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WordPress.com vs WordPress.org: Key Differences

Creating your very own website used to be reserved just for those who were familiar with programming languages like HTML and CSS, but as the world goes forward, the online world evolves too. We have reached the point where anyone can have a fully functional website with just a few clicks.

One of the most famous Content Management Systems (CMS) is WordPress. Why choose WordPress? The main reason is that it’s incredibly simple and easy to use. The simplicity of use helped it rise to the top. With a long and rich WordPress history, it’s become the largest CMS today, running more than a third of all global websites.

You may be wondering, what is WordPress used for? Users can get confused as there exist two instances with the same names, wordpress.com and wordpress.org.

Even though they have the same name, there are many differences between them. Keep reading to understand the differences between wordpress.com and wordpress.org.

WordPress.com

WordPress.com is, in short, a service that will take care of hosting your WordPress website for you. With WordPress.com, a user can create a website, and then relax and focus on other tasks at hand, such as marketing or content creation.

You may be wondering, is WordPress a hosting site? In this case, it is, as it is actually hosting your website.

One of the biggest advantages of WordPress.com is that it is completely free to use. Anyone can sign in and start creating a fully functional website. It will, however, be necessary to upgrade from a free plan to a personal plan if you wish to use a specific domain name and remove the WordPress marketing from your website.

👉 Why Do You Need Hosting for WordPress? >>

If you are, however, in need of a more complex website with more features, you will need to upgrade to a more expensive plan. Some of the features are only available with a more high-priced plan. For example, one of the more handy features that a user can get with WordPress Business plan is to purchase a WordPress theme elsewhere and install it on the website.

Overall, WordPress.com is more suitable for those that are new to the world of websites and hosting, and it is also an appealing option for those users that simply wouldn’t like the responsibility of running their website to fall on their shoulders. It is guaranteed that the site will be up and running at any time.

WordPress.com offers the user a simple way of installing the software and it provides its users additional maintenance of the website.

When you are first accessing WordPress.com interface, you will be greeted and encouraged to create an account.

After signing in, you can choose your domain name, and if you plan on registering your domain name elsewhere, you can simply choose the WordPress free option, for-example.wordpress.com. If you already own a domain name, you can connect it to your WordPress.com site through mapping or transfer. That option will be presented to you on the right side of the screen.

Once you are finished with setting up a domain name for your future website, WordPress.com redirects you to choose a payment option. Aside from a free option that you can choose, the cheapest one is a personal plan for $4 per month. With that plan you can get a free domain name for an entire year. Your website will be free of WordPress advertising, and you will get unlimited email support. 

Of course, as the price goes higher, the possibilities multiply. With the $45 ecommerce plan, you can have more advanced features such as SEO (search engine optimization) tools and even earn ad revenue from your site.

👉 The Essential Guide to WordPress Plugins >>

And now, the fun can begin. After choosing the payment plan, you will be redirected to an interface where you can create your very own website. You will be given an option to name your website, update your homepage, confirm the email address, and edit the site menu.

From there, you have several convenient options available. For example, you can use the WordPress app for both Android and iOS mobile phones, which enables editing your site on the go. You can also access a large WordPress knowledge base, which can be tremendously helpful. Furthermore, WordPress.com has a large library of copyright-free photos you can use when creating a website.

On the left side of the WP-Admin Dashboard, you can find some account-related functions. If you wish to change your payment plan, you can manage that under the Upgrades section. All the comments users leave on your website can be conveniently found in this section when you click on the Comments link. The appearance of the website, as well as plugins that you have installed or are available to you, can also be accessed from this section.

Everything is simple and ready to be used. For example, if you wish to install a plugin on your website, simply click on the Plugins link. You will be taken to an interface where you can easily install any plugin you want with the click of a button.

It’s really as simple as that — and it’s easy to understand why WordPress.com became so popular in the world of user-friendly web development. But what about WordPress.org? 

WordPress.org

WordPress.org is open-source software — its code can be accessed and modified by anyone. WordPress.org is known as self-hosted WordPress. That means that the user has more control over the creation of his or her site.

You can install themes and choose from a variety of plugins to make your site. The user is not limited in any way when choosing from a variety of themes and plugins, which can be significant if you are trying to stand out from the crowd. You will, on the other hand, be responsible for the hosting of your site.

👉 Learn How to Use WordPress With Our Most Helpful WordPress Resources >>

With WordPress.org, you can customize any theme you want, and you can even build your own theme from scratch with the help of CSS and PHP.  WordPress.org can make your life easier with features that take care of security, analytics, and more.

If you’re wary of being self-hosted, know that there really isn’t much to be afraid of. There are many WordPress communities and forums dedicated to finding help for any issues that may occur. There are also a number of available resources on WordPress.org as well, both in the form of workshops and articles. 

Additionally, hosting companies offer Managed WordPress services that can relieve you of some of those duties.

How to Use WordPress.org to Create a Website

If you choose to create your website with WordPress.org, the first step in the process would be an installation. WordPress is software which you can download from their official WordPress.org website on your device for free. If you already have a cPanel account, you can download and install WordPress in cPanel using Softaculous or Fantastico.

After installing the software, You will be looking at an interface that resembles the one of WordPress.com. On the left, in a darker box, you can access administration functions, such as updates for your WordPress account, plugins, and themes. From there the user can also review all of the comments from his or her WordPress website, which can vastly improve interaction with the visitors of your website.

Installing a plugin or changing its appearance is effortless. In only a few clicks you can completely change the appearance of your website without worrying about losing your content. The possibilities are endless here — creating the content is complicated enough, and with WordPress you can easily decide what looks best for the content of your website simply by trying various themes. It’s as painless as choosing a pair of pants in a dressing room.

You may be wondering, what is the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org? And how is all of this significant to me?

There are advantages and disadvantages with both WordPress.com and WordPress.org, and in the end, all that matters is what kind of website you are building and what are you expecting from your CMS.

One of the main polarities in WordPress.org vs. WordPress.com is that with WordPress.org you can host your own website, while if you are using WordPress.com, it will be WordPress.com that is hosting your website. That makes WordPress.com painless if you are just getting started, but it gives you less freedom than its counterpart. 

👉 Beginner’s Guide to WordPress Performance Optimization >>

With WordPress.com you can have a simple website in a couple of clicks, but for more complex themes and plugins, the user will have to upgrade his or her payment plan. Besides that, there are not a lot of themes the user can choose from if he or she does not upgrade to a higher payment plan. This can raise some concerns if you are trying to make a distinctive website that will be instantly recognizable. 

If you care about the appearance and the variety of plugins, but you would not like to spend a lot of money, then WordPress.org could be a better solution for you. But if you don’t mind that your blog or a website has the same theme as possibly thousands of other websites, and the simplicity of it all is appealing to you, then WordPress.com might be the way to go.

Either way, with either one you get to create a fully functional and great looking website from scratch, without any experience.

However, there is also the option of Managed WordPress. This option lets you have it all — simplicity and a trouble-free experience paired with as much creative freedom as you need.

Consider Managed WordPress Hosting from Hostdedi

Combine the freedom and convenience of WordPress software with a carefree experience of managed website hosting. But what is WordPress hosting? And what is managed WordPress

Essentially, the term managed hosting describes a service where your hosting provider takes care of the administration and security of your website, as well as keeping it up and running steadily. As we already know, WordPress websites make up more than a third of all websites on the internet, and a convenient option for WordPress users is to have managed WordPress hosting. 

Some features that make Hostdedi fully managed WordPress so convenient include:

  • Security monitoring that is always on.
  • Support from WordPress experts 24/7 every day of the year.
  • A built-in Content Delivery Network (CDN) with 22 locations.
  • And advanced caching for ultrafast loading of the website.

Hostdedi also offers image compression which can significantly improve the browser loading time. Premium tools with Hostdedi managed WordPress plans include Visual Compare, WP Merge, iThemes Security Pro, iThemes Sync, TinyPNG, and Qubely Pro.

What Hostdedi doesn’t have are overage fees, traffic limits, and metered pageviews. 

Hostdedi offers a variety of fully managed WordPress hosting plans, and with every plan you choose, you have a staging environment, 30-day backups, and unlimited email accounts. You also have an option of a 30-day money back guarantee, so you can be confident when choosing your plan.

Give it a try. Start your free two-week trial of managed WordPress today.

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Why Use WordPress? 8 Reasons Why You Absolutely Need It

You’re going to build a website, right? With so many options available, making a choice just keeps getting harder. You’re probably familiar with household names and why some of them just aren’t for you, and still have some questions.

You know the WordPress name, but maybe you’ve never used it for page-building. Maybe you were just hitting high school when pioneers of content communities like Open Diary, Live Journal and Xanga were becoming the next big thing.

Everyone got to live out their Doogie Howser aspirations. Maybe more than a few of us have that lingering in our heads when we’re given WordPress as an option to build our sites. And it’s not uncommon to ask, Isn’t WordPress just for blogs?

Oh, no. There’s a reason 44% of all content management systems rely on WordPress.

When it comes to building a website, WordPress gets stereotyped as the “best for writers and bloggers” when its versatility is one of its biggest strengths.

That’s because there are two versions of WordPress. WordPress.com is geared towards blogging and WordPress.org is the open-source powerhouse we’re really talking about.

You want to know why WordPress? Let’s find out. Keep reading to learn some of the benefits of WordPress and why you should choose it.

Why Use WordPress? 8 Good Reasons

1. WordPress is Easy to Use Without Sacrificing Quality

It may have been a fashion designer that said, “simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance,” but the same is true for running a website. The more complicated your CMS, the harder it is to update, edit, and keep your site looking great.

When you start with WordPress, you aren’t starting from scratch. You technically get a fully composed website to work with that you pull elements into and customize the way you want.

You pick a theme, select plugins, edit code if you want, and pretty much start adding content. It can get as technical as you want, or you can keep it super simple. The beauty of WordPress is that you make it your own and it’s really not that hard to do.

The interface is user friendly and navigation is intuitive. If you find yourself in a bind, there is a robust support community both within WordPress itself and externally. If you use Managed WordPress, there’s even more support available to you.

Outside of the domain itself, everything you need to manage your site is at your fingertips.

Just because it is simple doesn’t mean it is “less.” The elegance within WordPress is in its simplicity because it doesn’t take a lot to understand how to make it great. That in itself makes it a huge asset.

2. Like it Custom? Have it Your Way

With so many options available for making a website, you may be wondering, why WordPress? Well, it’s highly customizable — which is a huge draw.

Look and feel are what make your site better and different from everyone else in your space. If you want to stand out, you’re going to have to do more than just load a basic template.

There are themes to suit everyone’s purposes and tastes. Better ones are highly customizable. You can pick one that’s gorgeous from the get-go, or use a tried and true one that you truly stamp your brand on. Some WordPress themes are faster than others. A little research goes a long way with WP.

Don’t like where you’ve ended up? You can make changes all day long. Found something you like on another site? Give it a whirl.

Whatever vision you have for your site, there’s a path forward using WordPress, and that’s why more people select it for their sites.

3. Tools? Try a Utility Knife

Plugins can increase and alter the functionality of your site, change how you monitor or otherwise interact with it, or even add ways to communicate with you.

The Essential Guide to WordPress Plugins >>

Whether you want to add images, give visitors a way to contact you, or supercharge your performance — there’s a plugin for that.

With simple, easy integrations, and constantly becoming more innovative, WordPress is simply Stellar at making your experience better than the rest.

There are free plugins, paid plugins, and even add-ons to those plugins that enhance the functions of those plugins. Think of add-ons as DLC for a game you’ve already installed.

Not only are there countless great plugins available, but a great combination can take your site from iron-tough to Iron Man. Test different combinations and see what works best for you, or leave it to the pros

4. Great for SEO. No Quip — It’s Just True

When it comes to search engine optimization, it’s more than just about keywords. Think of it this way.

If Google is a highway, your website is a driver. WordPress is the car flashing lights, honking horns, making turns, and (hopefully not) crashing with other cars on the road trying to get other drivers’ attention. But that’s not all!

WordPress is also being monitored by some cameras that are keeping an eye on the road to ensure everything is going smoothly, nobody is driving erratically, and figuring out who shows up at the green light first.

With fantastic plugins like Yoast SEO, your digital content strategy, and the simple fact that so many WP themes are SEO friendly to begin with — WordPress already has a leg up with SEO. It’s one of the key benefits of WordPress.

Further capabilities make it even more valid of a choice. Compression tools like EWWW Image Optimizer, compatibility with a variety of page builders like Beaver Builder and Elementor, and features like autogenerating a robots.txt file are important for your SEO efforts.

The Top 5 SEO Plugins for WordPress Compared >>

Site structure, page load time, and crawl are all affected by the way your site is designed and the size and quality of your resources. That all affects your page rank. WordPress helps make it a breeze.

5. Support So Robust, Emeril Issued A Cease And Desist

As WordPress is free, you’re going to have a ton of people both asking questions and looking for help on the internet. One of the best parts of choosing WordPress to build your site is its enormous support community.

Chances are, if you’ve run into an issue, someone else has too. Simply running a search will likely find you an answer or point you in the right direction.

If you’ve gone with managed, secure WordPress hosting, you’ve got access to an even more extensive panel of experts. There are even companies that provide WordPress Support Services because, as you might expect, with so much of the web dominated by WP, there’s absolutely a need!

As with any open source software, there are limits to what you can get for free on demand — but between YouTube and web forums, you can find an answer to nearly all your questions.

So why choose WordPress? Why do a bit more work? Frankly, everything looks and works better when you’ve put effort into it, and your website’s visitors can tell. 

Taking the time to look through support pages and learn can be the difference between staying and leaving when UX means so much to users. 

6. More Secure Than That Password You’re Never Going To Remember

Let’s face it. You can really bungle some things up pretty easily if you try. Keeping your site updated (not a problem with Managed Plans, by the way), installing SSL certificates, and enabling security options will go a long way.

There are some vulnerabilities on your site — and that is usually within maliciously-coded themes and plugins. How do you avoid that? Research.

If your theme or plugin has malicious code, it can affect visitors of your site and potentially people sharing resources on your server. Protect yourself with plugins and software that detect that right off the bat like iThemes

7. Flexibility That Makes Yoga Enthusiasts Jealous

Why choose WordPress when there are so many other options? Well, the flexibility of the CMS makes it an ideal choice for just about anyone.

Want a blog? Done. Want a site for your business? That’s easy. Heard membership sites are all the rage and want to build a subscription-based business? WordPress ticks that box, too.

Beginner? No problem. You don’t need to have coding experience. Veteran? Even better. There are options for you, too. There are countless plugins, tools, and interfaces available for transforming your site into virtually whatever you want.

Migrate your existing site over or start fresh. Want to take it a step further? There are plenty of coding tutorials available to guide beginners, and seasoned professionals will be right at home.

With all the resources available online, nothing can stop you from building a site the way you want it because it’s capable of being anything. And really, if you don’t want to learn but have the vision, you can also hire a skilled WordPress developer too.

If you’re wondering, why WordPress? just think of it this way. WordPress is a site builder tofu: it’s got all the important core elements you need. All you need to do is add your flavor.

8. It’s So Reliable, This is Almost a Car Commercial

It’s hard to believe WordPress has only been around since 2003 when it feels like it’s been around forever. With WordPress history going back to almost 20 years, you can’t go wrong with a classic.

Nearly half (44%) of all of the websites on the internet were built on WordPress. If you’ve visited a site today — you’ve probably seen a WordPress site (hint: you’re on one right now).

Why do people use WordPress? Easy. Because it’s great.

People trust WordPress because it consistently performs well. You can create beautiful, functional sites with it. Thanks to it being open source and highly customizable, it’s become the powerhouse that it is, and it’s only gaining more territory.

Generally speaking, people trust what is familiar. WordPress isn’t just familiar, it is used extensively and by industry leaders.

Don’t believe us? Some of the most recognizable brands and hottest celebrities have dropped sites built on WordPress: Clorox, Snoop Dogg, BBC America, Felicia Day, The Walt Disney Company … even The Official StarWars.com blog is built on WordPress.

I Don’t Think You’re Ready For This Query

Why use WordPress? Now you have eight great reasons. And we’re just scratching the surface of all the benefits of WordPress. There are countless reasons why you should use WordPress for your website. 

If you want a powerful, customizable site that won’t look like anyone else’s, WordPress is for you.

If you have tried drag and drop interfaces and feel like you’re playing a kid’s game instead of building a professional website, WordPress is for you.

If you want a simple, but elegant solution that doesn’t compromise on the tech flavor that today’s devs can offer, WordPress is for you.

Are you ready to try WordPress yet? We can start singing that ABBA song if you really want us to. Something makes us think you’ve gotten the point. 

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9 Steps to Export WooCommerce Products with WP All Export

WP All Export is a powerful tool that allows you to export WordPress data to a custom CSV or XML. You can edit WooCommerce products in Excel and reimport them, migrate them to a new site, or upload them to Google Merchant Center.

Keep reading for an in-depth guide to exporting WooCommerce products, including price, stock, categories, and product image galleries. Follow along by going here to WP All Import and selecting “WooCommerce Store.”

How to Export WooCommerce Products

At a high level, here’s how to export your WooCommerce products.

  1. Go to All Export › New Export and select “WooCommerce Products” to create a new WooCommerce product export. 
  2. Decide if you’d like to export to CSV, XML, or Google Merchant Center.
  3. Drag and drop to customize your export file.
  4. Run the export to generate your WooCommerce product export. 

Below we will go into more detail for each step.

9 Steps to Export WooCommerce Products

1. Create a New WooCommerce Product Export

To create a new WooCommerce product export, go to All Export › New Export and select “WooCommerce Products” from the drop-down. Create filters to set which products are included in your export, and decide if you’d like to customize the export or automatically generate your CSV/XML for easy migration to another site.

2. Set the WooCommerce Product Export Filters

Export filters allow you to decide which products to include in your export. You can build any combination of filter rules to build the exact file that you need. To create a filtering rule, select the element you want to filter by, the rule for the filter, and then the value to filter by. Add multiple rules with “AND” or ‘“OR” conditionals.

As an example, the below set of filters will only export products that are in stock in the category “Heart Shaped” and were created before November 5 2020.

For now, let’s remove them so that all of our products are included in this export.

3. Customize Your Woocommerce Product Export File

Click “Customize Export File” to continue to the edit export page.

WP All Export automatically adds some relevant fields to the export template to get you started. Drag them around to re-arrange them, drag them out of the template to remove them, and click them to edit their names and adjust other settings.

All of the WooCommerce product data is included in the Available Data section on the right. 

The “Product Data” section contains the most commonly used fields, like SKU, price, stock, and product attributes like size and color. Product variations are automatically detected.

The “Media” section contains all of the export fields needed to export WooCommerce product galleries and attached files. The URL, filename, and all image SEO data are all available for export.

The “Taxonomies” section is automatically populated with all of the categories and tags applied to the WooCommerce products in your export. 

4. WooCommerce Product Export File Types

Click “Export Type” to decide which type of export file to generate. You can choose from the following options: 

  • CSV File
  • Excel File (XLS or XLSX)
  • XML (Simple or Custom)
  • Google Merchant Center

CSV and Excel are the best to bulk edit your WooCommerce Products, or process them in Excel or Google Sheets. They also work well for migrating WooCommerce products to another WordPress install.

Other services and systems will sometimes require an XML feed, prepared with a specific schema or format. If you’re lucky, you will be able to use the ‘Simple XML’ option. This creates a simple, single-level XML feed of your product data that will work for the majority of uses.

If you need more customization options than the “Custom XML Feed,” you can fully customize the structure of the XML file (including nested elements), control the names and order of the XML elements, and easily add static data to the feed using this option.

Finally, the “Google Merchant Center Product Feed” option creates a feed tailored to easily upload WooCommerce Products to Google Merchant Center. WP All Export pulls all of the necessary information from your products in WooCommerce, with options to map categories and configure other options specific to Google.

5. Run the Export

Let’s set the export type to “CSV.” Click “Add All” to add all fields to the template and continue to the final step of the export.

The export should be complete in less than a few minutes. After the export is complete you have a variety of options on how to proceed.

6. Migrate WooCommerce Products

In the “Download” section, click “Bundle” to get a zip file containing the export file and the import template. On a different site, upload the bundle to WP All Import and your import file and all import settings will be preconfigured. 

7. Edit WooCommerce Products in Excel

Go to the “Export, Edit, Import” section to download your products. After editing them in Excel, click “Import with WP All Import” and the changes you made in Excel will be reflected in your WooCommerce products on the site. 

For example, you can export the stock and prices for your products, edit them in Excel, then bulk update them via the “Import with WP All Import” button. All of the settings are filled in for you.

8. Export WooCommerce Products on a Schedule

In the “Scheduling Options” section you can set your WooCommerce product export to run on a schedule. Run it every day, every hour, once a week, or whenever you want. WP All Export will run at the scheduled times and update your WooCommerce store with the latest version of your export file.

9. External Apps

WP All Export integrates with Zapier, which means that you can easily connect your export to hundreds of apps. You can automatically send your export file to Google Drive or Dropbox, email it to yourself, and more.

Finishing Up

As you can see, WP All Export makes it very easy to export your WooCommerce product data. Give it a try with these steps outlined above.

With Hostdedi WooCommerce Hosting, Better Is Built In

Hostdedi offers fully managed hosting for WooCommerce designed for fast, high-performing stores. Hostdedi also:

  • Offers high performance and site speed.
  • Dynamically scales and optimizes.
  • Secures your store with always-on monitoring.

Start your free two-week trial of fully managed WooCommerce from Hostdedi today.

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Why You Need a WordPress CDN

When you hear someone refer to a CDN, they mean a content delivery network. The topic most likely comes up during a discussion about website speed and WordPress hosting. CDNs play a big part in delivering your website from the closest server to your visitors’ browsers. 

You may be wondering, why do you need a WordPress CDN and what does it do for your site?

This post addresses:

  • What a CDN is.
  • The benefits of a CDN for your WordPress site.
  • Options for connecting your site to a CDN.

Understanding CDNs

You may be wondering, what is a CDN? A content delivery network is a feature for the modern web. CDNs deliver most of the content you consume. They distribute the work of delivering content to your web browser. By increasing the number of sources, their closeness, and caching, CDNs make delivering content online more efficient.

In other words, a CDN is a network of remote servers that contain a copy of your website to give access to visitors from anywhere. A CDN’s goal is to minimize the distance between your visitors and the source server for your websites. A CDN stores and optimizes the static content of your website (images, style sheets, etc.).

For example, your hosting company and your website’s server are in San Francisco. Your visitor is in New York. They theoretically receive your site’s content faster than someone residing in Berlin or London. But a CDN uses copies of your site’s images and files that result in the people in all the locations mentioned above accessing your website as fast as someone in San Francisco. 

What are the Benefits of a CDN?

Your site visitors value the page loading speed that comes with a CDN. They get impatient if a website takes too long to load. They might not even wait long enough for the important content to be visible. Speed is an obvious benefit of using a CDN, but it’s not the only one. There are many other benefits to using a CDN.

Crash Resistance and Increased Availability

Together with cached pages, a CDN increases your website’s uptime. It makes it available even if your server is down for a few minutes. A CDN ensures continuous availability of your content and takes some load off of your primary server. It reduces the site’s size via compression of various files, decreasing the bytes it needs to travel the internet. 

Improved User Experience

With the images and other assets like video traveling short distances, the user experience improves. Users expect your site to load within two to three seconds, regardless of their connection’s bandwidth.

A WordPress CDN guarantees that your visitors don’t have to wait needlessly for images to arrive. Critical business interactions like purchases happen more quickly and more reliably. After deploying a WordPress CDN, you should see a reduction in shopping cart abandonment and payment interruptions. 

Improved Search Engine Optimization

Google recently started using site speed measurements as a ranking factor. 

Google measures three main Core Web Vitals:

  • Loading speed.
  • How fast a user can interact with your site or page.
  • Visual stability.

A CDN is crucial for page loads and how fast a visitor can see the relevant content.

The higher your site ranks in the Google search results for specific key phrases, the more likely potential customers will find your site, services, and products.

Options for Implementing a CDN for your WordPress Website

There are multiple ways to obtain a CDN for your WordPress website. You can install a plugin, sign up for a third-party service, or use your hosting company. Managed hosting companies offer CDNs with all their basic hosting plans. 

Plugins

WordPress offers plugins to assist you in connecting and configuring your site’s CDN.

WordPress CDN plugins include:

These plugins require a certain level of technical understanding of CDNs and caching content. In addition, you can only use them after you sign up for an account with a Cloud service provider like Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, or Amazon Web Services.

WordPress Plugins By CDN Services

CDN services also publish WordPress plugins to connect with your website natively. They provide a seamless connection between your dynamic content and your static content.

CDN service plugins include:

These plugins focus on the CDN connection and provide good documentation and setup guides. 

CDN with Managed WordPress Hosting 

The best option for a WordPress CDN is to choose a fully managed host that offers the service. Using a CDN through your site’s host is easier because you don’t have to install or set up the CDN. You also will get the best performance from the service. In addition, you’ll get hosting support with the streamlined service. 

How Hostdedi Can Help

Hostdedi provides fully managed WordPress hosting that includes a built-in CDN service. We help you keep your site loading quickly and performing at its best to eliminate visitor frustrations. 

Contact us today to learn more about our hosting services. Or start your free two-week trial of Fully Managed WordPress by Hostdedi today.

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Learn How to Use WordPress

Why WordPress?

WordPress is user friendly, customizable, and powers 40% of the internet. With thousands of plugins available to extend functionality, it’s easy to see why so many use WordPress for their sites.

If you’re looking to learn how to use WordPress, you’re in the right place. Here, you’ll find out most useful WordPress resources. Keep reading to learn WordPress basics, performance best practices, and more.

Learn How to Use WordPress: Understand Your Options

There are a number of CMS options available. As mentioned, WordPress is the most popular choice. If you’re not sure WordPress is the right CMS for you, learn about Drupal vs. WordPress.

WordPress history extends back to 2003. As you can imagine, there are many WordPress versions available. But it is important to start using the most recent one.

There’s also headless WordPress to consider. This option is gaining popularity and aims to accelerate page load time. What is headless WordPress?

WordPress does not limit you to a certain type of site. You can create a blog, an ecommerce site, a portfolio, and more. Learn about the types of WordPress websites you can easily set up. You can even monetize your WordPress site.

WordPress Hosting

With WordPress, you’ll also want an optimized host to power your site in the background. But you have a few different options when it comes to hosting, such as managed WordPress hosting and shared web hosting.

What is WordPress hosting? And why do you need hosting for WordPress? Here’s a breakdown of the difference between WordPress hosting and web hosting.

There’s also WordPress cPanel versus Managed WordPress and DIY to consider.

You may already have a shared hosting plan for your WordPress account. But shared hosting plans can leave much to be desired. Here’s how to tell when it’s time to leave shared hosting and upgrade to Managed WordPress.

Top 10 Questions to Ask a Cloud Hosting Provider >>

Getting Started With WordPress

Now it’s time to get started with your WordPress site. You’ll want to research your options and select one of the fastest WordPress themes. Speed is critical to providing a good user experience. It’s also key to ranking on Google.

Get started building your site with WordPress Gutenberg — a WordPress editor that makes site creation simple and easy. By using Gutenberg, you can simplify the content creation process in WordPress.

From there, you can…

Learn How to Use WordPress Plugins

There are thousands of WordPress plugins available for your site. Not sure where to start? Start by exploring the most popular WordPress plugins. These ones are fan favorites and are widespread for a reason.

Learn more about the top WordPress plugins and how to use them strategically in our Essential Guide to WordPress Plugins eBook.

There are plugins for just about every function you could want on your website. For example, you could add WooCommerce to WordPress to start an online store.

Below you’ll find out recommendations for the top WordPress plugins for popular functions.

Remember, it’s important to keep all of your plugins updated. Managed WordPress hosts like Hostdedi automatically update your plugins.

Explore Fully Managed WordPress Hosting by Hostdedi.

Learn WordPress Performance Best Practices

Why is my WordPress site so slow?

Many site owners ask this question after getting their site up and running. But once your site is up, you need to keep it optimized. Here’s why website performance matters:

  • It is critical to the user experience.
  • It is necessary to rank well on Google.
  • It provides more visibility and organic traffic.
  • It improves your conversion rates.

Here are some helpful WordPress resources to improve performance.

Learn more in our Beginner’s Guide to WordPress Performance Optimization eBook >>

WordPress Resources for Developers

Learn about the built-in features of WordPress for developers, and how to best use them for your site.

Using WordPress Local Dev Environments

You can use a WordPress local development environment, and you have a few options outlined below. A local dev environment allows you to set up a server environment on your own machine, rather than on the server environment from your hosting company.

The benefit here is that you can go into the local dev environment to customize your site and make any changes you need, without having to push it online until you are ready.

Get Scalable, Secure WordPress With Hostdedi

With Hostdedi, better is built in.

Power your site with optimized WordPress hosting from Hostdedi. Hostdedi provides fully-managed WordPress hosting that includes:

  • Automatic updates.
  • SSL for security.
  • Built-in CDN.
  • Image compression.
  • Caching.
  • And more.

With Hostdedi, your site is optimized, secure, and fast. Contact us today to learn how Hostdedi can take on-site performance tuning for you automatically.

Or, give it a try for free. Start your two-week trial of fully managed WordPress today.

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What is WordPress Hosting? | Hostdedi

If you’re thinking about launching a website, chances are you are considering using WordPress. It is easily the most popular content management system (CMS) in the world.

Throughout the history of WordPress, the free and open-source CMS has proved to be a versatile and lasting tool for beginners and pros. This is why WordPress is so widely used. But as powerful as it is, does WordPress host websites? Unfortunately, it does not. You’ll have to look for your web hosting elsewhere. 

Whether it’s WordPress-based or not, your website needs to live somewhere. WordPress hosting provides you with one option to host your site.

Understanding WordPress Hosting

So, what exactly is WordPress hosting?

WordPress hosting is a form of website hosting — providing storage and access to a website— intended for WordPress websites. Because WordPress hosting was designed specifically for the world’s most popular CMS, WordPress sites run especially well on this type of web hosting. Most notably, sites with WordPress hosting should expect fast performance.

WordPress hosting usually comes with 1-click installation of WordPress, or even with the CMS already pre-installed. This gives you a good head start in launching your site.

Is WordPress a Hosting Site?

WordPress is a system that helps you manage your website’s content, but it does not house or store that content for you. Your website must have a home, which is why it’s so important to understand what WordPress hosting is.

There is a slight caveat to this answer. If you look into WordPress, you’ll notice WordPress has two distinct websites: WordPress.org and WordPress.com. WordPress.org is the free open-source CMS that is usually discussed when talking about WordPress (it’s the focus here). WordPress.com offers hosting and limited use of the WordPress CMS. They are not the same thing. 

How WordPress Hosting Works

The basics of WordPress hosting is just the same as standard website hosting. All the files that make up your website (HTML, images, etc.) need a place to be stored. Your website host provides you with that storage (a server) and allows people to access the information being stored (your website traffic). Website hosts are like property owners and gatekeepers all in one.

Setting up servers is a highly technical and complicated matter. Website hosts build their servers for general use, which allows them to host all sorts of sites. Due to the nuances among the various types of websites types of websites, that means you’re probably not getting the best out of your host and server. With a WordPress hosting service, you get a server that is optimized for the super popular CMS. Things are configured for WordPress to run as efficiently as possible.

WordPress hosting is not the same as WordPress itself. How WordPress hosting works is entirely different than how WordPress works.

Do WordPress Sites Need WordPress Hosting?

Part of the story behind WordPress’ dominance on the web is its versatility. It can work on all sorts of platforms. You absolutely do not need a WordPress hosting service for your WordPress website. Most hosting services are compatible with WordPress. They would lose a huge chunk of potential business if they weren’t.

One way to look at hosting is thinking of the whole internet as living cities or communities. The buildings represent websites, and the land they are on represents a host server. To expand on this concept, you can think of WordPress hosting services as specialized communities, kind of like a retirement community. You don’t have to build your house there but living in a space and community built for your needs could make life a whole lot easier.

You certainly have options when it comes to WordPress sites and hosting. That’s part of the appeal of the world-leading CMS. However, if you want to get the most out of your WordPress site, WordPress hosting should be a primary consideration.

WordPress Hosting: Is It Worth It?

If WordPress sites don’t need to be on WordPress hosting servers, is there any real reason you should use WordPress hosting?

There are certainly some benefits to keep in mind. But as with anything, there are two sides to the story. Here are some pros and cons you should consider when thinking about whether WordPress hosting is right for you:

Pros of WordPress Hosting

  • Fast speeds: Nobody wants to visit a website with slow load times. WordPress hosting servers are optimized for speed. This ensures that your visitors have a smooth and positive experience when navigating your site. Fast-loading content is also a crucial factor in search engine optimization (SEO), and slow page speeds can negatively impact search engine rankings.
  • Strong security: WordPress is the most used content management system on the web. It’s no surprise that WordPress sites are constantly being attacked. Your WordPress hosting is built with security protocols specific to WordPress sites. This adds a layer of protection you can’t get from general hosting services.
  • Better support: For the most part, using a WordPress hosting service means access to WordPress experts. You can be confident that they’ll know how to resolve any hosting issues you may run into with your site.
  • Easy to install: Though not impossible, WordPress can be a bit of a chore to install for beginners. Most WordPress hosting services offer quick and easy 1-click WordPress installation.
  • A ton of choices: You certainly don’t have a shortage of WordPress hosting options. Plenty of companies are set up to tap into the extremely large WordPress market. If anything, there might be too many choices.

Cons of WordPress Hosting

  • Optimized for WordPress only: While this is great for WordPress sites, it does hinder you from starting up any non-WordPress sites. This means having to source a new hosting provider if you ever decide to move away from WordPress as a CMS.
  • Limited plugin access: Most WordPress hosting services don’t allow for full access to all WordPress plug-ins. This is primarily for security reasons as plugins are often the most likely to have vulnerabilities against malicious parties. While this might be seen more as a positive, it still might hamper you from getting the most of your WordPress site if there’s a particular plugin you really want.
  • Higher costs: This is especially true if you go with a managed WordPress hosting service (more on that later). While there are some strong benefits, they don’t come free. You’ll have to decide whether extra costs are worth it. 

Shared vs. Managed WordPress Hosting

There are two common types of WordPress hosting services: shared hosting and managed hosting. One supplies basic hosting, while the other handles a lot of your WordPress website management for you. 

Shared WordPress Hosting

Shared WordPress hosting is the more basic type of WordPress hosting. You’ll share space on a server with other websites. This would be like sharing an apartment with several roommates. Because the server resources are shared, this type of web hosting is usually associated with slower speeds. However, because WordPress hosting is optimized for WordPress websites, speed is not as much of an issue as it is with general shared website hosting services.

Shared WordPress hosting is the cheaper option. This makes it a sufficient choice for anyone starting up with a limited budget. Your site traffic is likely to not exceed your server’s resources.

Managed WordPress Hosting

Speaking of robust hosting, that’s exactly what you’ll get with a solid managed WordPress hosting service. With this type of website hosting, your WordPress site is typically on a dedicated server, virtual private server, or hosted on the cloud. This is like having your own house, own apartment, or even several apartments at the same time. You shouldn’t have to worry about sharing resources with other sites.

Related reading: What is Managed Hosting? >>

Managed WordPress hosting gives you an incredible amount of support for your website. Your hosting service provides you with the bulk of your site’s day-to-day hardware and software maintenance. They’ll make sure your security is well-tuned and manage updates for you. Many managed WordPress hosting services offer 1-click staging, allowing you to test changes to your site in a dev environment (not live on your website). 

You’ll also have access to expert-level support to help you troubleshoot any issues with your site. Managed WordPress hosting is going to be more expensive than shared WordPress hosting. This makes it the better choice for larger, more established sites, and brands looking to scale their WordPress site in the future.

What to Look for in a WordPress Host

Now that you’ve learned quite a bit more about what WordPress web hosting is, you’re more set than ever to find a service to host your site. When combing through the many options, keep these following factors in consideration:

  • Speed and resources: One of the biggest selling points about WordPress hosting services is that they are optimized for speed. Look into what type of speed performance your potential host promises, and how they use their resources to provide you with a high-performing site.
  • Reliability: No matter what type of site you have, you depend on your web host for reliability. Look into reports about uptime/downtime. Make sure you have a host that can keep your site up and running as much as possible.
  • Price: You always want to consider price when shopping for any type of product or service. Make sure to shop around and compare prices. As with anything else, keep in mind that expensive doesn’t always mean the best, and cheap doesn’t always mean the worst. Shoot for getting the most value for your dollar.
  • Management features: If you are going the managed WordPress hosting route, take a close look at the management features being offered to you. You’re paying for these services. Make sure you’re getting the ones that are going to make running your site easy for you.
  • Support: Beginners can work with WordPress with relative ease, but that doesn’t mean putting up a WordPress website and maintaining it doesn’t come with some technical challenges. Look into your potential hosts’ technical/customer support. Be comfortable knowing that when issues arise, you have somewhere to turn.

Try WordPress Hosting From Hostdedi

No matter what your WordPress hosting needs are, Hostdedi has options for you. You’ll get top-tier managed hosting that eases the pressure of maintaining your site. Learn more about Hostdedi’ fully managed WordPress hosting packages. Or, start a free two-week trial of Hostdedi fully managed WordPress hosting.

Related Content

This blog was originally published in November 2016. It has since been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

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Why Do You Need Hosting for WordPress? Advantages & Features

You’re ready to take the leap and launch your new website, but you keep hearing that you need to choose a hosting service first. So why do you need hosting for WordPress? Quite simply, because your site can’t function without it. 

Who you choose to host your site is as important as why you need a host. This post explains why you need a host with WordPress.

Why Do You Need Hosting for WordPress?

WordPress is software. It runs additional software to bring your content, images, and products to the browser. 

WordPress stores your content in a database. The application server queries the database and formats your content, then pushes it to a visitor’s browser. The person can then read and interact with your content from their mobile device or desktop computer. 

That’s a semi-technical way of saying that you need a service to hold the software and your content to get it online. You need a company to connect your WordPress to the internet pipes. The service listens to calls for your site’s domain from anywhere in the world and delivers the website to the visitor’s browser. 

The solution to making all of those steps happen is a WordPress host. There are many forms of hosting. They come at different price points, offering various levels of services and competencies.

With all the pieces mentioned above, you can imagine multiple points of potential failure and hundreds of ways things can go wrong. Making sure your website works properly for your customers is why you need managed WordPress hosting. 

Advantages of Managed WordPress Hosting

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Arthur C. Clarke, British science fiction writer.

You could rely on magic or work with a managed WordPress hosting company. A managed hosting company makes the internet magic happen for you.

With fully managed WordPress hosting from Hostdedi, you have the advantage of:

  • Speed. Your site is guaranteed to load quickly for visitors. 
  • Scalability. You can build out your site’s features as much as you desire. You also can have as many visitors as you want. Neither will slow your site down.
  • Security. You don’t have to worry about hacks or anyone stealing your customer’s private information.
  • Support. We don’t just launch your site, then leave you. We’re here to help whenever you need it.

With other shared hosting services, you get what you pay for. You might encounter slow site performance, which is detrimental to the success of your website. You might have to deal with an underpowered system, resulting in connection errors. 

The support technicians might not be WordPress experts and can’t help you when problems arise. You’ll end up asking yourself when it’s time to leave shared hosting and upgrade to managed WordPress. 

It’s better to start in the right place from the beginning and save yourself the hassle.

Features of Hostdedi Fully Managed WordPress Hosting

You can count on various features with fully managed WordPress hosting that you don’t get with shared hosting services. These features make the internet magic happen without you needing to think more about it.

As a result, you can focus on building your business instead of worrying about why your website isn’t functioning.

Hostdedi Fully Managed WordPress Hosting includes the following features.

Scalability 

What if you have a special discount sale or you offer something for Cyber Monday or Black Friday? You’ll have a short period with more traffic, more orders, and therefore a need for more server power.

Hostdedi WordPress hosting provides you with a seamless, scalable server configuration. It expands and subtracts according to your site’s traffic and bypasses the capacity limits. In other words, your site won’t crash because of increased traffic.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Auto Scaling >>

Security 

Hostdedi’s security services are essential for the safety of your business and your customers’ information. They provide you with ongoing malware monitoring, automatics SSL, PHP optimization, and automatic plugin updates.

In addition, instant backups secure your work and keep your data from getting lost or corrupted. In other words, Hostdedi protects you and your customers from hacks. 

Speed

Google considers the speed at which visitors receive your content when determining whether your site ranks for a good user experience. Core Web Vitals are now ranking factors for search engine results. 

With a multi-layered caching service built on the latest PHP version, and server caching with Varnish, Hostdedi answers powerfully to your need for speed. It integrates with the content delivery network across its owned data centers and with premium image compression. Hostdedi optimizes your site for fast delivery.

It’s a fancy way of saying that visitors won’t have to wait for your site to load. And Google rewards you for having a fast site.

5 Advanced Techniques to Speed Up Your WordPress Site >>

Support 

Hostdedi provides tools that help with an optimized rollout and configuration of the servers. They provide you with separate staging and production servers. These servers allow you to test new features or a new layout on the staging server.

This server means the trial is out of sight from the public and doesn’t interrupt the existing site’s business. You can use the staging server with the one-click staging or cloning of your site. You can test your new tool or design using all the data from your live site. 

With Hostdedi hosting, you have access to a team of WordPress experts who have experience working with thousands of sites. Put simply; you aren’t alone. We’re always here to help.

Why Hosting Support Is Important >>

Choose Fully Managed Hosting from Hostdedi

Your website contributes to your business’s bottom line, so signing up for managed WordPress hosting is a prudent decision. It optimizes your site’s visibility on the net. It’s kept secure from hacking and corrupted data. And, when something goes wrong, you have a team of experts at your fingertips.

To learn more about Hostdedi fully managed hosting or to host your site with us, contact us today. Or start a free trial of Fully Managed WordPress hosting.

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Adding Unit Tests to an Existing WordPress Plugin

So far we’ve done little more than introduce you to the idea of building tests for your WordPress plugins and talk about a bunch of the extra terms you need to understand to dive deeper into testing your code. Today we’re going to make it practical by grabbing one of my free plugins and adding a few unit tests to show you how to put it together. 

You can find the plugin on Github or WordPress.org. Just like my previous post, I assume that you have WP CLI installed and can set up basic tests. If you can’t check out my post introducing you to unit testing in WordPress.

Unlike the last time, we only need to scaffold the tests so we can start with the following command in our WordPress installation.

wp scaffold plugin-tests wptt-ics-feeds

Now let’s get into writing a few tests.

The first thing I want to test is to make sure that the links a user sees in their profile with calendar feeds are correct. Specifically, we’re going to look at the get_subscribe_link function.

You can see the completed tests for this section here.

Let’s start by copying the default sample test file and renaming it to test-feed-links.php. I always like to create different files for the areas of the plugins I’m writing tests for, even if that means I have lots of files to deal with. It’s far easier to stay organized with clearly labelled files.

This plugin is a bit older and instantiates a global variable as it starts up. This allows us to call that global when in our setUp function so that we have access to the plugin code. We’ll also need to use the WordPress Factory to set up a new user so that we can test the links provided with that user. That means our setUp and tearDown functions should look like this.

public function setUp(){

    parent::setUp();

    // getting the plugin global

    $this->plugin = $GLOBALS['wptt_ics_feeds'];

    // make a fake user

    $this->editor = new WP_User( $this->factory->user->create( array( 'role' => 'editor' ) ) );

}

public function tearDown(){

        parent::tearDown();

        wp_delete_user( $this->editor->ID, true );

}

Now we can get to writing a test for our feed links. We’ll write two different tests to test both situations that the link function can find itself in. First, we’ll test get_subscribe_link() without any arguments.

   /**

     * Tests base feed link without author

     */

    public function test_base_feed_link(){

        $feed_link = $this->plugin->get_subscribe_link();

        $complete_link = site_url() . '/?feed=wptticsfeeds';

        $this->assertEquals( $feed_link, $complete_link, 'The feed links are not equal' );

    }

The first thing the code above does is access our plugin instance as defined in the setUp function and call the get_subscribe_link() function. Next, I hard code the expected output of the function so that I have something to compare against. Finally, we use assertEquals to compare the two values.

With that done I can head back over to terminal and run the tests with the phpunit command. If my tests pass I’ll see something like the output below. If they don’t pass then I’ll get a big red warning instead of a green bar, which means I need to figure out why they aren’t passing and fix the tests.

In this case, our tests passed and we can move on to testing the output of our link function if we pass in an author name. You can see this test below.

   /**

     * Tests feed link with author

     */

     public function test_author_feed_link(){

        $feed_link = $this->plugin->get_subscribe_link( array( 'author' => $this->editor->ID ) );

        $complete_link = esc_url( site_url() . '/?feed=wptticsfeeds&wpttauthor=". $this->editor->user_login );

        $this->assertEquals( $feed_link, $complete_link, "The feed links with author are not equal' );

     }

Here we do almost the same thing as we did when we tested our link previously. The change is that we pass in the user we created with our setUp function and then test to make sure that this link comes out as expected with assertEquals.

Now, let’s move on to testing the custom filter inside the plugin.

Testing a WordPress Filter with PHPUnit

I’ve had some disputes with other developers about testing filters in the past. Some don’t bother testing their internal plugin filters, but I think that you should be testing these filters. Sometimes filter names change and you forget about this so don’t document it anywhere or check for usage of the filter. Writing a simple test for your filter will highlight this because when you change the filter name a test error will happen.

For this test, we’ll add a new file to our tests folder called test-filters.php. I’ll use this file to test all future filters that need to be tested in the plugin. This time our setUp function only needs to instantiate an instance of our plugin and our tearDown function doesn’t need to do anything. See the code below.

   public function setUp(){

        parent::setUp();

        // getting the plugin global

        $this->plugin = $GLOBALS['wptt_ics_feeds'];

    }

    public function tearDown(){

        parent::tearDown();

    }

Next, we need to write the test for our filter which you can see below.

   /**

     * Tests that the post where time can be changed with a filter

     */

    public function test_posts_where_filter(){

        add_filter( 'wptt_ics_feeds_how_old', array( $this, 'new_where' ), 10, 2 );

         $output = $this->plugin->two_months( '' );

         $date = date('Y-m-d', strtotime( $this->new_where() ) );

         $this->assertStringContainsString( $date, $output, 'The date filter did not work' );

    }

    public function new_where(){

        return '-1 week';

    }

The first thing we do is call our filter and then pass it our new_where function. I always like to write a separate function for filter tests because I have ended up using them in multiple tests enough that I feel this saves work later. Our new_where function will pass the string -1 week to our filter.

Next we call our two_months() function inside the plugin. Then we use a standard PHP date function to get the format we expect for the date. Since I’m mostly concerned that the date is parsed properly in the plugin I use assertStringContainsString to check to see if the output of the two_months function contains the same date string as the $date variable.

Again, if your tests pass, then it should all be green. If they fail you’ll get a big red warning instead of the pleasant green bar.

Why Don’t We Test the ICS Feed Output

Note, that I didn’t test the final output of our ICS feed. While this is possible, it’s got a bunch of moving parts that could fail and have nothing to do with my code. I could send the ICS feed to an online validator and then receive the JSON response and parse it to check if it’s valid.

If the HTTP request fails, my test fails. If the online validation service shuts down, my test fails. There are a bunch of other scenarios that could also cause my test to fail for no reason that’s my fault. Because of this, I chose not to test the final feed programmatically and figured that I could test it by subscribing to a feed in my calendar and seeing that my posts were in fact on the calendar as expected.

This Isn’t Unit Testing

I’m sure that some of you are looking at this and saying that I’m not writing unit tests, and you’d be correct. I’m writing integration tests because my code is integrating with WordPress for the tests to work. Yes, you can use WP_Mock to fake WordPress to write true unit tests, but most of the time I care that my code works with WordPress.

Today, we looked at adding a few tests to an existing WordPress plugin as a practical example of how testing can work for your projects. To continue learning, check out the business case for adding testing to your process as a business owner. It can be hard to see past the upfront expense since development will take longer, but it does pay off.

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75% Off 3 Months of Managed Hosting: Position Yourself for Your Best Year Yet with Our Best Deal Ever

In 2020, a year that has been so hard on so many businesses, we are grateful for the resilience and determination of the agencies, sites, and stores that rely on Hostdedi. 

Thank you for being our customers.

2020 Was a Game-Changing Year In Ecommerce

Let’s face it – 2020 was BANANAS. In this year alone, small businesses took massive hits in revenue, and nearly 100,000 closed their doors for good. Others have thrived.

Adaptability and resilience has been the name of the game for 2020. As brick and mortar businesses closed their doors due to COVID, ecommerce sales surged. Total online spending by May had skyrocketed by $52 billion, a 77% year-over-year increase.

This year was also an unexpected boon for ecommerce developers. In an industry already rife with demand, ecommerce development agencies saw an increase in demand for new websites. The total number of ecommerce sites, as of this year, now stands at over 24 million.

Where Ecommerce Companies Are Still Losing Revenue

The caveats to success in ecommerce are still there, however. Pages that load in more than three seconds deter 40% of traffic, and an estimated $18 billion in revenue per year is still lost due to cart abandonment.

Ecommerce is thriving, and the opportunity is growing rapidly. By 2040, it’s estimated that 95% of all purchases will be made online. That is astounding!

The problems with ecommerce still exist though, and now more than ever, it’s time to ensure your digital commerce site is speed optimized for conversions.

Positioning Yourself for Your Best Year Yet

No matter how wild it gets out there, Hostdedi is going to keep on giving you hosting you can count on. That’s been our focus throughout this crazy year – continue innovating, keep your sites online and safe, maintain fair prices, and keep providing the tools you need to stand up a new ecommerce shop, or maintain an old one. 

This Black Friday, we’re gonna keep on keeping on by offering our customers our BEST SALE EVER. This is truly one for the record books, folks. Hostdedi has never offered a discount this deep. 

We’re offering an unprecedented 75% Off 3 months of our most popular plans with code JOYFOR2021.

No matter what happens in 2021, you can count on Hostdedi to keep making it easy and affordable to start your own online business or migrate to a hosting provider who is a true partner in business.

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What’s the Difference Between WordPress Hosting & Web Hosting?

When searching for a web hosting provider, you’ll find a lot of different options and deciding which to choose can be overwhelming. WordPress is usually a safe bet when starting out with a website – it offers a simple but powerful set of tools to get you started in no time, and because of its flexibility and ease of use, it already powers 35% of the Internet (source)

But where exactly should you run WordPress? Let’s take a look at the two most popular options for making a website available: shared hosting and Managed WordPress hosting, and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

What is Managed WordPress Hosting?

Managed WordPress Hosting is a specific type of shared hosting, which has been tweaked and modified to improve the hosting experience specifically when using WordPress websites. The “Managed” part is important too, because it means that there’s staff on board taking care that everything runs smoothly.

Specifically, Managed hosting adds support for the operating system and application infrastructure. In other words, your host will make sure that WordPress is up-to-date and running correctly, so you can focus on creating the content of your site.

The exact scope of managed support varies between hosts, especially when it comes to heavily-customized sites with a large number of plugins. In general, a best-effort policy applies – even if you’re having trouble with a very complex setup, the experts managing your site will attempt to help with it, and point you in the right direction if needed. 

What are the Advantages of Managed WordPress Hosting?

Faster WordPress Performance: As the name implies, Managed WordPress hosting is specially built to handle WordPress-based websites, both in their PHP settings and on their database setup. This translates to a much better performance than with generic settings. This is all out-of-the-box, so you can get to creating your site immediately without spending much time dealing with configuration. 

Better Security: Security is also a great positive of Managed WordPress hosting, since services that aren’t necessary for WordPress are disabled, and common attack points (such as xmlrpc.php) are taken into consideration.

Better Resource Scaling: Managed WordPress hosts can also scale up and down on-demand to accommodate a sudden spike in traffic, since the site doesn’t have to live in a single server. That way, one of your posts suddenly getting a lot of attention will not punish you by bringing your entire website down. 

Better Support: In addition, the staff on hand has much more experience dealing with WordPress, so they’ll be empowered to help with any issues you may face.

In short, Managed WordPress hosting is a higher-quality option when it comes to hosting WordPress sites.

What are the Disadvantages of WordPress Hosting?

Higher Cost: Because of its quality and additional features, Managed WordPress hosting is a premium option, which is reflected in the price tag. For multiple small project websites where you don’t expect much traffic, this can be overkill, much in the same way that you wouldn’t rent a spot in a shopping mall for a lemonade stand. On the other hand, if you’re looking to launch your business or move an existing WordPress site to a more reliable host, the benefits more than outweigh the costs.

What is Shared Hosting?

Shared hosting is the most basic option for getting a website online. In short, it is when you rent some space on someone else’s server to host your website’s files, and then point your domain name to that server. There are many types of shared hosting options available, but in the most common form it is a spot to place your website’s files so they’re served when someone visits. 

Something to keep in mind is that shared website hosts handle many different kinds of websites with varying resource needs, which all share a portion of the same resources, so performance settings are usually generic options that fit most websites reasonably well. 

What are the Advantages of Shared Hosting?

Affordability: The main advantage of shared hosting is how affordable it is compared to other hosting options. Since your website is hosted on a shared server, it doesn’t cost the hosting provider much to add one, or a dozen more websites, especially if these are small sites that don’t receive a lot of traffic. That makes shared hosting ideal for small projects that aren’t expected to get a lot of attention, and for quickly trying out new ideas you get. 

What are the Disadvantages of Shared Hosting?

Here are the three most common disadvantages of shared hosting across most shared hosting providers:

Compatibility Issues: You need to make sure your content management system, or CMS, works well within the shared hosting environment. This includes making sure the PHP and MySQL versions are compatible. Your host’s support can often provide some help with that, but only up to a point – considering the many different types of websites they will be hosting, in-depth knowledge about every single one of them is a difficult proposition, so you might end up needing to get a developer on board for very difficult problems.

Software Updates: Software updates are another common pain point in shared hosts, which can break your site if its code relies on features from older software versions. Some hosts have features to alleviate this, such as letting you choose the PHP version you want to run your site with, but running older software is not recommended for security reasons. After all, software versions that are out of support no longer receive security updates, rendering them potentially exposed to newly-discovered vulnerabilities.

Shared Resources: Since one server is shared across all the websites hosted in it, the performance of your site can take a hit during peak times, even if your own site is not getting a ton of traffic. This is compounded by the fact that shared hosting is usually configured with generic performance settings, not optimized for any particular kind of website. 

Choosing Between WordPress Hosting vs Shared Hosting

It is important to use the right tool for the job, and if loading speed, ease-of-use, and availability are critical for you, then Managed WordPress hosting is a useful tool to consider. Our plans have a lot of additional features not offered in most Managed WordPress hosts, such as full server access, automated staging sites for testing plugin updates, and 24/7/365 support by phone, email and chat. 

If you’re a more advanced user who’s comfortable with server management, and you’re looking for more freedom to go along with that responsibility, a VPS package might be good for you, which you can compare to our Managed WordPress options. 

Finally, if you’re still on the fence about what would work best for you, you can always chat with one of our experts for help picking the right plan.

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