You’ve heard that WordPress is the gold standard for small and medium-sized business websites—powering over 40% of the entire internet. But as you start digging into the “how-to,” you quickly run into a term that stops many business owners and marketing leaders in their tracks: WordPress hosting.
If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed, don’t worry. You aren’t alone. For many people, technical terms like “servers,” “hosting,” and “domain” feel like a foreign language. It’s easy to get lost in the jargon, but understanding these basics is the difference between a website that works for you and one that causes constant headaches.
In this guide, we’re going to pull back the curtain. We’ll explain exactly what WordPress hosting is, the options you have, and why it’s an important part of your digital strategy.
Do I need WordPress hosting?
The short answer is: Yes, absolutely.
To understand why, think of your website like a physical storefront. When a shopper enters a store, they’re greeted by display tables and racks holding inventory. Similarly, when a user enters your website, they’re greeted by pages, text, and images. But, every storefront needs a piece of land to exist on. In the digital world, hosting is that piece of land.
Without hosting, your website has no place to live on the internet. A hosting provider loans you that space on a server (essentially, a powerful high-speed computer) that’s housed on a shelf in a secure data centre and is connected to the web 24/7. When a potential customer types your web address into their browser, that server springs into action, sending your website’s data across the globe so it appears on their screen in seconds.
If you want a website that people can actually visit, hosting isn’t just an “add-on”, it’s the critical foundation upon which your entire online presence is built.
Pro tip: This concept applies to all website hosting, not just WordPress hosting. WordPress hosting is a specific type of hosting, which is optimally tuned for WordPress websites. But we’ll get into that later.
Can I build a WordPress website without hosting?
Technically, you can install WordPress on your own personal computer to play around with design, test out different themes, or learn the ropes of the dashboard. This is often referred to as “local hosting.”
However, there’s a massive catch: nobody else can see it.
If you build a site locally on your laptop:
- Your customers can’t find you: To the rest of the world, your website doesn’t exist.
- Google or AI can’t find your pages: You won’t show up in search results, meaning you miss out on organic traffic and new leads.
- Connectivity is limited: As soon as you turn off your computer, close your laptop, or lose your Wi-Fi connection, the site “goes away.”
Imagine a baker who spends weeks decorating the perfect cake inside their home kitchen but never opens a shop or puts a sign in the window. The cake might be amazing, but no one can buy it. To make your presence real, functional, and profitable, you need a live hosting environment that stays “on” even when you’re asleep.
Does WordPress host websites?
The simple answer is: No, WordPress doesn’t host websites. At least, not “WordPress.org”, which is what 95% of people are talking about (and what we’re talking about in this guide) when they say “WordPress”.
WordPress is a free, open-source, “content management system” (CMS) software that you download and install on your chosen host. For this reason, it’s considered a “self-hosted” solution.
The fact that it’s open source and self-hosted is the beauty of it. It means you own your website and all of it’s files, 100%. You can add whatever plugins you want to it. You can use whatever theme you want on top of it. And, you’re entirely free to move it to a different host, whenever you choose.
If we think back to our earlier analogy where we compared your website to a storefront: just like you can pack up all of your inventory, display tables and POS system and move to a different physical location any time you want, you can also pack up your website and all of its files and move them to a different host.
That being said…
There’s one caveat here. There are actually two different kinds of WordPress: “WordPress.org” (the one most people are talking about) and “WordPress.com” (an entirely different beast). The .com version is an all-in-one solution that provides both your software and your hosting. It’s essentially like Squarespace or Wix in that you pay one monthly subscription fee to have your hosting and software bundled together into a “website-as-a-service” model. This is ok for hobbyists, but it’s not recommend for a business website.
The main issue with a “website-as-a-service” is that once you end your subscription, your website is essentially dust. You can’t just pick it up and move to a new location, not easily anyways. There are also other limitations that make it less ideal for a business website. It’s a bit like renting a fully furnished apartment where your landlord (WordPress.com) takes care of the maintenance and security, but you have much less freedom to renovate, change the locks, or choose your own appliances. On lower-priced plans, they may even place ads on your site or limit your ability to use certain plugins.
So, is WordPress a hosting provider?
No, the type of WordPress we’re talking about here (WordPress.org) is not a hosting provider. It does not host your website.
Meaning you need to pair WordPress with an independent hosting provider of your choice.
While this might sound like an extra step, it’s actually ideal for many reasons. It allows for better SEO, professional email addresses, and the ability to scale your site as your customer base grows.
What's the difference between your "hosting" and your "domain"?
Because business owners often buy these two things at the same time, it’s easy to conflate them. Let’s go back to our storefront analogy to clear it up:
- Your hosting: This is the land your store sits on.
- Your domain: This is your street address (e.g., yourbusinessname.com). It’s the user-friendly name people type into their browser to find your storefront.
You can have a street address without a storefront (a “parked” domain), and you can have land without an address (hosting identified only by a long string of numbers called an IP address). However, for your business to be successful, you need both working in harmony.
Your domain name tells the internet where to look, and your hosting provides the stuff they see when they get there.
How to choose the best WordPress hosting?
When you start searching for hosting, you’ll find prices ranging from the cost of a cup of coffee to the cost of a fancy dinner.
It can be incredibly tempting to grab the cheapest option to save on overhead, but for a business, that “bargain” can quickly become a liability.
Here is what you should look for when choosing a host:
1. Speed and performance
Research shows that if your site takes more than three seconds to load, nearly half of your visitors will abandon it and head to a competitor. Look for hosts that use SSD (Solid State Drive) storage and have servers specifically optimized for the way WordPress processes data. A fast host isn’t just a luxury; it’s a requirement for modern SEO and user experience.
2. Uptime reliability
“Uptime” refers to the percentage of time your site is actually online and accessible. You want a host that guarantees at least 99.9% uptime. While 0.1% sounds small, it can add up to hours of lost business over a year. If a customer tries to visit your site to find your hours or make a purchase and they see an “Error” page, you’ve likely lost that customer for good.
3. WordPress-specific support
As a small business owner, you don’t have time to be your own IT department. There is a huge difference between a support agent who knows how to fix a server and one who understands WordPress. If your site breaks because of a plugin update, you want a team that can identify the specific WordPress issue and fix it, rather than just telling you “the server is fine.”
4. Security features
The internet can be a wild place, and WordPress sites are frequent targets for automated bot attacks. A good host should provide:
- Free SSL certificates: The little padlock icon that tells customers their data is encrypted.
- Automatic backups: An “insurance policy” that lets you restore your site if you make a mistake or get hacked.
- Firewalls and malware scanning: Proactive protection that stops threats before they reach your site.
What is "managed" WordPress hosting?
If “standard” hosting is like renting a plot of land but having to maintain it yourself by shoveling snow, mowing the yard, and setting up a security system, then “managed” WordPress hosting is like living in a condo where a dedicated concierge handles the maintenance, the security, and the landscaping.
Standard hosting is purchased directly from the hosting provider and then you’re on your own, whereas managed website hosting is typically purchased from an agency partner who then handles everything on your behalf (like the managed hosting and maintenance packages we offer here at Sparked).
With managed hosting, the provider takes over the technical “chores” of running your hosting so you don’t have to. This typically includes:
- Enhanced security: They use specialized server-level configurations designed specifically to block WordPress-related threats.
- Daily backups: Your site is saved every single day. If something goes wrong, you can “time travel” back to a version that worked with one click.
- Optimized caching: This is a technical way of saying they make your site load lightning-fast without you needing to install extra plugins.
- Personalized support: If you accidently delete your homepage or a plugin update breaks your website, you have someone you know and trust who you can call to fix the issue quickly.
- Migration services: When you want to move to a managed hosting provider, they’ll typically handle the migration process for you, ensuring no website downtime or issues occur (more on this below).
For small and medium-sized businesses, managed hosting is often the best investment because not only is your hosting handled by an expert who does this everyday, it also saves you the most valuable resource you have: your time. It allows you to focus on your customers and your craft while the experts handle the “under the hood” complexities.
How to transfer a WordPress website to a new host?
Perhaps you’ve realized your current host isn’t cutting it. Maybe your site is sluggish, the support wait times are astronomical, or you’re tired of hidden fees. Moving to a new host is called migration.
While it sounds like a daunting technical task, it generally involves three main steps:
- Backup and export: Creating a complete snapshot of all your files and your database.
- The move: Uploading those files to the new, faster server environment.
- The switch: Updating your domain settings so that when someone types in your address, they are directed to the new, better host.
If this sounds like something you don’t want to tackle yourself, then finding a managed hosting provider who includes migration services (like us here at Sparked!), is the way to go.
For a professional, a migration is typically a simple and straightforward process, and they’ll ensure that no data is lost and there is zero downtime for your customers.
Ready to give your business a better home?
Choosing the right WordPress hosting is one of the most consequential decisions you’ll make for your digital presence. It’s the difference between a site that’s slow and buggy and one that is fast, secure, and ready to convert visitors into loyal customers.
At Sparked, we believe you shouldn’t need a computer science degree just to have a great website. Our managed WordPress hosting and maintenance packages are designed specifically for small business owners who want the power of WordPress without the technical headache.
We handle the updates, the security, and the backups, so you can focus on growing your business and serving your community.
Summary of key takeaways:
- Hosting is the foundation: Without it, your website doesn’t exist on the web.
- Choose self-hosted (WordPress.org): It provides the ownership and flexibility a growing business needs.
- Speed equals sales: A faster host keeps customers on your page and improves your Google ranking.
- Managed hosting saves time: Paying a little more for a “managed” service pays for itself in peace of mind and technical support.
