I’m thinking of starting a hobby blog for my niche interests and I know I want my own domain But I’m stuck between going with a WordPress.com plan or managed VPS like Cloudways
Maintaining my own VPS seems like a massive headache so that’s out of the question for me Cloudways seems like a good option for $11 per month but WordPress.com has cheaper plans at $4 and $8
I spoke to a couple hobby bloggers in my space and they just seem to use WordPress.com But everyone online seems to advise super strongly against it which doesn’t make sense to me because self-managed VPS are the same price if not more expensive than the $4 and $8 WP.com plans
Can anyone justify Cloudways for me or explain why everyone online seems so averse to WordPress.com I’m sure WP.com comes with some bloat and lack of control but it can’t be that bad
I only want to host one website and I don’t plan to make any money off it except maybe adding a ko-fi link because why not
The WordPress.com plans you’re talking about have limited features e.g. you can’t install plugins
Cloudways is an overkill for a hobby blog
Go with shared cPanel hosting – it’s cheaper than Cloudways and you get full control over your WordPress site without the limitations of the WordPress.com platform
@Brad
I’m guessing you mean using cPanel through a website like Hostinger The cheapest plan I see on the cPanel website is $26.99
I see websites like Hostinger have separate plans for cPanel and WordPress (the latter being a little more expensive) It looks like the WordPress plan has a few features thrown in that may justify the increase Do you have any advice one way or the other If the main difference is having to install WP myself I can probably handle that
Either way after 4 years both Hostinger plans bump up to around the same price as Cloudways Definitely MUCH cheaper for those 4 years but the idea of having to migrate or re-negotiate my rate kinda turns me off I should probably just swallow that though and take the discount
Edit: The other reply here recommending Hostinger is 0 days old and it’s their only comment Not very encouraging
Just a thought I’m not familiar with WordPress looked at this thinking I might learn something from the comments I have had good experience with my hosting company — I’ve been with them since 2002 — and they have offerings for managed WordPress on shared hosting:
I have always found their support competent and responsive so you might want to email them (probably sales@pair.com would be best) with questions You can also host WordPress on their regular shared hosting plans I’m sure they could give advice tailored to your purpose and ability
I know they aren’t the cheapest I just mention them because I’ve found them to be really stable reliable and there with support on the rare cases when I needed it
As a beginner you can start with a Shared Web Hosting service It comes with a cPanel that will help you install WordPress in just a few clicks and get your site live No complex technical skills are needed
Buy a shared hosting for now with cPanel Migrate to a VPS when your website starts to attract more visitors and when your shared hosting can not handle the traffic
I can recommend Namecheap and Spaceship for cheap hosting Not a promotion They are well known Don’t use any new or less popular hosting providers because they are cheap as they can go down anytime Other popular hostings are Hostgator Bluehost Hostinger and Siteground But they are a bit expensive
If you choose Namecheap or Spaceship Namecheap’s Stellar Plus plan will work Spaceship’s pro plan will work
They both come with a CPanel You can use the option called Softaculous to install WordPress easily within a few clicks for free on your domain via the cPanel
There could be better hosting plans or platforms but I’m talking from my experience
Buy your domain from Spaceship if you purchase .com (Use COMPROS) It will be like $3 for .com if you use it
I’m building a platform (mevin ai) where people can focus on creating content and building audience than managing tech if you want to take a look at it