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5 Best WordPress Caching Plugins to Speed Up Your Website (2024)

Are you looking for the best WordPress caching plugin for your website?

Caching essentially stores a copy of your WordPress site on your server. When users open your website again, the server can simply pull up the copy so that visitors won’t have to reload your site from scratch again.

Since there are so many different WordPress cache plugins, it can feel overwhelming to pick the right option.

To help you pick the best plugin, we tested some of the best options on the market. While testing, we focused on a bunch of factors like ease of use, caching options, and price.

In this guide, we will show you the best WordPress caching plugins to improve your site speed.

Best WordPress Caching Plugins

In a hurry? No worries! Take a look at our top picks so you can quickly choose the right WordPress cache plugin for your site.

RankingPluginBest ForPrice
#1WP RocketOverall performance$59/yearRead more
#2WP Super CacheBeginnersFreeRead more
#3W3 Total CacheMultiple caching optionsFree + paidRead more
#4SucuriFirewall + caching$9.99/monthRead more
#5Cache EnablerSimple cachingFreeRead more

Why Use a WordPress Caching Plugin?

Using a WordPress caching plugin is one of the easiest ways to increase your website speed. When installed, the caching plugin will store parts of your site (like static HTML files, CSS files, JavaScript files, and so on) on your server.

Every time someone visits your site, they are served the cached version of the site instead of having to wait for your server to load the web pages from the beginning.

By storing cached pages of your site, a caching plugin drastically reduces the amount of processing required to serve those pages. Some cache content at the server level and others leverage browser caching. This leads to:

  • A faster website and better WordPress SEO. Search engines give a significant SEO advantage to fast web pages, which helps you rank higher in search results.
  • More power to handle larger amounts of traffic without slowing down your site performance or affecting your uptime. This is important if you run an eCommerce website.

Plus, caching can create a better user experience. Users who visit your site will experience faster page loading times, making it less likely for them to bounce from your site.

The probability of bounce increases 32% as page load time goes from 1 second to 3 seconds.

Think with Google

How We Tested and Reviewed WordPress Caching Plugins

  • We used them on our websites: Throughout the years, we have used different WordPress cache plugins on our websites to improve our site performance.
  • We tested the most popular plugins: We tested some of the most popular caching plugins on the market to see if they are worth the hype. We analyzed those plugins based on the following factors: ease of use, features, types of caching, and pricing.
  • We categorized them based on your needs: Not every website will benefit from the same caching plugin. That’s why we analyzed all the features to help you decide which tool fits your needs.

Why Trust WPBeginner

At WPBeginner, we are a dedicated team of people with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, design, and online marketing. Our WordPress experts extensively review each plugin or tool that is featured here and thoroughly test them on real websites. To learn more, you can see our complete editorial process.

1. WP Rocket

WP Rocket homepage

After trying out different plugins from this list, we found WP Rocket to be the overall best WordPress caching plugin. It is the easiest and most beginner-friendly option, which is a big help if you are new to this topic.

With WP Rocket, WordPress users can instantly cache their website with just one click. Once the plugin is activated, its crawler automatically fetches the WordPress pages to build up the cache.

The plugin then automatically turns on the recommended WordPress caching settings. These include page caching, cache preloading, Gzip compression, browser caching, and mobile device caching.

WP Rocket also offers optional features to configure to improve your website performance further. These include lazy loading images, CDN (content delivery network) support, minification, and more.

Pros of WP Rocket:

  • User-friendly plugin interface for beginners.
  • Essential caching functions are available out of the box, from page caching and browser caching to mobile device caching.
  • Additional optimization features to speed up your website loading time, like options to minify CSS files and enable a CDN integration.
  • Advanced features like database optimization, multisite support, and cache exclusions based on URLs or cookies.
  • Supports caching for dynamic content, including WooCommerce cart items.

Cons of WP Rocket:

  • Unfortunately, there is no free version, but WP Rocket does offer a 14-day money-back guarantee.

Pricing: Starting from $59 per year for one website, product updates, and support.

Why we chose WP Rocket: We have reviewed WP Rocket before at WPBeginner, and we strongly recommend it as the best WordPress caching plugin on the market. While there is no free version, its prices are quite affordable compared to other paid options.

You can also check out our step-by-step guide on how to install and set up WP Rocket in WordPress.

2. WP Super Cache

WP Super Cache plugin banner

WP Super Cache is a popular, free caching plugin created by Automattic, the company that runs WordPress.com.

This WordPress caching plugin has 2 caching settings: Expert and Simple. The first one is a much faster option than the other because it doesn’t execute any PHP scripts, but it does require you to edit your .htaccess file.

The second is a happy medium between fast site loading speed and ease of use. We recommend choosing this method instead if you are not confident editing your own .htaccess file.

Other than that, WP Super Cache includes other speed optimization features like cache preloading. This setting will generate cached files of your pages, posts, categories, and tags that are ready to load as soon as someone accesses the content for the first time.

Pros of WP Super Cache:

  • Completely free of charge.
  • Advanced caching settings are available, such as expert caching that can handle high traffic and custom caching options to control how the plugin works.
  • Cache garbage collection to delete old cache pages and keep your website updated.
  • Basic CDN support that will rewrite your website content URLs so that they are loaded with CDN.

Cons of WP Super Cache:

  • While the interface is pretty user-friendly, it uses technical terms designed for advanced users that may confuse beginners.

Pricing: Free plugin.

Why we chose WP Super Cache: If you are looking for a free caching plugin to speed up your website loading time, then WP Super Cache is a great choice.

For beginners, we recommend taking the time to explore the plugin and understand some of the more technical terms so that you can make the most of it. See our article on how to install and set up WP Super Cache for detailed instructions.

3. W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache's homepage

If you want to use a WordPress caching plugin with tons of optimization features, then check out W3 Total Cache.

Firstly, W3 Total Cache offers various types of caching besides page caching and browser caching. It also has object caching and database caching, both of which can speed up the execution of dynamic parts of your site (the ones that change frequently), not just the static ones.

Secondly, it has a Google PageSpeed Insights integration. During our testing, we liked that this feature lets you test your website speed without leaving your WordPress admin area, so it’s very user-friendly.

Other than that, you can find other speed enhancement features like CSS and JS file minification, lazy loading, and an image converter from other formats to WebP for better performance.

Pros of W3 Total Cache:

  • Multiple caching options are available for free: page caching, browser caching, opcode caching, database query caching, and object caching.
  • Google PageSpeed Insights integration to test website speed.
  • Image optimization features like lazy loading and WebP conversion.
  • Pro features in the premium version, like CDN support for the entire website and fragment caching for plugins and themes using the WordPress Transient API.

Cons of W3 Total Cache:

  • The feature set is comprehensive but can seem intimidating for beginners.
  • Unlike other plugins on the list, the preloading feature is not available out of the box.

Pricing: Free plugin available. The premium version’s plans start from $99 per year for one website license.

Why we chose W3 Total Cache: The free version of W3 Total Cache offers many caching options that you may not find in other plugins on the list, especially not in the free versions.

That said, the sheer range of features can feel overwhelming for beginners. For detailed setup instructions, see our article on how to install and set up the W3 Total Cache plugin.

4. Sucuri

Sucuri's CDN landing page

Sucuri is technically a WordPress firewall plugin, but it has built-in caching options to speed up your website in just a few clicks. We used to use Sucuri on WPBeginner, so we are very familiar with this plugin.

If you run an online store or a membership site, Sucuri recommends using Site Caching, which will keep your cache for up to 180 minutes. Meanwhile, blogs or news portals can use Minimal Caching, which will only cache your pages for up to 8 minutes before they are refreshed.

If you make significant changes to your site, then you can clear your old cache in one click. Sucuri also lets you clear the cache for a file or folder instead of the whole site. This allows you to optimize specific parts of your site without affecting its entirety.

Additionally, Sucuri supports Brotli, a data compression algorithm by Google that is faster than Gzip compression. It’s effective for compressing large files and reducing bandwidth usage. This means people with slow internet can visit your website quicker.

Pros of Sucuri:

  • Easy-to-use caching features that can be enabled in a few clicks.
  • User-friendly cache-clearing functions for the entire website and specific files or folders.
  • Support for compression algorithms, like the more popular Gzip, and a newer option like Brotli.
  • Reliable CDN service with worldwide network coverage, a great feature for websites with a global audience.
  • Top-notch security features like a web application firewall, malware removal, and DDoS protection.

Cons of Sucuri:

  • If you are just looking for a plugin with caching functionality, then Sucuri may seem like overkill.

Pricing: Comes in two types of subscription plans: Website Security Platform and Firewall with CDN. The first starts from $199.99 per year and includes the complete Sucuri security kit. The second starts from $9.99 per month and only comes with a firewall and CDN.

Why we chose Sucuri: If you are looking for a security plugin that doubles as an optimization plugin, then Sucuri is the perfect solution. Besides offering user-friendly caching features, you can get great protection without installing other plugins.

5. Cache Enabler by KeyCDN

The Cache Enabler plugin banner

Cache Enabler is a free WordPress caching plugin by KeyCDN, one of the most popular WordPress CDN services.

When we first activated the plugin, the plugin page looked rather simple. In reality, it’s quite powerful on its own. You can customize how long cached files last to suit your website needs instead of choosing a time period that’s been set for you.

There are also many cache-clearing settings that you can enable. For example, you can automatically clear the cache when a post type has been published, updated, or trashed so that your blog content stays up-to-date.

Pros of Cache Enabler:

  • Simple-to-use plugin page interface that’s easy to understand for beginners.
  • Gzip and Brotli compression support to reduce your file sizes.
  • Custom post types support, which is great for portfolios, online stores, membership sites, and so on.
  • A real-time display of your website’s cache size in the WordPress dashboard helps you keep track of how much space your cache is taking on your server.

Cons of Cache Enabler:

  • Compared to other caching plugins on the list, the features of Cache Enabler can seem pretty limited.

Pricing: Free plugin. However, if you choose to get KeyCDN as well, then the prices start from $0.04 per GB per month for the first 10 TB (for North America/Europe region). The cost varies by region, but you can use its pricing calculator to get estimates.

Why we chose Cache Enabler: As a free caching plugin, Cache Enabler is great at being easy to use yet packed with the most essential caching features. It can be a good option if you just need a simple caching solution.

Bonus Tip: Use Built-in Caching Features From Hosting Providers

These days, many WordPress hosting companies offer their own built-in caching solutions.

The benefit of using these built-in caching settings is that you won’t have to find or install a plugin yourself. Plus, the caching functionality is readily optimized for your hosting, so you may experience fewer errors.

The downside is that the feature set widely varies. Some may only include basic page caching, while others may have more advanced options. Depending on your website, you may not be able to rely solely on these built-in options.

That being said, we still think these hosting caching settings are worth talking about because they are very easy to enable. Let’s look at the caching features offered by some of the most popular web hosting providers on the market.

Bluehost

Bluehost is one of the biggest hosting companies in the world and an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider. Their hosting plans include built-in caching that you can enable from your hosting dashboard.

Bluehost's caching options

You can select one of these caching levels:

  • Assets Only – For eCommerce and sites that update frequently or display real-time information, you can use this level to cache your site’s static assets for 5 minutes.
  • Assets & Web Pages – If you have a WordPress blog, an educational site, or a website that updates at least once a week, consider using this level to cache static assets for 6 hours and other web pages for 5 minutes.
  • Assets & Web Pages – Extended – For portfolios or websites that update every month or less frequently, you can choose this option to cache static assets for 1 week and web pages for 5 minutes.

If you compare Bluehost’s caching options to the other plugins on the list, they may seem basic. But they also offer a Cloudflare CDN integration to boost your website performance further.

SiteGround

We use SiteGround to power WPBeginner and have seen many performance improvements since we switched. If you are curious, then you can check out our article on why we switched to SiteGround for more information.

By default, SiteGround offers 3 caching solutions: Nginx Direct Delivery for static content, Dynamic Cache, and Memcached (optional).

The last two are caching modules that not many WordPress hosting offers by default, which is what makes SiteGround so powerful. In fact, they can improve your website speed anywhere from 50% to 500%.

SiteGround's caching settings

For WordPress sites, SiteGround recommends installing their Speed Optimizer plugin to speed up your website by 20%. The plugin can also compress image sizes by up to 85% without losing quality.

Overall, if you use SiteGround, you really won’t need any caching plugins like WP Rocket or others.

Hostinger

Hostinger is one of the fastest-growing WordPress hosting providers in recent years. They are powered by the LiteSpeed Web Server, so their caching settings also come from LiteSpeed.

From the get-go, Hostinger offers two types of caching modules: the LiteSpeed Cache plugin and the Object Cache.

Hostinger's caching settings

The LiteSpeed Cache plugin is included in all plans and offers page caching, cache preloading, and image compression for your website. By default, Hostinger will update your cache every 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, the Object Cache will cache your database queries and is only available for Business plan users or above. It has been said to improve website speed by up to 3 times.

WP Engine

WP Engine is a managed WordPress hosting company, which means they will take care of most of your back-end maintenance tasks as much as possible. As a result, you won’t have to handle them as much.

Since WP Engine is a more premium hosting service, it comes with tons of caching features by default. These include page caching, CDN caching, object caching, and local browser caching.

You can also set exclusion rules for dynamic content, like shopping cart, checkout, or login pages. If you need to clear your cache, then you can just log in to your user portal and click a few buttons.

What Is the Best Cache Plugin for WordPress?

After comparing the different options on the list, we found that the best WordPress caching plugin is hands down WP Rocket. It has a great balance between being beginner-friendly and powerful to elevate your website performance.

If you are looking for a free caching plugin, then we recommend W3 Total Cache. It has plenty of caching features out of the box, from basic to advanced.

We also recommend checking out the caching modules that hosting providers like Bluehost have to offer. These may already be good enough to speed up your website, and they are already customized to suit your hosting needs.

Best WordPress Caching Plugins: FAQs Answered

Now that we’ve covered the list of best WordPress caching plugins, let’s answer some frequently asked questions.

Do I need a caching plugin?

Yes, we strongly recommend installing a WordPress caching plugin, as it can significantly improve your WordPress site’s speed.

Caching can reduce server load, improve the user experience by reducing load times, and potentially boost your site’s SEO rankings due to improved speed.

However, if your hosting provider offers built-in caching solutions like SiteGround, then you might not need to install a separate caching plugin.

Should I use multiple cache plugins in WordPress?

Using multiple caching plugins simultaneously can lead to conflicts and potential issues with your site. We generally recommend using only one caching plugin to avoid these problems.

However, if you need to use multiple caching tools for specific purposes, make sure they can complement each other and do not result in the same action being performed twice.

Which is better: WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache?

Both WP Super Cache and W3 Total Cache are highly-rated WordPress caching plugins. However, the choice between the two depends on your specific needs and preferences.

WP Super Cache is a free plugin with some basic and advanced caching features. But some settings require some technical knowledge, so we don’t recommend it if you are a complete beginner.

W3 Total Cache is a freemium plugin with a comprehensive set of caching settings. The abundance of features may intimidate beginners, but the ease of use is generally much better than WP Super Cache.

Check Out More Guides to Speed Up WordPress

We hope this article helped you find the WordPress caching plugin to speed up your website. You may also want to see our list of the best WordPress plugins for business websites, and the best WordPress SEO plugins to help you boost your rankings.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

Disclaimer: We also looked at other WordPress cache plugins and solutions for this article, including WP Fastest Cache, Hummingbird, and WP-Optimize. However, we picked only the very best WordPress caching plugins to help you avoid choice paralysis.

The post 5 Best WordPress Caching Plugins to Speed Up Your Website (2024) first appeared on WPBeginner.

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How to Determine the Ideal Size of a Web Server for Your Website

Are you trying to pick the ideal web server size for your website?

The size of a web server depends on different components and resources. More popular websites will need a larger web server, but lower-traffic websites can get by with a smaller one.

In this article, we will show you how to determine the size of a web server best suited to your website.

Choosing the perfect web server size for your website

Here is a quick overview of the topics we will cover in this guide:

What Is a Web Server?

A web server is a computer that stores and shares websites with people on the internet.

You can think of it like a librarian who keeps websites neatly organized and gives them to anyone who requests them so that they can see the information on their computer or phone.

To do all this, these computers have specialized web server software installed on them. The most common web server software currently in use are Apache and Nginx.

A web server can have different configurations just like a home computer, making it less or more powerful.

You can rent out web servers from companies specializing in website hosting. These service providers offer web servers in different configurations and pricing to cater to a wide variety of needs.

As a customer, you can choose the web server size you want to start with. Later on, you can upgrade your web server with more powerful components as needed. These upgrades can be more storage space, processing power, memory, and more.

What Makes Up the Size of a Web Server?

The size of a web server is determined by the capacity of the components installed on it.

components of a web server size

Higher capacity components increase the web server size, making it faster and more powerful.

By contrast, lower capacity components reduce the web server size, making it less capable of working efficiently under peak traffic.

Here are some of the most important components of a web server that determine its size and performance.

Processing Power (CPU)

Each web server has a computer processor or CPU (central processing unit). This processor is the brain of your web server and helps it put all the website’s pieces together quickly.

It grabs the text, pictures, and videos, mixes them up, and serves them to a user’s computer or phone so they can see the website.

The faster and more powerful the processor is, the quicker the web server can do this job. This is super important because it makes websites load faster and work smoothly.

More powerful processors may have multiple cores (dual-core, quadcore, and higher). Each core adds a separate brain to your processor, making it faster by allowing it to do many tasks at once.

Memory (RAM)

Memory or RAM (random access memory) is a super-fast memory area where a web server can temporarily store needed files.

RAM allows your web server to temporarily collect all the files needed to display a webpage for quicker access.

More memory gives your web server more temporary storage for those files, allowing it to work faster and more efficiently.

Storage (Disk Space)

Storage or disk space is the physical storage the computer has. A higher storage size allows you to keep more data on your website.

You can think of storage as a big, digital closet where the server keeps all the website’s files, like pictures, text, and videos.

If your closet is well organized, it helps you find things more quickly and easily. Similarly, having more space allows you to store more items and quickly find them.

Like the closet analogy, having plenty of well-organized storage for your WordPress website makes it more efficient.

Internet Speeds & Bandwidth

A web server needs to be connected to the internet so that it can receive user requests and send back data.

If your website is hosted on an internet server with high bandwidth, that will help it send data more quickly.

Bandwidth is the amount of data your website can send. You can think of bandwidth as a straw. A narrow straw doesn’t have much space (low bandwidth), so you will not be able to drink much water. However, a wider straw (higher bandwidth) allows you to sip more water.

Increasing the internet and bandwidth size can make your website respond to user requests more quickly and send data much more efficiently.

How to Calculate the Web Server Size You Need

Now that we know what makes up the web server, you will need to calculate the size that fits your needs.

This is important because web hosting costs money, and bigger web servers with many resources are expensive.

Here is our formula to calculate the ideal web server size for your WordPress website.

1. Average Bandwidth and the Amount of Data Your Website Serves

Each time a user makes a request, your web server sends them data. More data means using more server resources.

You can calculate how much data your WordPress uses by first seeing your average page size.

This is easy to do by running your 10 most popular pages through website speed checker tools like GTMetrix.

Find page size

You then need to multiply the average page size by your website’s monthly page views.

Google Analytics collects data about the traffic to your website, including page views, average session duration, and more. While you can go directly to Google Analytics to see your page views, it’s much easier to use a WordPress Google Analytics plugin.

You can get the total number of page views using MonsterInsights. It is the best Google Analytics plugin, and it helps you track your website traffic and see all the data from your WordPress dashboard.

Simply go to Insights » Reports in your WordPress dashboard.

Page views

Then, you can use our sample formula to calculate the average amount of data your website consumes:

Average page size x total monthly pageviews = average bandwidth consumed

For example, it might be:

200KB x 60,000 views = 12,000,000 KB bandwidth used

You can then convert it into MB or GB for convenience:

12,000,000 KB / 1,000 = 12000 MB
12,000 MB / 1,000 = 12 GB bandwidth consumed per month

2. How Much Storage You Will Need

You will also need to know how much storage space your website requires. You can calculate this by tracking the storage your website is currently using.

The easiest way to find this is by using the Site Health tool. Just go to the Tools » Site Health page in your WordPress admin dashboard and switch to the ‘Info’ tab.

Calculating WordPress file sizes

From here, you can calculate the disk space used by your WordPress files and database.

As you can see in the screenshot above, our test site’s Total installation size is 1.30 GB. The ‘Total installation size’ shows how much storage space your website currently needs.

However, as your website grows, you also need to estimate how much data it will upload each month.

The easiest way to calculate this is by monitoring the total installation size each month and noticing the difference from the one before.

For instance, if your total installation size was 1.0 GB last month, and this month it is 1.4 GB, then you uploaded 0.4 GB or 400 MB of data.

We recommend choosing a web server that has at least 3 times the storage your website currently uses.

Now that you have calculated the web server size you need, you can shop around for web hosting services to meet your requirements.

Shared Hosting Web Server Sizes

On shared hosting plans, your website shares its server resources with other sites. This allows the hosting company to offer cheap hosting plans for smaller websites and blogs.

Suitable For: Small websites and blogs under 10,000 page views per month.

Web server size: Most good shared hosting companies spend a lot of money to ensure that their shared servers have fast processors, sufficient RAM, and plenty of storage.

The resources provided by a host vary a lot. If you cannot find this information on their website, then you can ask individual hosts before signing up.

Typically, you get a single-core CPU with 1 GB of RAM and 10 GB of disk storage for a starter shared plan.

However, the amount of web server resources available to your website will depend on the number of sites sharing those resources.

Our Recommendation

We recommend Bluehost as the best WordPress hosting company offering shared hosting plans.

Bluehost offer for WPBeginner readers

Their web servers use state-of-the-art components, unlimited bandwidth, and highly optimized software to manage resources so that your site gets 99.9% uptime.

Depending on which plan you choose, you will get access to either 10 GB, 40 GB, or 100 GB of disk storage.

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

Alternatives: Hostinger and HostGator

Managed WordPress Hosting Web Server Sizes

Managed WordPress hosting is an upgrade from shared hosting services. It allows users to use a custom-built platform for WordPress websites.

Managed WordPress hosting companies offer automatic updates, additional security, and easy options to scale your website as it grows.

You can think of it as a concierge service for your WordPress website.

Suitable For: eCommerce websites, growing blogs, and small to medium-sized businesses. Starting from 25,000 page views.

Web Server Size: The web server size varies based on your plan. Managed WordPress hosting companies also have strict disk and bandwidth limits to ensure fair usage.

Typically, you can expect at least 10 GB storage, 50 GB bandwidth, single or dual-core CPU, and 1 GB RAM.

Our Recommendation:

We recommend WP Engine as the best managed WordPress hosting provider.

WP Engine website

They are the pioneers in the managed WordPress space and consistently raise the bar with state-of-the-art infrastructure.

Their plans range from 10 GB of storage and 50 GB of bandwidth to 50 GB of storage and 500 GB of bandwidth per month.

Alternative: SiteGround

VPS Hosting Web Server Size

A VPS hosting plan allows you to create a virtual private server and use it as your site’s web server. It is an upgrade from managed and shared WordPress hosting plans.

The advantage of VPS hosting is that you can choose your web server size and scale it as your website grows.

This ensures that you get the amount of resources you need without upgrading to a dedicated server or enterprise hosting plan.

Suitable For: eCommerce stores, large and content-rich websites with a lot of multimedia files like hosted audio or video files. Ideal for 30,000 to 100,000 page views, depending on the server configuration.

Web Server Size: Server configurations vary among companies and are priced accordingly. You can choose from different configurations or create your own from a hosting control panel.

Our Recommendation:

We recommend SiteGround VPS hosting plans. They offer generous web server sizes starting from 4-core processors with 8 GB memory and 40 GB storage space.

SiteGround VPS / Cloud hosting

They have a powerful hosting infrastructure built on top of Google Cloud. Plus, you get all the features of managed WordPress hosting with access to additional developer tools.

Alternatives: Bluehost VPS

Dedicated or Enterprise Hosting Web Server Size

Dedicated or enterprise hosting is the ultimate upgrade, with custom-made web server sizes designed for the highest performance and massive amounts of traffic.

On a dedicated server, your website doesn’t share any of its web server resources. You can choose the processor speed and cores, RAM size, disk storage, and the bandwidth you need.

Enterprise hosting plans are the last tier of dedicated hosting plans. One of these plans gives you access to the hosting company’s engineering team. They will manage the hosting infrastructure according to your needs, with 24/7 phone support from your dedicated support team.

Suitable For: Big-name brands, mission-critical websites with massive traffic, and larger eCommerce stores. Ideal for 200,000 to millions of page views.

Web Server Size: Companies offer dedicated servers with different configurations. Typically, you can expect dual or quad-core CPUs with 4-8 GB RAM and 500 GB to 1TB disk storage. You can also configure your own dedicated server with different components.

Our Recommendation:

We recommend SiteGround’s dedicated hosting plans. Hosted on the Google Cloud platform, you can choose up to 33 core processing power, 130 GB memory, and 1TB of SSD storage.

SiteGround dedicated cloud hosting

Alternatives: DreamHost dedicated servers

Frequently Asked Questions About Web Server Size

Following are some of the most commonly asked questions about choosing a web server size.

1. How much disk space does a web server need?

The amount of disk space a web server needs depends on how much data you will be uploading to your website. Typically, starter hosting plans start with 5-10 GB of disk storage, which is enough for a small business website or a starter blog.

2. What is the average size of a web hosting server?

Most websites are hosted on shared hosting web servers. The average size of a starter shared hosting web server is under 10 GB of disk storage, 1 GB of RAM, and a single or dual-core processor.

3. What does unlimited bandwidth mean?

Normally, shared hosting companies advertise unlimited bandwidth with their hosting plans. However, bandwidth costs money, and there are usually restrictions on how much bandwidth your website can use based on a fair usage policy. You can get further information by asking your hosting provider about their fair usage policy for bandwidth limitations.

We hope this article helped you learn how to choose the ideal size of a web server for your WordPress website. You may also want to see our WordPress performance guide to make sure your WordPress website is ready for peak traffic and our expert pick of the best monthly web hosting plans.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Determine the Ideal Size of a Web Server for Your Website first appeared on WPBeginner.

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Ultimate Web Hosting Statistics and Market Share Report (2022)

Are you looking for the latest web hosting statistics and market share information?

Web hosting is one of the key parts of every successful website. By understanding the hosting market and all of the major players, you can choose the best provider for your WordPress website.

In this article, we’ve gathered tons of web hosting statistics and market share information.

Ultimate web hosting statistics and market share report

Ultimate List of Web Hosting Statistics

We’ve divided this list of web hosting statistics into several different categories. You can use the links below to jump to the section you’re most interested in.

Global Web Hosting Services Market Size in 2022

Global web hosting market size statistics
  • The global web hosting market is projected to grow to $267.10 billion by 2028 at a compound annual growth rate of 18%.
  • In 2020, the global market was valued at $75 billion.
  • Web hosting is expected to generate $79.25 billion in revenue in 2022.
  • By 2027, it’s predicted that the web hosting space will generate $144.40 billion.
  • According to experts, the growing number of small and medium businesses is the biggest factor driving the industry’s growth.
  • Market share differs dramatically depending on location. While Amazon rules the US market with a 3.9% share, in Germany the most popular web hosting provider is 1and1 (18.29%), while in Italy Aruba has an impressive 30.71% market share. Similarly, the most popular cloud hosting provider in the United States is Amazon (31%) but the Google Cloud platform has the biggest share of India’s cloud computing market (39%).

No matter whether you run an online store, a nonprofit organization, or an affiliate marketing business, every organization needs a website. That means a big demand for web hosting.

In fact, at the start of 2022, there were around 1.8 billion live websites and over 5.1 billion internet users.

When you consider the stats, we can see that web hosting is a billion-dollar industry that’s only going to grow in the future.

Global Web Hosting Market Share in 2022

A global web hosting network
  • In 2020, the North American web hosting industry was valued at $34.32 billion.
  • Experts predict that the United States will have the largest market share right up until 2026, with Europe forecast to have the second biggest market share.
  • In 2022, analysts predict the United States will generate the largest web hosting revenue ($5,832 million). In second place is the UK, which is predicted to generate $5,832 million, followed by Japan ($5,666 million), China ($4,930 million), and Germany ($4,435 million).
  • Asia Pacific is expected to grow at the highest CAGR throughout 2021-2028, with the market in the Asia Pacific expected to reach $2.5 billion by 2026.
  • Experts also predict that the Middle East and Africa will show steady growth in the web hosting space due to an increasing focus on digitization.
  • China is forecast to reach an estimated market size of $16.9 billion in the year 2026, with a CAGR of 15.6% for the period 2021-2026.

The Asia Pacific region is expected to grow rapidly throughout 2021-2026. Experts say this is due to the growing popularity of online platforms and improved connectivity in the region.

Governments have also invested lots of money in small and medium enterprises, startups, and side businesses, which is fueling the growth in web hosting. For example, in 2019 the Chinese government announced a special investment of $894 million for small and medium enterprises, and in 2020 it invested $140 million into developing more startups.

With that being said, we expect to see the number of websites continue to grow. By investing so much money into startups and small businesses, governments in the Asia Pacific region are creating a huge demand for web hosting in these areas.

Domain Registration Statistics

Balloons showing different domain extensions
  • A domain name typically costs $10–$15 per year, although the most expensive publicly reported sale was carinsurance.com, which sold for $49.7 million.
  • GoDaddy has over 78 million registered domains, which gives them a 12.77% share of all registered domains. That makes GoDaddy the world’s most popular domain registrar.
  • Namecheap is GoDaddy’s closest competitor with over 17 million registered domains. This gives it a 2.87% share of all registered domain names and makes Namecheap the second most popular domain registrar.
  • 37.20% of domains are top-level domains (TLDs).

Choosing the best domain name for your website is crucial, and many sites even use a domain name generator to pick the perfect domain, fast.

Once you’ve chosen a domain, the next step is to properly register that domain name.

The good news is that many of the top web hosting providers are also domain name registrars, so you can often get a domain and hosting from the same provider.

Interestingly, GoDaddy is both the most popular web hosting provider and the most popular domain registrar, which suggests a lot of people choose to use the same company. Since it’s such a popular choice, we expect to see more web hosting companies also offering domain registration in the future.

If you haven’t purchased a domain name yet, then please see our expert pick of the best domain registrars.

Shared Hosting Stats (Including Average Cost of Web Hosting)

Shared web hosting
  • Shared hosting plans typically cost between $2.51-$4.63 per month.
  • On average, an entry-level shared hosting plan will cost $2.5 –$3.72 per month.
  • Typically, you can expect to pay between $4.63–$6.52 per month for mid-tiered shared web hosting.
  • Experts predict that the shared hosting market will grow at 15% CAGR and reach $72.2 billion by 2026.
  • 75% of the websites on a shared hosting plan use GoDaddy.

Shared hosting is where multiple websites share a server. By hosting several sites on the same server, web hosting companies can reduce their costs and offer hosting at a lower price, as the stats show.

To help you decide whether shared hosting is right for you, we’ve published this guide on the real truth about the best shared web hosting services.

VPS Hosting Stats (Including Hosting Costs Per Month)

A VPS Virtual Private Server
  • You can typically expect to pay between $13.41-$21.89 per month for VPS hosting.
  • Entry-level VPS hosting costs $13.41–$15.57 per month.
  • For mid-range VPS hosting, the average cost is $21.89–$25.17. However, when publishing these figures researchers pointed out that the range is skewed by a small number of premium service providers.
  • 21% of the websites on a VPS hosting plan use GoDaddy.

Similar to shared hosting, VPS hosting runs multiple sites on the same server. However, VPS uses powerful virtualization technology to create a digital barrier between each site. This gives customers guaranteed access to a percentage of the server’s resources. They also have greater control over how their server is set up.

As we can see from the web hosting statistics, extra flexibility, security, and improved performance come at a cost. On average, even entry-level VPS plans are noticeably more expensive than shared hosting.

To help you choose the right VPS hosting plan for your budget, we’ve created a guide to the best VPS hosting.

Dedicated Hosting Stats (Including Web Hosting Market Size)

A web hosting server
  • In 2021, dedicated hosting had 25.5% of the global web hosting services market.
  • Dedicated hosting is predicted to grow at 11.1% CAGR throughout 2021-2026.
  • GoDaddy is the most popular dedicated hosting provider. When we look at all the sites that are known to use dedicated hosting, 35% of those websites use GoDaddy.

Dedicated hosting is where a single customer has private access to an entire server. Dedicated hosting plans are mainly used by big websites that get lots of visitors and need a high level of performance and security.

Dedicated plans are expensive, but they’re not the only way to create a top-notch website.

For example, if you’re using WordPress then there are lots of ways to boost WordPress speed and performance. Plus, you can use security plugins to help protect your site.

Web server software code
  • Nginx is used by 34.2% of all websites whose web server is known, making it the most popular server technology. Alipay, TikTok, and Zoom all use Nginx.
  • 31.2% of all the websites with a known web server use Apache. Some big names that use Apache hosting services include eBay, Spotify, Dropbox, and Salesforce.
  • 21.6% of all websites with a known web server rely on Cloudflare Server. This includes some big names such as Zoom, Indeed, Etsy, Discord, and Fiverr.

The web hosting stats show that over 50% of all websites use open-source server software.

Open source gives you the freedom to use, change, extend, and redistribute software without having to pay anything. Immediately, open source helps you run a website for less and creates a sense of community and collaboration that benefits everyone who uses the software. With that being said, it’s not surprising that it’s one of the major hosting trends.

As well as open-source server software, almost half of the web (43%) uses the WordPress open-source content management system. It’s clear that in 2022, the world wide web runs on open source.

For more details about open source and WordPress, you can check out our guides on why WordPress is free and how much it really costs to build a WordPress website.

AWS Web Hosting Market Share

The AWS Amazon website
  • Over 57 million websites use Amazon as their hosting provider.
  • 6.2% of all websites use Amazon as their host, which gives Amazon Web Services (AWS) the biggest share of the web hosting industry.
  • Some of Amazon’s most well-known customers are Reddit, Netflix, TikTok, Twitch, Zoom, and eBay, plus Amazon themselves.
  • Out of the top 1 million websites, 22.23% use Amazon as their provider.
  • 41.08% of the top 100K websites use AWS, plus 53.76% of the top 10k websites.

Amazon has the largest market share and is also clearly a favorite among high-traffic sites.

This popularity could be down to Amazon’s reputation, as they’re known to provide robust and scalable hosting to some of the biggest companies in the world.

In fact, Netflix alone uses over 100,000 Amazon server instances to deliver high-resolution videos to their customers.

GoDaddy Hosting Market Share

The GoDaddy web hosting website
  • Despite the name, the GoDaddy Group owns several web hosting providers including Host Europe and Media Template. When we look at the entire GoDaddy Group, 3.9% of all websites use one of the company’s hosting providers.
  • GoDaddy is the Group’s most popular brand. Out of all the sites that use the GoDaddy Group, 78.5% choose GoDaddy as their web host.
  • Over 41 million websites use GoDaddy’s data centers.
  • When we look at the top 1 million websites based on traffic, 2.27% use GoDaddy as their hosting provider.
  • 1.76% of the top 100K websites use GoDaddy, plus 1.78% of the top 10k websites.

GoDaddy may have a mixed reputation, but it still has a big market share and hosts over 41 million websites.

This may be because of how much GoDaddy spends on marketing, as they invested over $100 million during the second quarter of 2022 alone.

However, it’s always smart to consider all your options. With that being said, you may want to see our expert pick of the best GoDaddy alternatives.

Namecheap Pricing and Web Hosting Statistics

The Namecheap web hosting provider
  • Over 5 million websites use Namecheap as their host, which is 1.0% of all websites.
  • Out of the top 1 million websites, 0.75% use Namecheap as their hosting provider.

Namecheap is best known as a domain registrar, but they’re also a popular hosting provider since their plans are very affordable.

For example, Namecheap’s shared hosting plans start at $2.18 per month, which is low when compared to the shared hosting average of $2.51-$4.63.

As we’ve previously seen, Namecheap is also the second most popular domain registrar. For website owners who want to buy their domain and hosting from the same company, this makes Namecheap an attractive choice.

Hostinger Web Hosting Market Share

The Hostinger web hosting website
  • Over 1 million websites use Hostinger as their provider, which is 1.3% of all websites.
  • Out of the top 1 million websites, 0.5% use Hostinger as their hosting provider.

Hostinger may not have a huge share of the high-traffic market, but they have a significant slice of the wider web hosting market.

This is likely because they offer affordable, all-in-one hosting packages complete with 24/7 live chat support, managed automatic updates, a free CDN service, and free site migration. They also have a 1-click installer that makes it easy to install WordPress plus other popular software.

For a detailed look at Hostinger’s strong points and weak points, you can check out our expert Hostinger review.

WP Engine Group (Managed WordPress Usage Statistics)

The WP Engine website
  • 2.2% of all websites use one of WP Engine Group’s brands as their hosting provider.
  • 81.5% of all sites that use WP Engine Group, choose WPEngine as their provider.
  • Flywheel is used by 18.5% of all websites that use the WP Engine Group.
  • Some of WP Engine Group’s biggest customers include Indeed, Udemy, SoundCloud, and Mozilla.

WP Engine is one of the world’s leading managed WordPress hosting providers, used by 2.2% of all websites.

A managed hosting plan is perfect for busy website owners who want to avoid time-consuming admin tasks.

With its advanced security features, protection against DDoS attacks, and built-in CDN in partnership with MaxCDN, WP Engine is powerful enough to support larger businesses such as Mozilla and SoundCloud.

For more information, please see our expert review of WP Engine.

HostGator Web Hosting Statistics

The HostGator homepage
  • HostGator is part of the Newfold Digital Group, which was formerly known as the Endurance International Group. HostGator is the company’s most popular web hosting provider. In fact, HostGator is used by 30.8% of all websites that use a Newfold Digital Group brand.
  • HostGator is used by 1.4% of all websites.
  • Over 960,000 sites rely on Hostinger as their hosting provider.

With 1-click WordPress installation, a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and 24/7 support, it’s easy to see why HostGator is used by 1.4% of all websites.

They also offer shared hosting, Virtual Private Server hosting, dedicated hosting servers, and managed WordPress hosting plans, so website owners can choose the plan that works the best for them.

To see whether HostGator is right for you, check out our expert review of HostGator.

Bluehost Pricing and Web Hosting Statistics

The Bluehost special offer for WPBeginner readers
  • Bluehost is also part of the Newfold Digital Group and is the company’s second most popular hosting provider. Bluehost is used by 27.4% of all websites that use a Newfold Digital Group brand.
  • Over 2 million websites are hosted on Bluehost, which is 1.2% of all websites.
  • Out of the top 1 million websites based on traffic, just 0.39% use Bluehost.

Bluehost is an affordable hosting provider, especially when compared to the average prices we’ve seen earlier.

WPBeginner readers can get a 60% off discount with Bluehost. You can purchase a shared plan for just $2.75 per month, which is at the lower end of the $2.51-$4.63 average. Plus, it comes with a free domain name!

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

These affordable prices may explain why Bluehost is used by 2 million websites. As well as offering low prices, Bluehost is one of the few hosts officially recommended by WordPress.

To learn more about Bluehost, you can see an in-depth Bluehost review from our experts.

Shopify Hosting Stats

Shopify website
  • Almost 4 million websites use Shopify as their hosted solution.
  • In 2020, Shopify’s market share was just 1.8%, but by 2022 it was 4.4%. That’s an increase of 2.6% in just 2 years.

Shopify is a popular website builder, similar to Wix and Squarespace. Shopify has seen rapid growth from a 0.4% share of the web hosting market in 2016 to 4.4% in 2022. This is likely due to the rising popularity of online shopping, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With physical shops closed around the world, many businesses needed to create an online store, fast. As a fully hosted eCommerce platform, Shopify saw good conversion rates and lots of new customers during the pandemic.

However, Shopify does force you to use its Shopify Payment platform. If you want to use a different payment processing solution, then you’ll need to pay an extra 2% transaction fee which is very high compared to other eCommerce platforms.

With that in mind, we may see Shopify’s growth slow as store owners start to look for more affordable Shopify alternatives. For example, we’re starting to see more people move from Shopify to WooCommerce.

Squarespace Web Hosting Stats

The Squarespace CMS
  • Over 4 million websites use Squarespace as their hosting solution, which means 2% of all websites use Squarespace.
  • When we look at the 1 million sites based on traffic, 0.69% of them use Squarespace.
  • 1.36% of the top 100k websites use Squarespace, plus 3.16% of the top 10k sites.

Similar to Shopify, Squarespace’s market share has grown very quickly. In 2016, Squarespace had just 0.3% of the market, but by 2022 it had 2.0%.

Despite this, today only a small percentage of the top 1 million sites use Squarespace. This could be because Squarespace forces customers to use its built-in drag and drop builder which can be restrictive.

Bigger organizations are more likely to choose a flexible hosting plan and open-source CMS such as WordPress, rather than a hosted solution and restrictive web builder.

For more information, you can see our guide on Square vs. WordPress – which one is better?

Sources:

Internet Live Stats, Internet World Stats, GoDaddy, Global Industry Analysts, Fortune Business Insights, W3Techs, Statista, BuiltWith, Domain Name Stat, AWS.

We hope this ultimate web hosting statistics and market share report will help you find the best hosting provider for your website. You may also want to see our research on the latest blogging statistics as well as new marketing trends and stats.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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5 Best Monthly Web Hosting Plans (Starts at $4.95/mo.)

Are you looking for the best monthly web hosting plans?

Most popular web hosting companies offer big discounts on annual, bi-annual, and multiple-year payment terms.

These discounts may be promoted as low monthly payments, but when you go to the checkout page, you’ll pay a hefty amount upfront to buy the web hosting.

In this article, we will share some of the best monthly web hosting plans that let you truly sign up for a month-to-month hosting service.

Best Monthly Web Hosting Plans

Why Choose a Monthly Web Hosting Plan?

Many web hosting companies only offer discounts if you buy hosting for a full year or multiple years. That makes it can cost hundreds of dollars just to get started.

Plus, if you don’t like the web hosting service, you may not be able to get a full refund, and you will lose your initial investment.

A true monthly web hosting plan will be cheaper to get started. With a month-to-month hosting plan, you won’t commit to a hosting provider long-term, and it’s easier to move to another web hosting company.

This allows you to choose the best hosting provider with the features you need to host your WordPress website.

And more importantly, you will only pay a low monthly cost for the web hosting service you use.

Without further delay, let’s look at some of the best monthly web hosting plans for small businesses.

1. Dreamhost – $4.95/mo.

DreamHost Web Hosting

DreamHost is one of the most well-known web hosting companies, and they’re an official WordPress-recommended hosting provider. They offer the cheapest month-to-month web hosting plan on the market.

They provide a custom control panel to add your domain name, manage emails, and access web hosting features.

Moreover, DreamHost comes with automated website backups. These daily backups ensure the complete safety of your content.

When it comes to DreamHost’s monthly pricing, their WordPress Starter or Shared plan costs $4.95/month with a free SSL certificate, free website migration, and more.

You will have to pay for the domain name separately, which is fair.

But if you’re willing to commit for the year, WPBeginner users can get up to a 72% discount on their Shared plan with a free domain name, website builder, SSD storage, and more.

Our DreamHost coupon code is applicable on the 1-year and 3-year payment plans.

DreamHost pricing plans and payment options

DreamHost has other web hosting solutions, including VPS hosting, managed WordPress hosting, dedicated server hosting, WooCommerce hosting, and cloud hosting.

Don’t miss our complete DreamHost review for more details on their shared hosting options and pricing plans.

2. Hostinger – $2.69/mo.

Hostinger website

Hostinger is one of the leading web hosting companies on the global market. It offers WordPress website hosting, shared hosting, and cloud hosting plans.

The month-to-month shared hosting plan from Hostinger starts at $11.99 for a single website.

If you’re looking for a web hosting plan for multiple sites, then we recommend their WordPress Starter plan. It comes with a free domain name, a free SSL certificate, and free unlimited email accounts.

The Hostinger WordPress Starter plan costs $11.99/month.

You can use WPBeginner’s exclusive Hostinger coupon code to get a discount on your monthly web hosting plan. The Hostinger promo code offers more discounts on longer commitments.

For example, if you choose to pay for up to 12 months, the cost for the WordPress basic hosting plan reduces to $2.99/month.

And WPBeginner users get an additional discount that makes it $2.69/month.

In short, you’ll pay $32.29 at once to get WordPress hosting for the full year.

Hostinger Pricing and plans

Their shared hosting plans cost similar to WordPress hosting. However, you’ll need to pay an additional setup fee.

Hostinger also offers Virtual Private Server hosting (VPS hosting) plans, Minecraft server hosting, and other solutions.

We ran several tests on Hostinger, and here’s our complete Hostinger review that may interest you.

3. Bluehost – $2.75/mo.

Bluehost offer for WPBeginner readers

Bluehost is one of the most popular web hosting providers and an officially recommended WordPress hosting partner.

Though they don’t offer a month-to-month web hosting plan, the initial cost is so low that we couldn’t resist adding them to this list.

And you’ll save triple your investment with a free domain name, free SSL certificate, and a BIG discount on your web hosting package.

So if you’re just starting out, we recommend Bluehost as the best web hosting for beginners, startups, and small businesses.

The initial cost for your web hosting plan will be as low as $33 for the first year.

This also includes your free domain name, free SSL certificate, and a cPanel for a one-click WordPress installation.

Bluehost Package

However, on the renewal, you’ll need to pay the full cost for your web hosting plan and domain name. But by then, you’ll be able to grow your business to afford the price.

And if you still want to switch, you can easily move your WordPress site to a new web hosting company for a month-to-month hosting plan. Some web hosting providers also offer free migration services, so you’re safe anyway.

On a side note, we thoroughly tested Bluehost for its features, speed, and uptime. And we recommend it to everyone, all the time.

Most of our WPBeginner users start their websites with Bluehost web hosting and grow their businesses to the next level.

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

4. SiteGround – $19.99/mo.

SiteGround web hosting

SiteGround is one of the best WordPress hosting providers. Their web hosting is optimized for speed and security. We use SiteGround to host the WPBeginner website.

Among top features, SiteGround offers automatic WordPress updates, a free CDN network to improve page load time, a custom web application firewall to protect your web server against malware and DDoS attacks, and more.

Their customer support team is available 24/7 to help you with any of your concerns, which you may rarely have with SiteGround web hosting.

SiteGround has data centers all over the world since they use the Google Cloud network. It’s the reason they can provide a 99.9% uptime guarantee on their web hosting platform. Over the years of using their platform, we have never had downtime for the WPBeginner site.

The SiteGround’s StartUp plan costs $19.99/month.

It’s an expensive monthly web hosting plan compared to other hosting providers on the list, but it also includes functionality like free site migration, free SSL certificate, eCommerce support, basic WordPress site management, out of the box caching addons, and more.

And WPBeginner’s exclusive SiteGround coupon code lets you buy their WordPress hosting plan with an 80% discount.

This reduces the cost to up to $2.99/month for the StartUp plan.

SiteGround pricing plan and payment options

SiteGround’s discount deal is only valid when you choose to pay for up to 12 months upfront. So you’ll pay $35.88 for 12 months and get access to all their WordPress hosting features.

The best part is that they also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Aside from WordPress, SiteGround also has cheap web hosting for other content management systems like Drupal, Joomla, Magento, and basically any other Linux based app.

We have done a detailed SiteGround review which shared performance tests from various locations along with coverage of their additional services like Site Scanner.

5. WP Engine – $30 / mo.

WP Engine WordPress Hosting Homepage

WP Engine is the most popular managed WordPress hosting company in the market. They are typically the go-to choice for large websites, enterprise customers, as well as small businesses and developers who want a fully managed web hosting platform with speed, security, and support.

WP Engine offers monthly cloud hosting plans starting at $30 per month on a month-to-month billing which gives you access to 10GB of disk space, 50GB of bandwidth, 10 premium themes from StudioPress, free automated migration, automated website backups, and more.

All their plans come with advanced developer tools like one-click staging, dev & prod site environments, threat blocking & security, built-in CDN for turbo website speed, transferable sites for easy client handoff, activity log, and more.

WP Engine also offers managed hosting solutions for WooCommerce online stores starting at $50 per month as well as enterprise cloud hosting starting at $600 per month.

But if you use the WPBeginner’s WP Engine coupon code and pre-pay for annual plans, then you will get 4 months free.

WP Engine Pricing Page

WP Engine also offers additional services like automated plugin updates, extra SOC2 level security with managed WAF, site monitoring, and more which can be purchased separately.

We did a detailed performance test of their platform in our WP Engine review that we highly recommend you check out.

BONUS: Other Popular Month-to-Month Web Hosting Options

6. HostGator: One of the most popular web hosting providers, HostGator offers unmetered bandwidth, a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and more. Their shared hosting plan costs $7.65 for the first month (including tax) for WPBeginner readers. The plan renews at $11.95 per month from the second month.

7. GreenGeeks: The eco-friendly WordPress hosting offered by GreenGeeks comes with multiple types of hosting, including reseller hosting, dedicated hosting for websites, and more. It has built-in caching for fast performance, which costs $11.95 per month. You also need to pay a setup fee of $15 for the first time.

Which Month-To-Month Web Hosting Plan Should I Buy?

If you’re looking for true monthly web hosting with no long-term commitment, then DreamHost has the best monthly web hosting packages.

DreamHost’s top features include free website migration, free SSL, security, and a 97-day money-back guarantee.

With that said, when you’re starting a website, you want to get the best web hosting deal because it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be switching hosting providers every month.

Most people that choose a reliable hosting provider rarely ever switch. In over a decade of running the WPBeginner website, we have switched hosting providers only once, and that was after 10 years when we outgrew our previous provider.

So, in that case, what’s more important is that you choose a provider that’s giving you the best deal with one-year commitment.

We recommend Hostinger, SiteGround, or Dreamhost for those just starting out.

Hostinger’s WordPress Starter plan ($32.29 for the first year) is the cheapest web hosting option on paying upfront for 12 months, and you get a free domain name worth $9.99/year.

On the other hand, SiteGround’s StartUp plan on a 12-month upfront payment ($35.88/for the first year) is close to Hostinger’s pricing for the basic starter plan.

However, SiteGround servers are blazing fast since it’s hosted on Google Cloud, and you get tons of advanced performance and security features which is why we use SiteGround for the WPBeginner website.

If you’re looking for a more managed web hosting provider with enterprise support, then WP Engine is going to be your best bet since they offer monthly web hosting plans for cloud hosting.

Note: At WPBeginner, we regularly look into dozens of web hosting companies that are not listed in this article, like A2 hosting, GoDaddy, InMotion Hosting, Cloudways, Namecheap, LiquidWeb (Nexcess), and others. We decided not to list them all in this article because we don’t want to cause choice paralysis. If you choose a host from our recommended list, you won’t go wrong.

We hope this article has helped you find the best monthly web hosting plan.

You may also want to check out our other guides on related web hosting and business growth.

Best Web Hosting Guides for Small Businesses

Best WordPress Guides for Small Businesses

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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WP Engine Acquires 5 Plugins From Delicious Brains

Delicious Brains, a WordPress product company founded in 2012 by Brad Touesnard, has sold five of its plugins to WP Engine: Advanced Custom Fields (ACF), WP Migrate, WP Offload Media, WP Offload SES, and Better Search Replace.

Over the past four years, WP Engine has been scooping up developer tools through acquisitions, including StudioPress and the Genesis Framework (2018), Flywheel and its Local development tool (2019) and the Frost block theme (2021). The five Delicious Brains plugins, which are active on more than four million WordPress sites, greatly expand WP Engine’s reach into the developer market. ACF, which allows developers to control WordPress edit screens and custom field data, accounts for two million users.

Delicious Brains will continue with its SpinupWP product which allows developers to spin up a server and manage it via a cloud-based control panel.

“What if I could exit the plugin side of the business but keep SpinupWP and continue on with that project and its team?” Touesnard said in a post explaining why he sold the plugins. “The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. 

“In the previous 18 months, we had gone from 10 people to 34. I was now a manager of managers and also directing marketing – not my strongest areas and I was stretched pretty thin so not doing my best work. At the same time, I wasn’t spending nearly as much time on SpinupWP as I would have liked.”

Touesnard pitched the idea of selling the plugins to his connections at WP Engine and they were enthusiastic. The company is also acqui-hiring several members of the Delcious Brains team to continue supporting the products.

“I’ve often said that if for some reason I couldn’t work for a month or more that Iain Poulson would step up and keep Delicious Brains running and thriving without me,” Touesnard said. “He has been with Delicious Brains since the early days, has worked across all the products, and makes sure that things get done that need doing. I’m very happy to say that Iain will be joining WP Engine, overseeing the continued development of ACF. Matt Shaw and Liam Gladdy will continue their work as developers on ACF as well.

“Although Kevin Hoffman only joined us last August, he has made a huge impact on WP Migrate and Better Search Replace as product manager. I’m very pleased to say that he will continue that work partnering with Phil Webster and Ahmed Hussein. He will also continue working with Ian Jones and Erik Torsner on WP Offload Media and WP Offload SES.”

Touesnard said support teams for each product will remain in place and the plugins’ developers will continue helping out in support as issues are escalated to them.

WP Engine has promised to honor ACF Pro lifetime licenses and Touesnard said the company “has no plans to change subscription prices for any of the plugins for the foreseeable future.”

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Local Launches Atlas Add-on for Sandboxing Headless WordPress Sites

Local, a popular WordPress development tool maintained by WP Engine, has launched a new add-on for quickly spinning up headless WordPress sites on its new Atlas platform.

The company has been working to capture the headless WordPress hosting market over the past few years, investing in a new team dedicated to building out its headless offerings aimed at developers. It is one of the first managed hosts to offer a packaged product that handles all the dependencies and configuration required to launch a headless site.

The new add-on is called Atlas: Headless WP. It makes it easy for users to create a site with a Node.js frontend that uses WP Engine’s Faust.js headless framework for WordPress. It can be found inside the latest version of Local under the Add-ons menu.

The Atlas add-on watches any changes made to frontend code and compiles them after a file is saved. The add-on’s help docs have a guide to the folder structure for the headless sites it creates:

  • app – Contains the files of a typical WordPress site. Any changes made here will be reflected in the WordPress backend.
  • app-node – The Javascript frontend which the Node.js process is watching and compiling.

The Atlas add-on gives users access to three blueprints that include starter code, plugins, content models, and page structure to jumpstart site development. One creates a barebones site with just the scaffolding necessary to get started. The second blueprint is for a portfolio site and includes a blog and pages to list projects. The third blueprint appears to be very similar but just includes a blog and menu with no portfolio.

It is important to note that Atlas can only be enabled on new sites in Local, as the app has no way to convert existing sites into a headless site.

Sites built using the add-on are supported in the import/export site workflows, but the company’s support team confirmed that Atlas sites can only be hosted at WP Engine. This is one of the chief drawbacks of the framework.

For this reason, the Atlas add-on essentially functions sort of like a sales funnel for WP Engine, since sites produced using it are not portable to be hosted anywhere else. It does offer an easy way to experiment with headless WordPress to see how it all works together. It’s also convenient for WP Engine customers who want to use it to create new headless sites with less work setting up and configuring them.

The Atlas add-on for Local is still in beta, so it has a few rough edges. Users can get help for their support questions by creating a topic in the Atlas: Headless WP category of the community forums.

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WP Engine, Pantheon, and Others Drop Support for Russian Business Customers

WordPress managed hosting company WP Engine has joined Acquia, Fastly, Gatsby, Netlify, and Pantheon to begin booting Russian companies off their platforms.

In addition to the joint protest, each organization has also pledged support to the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI), a non-profit that documents internet censorship around the world.

“As part of that effort to increase our support, we are adopting a stronger stance against the actions of the Russian government while supporting the ideals we hold true as an Open Web company, which is why WP Engine has joined with other Open Web companies Acquia, Fastly, Gatsby, Netlify, and Pantheon to stand with Ukraine,” WP Engine said in a statement. “WP Engine has ceased all business with Russian companies that were using our platform.”

These stricter measures came after the company had already donated to Polish and Ukrainian humanitarian funds, matching employee funds. WP Engine condemned Russia’s invasion in its first published statement on the matter:

As the world watches in horror, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to leave heart-wrenching destruction in its wake. It is truly shocking that in 2022, a major world power would launch an unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation, causing the largest humanitarian crisis in Europe since WWII.

As they face unimaginable hardships, we stand firmly with the Ukrainian people and condemn the actions of the Russian government in Ukraine.  

Similarly, Acquia tweeted earlier this week that the company “will not provide software or services to organizations based in Russia.”

The coalition of organizations is sanctioning Russia in a similar way to Namecheap, and many other companies, that have terminated service for Russian customers. The world has never seen anything like it with the number of companies across every industry willingly sanctioning the Russian market without a government requirement to do so. Widespread outrage against Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has provoked a massive response from corporations and private enterprises.

“The net effect of so many companies exiting or pausing operations in Russia means the government sanctions might almost become a moot point. “It’s a chicken and egg story,” Leo Feler, senior economist at UCLA Anderson School of Management, told TIME magazine. “If enough businesses abandon the Russian market on their own, the Russian market is also going to shrink. You don’t need sanctions to do it if everyone self-sanctions.”

In the world of open source software, individuals, companies, and projects are grappling with the ethical implications of staying neutral versus imposing some form of sanctions. One misguided attempt at “protestware” was included as a dependency for a popular npm package with malicious code that deletes data by overwriting files for users based in Russia and Belarus. People are desperate to make a difference for those suffering in Ukraine, but they don’t always know the most effective way to direct their efforts.

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) has taken a firm stance on the immutability of the freedoms and protections that open source licensing confers.

“Civil society has many non-violent ways at its disposal to resolve conflicts and it’s important to explore all possible avenues,” OSI Executive Director Stefano Maffulli said.

“When it comes to open source software, however, the Open Source Definition is clear: There must be ‘no discrimination against persons or groups’ and ‘no discrimination against fields of endeavor.'”

Maffulli elaborated on these thoughts in an interview with The New Stack, noting that limiting distribution is one option for protesting but that this could hurt Russian citizens more than “the Russian military and powerful elites who certainly have the means to develop workarounds.”

Limiting distribution would likely be far more difficult than denying service to Russian businesses, which is why this tactic has been more readily adopted. Businesses are using whatever means they have within their spheres of influence to make an impact.

The WordPress project stopped short of explicitly condemning the aggression and has focused more on the humanitarian crisis and supporting peacebuilders. The project produced a special edition of its WP Briefing podcast to address the situation in Ukraine earlier this month.

“The downstream humanitarian crises of the invasion are unimaginable,” WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg said.

“And seeing destruction in the world we live in is confusing, disconcerting, and difficult.”

Mullenweg invited the WordPress community to stand “with those in the world working to end conflict and working toward a world of peace, promise, and opportunity.”

Many companies have followed this same approach with efforts aimed at providing relief for refugees and economic support for Ukrainians who are still fighting. WP Engine, Acquia, Fastly, Gatsby, Netlify, and Pantheon were compelled to go beyond their humanitarian efforts to put some pressure on Russia. It’s not yet clear whether disempowering Russian companies will have any bearing on the outcome of this conflict.

After a nearly month long war that has left cities like Mariupol in ashes, with Russia’s war crimes on full display across media outlets around the world, companies are coming under more pressure to act.

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6 Best Reseller Hosting Plans of 2021 (Best Value + Quality)

Are you looking for the best reseller hosting?

Reseller hosting lets you sell hosting services just like a web hosting company. Web designers, developers, and agencies can offer reseller hosting as an addon service for clients and customers.

In this article, we’ll share our favorite reseller hosting so that you can choose the right hosting company for your business.

Best reseller hosting of 2021 (compared)

What is Reseller Hosting and Who is it For?

With reseller hosting, you purchase web hosting services and then sell the server space and features to other customers.

Think of it like running your own web hosting business, but without all of the expensive costs like hardware, servers, maintenance, support, and more. Every technical task is managed behind the scenes by the web host.

It’s important to choose a high quality hosting provider, since their service will be the foundation for your business.

If you’re a developer, agency, or manage WordPress websites for clients in any way, then reselling hosting can be a great way to make money online.

With that said, let’s take a look at some of the best reseller hosting options available on the market today.

1. SiteGround

SiteGround Reseller

SiteGround is a popular hosting provider that’s known for its high quality support and fast loading speeds. It’s also one of the hosts officially recommended by WordPress.

The reseller hosting plans let you pass on all of SiteGround’s great hosting features to your clients.

All reseller packages support an unlimited number of hosting accounts, have free WordPress installation and updates, daily backups, and more.

Free SSL certificates, email accounts, and a CDN are included with your customers’ hosting accounts too.

You can also offer your clients access to the site staging features, datacenter selection, and free migration for those coming from other web hosts.

Pricing: SiteGround reseller plans start at $7.99 and include 20GB of storage and support for unlimited websites. If you want custom branding for your account, then you’ll need one of the higher priced plans.

For more details, see our SiteGround review to learn more about the features, performance, and more.

2. HostGator

HostGator Reseller

HostGator is one of the top WordPress hosting providers in the world. They’ve been around since 2002 and have grown to become one of the biggest and most beginner friendly hosts in the market.

The reseller hosting offers great features like unlimited domains, a free SSL certificate, dedicated IP addresses, FTP accounts, private name servers, automated backups, and more.

Every reseller plan comes with the WHM control panel for easier client management and server control. You can monitor and control the server bandwidth and disk space for every customer server.

It also includes WHMCS billing software to easily automate your billing.

Finally, HostGator includes 24/7 support via live chat and phone.

Pricing: HostGator reseller plans start at $19.95 per month and have 60GB of disk space and support for unlimited websites.

To learn more about HostGator, see our in depth HostGator review where we evaluate their speed, performance, and support.

3. GreenGeeks

GreenGeeks Reseller

GreenGeeks is well known in the hosting industry for being an environmentally friendly host. They offer very fast loading speeds, 24/7 US-based support, and power over 600,000 websites.

Every reseller plan includes unlimited disk space and bandwidth, a free CDN, and automated daily backups. Plus, high level plans can support eCommerce stores across different platforms like WooCommerce.

If your clients are more advanced users, then you can offer support for multiple versions of PHP, FTP access, WP-CLI, Git, and more.

White label services are also available, so you can sell hosting under your branding instead of GreenGeeks.

Pricing: GreenGeeks reseller plans start at $19.95 per month with 60GB of disk space and support for 25 cPanel accounts.

To learn more about GreenGeeks, see our in depth GreenGeeks review where we cover the pros and cons in depth.

4. WP Engine

WP Engine Managed Hosting

WP Engine is known for its managed WordPress hosting plans, rock solid support team, and fast speeds.

It’s very popular with WordPress developers since it offers support for up to 30 websites on managed hosting when you choose the Managed Hosting Scale plan.

You get access to 24/7 support, automated migrations, daily backups, SSH access, and a free SSL certificate with managed hosting.

Plus, with WP Engine, you get access to 10 different StudioPress WordPress themes that you can use on client websites.

Pricing: WP Engine starts at $241.67 per month when billed yearly and supports up to 30 websites.

For more details, see our in depth WP Engine review where we highlight the pros, cons, performance, and more.

5. A2 Hosting

A2 Reseller Hosting

A2 Hosting is a web host known for its speed, performance, and reliability. There’s also 24/7 tech support to assist with any website issues.

All of the reseller hosting plans are managed with the Web Host Manager (WHM) tool, which makes it easy to keep track of your client websites.

Plus, you can white label the hosting to create a branded experience for your customers.

The reseller plans also include free account migration, SSL certificates, automated backups, and a CDN.

Pricing: A2 Hosting reseller plans start at $24.99 per month when paid yearly, and include 60 GB of disk space, a money-back guarantee, and more.

For more details, see our detailed A2 Hosting review for an in depth look at the hosting features, performance, and plans.

6. InMotion

InMotion Reseller

InMotion is a popular host that offers reliable performance for business websites. The technical support team is very helpful, plus there’s 99.99% guaranteed uptime.

Every plan has high bandwidth and disk space to support more websites and traffic at an affordable price.

All plans come with a free cPanel or WHM control panel, root server access, and built-in DDoS and malware protection. This offers your customers flexibility and improved website security.

White label services and billing software are included for free. So, you can easily manage payments while offering customers a hosting experience with your own branding.

If you want to sell domain names too, then you can use the domain reseller account also included in the reseller program.

Pricing: InMotion Hosting reseller plans start at $29.99 per month when paid yearly and offer 80GB storage and support for 25 websites, along with a 90-day money-back guarantee.

To learn more about InMotion, see our in depth InMotion Hosting review where we highlight the performance, speed, and pros and cons.

What is the Best Reseller Hosting? (Expert Pick)

All of the reseller hosting services above are great choices. The best reseller host for your business will depend on your goals and the kind of websites you’ll be hosting.

If website speed and high quality customer support are important, then SiteGround is the best option.

If you want a beginner-friendly host that your customers can grow and scale their websites with, then HostGator is perfect.

We also looked into other reseller web hosting providers like Liquid Web, GoDaddy, Bluehost, etc but we decided not to list them here to help you avoid choice paralysis.

We hope this article helped you find the best reseller hosting to help you start your own reseller business. You may also want to see our guide on choosing the best website builder and our expert picks on the best business phone services for small businesses.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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How to Update Your PHP Version in WordPress (the RIGHT Way)

Do you want to update the PHP version of your WordPress site?

Using the latest version of PHP in WordPress can significantly improve your site’s performance and user experience. Many web hosting providers make the update process rather easy, but you may need to check several things before doing it.

In this article, we will show you how to easily update the PHP version of your WordPress website.

How to Update Your PHP Version in WordPress (the RIGHT Way)

Why Update PHP Version in WordPress?

Updating your WordPress website’s PHP version can boost your site’s performance.

You see, WordPress is developed using an open-source programming language called PHP. At the time of writing this article, it requires at least PHP 7.4 or greater.

New PHP versions usually come with patches for security vulnerabilities and bugs, protecting your site against malware and hackers. It also includes new features to make running processes much faster and reduce memory usage.

Because of this, we strongly recommend updating your WordPress to the latest stable version of PHP. At the time of writing this article, that is PHP 8.3.2.

If you use an older PHP version, your website may be less secure, slower, and prone to errors due to compatibility issues with WordPress core, plugin, or theme. You can learn more about this topic in our article about how PHP updates by your web host impact WordPress.

Thankfully, most WordPress hosting companies strive to offer the newest PHP versions to meet WordPress’ requirements. They may also automatically update PHP behind-the-scenes and you may not notice any change.

That said, we suggest keeping up-to-date with the latest PHP news. Check what kind of features or changes may affect your WordPress website. A plugin, theme, or software may not work after the update and you have to switch back to an older version of PHP in the meantime.

With that in mind, let’s look at how you can check your current PHP version in WordPress. We will also show you a step-by-step tutorial on how to update your PHP version in different hosting providers.

How to Check Your Current PHP Version in WordPress

WordPress makes it easy to check the version of PHP used by your host. What you need to do is log in to your admin dashboard and head to the Tools » Site Health page.

Then, switch to the ‘Info’ tab.

Opening the Info tab inside the Site Health menu in the WordPress admin area

Next, you need to scroll down a little and click to expand the ‘Server’ tab. This section shows your server’s system information, including its PHP version.

As you can see in the screenshot, our demo website uses PHP version 8.1.

Checking your server's PHP version in the WordPress Site Health page

What to Do Before Updating PHP in WordPress

As with any updates, you want to make sure your live site won’t experience any errors before making the changes official. For this reason, you need to do the following before updating your PHP version:

  • Update WordPress core, themes, and plugins – Doing this can ensure they can operate effectively with the new PHP. Must-have WordPress plugins from reputable developers will usually be readily compatible with newer versions of PHP.
  • Back up your website – Use a backup plugin like Duplicator to create a website backup in case of issues. You can easily restore your site to an error-free version if disaster strikes.
  • Create a staging site – We recommend trying to update your PHP in a staging environment so that any errors caused by the new PHP version won’t affect your live site.
  • Use the PHP Compatibility Checker plugin – Created by WP Engine, this plugin can identify potential issues that may come up from the new PHP version.

How to Update Your PHP Version in Bluehost

First, you need to log in to your Bluehost hosting account’s control panel and click on the ‘Websites’ tab in the left column.

After that, select the website whose PHP version you’d like to update, and click the ‘Settings’ button.

Bluehost site settings

Now, go ahead and switch to the ‘Settings’ tab.

This is where you can see and configure the advanced settings of your WordPress blog or website.

Opening the Settings tab inside the Websites menu in Bluehost

What you need to do now is scroll down to the PHP Version section.

After that, click ‘Change’ next to your current PHP version.

Clicking the Change button in Bluehost to update a website's PHP version

Now, go ahead and select the PHP version you want to update to. Then, simply click the ‘Change’ button.

Bluehost will now start using the selected PHP version for your website.

Selecting a PHP version to update to in Bluehost

How to Update Your PHP Version in Hostinger

First, log in to your Hostinger account dashboard and switch to the ‘Websites’ tab.

From here, you need to click the ‘Manage’ button next to the website where you want to change the PHP version.

This will take you to that particular website’s dashboard.

Switching to the Websites tab in Hostinger and clicking the Manage button

Next, locate the ‘PHP Configuration’ tab under the Advanced menu from the left sidebar.

Hostinger will now show you available and supported PHP versions to choose from.

Select the PHP version you want to use and click the ‘Update’ button to save your settings.

Updating PHP version in Hostinger

A popup will appear asking you to confirm your website, blog, or online store’s PHP update.

Simply click ‘Confirm’ to continue.

Confirming a PHP version update in WordPress

How to Update Your PHP Version in SiteGround

If you are using SiteGround, then here is how you will update the PHP version of your WordPress website.

First, you need to log in to your SiteGround account dashboard.

After that, go to the ‘My websites and services’ section and click the ‘Manage’ button inside Websites.

Clicking the Manage button inside the SiteGround control panel

You will now arrive at the My Websites page.

Just click on the ‘Site Tools’ button under the website you want to update the PHP version in.

Clicking on Site Tools inside the SiteGround control panel

Next, you need to select the ‘PHP Manager’ menu inside the ‘Devs’ section from the left column.

From here, you can scroll down to the PHP Version tab and click the pencil button next to your PHP version.

Opening SiteGround's PHP Manager and clicking the pencil button there

This will bring up a popup. You first need to select ‘Change PHP version manually’ under the ‘Set PHP Version’ option.

After that, you will be able to select your PHP version from a dropdown menu.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Confirm’ button to apply your changes.

Changing the PHP version in SiteGround

How to Update Your PHP Version in HostGator

What you need to do first is log in to your HostGator hosting account dashboard and click on the ‘Websites’ section.

After that, click the ‘Settings’ button on the website whose PHP version you want to update.

Opening the Websites tab in HostGator and clicking the Settings button

Next, simply switch to the ‘Settings’ tab.

In this section, you can manage your website’s advanced settings.

Opening the Settings section in HostGator

At this stage, just scroll down to the PHP Version section.

Then, click ‘Change’ next to your current PHP version.

Clicking the Change button in the PHP Version section inside HostGator

You will see a popup asking you to select the PHP version you want to update to.

Once you’ve made your choice, just click the ‘Change’ button.

Changing the PHP version in HostGator

How to Update Your PHP Version in DreamHost

If you are a DreamHost user, you need to log in to your hosting account’s control panel. After that, navigate to the ‘Manage Websites’ tab from the left-side panel.

On the list of websites, just click the three-dot menu and choose ‘PHP Version.’

Opening the Manage Websites section and clicking PHP Version in DreamHost

You will be directed to the PHP settings page inside the control panel.

Go ahead and choose a PHP version from the dropdown menu. Then, click ‘Change PHP Version’ to continue with the update.

Changing the PHP version in DreamHost

How to Update Your PHP Version in WP Engine

WP Engine is a managed WordPress hosting company, which means they automatically upgrade the PHP version for you. However, you can also manually upgrade and downgrade the PHP version for your websites.

Simply log in to your WP Engine dashboard. On the ‘My Sites’ page, click on the PHP version next to your selected website.

Clicking the PHP number link in WP Engine

This will bring you to your website’s Overview settings. Here, WP Engine has a feature where you can preview your website on the latest PHP version without actually changing the PHP version.

If you want to try it out, go ahead and click ‘Preview PHP …’

The PHP Test Driver feature in WP Engine

To actually update PHP in WP Engine, scroll down to the ‘Updates’ section.

Then, click on the PHP version number link.

Changing the PHP version in WP Engine

Now, just choose the ‘Upgrade to PHP … ‘ option.

After that, click on the ‘Confirm’ button.

Confirming to update the PHP version in WP Engine

How to Update Your PHP Version in Other WordPress Hosting Providers

Most WordPress hosting providers organize their settings in a more or less similar way. You will most likely find the option to change a PHP version in the advanced settings of your cPanel or any other hosting control panel.

If you cannot find it, then you can check your provider’s knowledge base or contact their support team to change the PHP version of your website. For more information, you can check out our article on how to ask for WordPress support.

Changing PHP Versions in WordPress: Frequently Asked Questions

Now that we’ve discussed how to update your PHP version in WordPress, let’s cover some frequently asked questions about the topic.

What should you do after updating the PHP version?

After updating the PHP version for your WordPress website, you may want to ensure that everything is working as expected. We recommend visiting your website to see if there are any immediately noticeable issues.

After that, you can log in to the WordPress admin area of your website. Ensure your website uses the latest version of WordPress and all your plugins and themes are updated.

See our beginner’s guide on how to safely update WordPress for more information.

What do I do if a PHP update breaks my WordPress website?

It is unlikely that a PHP update will break a WordPress site. However, with the abundance of free and premium plugins, there is still a chance that a single line of poor code can result in any of the common WordPress errors.

First, you must ensure it is not a plugin or theme causing this error. To do that, you need to deactivate all your WordPress plugins and switch to a default WordPress theme.

If this does not solve your issue, then contact your web host’s support team. There is a good chance that the issue you are facing will already be on their radar, and they will be able to assist you.

If your web host is unable to help you out, then you can downgrade your PHP version using the methods described above.

We hope this article helped you learn how to update the PHP version of your WordPress site. You may also want to see our list of the fastest WordPress hosting providers on the market or our ultimate WordPress SEO guide to boost your search engine rankings.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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WP Engine Invests in Headless WordPress, Hires WPGraphQL Maintainer

WP Engine is deepening its investment in headless WordPress with the creation of a new team dedicated to furthering the technology developers rely on when opting for this architecture. The company has hired WPGraphQL creator and maintainer Jason Bahl as part of this new team and will be investing in more engineers and other roles to support decoupled setups.

For the past 18 months, Gatsby has funded Bahl’s time on WPGraphQL’s maintenance and development. During that time, the project had 53 releases, went from ~15,000 installs reported on Packagist.org to more than 85,000, and launched the plugin on WordPress.org with more than 8,000 installs active today and a 5-star average rating. The community around the project is also growing and has contributed more than 30 plugins to the library of WPGraphQL extensions.

“Gatsby’s investment in WPGraphQL signaled that it wasn’t just a hobby project, but was solving real problems for real users, and users should have confidence using it in their projects,” Bahl said.

After Gatsby started transitioning Bahl to work more on other Gatsby integrations, such as Contentful and Shopify, it translated into less time to work on WordPress and WPGraphQL. This prompted him to seek out another employer where he could prioritize working on headless WordPress.

“I feel right now is a unique time in history where more investment in WordPress as a headless CMS can change the future of WordPress,” Bahl said. “I believe WordPress is now more respected as a viable option for a headless CMS and that with the momentum of WPGraphQL, technologies like Gatsby, NextJS, and others, I need to spend more time focusing on WPGraphQL and headless WordPress, and not less time.”

Bahl found WP Engine at the right time and will be focusing on maintaining WPGraphQL and working on wider headless WordPress initiatives.

“We’re going to be investing in headless WordPress, both in expanding our existing business as well as giving back to the community, as we have done for the past eleven years,” WP Engine founder and CTO Jason Cohen said.

“We’re already seeing some customers moving to headless.  While we don’t see the majority of WordPress sites doing that anytime soon, we do want to invest in those who are.”

In the meantime, WP Engine is creating a Headless WordPress Framework that is in the early stages of development. The framework uses WPGraphQL and provides a plugin, a set of npm packages, and guides for creating headless WordPress sites using Next.js.

“GraphQL as a protocol offers a lot of advantages over REST, which is why it is being used so much, even by players outside of WordPress, like Gatsby,” Cohen said. “GraphQL includes type-safe schemas, is more discoverable, is easier to federate, and because it allows the clients so much flexibility in what data it wants (and does not want), it often results in fewer back-and-forth calls between client and server, while reducing the data being transferred to only that which the client actually needs. Because of the advantages of GraphQL, we believe a mature GraphQL API for WordPress will empower developers and site owners to move faster and with more confidence when they choose to go headless with WordPress.”

Bahl said WP Engine’s investment in headless WordPress isn’t limited to him continuing work on WPGraphQL. The company plans to hire more engineers for projects aimed at reducing the friction that developers and businesses experience when using WordPress as a headless CMS.

“I believe that WP Engine’s investment in this space will allow WPGraphQL to grow and mature faster than ever before, as I will be part of a larger team working to make WordPress the best it can be,” Bahl said.

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Genesis Block Theme Beta, StudioPress Pursuing a Block-First Future

On November 11, StudioPress announced an open beta for its Genesis Block Theme. This is a pivotal moment, or at least one moment in a series of significant moments, for adoption of the block editor. Feel free to call me on this in a year or two if it does not pan out.

The original Genesis theme is the foundational tool that 1,000s of developers use to build many 1,000s more websites across the web. Over the past decade, StudioPress has remained one of the top-tier commercial WordPress theme companies, and it has done so on the back of its Genesis product. It has also remained an important part of the company’s offering since WP Engine acquired it in 2018.

While WP Engine and StudioPress have bet big on the block editor with products like Genesis Blocks, the Genesis Block Theme will be a game-changer when it launches as a finished product, likely sometime next year.

This is not necessarily because StudioPress will offer a better product than what many others are creating. It is about one of the largest theme development companies shifting toward a block-first approach. Others will fall in line. Or be left behind.

WP Engine and StudioPress have done this slowly and strategically, thoughtfully transitioning their user base into the block world. With WP Engine’s acquisition of Atomic Blocks (now Genesis Blocks) and bringing on the Block Lab team earlier this year, the company is setting itself up to continue pushing what developers and users can do with WordPress’s block system. The Genesis Block Theme is the next step in what I am assuming is a long list of product ideas the company is pursuing.

Editing a layout in the editor while using the Genesis Block theme beta.
Using the Genesis Blocks plugin with the Genesis Block Theme beta.

Typical Genesis-based child themes, at least those directly sold by the StudioPress team, have always catered to those who prefer a more minimalist-get-out-of-the-user’s-way approach to design. Many of them should make an easy transition to the block editor. Add a few style adjustments here, make a few tweaks there, and, you have a theme that is fully capable of handling the block editor. It is a testament to the company’s design chops when it does not really matter what WordPress is doing under the hood. The theme designs hold up regardless.

Times are changing, however. The StudioPress team is looking at WordPress 5.7, which is expected to land in the spring of 2021, and getting ready to handle the launch of the WordPress site editor.

David Vogelpohl, the VP of Web Strategy for WP Engine, left specific instructions on how to test the Genesis Block Theme beta in the announcement. One of the key items in that list is to skip modifying the theme directly or using the customizer settings. The goal is to identify pain points when approaching site design via blocks. It is good to start shifting how the Genesis user base approaches building sites in general.

He also asks testers to install the Genesis Blocks plugin. It is a library of various blocks, sections, and layouts for building block-based content. This will help both developers and users become more accustomed to the shift in building with the company’s key product.

Vogelpohl teased a “Genesis X” project in May that would focus on pushing the boundaries of the block editor and, eventually, full-site editing. Deciding against launching a separate product, the team has been pushing features from this project into Genesis Blocks. Three weeks ago, StudioPress launched its new Collections feature, which was born from Genesis X.

“You can think of Collections like a theme’s block-based demo content, but available on-demand as you build out content vs. only during one-click-theme-setup features within the framework today,” said Vogelpohl.

Popup overlay to select from a Genesis Blocks collection.
The Slate Collection from the Genesis Blocks plugin.

Collections are essentially categorized page sections or entire layouts that share a similar design aesthetic. Genesis Blocks currently has one Collection titled Slate available for free. In practice, a user can already build out nearly an entire site with just this single Collection. This seems to be the direction that Genesis and its line of products are heading. Everything is pretty much plug-and-play. Select a few layouts for various pages. Click a few buttons. Customize the content. And, voilà — a turnkey system for building websites.

StudioPress must wait for the site editor to land in WordPress 5.7 before it can handle everything. Site headers, footers, and sidebars still require customization outside of the block editor.

Right now, the Genesis Block Theme beta is nothing out of the ordinary. It is essentially a base theme that allows the accompanying Genesis Blocks plugin to shine. It will also allow the development team to test ideas based on user feedback in the coming weeks and months. Vogelpohl said they will eventually tackle full-site editing based on what they learn from the beta run’s feedback.

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WP Engine Launches Genesis Pro Add-On for Customers, More Features in the Works

Managed web hosting company WP Engine launched the new Genesis Pro add-on for customers of its hosting service today. The add-on brings additional block editor features for users who are using a Genesis-based WordPress theme.

Genesis is a parent theme developed by StudioPress. WP Engine acquired the theme development company in 2018. Later that year, the company took the first steps toward adding compatibility with the block editor for Genesis customers, becoming an early adopter of the new editing experience.

“Beyond just being ‘compatible,’ Genesis will play a big role in being Gutenberg-First,” Jason Cohen, CTO of WP Engine, said of future plans nearly two years ago. “That means not only supporting the software and ideals of Gutenberg but using them for new features. In doing so, it’s our intention to light the way for the countless agencies and developers who use WordPress to fuel incredible digital experiences that are made even easier with Gutenberg.”

Today’s Genesis Pro launch is another step on that journey. WP Engine is currently rolling out the add-on as part of its managed hosting service. The cost is $30/month ($360/year) for an unlimited number of sites.

The current plan is to also make the Genesis Pro plugin available via the StudioPress website in the early summer. The company is not formally committing to that timeframe yet, but users not on WP Engine’s hosting service should expect it this year. The price for Genesis Pro will be available for $360/year, which is at the same rate as the hosting add-on.

The reason behind the early launch for web hosting clients seems to be twofold based on the announcement post. David Vogelpohl, VP of Web Strategy for WP Engine, said the company could launch the product faster and increment with the launch for its hosting customers. They are also able to make sure the payment system scales, which StudioPress now uses.

“Genesis Pro’s capabilities are expressed in a single plugin today, but may be provided in multiple plugins, WP adjacent services, or other means in the future based on architectural decisions of any particular feature,” said Vogelpohl.

Watch a quick video on Genesis Pro:

Genesis Pro Features

Screenshot of a image and text layout from Genesis Pro.
Example layout from the Genesis Pro add-on.

The add-on includes a robust set of options that are primarily aimed at helping users build their webpages with custom blocks and designs. The following features are the foundation of the add-on:

  • Block Library: Includes 17 custom blocks, such as a testimonial and pricing block.
  • Page Layouts: Offers 22 full layouts for product, portfolio, team, and other pages.
  • Content Sections: Adds 38 customizable content sections.
  • Permissions System: Allows admins to set editing permissions on a per-block basis.
  • Customization: Users can create and share custom sections and layouts with content creators.

Most of the options seem to be under a pop-up modal on the post-editing screen that should allow users to insert blocks directly into their post or page content. More blocks, sections, layouts, and other content-creation tools are currently in the works.

Screenshot of the Genesis Pro block editor modal.
Layout selector from the Genesis Pro add-on.

The add-on features are mostly standard fare in comparison to many of the block libraries and suites available throughout the WordPress ecosystem. Of course, these will have the StudioPress spin on them and likely be of high quality based if past work is any indication. With the launch out of the way and the foundation in place, it should be much easier for the team to churn out more customization options for end-users.

The most unique feature is probably around the block permissions system, which few companies have truly tackled. For site administrators who work with multiple creators, setting up editing permissions for individual blocks can be useful. If the user experience for this system works well, it will be a huge selling point for some site owners.

Screenshot of the block permissions settings for Genesis Pro.
Block permissions settings for Genesis Pro.

Genesis X

Vogelpohl teased another project the team has been working on titled “Genesis X,” which is separate from the Genesis Pro project. It is an experimental plugin version of Genesis that will be available to StudioPress customers at no additional charge. The work thus far has centered on what Genesis will look like in a world where full-site editing is available through WordPress itself.

“The current version of Genesis X focuses on helping site creators easily manage global styles across their site, customize and manage blocks, as well as other capabilities to help users win with full-site editing in WordPress core,” said Vogelpohl. “Genesis X is being built core-adjacent and is not a replacement for the block editor. It is designed to work with the block editor.”

Vogelpohl said the first objective of the project is to provide analogs for features in Genesis that would not work in a parent theme structure within the full-site editing context. “After achieving that parity in ways that make sense, we will be focused on the advanced block capabilities as well as other features currently on our roadmap,” he said.

The company is putting a lot of weight and resources behind the transition from pre-block WordPress and the upcoming features that WordPress will offer via the block system. Right now, they have a team of 15 employees working on solutions with Genesis.

“The overarching theme is that Genesis X is being architected not to just help the Genesis community adapt to full-site editing in core, but for any user of WordPress to adopt full-site editing in a way that sets them up for the best chance of success,” said Vogelpohl.

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Block Lab Team Joins WP Engine, Looks to the Future of Block Building

The three-person Block Lab team of Luke Carbis, Ryan Kienstra, and Rob Stinson is joining WP Engine to work on the company’s block editor projects. WP Engine approached the team members after seeing how successful the Block Lab project had grown and made them an offer. The team will be able to continue building projects with solid financial backing.

Block Lab is a plugin that was created to allow other developers to build blocks without needing to wade through the depths of complex JavaScript programming. It is a way to get your feet wet in the block development pool without diving in head first. The plugin has built a solid reputation based on user reviews. Out of 39 submissions, it has received 38 five-star ratings.

“From the start, Block Lab has been our answer to the question of ‘how can I lower the barrier to entry for creating custom blocks,'” said Stinson. He said the plugin has done two important things for developers. It has given them an easy-to-use admin interface to work from and a simplified templating experience that is aligned with traditional workflows. “It’s helped folk who haven’t had the time to summit the JS-all-the-things mountain or simply provide those that are looking for a standardized system that does a lot of the heavy lifting for them.”

The Block Lab plugin is being phased out, but the team assures that the plugin’s current users will not be left in the dust. The plan is to continue supporting the plugin through bug and compatibility fixes for the next year. Pro users will also receive the same support until their license expires. In the long term outlook, the team plans to build a migration path to the new tools they will be building under the WP Engine banner.

Stinson said that the plugin should work well for a long time to come because it was built by Carbis and Kienstra, two of the best engineers he has worked with. However, he stresses that the work they will be doing with WP Engine will exceed anything they have done with Block Lab.

“We’ll be working on technology there that is focused on the Block Editor though, and a part of that will be taking what we’ve done with Block Lab and introducing the feature set to the WP Engine suite of products,” he said. “The alignment will be close and will offer existing Block Lab users an easy migration experience.”

While the Block Lab plugin will see an end, the features the team has worked on will live on in some form.

A New Beginning

Before taking on roles with WP Engine, each member of the Block Lab team was paying the bills through agency and freelance work. Block Lab was merely a side project they were handling in their free time, but it was slowly growing both in scale and financially.

“Getting to a place where we could give it full-time focus was easily two to three years away though,” said Stinson, “and we have always been incredibly conscious of the things we wanted to be doing with it and how much the time factor was a limitation. With WP Engine, we’re equipped to take the product vision we had for Block Lab and basically strap a rocket to it. Not only are we able to devote our full attention, but we also have the incredible support and resources of WP Engine behind us.”

Stinson is looking forward to the transition within the state of the current WordPress ecosystem. The team can walk into a fresh beginning with the full weight of a major company behind them. “Between the classic way of building with WordPress and this new block-first frontier, being set up right now to build and contribute is incredible!” he said.

The team had an existing roadmap and backlog of features they wanted to develop. However, with Block Lab being only a side project, it meant those features would have taken much longer to build. They can now pursue them full time.

“We saw what Block Lab has currently as a necessary baseline for a plugin that equipped folks to create custom blocks, but what we have planned and are dreaming about goes so much further,” said Stinson. “Joining WP Engine unleashes us to chase down that work faster and with more focus. Another really exciting piece of this is that with our focus we are better positioned to offer insights and contribution to the larger block editor project through core and community contributions.”

The team now has the opportunity to be a pioneer in the years to come. They have proved they can build a useful tool on top of the block editor. The next step is seeing where they take it and whether they can get more developers to join them into a world of building blocks.

“The shift in thinking around how a website is structured towards one that is powered by ‘blocks’ is a journey that the majority of the WP community is still on,” said Stinson. “A big part of my vision is having a larger portion of the community up to speed and onboard with this. With more people operating within that zone, more great work and tooling will be produced. By lowering the barrier to entry through Block Lab and what we have planned at WP Engine, it will help to get more people in that zone.”

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After the Acquisition: Flywheel in the New Year

Some WordPress developers and agencies were caught off guard when WP Engine announced it had acquired Flywheel in June last year. Flywheel had quickly become a trusted web hosting company for many that specifically catered to the needs of developers and agencies. For some, they questioned whether such a buyout would change the company culture and whether the good things about Flywheel’s services would be swallowed by WP Engine’s offerings.

The move had also come only a month after Flywheel closed its $15 per month Tiny plan. There was some initial confusion that the two events were linked.

“With any acquisition of this scale, there is going to be an initial wave of confusion, skepticism, and a bit of shock,” said Dusty Davidson, CEO and co-founder. “People had come to know, love, and trust Flywheel, and when it was announced that two well-known WordPress companies (and former competitors) were joining forces, they weren’t sure where we would stand as a company.”

Davidson said the company fielded more questions that were concerned about the future than outright pushback against the move. Most such questions centered on whether Flywheel would continue offering their existing services and tools.

“It’s now been six months since one of the largest acquisitions in WordPress history, and we’re happy to report that things remain ‘business as usual,'” said Davidson. “We’ve remained true to our word, and Flywheel is continuing to live out our mission to help creatives do their best work. The community may have been skeptical about how this acquisition was going to pan out, but the fact is that nothing has really changed and our products have only improved!”

How Flywheel would be folded into WP Engine was not clear early on. The two companies approached the change by learning from each other and gathering feedback. “We announced that we were acquired back in June, and it took about six months to figure out the logistics of the acquisition and the relationships between both companies,” said Davidson.

After working out the details, it was decided that Flywheel would operate as a separate division within WP Engine with its own services.

Bringing the Tiny Plan Back

Some users expressed disppointment with the removal of the Tiny plan last year. It was an affordable tier for small sites at $15 per month.

The plan change was the first time Flywheel had changed pricing in the company’s history. “The changes to plans back in May 2019 were made to allow us to continue investing more into the future of our platform, existing and future features, and to offer up more solutions to better fit our customers,” said Davidson.

Based on customer feedback, Flywheel began to see that Tiny was a valuable plan for agencies who needed to offer a managed WordPress hosting solution for smaller clients. “When we joined forces with WP Engine, we were able to realign our goals as a business and refocus our efforts on the audience we’ve always catered to best: freelancers and small agencies,” said Davidson.

SOC Type 2 Certification

Earlier this month, Flywheel announced it had completed SOC 2 compliance and certification as part of their long-term plan in building a more robust and trusted company.

“Businesses using cloud service providers use SOC 2 reports to assess and address the risks associated with third-party technology services,” said Tommy Vacek, VP of Engineering. “When you boil it down though, it essentially means that Flywheel’s security practices are the best in the industry, and we’re one of the only WordPress hosts that has achieved it.”

“It’s a sign of maturity on almost all areas of our business, from finance to information technology, and it also allows us to assess risk in our business and make decisions based off of it,” he said. “It’s a stamp of approval to demonstrate Flywheel’s intentionality around security.”

The 2020 Roadmap and Beyond

Rick Knudtson, CPO and co-founder, feels like the acquisition will allow the Flywheel team to better cater to creative agencies in the WordPress space. “Our product team is working on an exciting update to our offering entirely focused on supporting the growth of agencies, and our marketing team is hard at work creating brand new resources for agencies aspiring to make 2020 a great year,” he said. “Joining forces with WP Engine has allowed us to accelerate our product initiatives.”

The company is now offering a free course on selling WordPress maintenance to clients. Themes by StudioPress, acquired by WP Engine in 2018, are all free for Flywheel customers. Flywheel is also working heavily on tools for WordPress developers.

“Developers drive WordPress forward and WP Engine is committed to supporting the future of WordPress through industry-leading developer tools,” said Knudtson. One such tool is Local, the company’s local development environment built for working with WordPress. “Since joining the WP Engine family, Local has become the standard local development and deployment tool for our customers across both of our platforms.”

Local is currently used by over 50,000 developers. The team spent the last few months re-architecting the tool from the ground up. Knudtson said it is now five times faster than before. They are expanding the team that is working on Local to help handled more advanced developer workflows.

“In 2020, we’ll introduce new ways to use Local so that all developers — novices or advanced, solo or within a team — can build their perfect development on top of Local,” said Knudtson. “Whether you just want to connect to your host and deploy, or you’re integrating into your existing CI/CD workflow, Local should be the solution.”

The Local turnkey products, such as Local Pro and Local Teams, will be available to developers across both platforms in the future.

Since the acquisition, Flywheel has included a new technology called Smart Refresh as part of their in-house caching engine. The system watches for updates made to a WordPress install and clears the cache when needed. Knudtson claims the updates to their system has increased backend performance on the platform by 50%.

The company also recently announced its new Performance Insights feature. The tool provides proprietary performance data for developers to make decisions with sites they control.

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WPWeekly Episode 358 – Interview with Dan Maby, Founder of WP&UP

In this episode, Malcolm Peralty and I are joined by Dan Maby, Founder of WP&UP. WP&UP is a non-profit charity based in England that supports and promotes positive mental health in the WordPress Community.

Dan explains why he started the charity, what he’s learned and how he manages his own mental health, and how the donation funds are spent. He also shared some startling statistics from a recent mental health survey they conducted. The results of this survey are being put into a white paper that will be published later this year.

We finished up the show covering the news of the week. If you’re interested in supporting WP&UP, please consider donating.

Stories Discussed:

Matt Mullenweg’s Summer Update at WordCamp Europe 2019: Gutenberg’s Progress and a Preview of Upcoming Features

Free Event: Post Status to Live Stream Publish Online July 8-9

Contribution Time, Sponsored, and Teams Fields Added to WordPress.org User Profiles

WP Engine Acquires Flywheel

Transcript:

Episode358Transcript

WPWeekly Meta:

Next Episode: Wednesday, July 3rd 3:00 P.M. Eastern

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Listen To Episode #358:

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WP Engine Launches DevKit Open Beta

Those who host or manage sites on WP Engine now have a new tool at their disposal. It’s called DevKit, developed by Chris Wiegman and Jason Stallings.

DevKit is a WordPress local development environment that includes SSH Gateway access, push and pull deployments to WP Engine, Command Line Interface commands for the Genesis theme framework and other tools.

Although DevKit has tight integration with WP Engine the software can be used independently of the host. With Local by Flywheel, Vagrant, XAMPP, and other tools available, Wiegman explains what motivated him to create a new solution.

“I’ve been working on the perfect WordPress developer environment since I learned about Vagrant in 2013,” he said. “As it was never my full-time job, I could never take it to the next level. DevKit gives me the power to do that.”

Stallings added, “We wanted to build a kick ass set of tools for developers building on WP Engine. That’s been our mission from the start, build something that all developers want to use (including us)!”

As what for what sets DevKit apart from the others, “I think our architecture is very different from both tools,” Stallings said.

“Similar to Docker Engine, DevKit CLI is the interface to DevKit. So when we build the GUI it will 100% complement the CLI, and the two can be used interchangeably. This will enable us to build other interfaces in the future too.”

DevKit provides the following features:

  • Container-based local development environment
  • SSH Gateway access
  • Push and pull deployments to WP Engine
  • Preview your local site with others via ngrok
  • PHP version selector
  • Email testing client
  • MySQL
  • Local SSH & WP-CLI
  • Genesis Framework WP-CLI commands
  • phpmyadmin
  • webgrind
  • Varnish
  • HTTPS Proxy
  • xdebug

Currently, DevKit’s user interface is command line only with plans to add a GUI later this year. It’s available for free and is in open beta for Mac and Linux. Those interested in participating in the open beta can sign up on the DevKit landing page.