WordPress powers over 43% of all websites on the Internet, and with good reason. It’s flexible, affordable, open-source, and highly customizable, making it the go-to content management system (CMS) for everyone from first-time bloggers to enterprise e-commerce brands. But to get the most out of WordPress, you need the right foundation, and that’s where WordPress hosting comes in.

Before you choose a WordPress hosting plan, it’s worth understanding the basics of web hosting and why WordPress hosting is different.

What is web hosting?

Web hosting is the service that stores your website’s files and makes them accessible online. When someone types in your domain name, the hosting server sends your website to their browser. Without hosting, a domain is like an address without a house.

Basic hosting plans give you features like storage space, bandwidth, security, and technical support. But they usually run on general-purpose servers, which means you have to set up, configure, and manage both the server environment as well as your website.. With basic hosting, it’s a bit like being handed an empty lot—you need to pour the foundation before you can even start building your house. With managed web hosting, that foundation and the essential utilities are already in place, so you can focus on building and enjoying the house itself.

For beginners, this difference can be huge, since managing everything alone can be both complex and time-consuming. That is why managed hosting exists, giving you the choice to handle these tasks yourself or have a provider take care of them for you.

What sets WordPress hosting apart

At its core, WordPress hosting is web hosting specifically optimized for WordPress websites. It’s tailored to the platform’s unique needs, delivering speed, security, and simplified management for the websites it powers.

It’s like having a toolbox made just for WordPress—everything you need is already included and ready to go. And while most WordPress hosting delivers a solid foundation, many providers offer managed WordPress hosting, which takes things to the next level by automating essential tasks like updates, backups, security checks, and performance enhancements. With this service, you don’t have to worry about adjusting server settings or fixing technical issues yourself. It’s perfect for users who want professional results without handling the site’s technical upkeep.

Key benefits of WordPress hosting

Included in most WordPress hosting plans:

These features are standard across most WordPress hosting plans, whether you’re using a basic shared host or a premium managed provider.

  • Easy setup: One-click installs and user-friendly dashboards come standard, so you can launch a WordPress site without touching code, databases or FTP (File Transfer Protocol).
  • Performance-optimized: Most WordPress hosts configure servers for faster load times and include built-in caching. Managed plans often go further with advanced caching layers and CDN (Content Delivery Network) integration, but you’ll see speed benefits with either.
  • Scalable features: Most WordPress hosting gives you access to the official WordPress Plugin Directory, with over 59,000 plugins, from e-commerce tools to booking systems and social media integrations, so your site can grow with your needs. However, some managed hosts may restrict certain plugins that duplicate built-in features or pose security or performance risks.
  • SEO-ready: WordPress’s clean architecture and SEO plugins like Yoast or All-in-One SEO help you build search-friendly sites regardless of hosting tier.
  • Vibrant community: Hosting aside, the WordPress ecosystem includes global support through forums, tutorials, agencies, freelancers, and plugin developers.

Enhance features of managed WordPress hosting

These features may exist at a basic level in unmanaged WordPress hosting, but they’re core benefits of managed WordPress hosting, where they’re more robust, automated, or handled for you.

  • Security-first: While some unmanaged WordPress hosts offer basic protections, managed WordPress hosting typically includes more comprehensive, built-in protections tailored for WordPress, such as malware scanning, vulnerability monitoring, automatic threat detection, and advanced firewall rules to block brute-force attacks.
  • Automatic updates: While WordPress now allows you to enable automatic updates for core, plugins, and themes, managed WordPress hosting providers can give you greater peace of mind. They typically test updates in a staging environment before rolling them out, monitor for issues in real time, and offer automatic rollback if something breaks. They also tend to apply security patches proactively and provide expert support if an update causes a problem. On shared hosting plans, you take on the risk of managing and troubleshooting updates. 
  • Expert support: General hosts offer broad tech support, but managed WordPress providers specialize in WordPress-specific help. That means faster, more relevant answers when something goes wrong.

Offering WordPress hosting is a smart way to deliver more value, build recurring revenue, and strengthen customer loyalty. If you’re an MSP, hosting provider, or agency, it can be a great addition to your service offering. As the world’s most popular CMS, WordPress gives your clients the freedom to update content on their own without relying on you for every small change. At the same time, it gives you the opportunity to offer ongoing support, maintenance, and optimization as part of a recurring service.

The way your hosting is managed can vary significantly depending on the setup, so let’s break down the main approaches.

How is hosting managed?

Earlier, we gave a quick definition of managed web hosting and then took a deep look at managed WordPress hosting. These two terms can be easily confused, but they refer to different levels of management: the infrastructure your site runs on, and the WordPress application itself.

Managed vs. unmanaged: two layers, two decisions

  • Managed web hosting: The infrastructure hosting provider maintains the server, updating the operating system, applying security patches, and monitoring performance.
  • Unmanaged web hosting: You are responsible for installing, configuring, and maintaining the server’s operating system, applying patches, monitoring performance, and troubleshooting (requiring technical expertise). In some cases, such as when a client has in-house IT staff or chooses to manage certain tasks themselves, they may take on these responsibilities instead.
  • Managed WordPress hosting: The WordPress hosting provider manages site-level tasks such as WordPress core updates, plugin and theme maintenance, backups, and performance optimization, reducing your hands-on workload.
  • Unmanaged WordPress hosting: You handle all WordPress-related updates, security hardening, backups, and performance tweaks manually—often using third-party tools or custom setups. Some clients may manage this themselves if they have the technical expertise or prefer a DIY approach.

These management layers are separate. You could be on a managed server—where your infrastructure host handles the operating system, security patches, and performance monitoring—but still have unmanaged WordPress hosting, where you’re responsible for updating, securing, and backing up the WordPress site itself.

Hosting infrastructure models and what they mean for WordPress

Choosing the right hosting infrastructure is key to delivering reliable performance, scaling with client needs, and matching your services to a wide range of use cases. The models below aren’t unique to WordPress—they’re used to host all kinds of websites—but they form the foundation for any WordPress hosting plan. The type of infrastructure you choose will directly influence your site’s scalability, performance, and day-to-day management needs.

Let’s look at the main types of infrastructure WordPress can run on and how each one affects performance and scalability:

Shared hosting

Shared hosting is the entry point for many site owners—and for good reason. It’s budget-friendly, quick to set up, and well-suited to low-traffic sites like personal portfolios, small business pages, or brochure-style websites. With this model, multiple sites share the same server resources, which keeps costs low but can lead to slower performance during traffic spikes on either your own or neighboring sites.

At the infrastructure level, shared hosting is almost always managed, meaning your provider handles server upkeep for everyone on that machine. However, if you’re looking for managed WordPress hosting, shared hosting isn’t typically the best choice—it rarely includes full application-level care like plugin/theme updates, backups, and performance tuning, and resource limits can make advanced optimization difficult.

VPS (Virtual Private Server)

A VPS is a step up from shared hosting, offering more control, customization, and consistent performance. It works by partitioning a physical server into multiple virtual servers, each with its own dedicated resources. This separation means other tenants have far less impact on your site’s performance.

VPS hosting can be managed or unmanaged at an infrastructure level, giving you the choice between leaving server maintenance to your provider or handling it yourself. Many WordPress users move to a VPS when they outgrow the limitations of shared hosting but don’t yet need an entire physical server.

Dedicated hosting

With dedicated hosting, you lease an entire physical server for your exclusive use. This delivers maximum performance, resource isolation, and full control over the hosting environment. It’s ideal for high-traffic sites, resource-intensive applications, or businesses with strict security requirements.

Infrastructure management is optional. Typically, you’d choose an unmanaged plan if you have in-house expertise to configure and maintain both the server and your WordPress installation, or opt for managed infrastructure to offload server-level tasks to your provider.

Cloud hosting

Cloud hosting is a newer model and is widely seen as the future of web hosting. It uses a network of interconnected servers, often spread across different locations, rather than relying on a single physical server. This allows resources like storage, processing power, and bandwidth to be drawn from multiple sources as needed, resulting in exceptional scalability, uptime, and redundancy.

Because of these advantages, cloud hosting has become an increasingly popular choice for businesses of all sizes. Its ability to adapt instantly to sudden traffic surges makes it especially appealing for fast-growing WordPress sites or those with unpredictable traffic patterns.

Like VPS and dedicated hosting, cloud infrastructure can be managed or unmanaged depending on how much control you want over configuration and maintenance. Many managed WordPress providers build their services on top of large-scale cloud environments, combining distributed infrastructure performance with their expert WordPress management and support, allowing you to focus on your site without configuring the underlying infrastructure yourself.

Choosing the right WordPress hosting setup

Choosing WordPress hosting isn’t just about picking a plan—it’s about matching the right infrastructure with the right level of WordPress management for your needs. When both layers are handled well, you can focus on running and growing your site without getting slowed down by technical upkeep.

By understanding the capabilities of each infrastructure model and how management responsibilities are split, you’re better equipped to choose a hosting setup that delivers the right balance of performance, flexibility, and ease of use—whether you’re running WordPress or another platform.

Why offering WordPress hosting matters for you and your clients

While some providers prefer no-code builders or proprietary platforms, WordPress hosting remains a powerful, strategic offering for those who want flexibility, control, and long-term client ownership. If you’re an agency or freelancer, WordPress is often a must for clients that require robust websites with unique functionality at an affordable price. For hosting providers and MSPs, adding WordPress hosting to your lineup helps position you as a complete solution for the countless businesses worldwide that rely on the platform to run their websites.

The bottom line? With this CMS powering more than 40% of the websites online today, it makes sense to leverage or offer hosting specifically optimized for WordPress.

With OpenSRS, WordPress hosting integrates seamlessly into your business model. You can provision new hosting packages in a few clicks and skip the pricey, third-party control panels that have long been the industry standard. Our platform is built on AWS serverless cloud infrastructure, combining scalability and reliability with the simplicity of a fully managed WordPress solution. Plus, your OpenSRS account gets you access to our entire offering, meaning you can manage hosting alongside domains, email, and TLS/SSL certificates, all from a single platform to streamline your operations.

Final thoughts

For many service providers, offering WordPress hosting is a strategic move that strengthens client relationships and expands your value as a provider. It can transform one-off projects into long-term partnerships and help position you as a reliable, full-service solution for your clients’ web needs. With OpenSRS Cloud Hosting, you gain access to a powerful, serverless cloud-based hosting platform that’s built specifically for WordPress sites—offering flexibility, speed, and scale without the overhead of traditional server management.

Whether you’re a developer building custom integrations or a digital agency growing your service offerings, OpenSRS Cloud Hosting gives you the infrastructure to support your clients confidently and efficiently. Powered by AWS and designed for resellers and service providers, our platform allows you to deploy and manage WordPress sites quickly—no third-party control panels or manual configuration required.

With OpenSRS Cloud Hosting, you get optimized WordPress performance, built-in security, and seamless scalability, all with hands-off simplicity.