There are countless web hosts available all over the world and the vast majority of which meet the WordPress minimum requirements. However, membership sites require more than WordPress minimums alone, and not all hosts are created equal. When choosing a hosting partner you want to consider a number of features like support, performance, and scalability as these features tend to need flexibility as a site grows. If a host does not offer plans which you can grow into, you can be faced with challenges that can hinder your business with expensive and time-consuming resolutions.

Hosting / Server Minimum Requirements

Quality hosting providers typically have these requirements, but whichever hosting you choose, you need to ensure that the server has the following requirements to run MemberMouse:

These are the very least of requirements, and the more plugins and features you use may require more advanced resources, such as PHP Version 8 and above, higher amounts of memory that extend beyond 750M, and full control over PHP requirements.

General Rules For Your Hosting Environment

1. Cheap hosting is not a good option. The very foundation of your business will run on it and it is essential to allocate an effective budget for it.
   
   
2. Try to avoid 'shared hosting', unless absolutely necessary.  --  If you are on a shared host now, you may be able to upgrade to a VPS level plan easily/cheaply.  Contact your webhost for upgrade options.
   
   
3. Avoid 'managed WordPress' plans.
   
   
4. Avoid 'Windows' hosting/servers. Choose 'Linux' options.
   
   
5. Quality hosting generally costs from $30 to $100 a month on the lower end of the scale when you include backups, staging, CDNs, dedicated IPs, SSLs, caching, and email.
   
   
6. You will need a dedicated IP along with an SSL to secure checkout and your logins.
   
   
7. If your host aggressively caches, make sure you can turn it off or ignore certain URLs on your site.  
    
   
   

Varnish caching and Lightspeed are common methods for server caching and if your host uses them, or any other server-level caching, please be sure to read over this article on the configuration of your server caching to be sure that none of the MemberMouse files, nor pages are being cached.

If you have WP Engine specifically, read this article to learn more about configuring WP Engine for MemberMouse.

When Choosing A Hosting Plan, There Are Generally Four Options:

1. Shared Hosting and Managed WordPress Hosting - These plans should be avoided - This is the lowest tier and the least expensive option intended for simple websites. Shared hosting plans often have hundreds of clients and thousands of websites on one server that must share the system resources. If one site is particularly resource intensive, it affects everyone. Some additional downsides of using shared hosting are:
   
   

   • They tend to have higher chances of bot attacks

   • Email sending is limited and system emails may not go out during high user activity

   • If you overuse your allotted resources, you can get your resources limited which severely slows a site’s functionality
     
     

2. Virtual Private Server (VPS) - This is the minimum recommended plan for MemberMouse - This option is midway between shared hosting and dedicated servers. These servers are still shared but contain far fewer accounts, and instead of pooled resources, each account is allotted a percentage of the CPU and memory exclusively for its use. So regardless of what the other accounts are doing, it won't affect your available resources.
   
   These accounts typically come with terminal access and can require some knowledge of system administration to handle updates and configure system services like PHP. Most importantly, a VPS gives you complete control over your environment and is the most cost-effective way to ensure the system you are using meets all of your needs.
   
   
3. Dedicated - Required for larger membership sites - This is the higher tier option. With this option, you are leasing the entire server. These can be pricey, but necessary once you start accruing large numbers of active members and stretching the limit of what VPS can provide. Aside from the cost of the server itself, there can potentially be costs to manage it and configure it.
   
   
4. Cloud Hosting - Very effective advanced hosting solution with higher costs and management requirements - Cloud hosting is a type of web hosting which uses multiple different servers to balance the load and maximize uptime. Instead of using a single server, your website can tap into a “cluster” that uses resources from a centralized pool. This means that even if one server fails, another kicks in to keep everything running. These servers are typically extremely flexible in size and configuration and can produce very fast websites, but they do require an elevated amount of knowledge to manage.
   
   If the cost for Cloud Hosting and the management of it is in your budget, it is the preferred method for popular websites with heavy usage.

Do I Need To Upgrade My Hosting To Use MemberMouse?

Problems We've Seen With Some Hosting Providers That Prevent MemberMouse From Functioning Properly

Hosting providers that specifically advertise themselves as a "WordPress Hosting Provider" are usually specifically configuring their servers for a basic WordPress site. This can inadvertently cause issues with any unique software that runs on their servers, such as membership or cart software as well as the add-ons commonly used with them.

It is important to be wary of plans that are "managed WordPress" plans because the customer has no control over the core files,  when anything is updated, or the caching mechanisms which may control it. 

MemberMouse does not recommend using a managed WordPress host, nor a plan specifically designed for WordPress. Some hosting plans we have seen issues with that were not able to be resolved are:

•  GoDaddy's and HostGator's shared hosting plans, including GoDaddy's Managed WP. Upgrading to the lower-tiered VPS plans has fixed the problems and was a painless upgrade for our customers. 
  
  
• Pantheon Shared hosting also configures their servers to exclude options that do not allow MemberMouse to function properly.