Digital Ocean vs WordPress Hosting – What’s the Best Hosting for WordPress?
WordPress is one of the most famous and popular Content Management Systems (CMSs) in the world with over 35 million downloads across various platforms. It is a free and open-source software available for download from WordPress.org. It was originally developed by the group of WordPress developers named Thematic in 2003 and ever since then it has been growing rapidly in popularity and use.
If you are looking for a versatile and stable CMS to power your website or blog, then WordPress is a great choice. It is highly customizable and offers a lot of features. That’s not all though; WordPress also offers a great hosting experience with a variety of hosting providers, including Digital Ocean. In this article, we will compare the features and pricing of the two to help you decide which one is the best fit for your needs.
Pricing
Both WordPress and Digital Ocean offer one-click install and a cPanel that is typically included as part of their hosted plans. The main difference between the two lies in their pricing as well as their commitment to supporting and maintaining their products. While WordPress is a free and open-source software, Digital Ocean offers a commercial license for running a WordPress site with them. This means that you will have to pay a one-time fee (plus a $5 monthly fee) to use their services.
Another important difference between the two is in the level of customer support they offer. WordPress is a completely open-source project with over 6.5 million downloads and a community-driven support network. This translates to 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. In contrast, Digital Ocean is a commercial company that relies on sponsorships and donations to fund their operations. As a result, they only have a few employees available to provide direct customer support. If you run into any trouble with your website, Digital Ocean will not be able to help you directly as they do not have the personnel needed to monitor and manage their servers. In case you do encounter an issue, you will need to find a solution yourself. In other words, if you are looking for a stable, highly customizable CMS with a large community of support, then WordPress is the right choice for you.
Features
One of the best things about WordPress is that it is extremely customizable. This means that even if you are not a skilled web developer, you will still be able to manage your website effectively. To achieve this, WordPress is provided with a massive number of plug-ins (short for “plugin”) that allow you to extend the functionality of the CMS. These plug-ins can provide you with additional features like image and gallery rotators, audio players, surveys, etc.
On the other hand, Digital Ocean focuses on providing the basics very well and does not include any additional features. This is mainly because they want to keep their pricing low and simple. Simple is one of their mottos, which is great if you are looking for a basic blogging platform or a simple online store.
Customer Support
Another important consideration when choosing a web host is the level of customer support they offer. If you are planning to use WordPress, it would be wise to choose a web host that offers fast and reliable customer support. This is because WordPress is heavily dependent on the functionality of its server to provide its users with a good experience. In case you encounter any problems with your website’s host, you will need to contact them directly to get the issue resolved.
In contrast, Digital Ocean offers a one-click install, which makes it much easier for their users to get up and running. This reduces the amount of tech support they need to offer, as most tasks can be completed by their customers themselves. While this is great if you are looking for a simple and hassle-free installation, it is not ideal if you are looking for skilled technical support.
WordPress is a widely used content management system and is available for download at WordPress.org. As a result, there are dozens of tutorials and quick start guides that can help you get up and running with WordPress in no time.