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 meet these requirements, but whichever hosting you choose, you need to ensure that your server provides the following to run MemberMouse:
- WordPress 5.0 or above
- PHP 7.4 is required. Not currently compatible with PHP 8
- MySQL 5.6 or 5.7 OR MariaDB 10.1 and greater. Not currently compatible with MySQL 8
- Nginx OR Apache with mod_rewrite module
- HTTPS support
- PHP shortcodes must be enabled
- cURL must be enabled
- cURL, JSON, and Multibyte String PHP extensions installed
- Support for TLS 1.2 encryption protocol
- Support for the SHA-256 encryption algorithm and the hash_hmac function
- PHP memory limit of 256MB
- Firewall exceptions for our licensing and billing servers
- If the server has a caching mechanism, you need the ability to control caching to omit pages and functions
- Write permissions to the WordPress plugins folder (/wp-content/plugins/)
- Script execution permissions in the WordPress plugins folder
These are the minimum requirements to run MemberMouse in isolation. Utilizing MemberMouse together with third-party plugins and/or highly customized themes may necessitate raising the PHP memory limit, or meeting other specific requirements.
General Rules For Your Hosting Environment
- 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.
- 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.
- Avoid 'managed WordPress' plans.
- Avoid 'Windows' hosting/servers. Choose 'Linux' options.
- 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.
- You will need a dedicated IP along with an SSL to secure checkout and your logins.
- 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:
- 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
- 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. - 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.
- 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?
You can run a small membership site on shared hosting, but you will run into obstructions that can seriously hinder your business and it is not advisable to run a membership site on shared hosting. Running a membership site requires more processing power and memory than running a traditional website. The key with hosting is to always have more resources than needed to handle spikes in usage.
API calls to payment vendors, email integrations, pages pulling in member information, administration activity, and more, all run heavily behind the scenes as a visitor uses your site, and if multiple visitors are performing actions at one time, they will most surely see a change in performance if hosting is not more than adequate.
Shared hosting can be problematic if it has aggressive caching. You can not cache a membership site like a typical website and the caching, if not adjustable, will not work with a membership site.
Additional considerations are that you will need automated server backups, and the ability to send high numbers of system emails. Server backups are essential for disaster recovery and you cannot rely on backup plugins as they do not back up all the tables and files within a membership site. And with system emails, many shared hosts will limit the number of emails you can send and this is something that needs to be considered before your site becomes live.
You may want to develop on a shared server, but consider getting something like a VPS before going live. Upgrading to a different server after being live for some time is stressful, and potentially problematic.
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.
Top Recommendations
The below recommendations are based on what we've seen work best for our customers over the past decade.
If you don't see a host you're considering on this list, it doesn't mean that it can't work for your project. We'd encourage you to take everything you've learned here so far and investigate that hosting provider yourself. Most hosting companies have good support and sales teams. You can go to them with any questions you have about the requirements for your specific project.
Also, if you already are running a site with a hosting provider and after reading this, you're thinking about migrating servers make sure to read this article before you do so: Migrating MemberMouse to a New Server
- KINSTA - The first hosting provider we’ll recommend to you is Kinsta. We recommend them for a few different reasons. One, because they provide fast, secure, and reliable hosting. Two, they understand the unique hosting requirements membership sites need. And three, many of our most successful customers use them without running into serious issues.
You may be wondering what type of hosting Kinsta provides. Are they shared, VPS, dedicated, or cloud? Like we mentioned earlier in this post, not all hosts fall neatly into these categories. To make things simple, we’ll call Kinsta a “hybrid cloud container” host.
Here's how Kinsta support explained it : "Each of our plans, from Starter through Enterprise (and Custom) use the same infrastructure which is built on Google Cloud and is very different from traditional shared, VPS, or dedicated infrastructure.
Every site on our platform runs in an isolated software container that contains all of the software resources required to run the site (Linux, NGINX, PHP, MySQL). This means that the software that runs each site is 100% private and is not shared even between your own sites. Each site container runs on a generously sized virtual machine in one of multiple Google Cloud data centers and secured behind the GCP firewall. Hardware resources (RAM/CPU) are allocated to each site container automatically by our virtual machines on an as-needed basis (a neat feature we refer to as auto-scaling).
The result is a hosting configuration that is secure and private by design while simultaneously allowing server resources to scale up or down as needed based on the demands of the site. This also means that as you grow and upgrade, the plan change is painless – only taking a few minutes, and does not require any migration or DNS changes.”
On top of that, Kinsta is known for their top-tier support. If you’re wondering whether Kinsta will be a good fit for your membership site, we’d recommend reaching out to their support team. They often have live chat available on their site. You can talk with them about your plans for your site and determine which package will work best for you. Although they don’t offer a free trial, they do have a 30-day money back guarantee.
Key Features:
Powered by Google Cloud platform
26 global data center locations for you to choose from
24/7 support
Pricing:
Plans start at $30 per monthPlans for bigger membership sites start at $100 per month
LIQUID WEB - Next up in our tour of recommended web hosts for membership sites is Liquid Web. One of the first things you’ll notice about Liquid Web is that they own and manage their core data centers. Many web hosts build their packages on top of other hosting services like Google Cloud and AWS.
Liquid Web is also highly regarded for the way they support their customers. What makes them a good option for membership sites owners is that they offer just about every type of hosting you could need for your project. You could start with their affordable VPS hosting and scale up to a dedicated server as your business grows – without having to switch hosting providers.
Like most hosts, Liquid Web does not offer a free trial. But they do have live chat on their website and their support team is very responsive. If you’re considering them, we’d recommend reaching out to the directly to discuss the specific needs of your project. They do offer a 30-day money back guarantee as well.
Key Features:
Privately owns data centers with 25,000+ servers across 3 locations (US & EU)Root Access
24/7 support
Pricing:
VPS starts at: $59 per monthDedicated server starts at: $199 per month
Cloud hosting starts at: $265 per month
SITEGROUND - Remember how we previously mentioned you should generally avoid shared hosting plans when building a membership site? While this is true, we know that if you’re just starting out, you might not have the budget for VPS or dedicated hosting. If out of necessity you need to go with a shared hosting plan to get your business up and running, we’d recommend SiteGround. Specifically, their GoGeek plan.
SiteGround has one of the best reputations in the hosting world and is really the perfect solution for early-stage sites. Their GoGeek plan is very affordable, while also providing you with enough resources to get the job done. You could use this hosting plan for as long as you need to grow your business. Then, if your membership site outgrows that hosting package, you can look into their cloud options or migrate to a different host.
One thing to note about SiteGround is that they do require you to pay for a year in advance in order to lock in their discounted pricing. A year of their GoGeek plan will costs you ~$180. This is incredible affordable considering a dedicated server can run you at least $180 per month. SiteGround also has a good support team. You can contact them to see if their hosting packages will meet the needs of your project.
Key Features:
Known for reliability and good reputation
Affordable
Use for unlimited websites
Price:
GoGeek Plan (minimum recommendation for membership sites) starts at $14.99 per month.
DREAMHOST - Another web host for you to consider in your search for the best solution for your site is DreamHost. They offer very affordable VPS and dedicated hosting packages. Combined with good support, flexible features, and many different hosting packages, they could be a good fit for your membership site.
Key Features:
24/7 Support
Unlimited Website hosting
US Based VPS
Price:
VPS Business starts at $30 per month
Dedicated server starts at $169 per month
A2 HOSTING - Last – but certainly not least – on our list of recommended web hosts is A2 Hosting. A2 is a privately owned and operated host that is extremely affordable and reliable. They are committed to supporting their users and have succeeded in maintaining independence despite some of the questionable things happening in the hosting industry. They offer shared and VPS hosting packages. If you’re on an extremely tight budget, we’d recommend researching A2 Hosting.
Key Features:
Privately owned & operated web host
Budget friendly
VPS hosting available
Price:
Turbo Max plan starts at $22.09 per month
VPS hosting starts at $49.99 per month