First, what is cloud hosting?
Being cloud-based means the service is all in a virtual environment and users can access your content from practically anywhere in the world very quickly because the data of your site would be dispersed among a highly secure network of servers referred to as a CDN (content delivery network)
Another way of looking at it is that the virtual realm is using software but simulating the functions of a physical hardware environment. So when it comes to the data of a WordPress website, it’s not on just one physical server pushing the website data to the web like traditional web hosting. It may appear that way, but the physical server’s capacity is shared with multiple storage devices within the cloud (through the CDN) and throughout various locations.
General web hosting that is not cloud-based moves the data and content of your site to the web from limited physical locations for the user to see it. This can cause a delay and in turn, cause your site to load slowly.
The right WordPress host combined with a cloud network can make the difference regarding site speed, security, SEO, and overall performance.
What are the benefits of cloud hosting?
The primary advantage is that the data from the website can be quickly and easily retrieved for viewing and for being backed up. Plus, this can provide more flexibility to add more storage space, which would be considered easier to do.
6 Primary Benefits & Advantages
- Increased speed and efficiency
- Flexible bandwidths to meet usage spikes
- The process of backing up a website is faster
- More reliable and secure hosting services
- Easy to scale up or down based on need
- Faster loading sites improve SEO and user engagement
In a moment we will take a closer look at 5 of the top-recommended cloud-based WordPress hosting companies and some would consider cloud hosting the most reliable, so let’s look at why that’s probably correct.
As mentioned, Web hosting, in general, requires a dedicated server to respond to a request from the website user. Traditional hosting providers have data centers at a single location or multiple locations but are limited to specific regions. This has many limitations like:
- decreased speed
- limited bandwidth
- and limiting scalability
In other words, if your website users are located around the world, the fastest way for your site to load for these users would be from a virtual cloud hosting service other than physical locations only in specific regions. Your website data will load faster because it’s closer to where your user is located than having to fetch it from the limited physical locations which would be a delay.
The difference between WordPress.org & WordPress.com
It’s important to know the distinction between these two because one is a CMS and the other is a hosting provider. There is a big difference between the two. Yes, they share the exact same name but different domain suffixes which will help you remember what they actually do.
WordPress.org
WordPress.org is a free website content management system that drives more than 30% of all websites globally. WordPress was first founded and released in May 2003 by developers Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced designer, it’s so easy for you to work on WordPress.org.
With the help of over 59,000 plugins, you can have a tailor-made website without knowing HTML, CSS, or Javascript code. You can be a beginner and still have the simple ability to adjust the features of your website’s appearance, functionality, and overall capabilities. Any website can easily be created, edited, and managed using WordPress.org.
WordPress.com
WordPress.com is a WordPress cloud hosting company and page builder that charges for its services. This provider can host a site built on WordPress.org.
It’s important to note that having your entire site, page builder, and hosting company combined together is kind of like putting all your eggs in one basket. The advantage of keeping these separate is when trouble comes, you can sort things out easier but still have access to working on your site content.
