPress Site

varies

Start fresh with a few-clicks install, or bring an existing site over. Free white-glove migrations are available on every plan, so you never have to move a site alone. If you migrate it yourself, preview the site with a hosts-file edit and only change DNS once everything works: your old host stays live during the move, so visitors never see downtime.

3

Connect Your Domain & Email

~30 min + propagation

Point your domain at your hosting, then set up email at that domain. DNS changes can take 24 to 48 hours to propagate, so verify with a DNS check before assuming something broke. Once the domain is live, update your WordPress Site URL and add SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records: they are the fix for the classic “my contact form isn’t sending email” problem.

4

Secure & Back Up

do this early

WordPress sites are the web’s most common target, so lock yours down in week one: turn on your free SSL, enable two-factor authentication, and protect your login page from brute-force attempts. Then make sure you have a backup you could actually restore before you install another plugin.

5

Tune Performance & Caching

~30 min

Server-side caching is what you’re paying for with a WordPress-optimized plan, so turn it on. Pick your cache profile in the cPanel Cache Manager, install the NGINX Helper plugin so the cache clears when you publish, and learn how PHP-FPM and Redis fit into the stack.

6

Maintain & Grow

ongoing

Keep WordPress, plugins, and PHP current, and always take a backup before a major update so a bad plugin or PHP change never locks you out for long. When traffic grows, add sites to your account or move up a plan on your schedule instead of during an outage.

Browse by Task Area

For when you know what you’re looking for. The same articles, organized by topic.

Getting Started

Install & Migrate

Domains & DNS

Email

Security

Backups

Caching & Performance

WordPress Basics

Troubleshooting

Developers & Advanced

Understand the Concepts

For decisions, not tasks. Read these before you buy, choose, or plan.

What Is Managed Hosting for WordPress?

What “managed” actually covers and how it differs from hosting you run yourself.

The WordPress Hosting Stack

How NGINX, PHP-FPM, and MySQL work together to serve your WordPress site.

Why We Use NGINX

Why our WordPress-optimized servers put NGINX in front of Apache, and what it does for speed.

How Many PHP Workers Do I Need?

What PHP workers are and how to size them for your traffic.

VPS or Shared for Your WordPress Site?

How to tell when your site is ready to move from shared resources to a VPS.

What Is a WordPress Multisite?

When one WordPress installation should run many sites, and when it shouldn’t.

Getting Help When You Need It

Our Support Center contains hundreds of articles covering WordPress and your hosting account, from first login to advanced tasks. Can’t find what you need? Contact our Live Support team for expert support from real humans.

Chat or call 24/7

Reach our Live Support team any time by chat or phone.

Contact support ›

Open a ticket in AMP

Submit account-specific issues from your Account Management Panel.

Log into AMP ›

Community Support

Ask a question and get answers from our community and staff.

Ask a question ›

WordPress Scope of Service

What our support team can help with on your WordPress site, and where to turn for the rest.

Read the guide ›