WordPress powers over 40% of websites worldwide and is especially well-suited for nonprofits. Itโs flexible, budget-friendly, and allows you to switch hosts whenever you need. Choosing the right WordPress hosting is one of the most important decisions a nonprofit can make when building or redesigning a website. With limited time, budgets, and internal tech support, your hosting provider plays a key role in ensuring your site is fast, reliable, secure, and easy to manage.
In this guide, weโll walk you through what WordPress hosting is, which features to look for, and how to choose the best option for your nonprofitโs needs and goals.
Want to learn more about why we love building websites with WordPress? Check out our dedicated blog post on the benefits of WordPress for mission-driven organisations.
1. What Is WordPress Website Hosting?
WordPress hosting is a type of web hosting service optimised for websites built with WordPress. Unlike generic hosting, it offers features like one-click installations, automatic updates, security tools, and performance tweaks tailored to WordPress sites. Plus, it’s a very affordable web hosting option.
For nonprofits, good hosting ensures that your site loads quickly, stays online, and keeps your data safe. This builds trust with donors, makes your calls to action more effective, and ensures a seamless experience for visitors โ all without requiring a full-time developer.
2. Key WordPress Hosting Features
Security & Backups
What it means: Keeping your website secure is essential especially when handling sensitive information about visitors and donors. Many website hosting providers offer daily backups and built-in malware scanning that checks your site for threats and protects it from viruses or hackers โ all behind the scenes.
Why it matters: If anything ever goes wrong โ like an update breaks your site or it gets hacked โ you can easily restore it to a previous version. You get peace of mind without needing to worry about the technical side of security.
Sustainable Website Hosting
What it means: Your website is hosted using energy from renewable sources, like wind or solar, and stored in data centres that meet ethical and sustainable standards.
Why it matters: You’re reducing your environmental impact while supporting greener technology โ great for environmentally conscious organisations.
Fast Website Server
What it means: Your website server should keep up with your number of visitors. Fast web servers like LiteSpeed offer modern, high-performance delivery that makes your website load quickly and stay reliable โ even when traffic spikes.
Why it matters: Fast websites keep visitors engaged and are more likely to rank well in Google. It also improves the user experience for donors and supporters.
Scalability
What it means: Your website should grow with you. With features such as unlimited MySQL databases and mailboxes you can create as many website databases and email addresses as you need without extra charges.
Why it matters: Your site can scale freely โ whether youโre adding new sections, setting up staff email accounts, or building a campaign microsite.
Managed WordPress Hosting
What it means: Your WordPress hosting provider takes care of the technical stuff like server setup, software updates, and performance tweaks so you donโt have to.
Why it matters: Managed WordPress hosting means you get a smooth, secure website without needing a developer in house.
Generous Performance & Uptime
What it means: With generous RAM and bandwidth capabilities, your site gets its own memory and enough data bandwidth to handle regular visitors and traffic surges during uptime periods.
Why it matters: This helps your site run smoothly, even during busy periods like fundraising campaigns or event registrations.
Content Delivery Network Integration
What it means: Content delivery networks (CDN), like Cloudflare, stores copies of your site in multiple locations around the world.
Why it matters: Your website loads faster for people visiting from different countries and is protected from attacks and downtime.
And the best part is that when you choose to host your WordPress website with us, all these features are included in all our website hosting packages!
3. Types of WordPress Hosting Explained
Thereโs a whole range of different WordPress hosting providers, each with their own benefits that make them ideal for different organisations and varying website management needs.
Here is a breakdown of some of the most common WordPress website hosting types:
| Hosting Type | Benefits | Best for |
| Shared Hosting | Affordable, easy setup | Small organisations or startups |
| Managed WordPress Hosting | Hands-off support | Growing nonprofits with limited tech support |
| VPS Hosting | More control but requires tech knowledge | Tech-savvy teams |
| Cloud Hosting | Scalable and secure, more advanced | Larger organisations or high-traffic sites |
Shared hosting
Multiple sites share the same server. It’s affordable but may result in slower performance if another site on the server sees a spike in traffic. Itโs a cost-effective option for individuals and small organisations starting out online.
Managed WordPress hosting
Optimised specifically for WordPress, with automatic updates, backups, and security handled for you. Ideal for growing nonprofits who want peace of mind and would prefer to focus on scaling their mission and impact.
VPS hosting
Provides a slice of a server with more control over configurations. Requires technical expertise but offers excellent flexibility. It offers more resources and control than shared hosting, but at a lower cost than a dedicated server.
Cloud hosting
Spreads your site across multiple servers. Itโs scalable, secure, and ideal for large organisations or websites with fluctuating traffic. This approach offers greater scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness compared to traditional hosting.
4. Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Host
These questions will help you narrow down the best hosting plan for your needs:
- Whatโs your monthly or annual budget?
- How comfortable is your team with managing website hosting?
- Do you also need email accounts, or just a place to host your site?
- How much traffic do you expect?
- Will you be accepting donations or processing payments online?
5. Common Mistakes to Avoid
Choosing based on price alone
When budgets are tight, it can be tempting to opt for the cheapest website hosting option. But choosing your website host provider based on price alone means you risk not getting the support you need.
Ignoring performance
Slow sites turn donors away. If you choose a website host that doesnโt have adequate performance resources you directly affect the speed and impact of your site.
Skipping security and backups
Strong security and frequent backups are essential for keeping your site up and running, and avoiding big headaches down the line if and when something goes wrong.
6. Reliable & Secure WordPress Hosting
The right hosting can empower your nonprofit to focus on what really matters: your mission. Take the time to evaluate your needs, explore your options, and choose a website hosting provider that helps you grow with confidence.
At Circular Design, our WordPress hosting plans are fast, secure, privacy-conscious โ and sustainable. We offset your trafficโs carbon footprint (twice!) through certified Fairtrade projects. By partnering with ethical data centres, we offer fully managed and green WordPress hosting so you can launch, grow, and maintain your nonprofit website with confidence.
Ready to upgrade your hosting? Get in touch with us to learn more about our nonprofit-friendly WordPress hosting packages.
