Shared Hosting Problems

The proliferation of WordPress as an easy to use platform has created a whole other layer of problems for the user.  Because WordPress is easy to use, it is also easy to hack.  If you haven’t had this happen to you yet, you definitely will at some point in the future.  Shared hosting is like sharing an apartment where you share common space with your neighbors.  It is one size and you cannot customize anything which means you can’t add software to assist in securing your site.   It also lacks privacy which is where the problem comes in for WordPress sites.  The single size with no customization and lack of privacy makes your website more prone to being hacked.

WordPress sites need to be hardened to prevent attack, which means that best practices should be followed in maintaining the website and locking it down.  As an open source platform, the main software that runs WordPress is always being updated when vulnerabilities are discovered.  That means, the software needs to be updated to the latest versions.  Plug-ins are additional software programs that add functionality to the main WordPress website.  They also have frequent updates which are needed for security of the website.  Updates are frequently missed in the shared hosting solution due to lack of diligence or knowledge of the user.

There are 2 potential solutions to this, VPS Hosting (Virtual Private Server) and Dedicated Hosting.  VPS Hosting is advantageous to Shared Hosting, because you have control of the server and what resources will be provided.  You can set the size of memory and use of resources for each account.  Although the websites are still sharing the same server, they can be configured for security and best use.  This is a great solution for businesses that are small to medium in size without heavy user traffic.  A website with a great deal of traffic will require a Dedicated Server where the website has its own server and resources.