Choosing a Hosting for my Wordpress Blog
Some context
In 2018, I wanted to have my personal .com domain, with a Wordpress blog hosted in there. My website would be for personal matters so no high traffic volume would be expected. This was the first time I hosted a personal website, and the first time I worked with Wordpress, so the customer service was an important point in decision making.
In summary, I wanted a cheap low-cost hosting provider with a good customer service for a personal Wordpress website.
1&1 or IONOS Wordpress Hosting package
After some search, I selected Wordpress Hosting Package of 1&1 Spain (currently IONOS). This is a shared hosting with SSD storage, focused on Wordpress.
The cost
They had a cheap Wordpress Hosting Package with a .com domain for free the first year, for following cost:
| When | Hosting yearly (no taxes) | Spanish VAT (IVA) | Hosting yearly (with taxes) | Domain | Spanish VAT (IVA) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First year | 23,88€ | 5,01€ | 28,99€ | 0€ | 0€ | 28,99€ |
| Following years | 35,88€ | 7,53€ | 43,41€ | 9,99€ | 12,09€ | 55,50€ |
The value
The Wordpress blog was for a personal blog, focused on text, so traffic would be low, and storage would be also low.
The highlights of essential wordpress hosting package were the following ones:
| Feature | Value |
|---|---|
| Auto-updated wordpress | Cool, I could deal with plugins, but I didn't want to invest too much on keeping wordpress up-to date |
| Assistant for wordpress | Great, for reducing the time to launch |
| 1 .com domain with unlimited subdomains | I needed the domain, but not sure if I would need subdomains |
| Unlimited traffic | Great, but I didn't need that much |
| A wildcard SSL Certificate (SHA-256) | Great. |
| 25GB SSD storage | Great, but I didn't need that much |
| 10 inbox email accounts with 2GB storage | For a personal blog, just one account was more than enough |
| 1 Mysql Database with 1 GB storage | Not useful for Wordpress, but I would use it later |
| 1 FTP user and 1 SSH user | Not useful for Wordpress, but I would use it later |
| PHP and other standard features | Not useful for Wordpress, but I would use it later |
2 years later: The verdict
Now in 2020, 2 years later, I am migrating my website from Wordpress to Mediawiki, since I don't actually need a blog but a wiki, for my personal website.
In terms of hosting, I do completely recommend this package and hosting for other customers with basic Wordpress sites:
- Great value.
- Customer service have met my expectations: low latency by phone, and very efficient.
- Features have been very useful: on migrating to wiki, I've used the Mysql database, some php features, and also a subdomain.
- No blocking points on installing and managing Wordpress Plugins.
However, since I am not using Wordpress anymore, I am considering other hosting options, so I can optimize my budget.