Many small businesses and startups have managed to grow thanks to WordPress solely – a platform that allows building a website fast and for free. But what about large sites? You may wonder if there’s any point in using WordPress for your large-scale project.
And we may reassure you that a large WordPress website can be a success. But there are a couple of “buts” here, the most significant of which is the hosting you choose for your project.
What is a Large WordPress Site?
It’s all clear with WordPress in the term ‘a large WordPress site’. But ‘large’ is rather a subjective notion. You might consider a large 100-page website, while some experts would take it for quite small. Most commonly, sites with 500+ pages are seen as large-scale.
Think it is impossible to run a website like this on WordPress? Such high-traffic blogs as Time Magazine, Observer, Reader’s Digest, Boing Boing, Playstation Blog, and Sony Music have proved the contrary. These WordPress-based websites contain numerous pages with loads of content. Yet, you won’t have any trouble launching any page on them.
However, developing a large site on the WordPress platform is a challenge anyway. To ensure your site’s performance, you’ll have to optimize most of its components. Surely, you’ll need to cram your project with extra security plugins and advanced SEO tools. The information stored should be well-structured so that your site is easy to navigate. But the main thing with which you should start is, by all means, hosting. Here, you cannot afford to make a mistake.
You should also carefully choose the type of hosting that will match your project the best. Want to know the best hosts for a large WordPress site right away? Get our Top 6 hosting companies that not just survived our hard-line test drives but also showed excellent results.
1. Hostinger
| Product Name: | Hostinger |
| Official Website: | hostinger.com |
| Launched: | 2004 |
| Websites managed: | 4,532,328 |
| Test Plan: | Free hosting available |
| Cheapest Plan: | $2.99/mo |
| Refund: | 30 days |
Hostinger – is a cost-effective hosting solution for WordPress projects that has a separate group of plans provided at reasonable prices. The company has data centers across the globe and over 3.3 million hosted websites. Their reliable support team is available 24/7 to provide the required assistance any time.
Hostinger Pluses
Along with hosting services, Hostinger offers an advanced DIY website builder for hassle-free and convenient website creation. Opportunity of free 1-click WordPress installation and the choice of suitable plans for managed WP hosting allows for picking the best option for your project. The system also comes with integrated LiteSpreed technology yet it lets users integrate external services, when required.
Hostinger Minuses
As to the software demerits, it is worth mentioning the occasional inconsistency of uptime performance, which is especially noticeable with shared hosting plans. Resource, backup and data transfer limitations are reported as well.
Pricing
As mentioned above, Hostinger has a separate group of plans for managed WordPress hosting. These include 3 subscriptions – Premium, Business and Cloud startup. The cost starts at $2.99 per month, but it will increase up to $6.99 upon the end of the promo period. A 30-days money-back guarantee is available here as well.
2. DreamHost
| Product Name: | DreamHost |
| Official Website: | dreamhost.com |
| Launched: | 1996 |
| Websites Managed: | 633,564 |
| Test Plan: | No |
| Cheapest Plan: | $2.95/mo |
| Refund: | - |
Dreamhost – is a company offering lightning-fast WordPress-optimized hosting solutions for small and large-scale projects. Located in the USA, they offer a diversity of hosting features and tools for websites worldwide. Along with quick WordPress installation and automatic updates, the host grants high (up to 100%) uptime rates, SSD storage, simple custom control panel and several subscriptions to choose from.
DreamHost Pluses
The company employs in-house WordPress experts who are aware of all the CMS-related hosting issues and are always ready to help you solve the problems you encounter. All WP hosting plans include add-ons and robust features to help you succeed with your project. They also provide a domain name from DreamHost with a personalized custom email, a free “Let’s Encrypt” SSL Certificate, unlimited bandwidth and disk storage space.
DreamHost Minuses
As for demerits, DreamHost does not have a handy cPanel, free domain names and phone support for the cheapest shared hosting subscription.
Pricing
DreamHost pricing is average. It starts at $2.95 per month for the most cost-effective shared hosting plan. As for WordPress subscriptions, they are provided as a part of the DreamPress package. It includes three plans – WordPress, DreamPress and VPS WordPress plans. The cost constitutes $2.59, $16.95 and $10 per month.
3. InMotion Hosting
| Product Name: | InMotion Hosting |
| Official Website: | inmotionhosting.com |
| Launched: | 2001 |
| Websites managed: | 942,247 |
| Test Plan: | No |
| Cheapest Plan: | $2.99/month |
| Refund: | 90 days |
InMotion Hosting – is one of the formidable names in the web hosting industry known for the diversity of hosting plans and niche features offered. Founded in 2001, the company has built good reputation among industry representatives, granting access to excellent customer support options, security tools, hosting affiliate program and other perks. Currently, InMotion caters to both small and large businesses, making it possible to securely host various types of projects at affordable cost.
InMotion Hosting Pluses
InMotion Hosting does not only boast perfect website performance (load times and uptime) and premium customer support (live chat, phone, email etc.), but also makes it possible to transfer your website and domain at no cost. The company currently has several types of hosting packages, namely shared, VPS, dedicated and 2 hosting plans for WordPress sites. Additionally, the service guarantees unlimited disk space and bandwidth, seamless WordPress integration, free SSL Certificates and automated backups.
InMotion Minuses
As for demerits, InMotion Hosting supports Linux servers only (no Windows support is currently available) and it does not have fixed pricing. The introductory fees are quite affordable yet the renewal rates may seem a bit expensive for ordinary users.
Pricing
InMotion Hosting doesn’t have a free plan yet there are several premium subscriptions here. The cost of shared hosting starts at $2.99/mo, the price of VPS hosting starts at $9.99/mo, while that of dedicated hosting starts at $35/mo. The money-back guarantee term constitutes 90 days, which is quite a good duration that lets you save big.
4. GoDaddy
| Product Name: | GoDaddy |
| Official Website: | godaddy.com |
| Founded in: | 1997 |
| Hosted Websites: | 34,623,917 |
| Free trial: | Site builder |
| Starting price: | $5.99 p.m. |
| Money-back guarantee: | 30 days |
The good old domain registrar, GoDaddy, has hosting options, too. There were times when the provider’s hosting service was much criticized. However, there has been an upgrade in recent years. So, you can entrust the future of your WordPress site to GoDaddy now.
GoDaddy Pluses
GoDaddy hosting is business-oriented. The provider offers a huge set of plans, each having a one-year free domain, email, and SSL, as well as unmetered bandwidth. The company guarantees 99.9% uptime.
GoDaddy Minuses
All GoDaddy plans are more expensive than their analogs from other providers. The company offers great features, but chances are you’ll need to buy them apart from your chosen package.
Pricing
The cheapest WordPress solution at GoDaddy is the Basic plan. The first-year subscription will cost you $8.99 p.m., but you can save big, opting for a 3 year plan. In this case, the price of the Basic plan will constitute $5.99/mo only. There are three more plans: Delux ($11.99 p.m.), Ultimate ($18.99 p.m.), and eCommerce ($20.99 p.m.) For a high-traffic WordPress site, at least Delux should be chosen.
5. Liquid Web
| Product Name: | Liquid Web |
| Official Website: | liquidweb.com |
| Founded in: | 1998 |
| Hosted Websites: | 4,781,345 |
| Free Trial: | No |
| Starting Price: | $15/month |
| Money-Back Guarantee: | 30 days |
Liquid Web – is a large scale WordPress hosting with more than 10 data centers around the world. The system offers several types of plans, including those for cloud, VPS and dedicated hosting. The host is also known for its professional customer support available round-the-clock.
Liquid Web Pluses
The hosting provider comes with an integrated user-friendly website builder and eCommerce support. It allows creating and hosting projects for personal and business use. Liquid Web also ensures 100% uptime guarantee, HIPAA and PCI compliance along with unmetered bandwidth, SSH access, reseller plans, WP-CLI, premium class server specifications and Git provided on all managed subscriptions.
Liquid Web Minuses
Liquid Web is not the easiest solution for newbies, while its plans are quite expensive for everyone. It does not provide any shared hosting options, which is a notable demerit for a hosting provider.
Pricing
As mentioned above, Liquid Web is not a cheap hosting provider. Its functionality and flexibility, though, are worth the pricing it sets for its plans. There is no free trial here, but the system guarantees a money refund that extends for 30 days after you sign up for the selected plan. The most affordable subscription currently costs $15 per month.
6. a2hosting
| Product Name: | a2hosting |
| Official Website: | a2hosting.com |
| Founded in: | 2003 |
| Hosted Websites: | Over 464,959 |
| Free Trial: | No |
| Starting Price: | $5.99/mo |
| Money-Back Guarantee: | 30 days |
a2hosting – is a good hosting for high-traffic WordPress websites, which offers several types of hosting solutions, professional customer support options as well as reasonable pricing. The software also exceeds the speed and uptime rates available on its Turbo Boost and Turbo Max plans.
a2hosting Pluses
a2hosting works great for eCommerce and WordPress websites. This is also a nice pick for personal projects. The system additionally ensures free website migration services for Startup, Drive, Turbo Boost and Turbo Max plans.
a2hosting Minuses
The host currently does not offer Windows hosting, while the Turbo Server feature is unavailable for cheap plans. What’s more, you will need to pay more, when upgrading to short-term subscriptions.
Pricing
a2hosting offers cost-effective pricing. The cost of its plans starts at $5.99 per month for shared hosting, when getting the annual subscription. If you wish to save more, go ahead to upgrade for a 3-year plan then.
How to Choose a Hosting Provider for a Large WordPress Site
Are you developing a large-scale website on WordPress? Pay thorough attention to your future host. It’s great when it offers affordable prices and freebies. However, your choice should be based on the following criteria:
- the server’s uptime – 99.9% is the minimum;
- enough RAM & SSD storage – opt for unlimited storage plans;
- security options: SSL certificates, malware protection tools, DDoS attacks protection. etc.;
- daily backup & restore tools;
- speed-boosting instruments like Cloudflare;
- 24/7 support.
One more thing to consider is the type of hosting itself. For a fast-loading large WordPress site, the capacities of shared servers might not be enough, and hosting your website on a virtual private server (VPS) might be the optimal solution.
Bearing all this in mind, we strongly recommend you to look through and test (if possible) every hosting provider reviewed in the article. Each of the systems is capable of hosting a large-scale WordPress project – it’s just a matter of your requirements, project type and budget which one to go for.
