How to Choose the Right Ecommerce WordPress Hosting

You have decided to go into online business and have chosen ecommerce as your niche. Congrats! Your product search starts here. You will find plenty of options, but not all of them are created equal. You need to do your homework and understand the differences to make the right choice. In this article, we will discuss the most important factors to keep in mind when selecting the right ecommerce WordPress hosting for your needs.

Features

There are a lot of features to consider when choosing a WordPress hosting plan. Some of them are very important to your business, while others might not be as significant. Let’s examine each one.

Pricing

Pricing is always a major consideration when shopping for anything in life. In the case of WordPress hosting, pricing can vary significantly from one plan to the other. At the higher end of the pricing scale, you will find ultra-reliable, high-performing VPSes with all the necessary features you could ever want. These are the big boys in the web hosting industry whose performance you can depend on. On the other end of the scale, you have the very affordable shared hosting plans with limited feature sets. If cost is a concern for you, then the cheaper the better, as long as the service is good enough. Do not expect much in terms of support from the least expensive packages. A typical shared hosting plan costs $2.95 per month. Do not expect much in terms of performance either as the hardware resources are quite limited. If you are looking for a quality product at an affordable price, then try out the HostGator shared hosting plan. It is one of the most popular and, at the same time, one of the most economical choices among business owners who are just getting started. The 24-hour customer support is very reliable, and their tutorials and documentation are very good. If you are new to web design and development, then this is the perfect place for you to start.

Deployment & Configuration

Before you begin your product search, you should have an idea of how to set up and configure your store. Some companies are very helpful with this process, while others leave you to figure it out by yourself. The former will have you up and running in no time, and the latter will give you a headache because they do not provide any kind of support. Once you find the right company for the job, this part will be a lot easier for you. The best solution is to find a company that offers preconfigured WordPress stores that you can just import. With the latter, you can be sure that your store will be running smoothly without any hiccups. This is important because when you launch your product store, you will be presented with a ton of hiccups that could potentially cause a lot of damage. You do not want to be bothered with server maintenance and configuration, as this is part of your job as a business owner. Just hire someone to do this for you once the store has launched.

Bandwidth

When you are deciding which ecommerce WordPress hosting plan to go for, you need to take into consideration the bandwidth. This is the amount of data that is transferred to and from your site per month. The bigger the bandwidth, the more features you will have access to. A typical shared hosting plan provides 1GB of data transfer per month. If you are running a very popular store that is generating a lot of traffic, then you might want to consider upgrading to a higher package. The 1GB of data transfer is perfectly adequate for most sites, but if you are looking for a smooth experience, then you should opt for the higher bandwidth shared hosting plans. Make sure to calculate the bandwidth needs of your store and plan accordingly. If you find that your store’s bandwidth requirements increase significantly in the near future, then you should consider an upgrade. Sometimes, this is as easy as upgrading to a bigger bandwidth plan and sometimes, you will have to search for a VPS specifically built for your store’s needs.

Location

This is another important consideration when choosing a WordPress hosting plan. Your product’s location will determine how available it is to be bought. If you are selling shoes, then obviously the location is going to matter. You cannot ship shoes to Antarctica, regardless of how many carriers you employ. This is why you need to be mindful of the location you are in. When it comes to web hosting, some providers are better than others when it comes to location. If you are located in a large city, then you should opt for the hosting plan that is nearby. Else, if you are located in a small town, then you can opt for the closest shared hosting plan. Do not expect the location of your host to make a difference in terms of performance. The majority of web hosts are based in data centres that are located in warm climates, which is what you want if you are operating a site that primarily serves food products.

Hardware

Finally, we have hardware. This includes everything from the CPU, to the memory, to the hard drives. When it comes to web hosting, the more powerful the hardware, the better. The performance of your website will improve dramatically, especially as more demanding tasks are handed to the hardware. This is where VPSes and other high-performance servers come in. When it comes to web hosting, the standard practice is to use the latest and greatest hardware available. Your hosting company will handpick the right hardware for your plan, so you can be sure that it will perform exceptionally well. If you are purchasing a dedicated server, then make sure to invest in quality hardware that is redundant and fast.

To recap, here are the most important considerations when choosing a suitable WordPress hosting plan:

• Pricing
• Features
• Configuration
• Bandwidth
• Location
• Hardware

With all these factors in mind, you can be rest assured that you have made the right choice in terms of the hosting package that is going to serve your needs best. When it comes to ecommerce and online stores, performance is of paramount importance, and you should go for the best that you can afford. If you have a budget in mind, then do not choose a shared hosting plan unless you are prepared to upgrade to a VPS in no time because shared hosting plans are extremely affordable but, as we mentioned before, they come with some limitations. If you are looking for a stable platform that offers all the necessary features you need to get your store up and running without having to worry about any hiccups, then you should go for a VPS. The key takeaway from all this is to do your research before purchasing any product online. There are a lot of shady companies out there that try to trick you into buying useless products with false promises of fast delivery. Once you are aware of this, you will make the right choice much easier for you. The last thing you want to do is to invest in something that does not serve your needs. Shop smart, shop SOVO, and reap the benefits.