WooCommerce Hosting

Your hosting choice is more than just where your website ‘lives’. As a Marketing Manager responsible for hitting revenue targets, it’s important to understand that the right eCommerce hosting directly impacts sales. 

Poor site speed, security, and SEO performance all contribute to less than desirable sales figures, and robust eCommerce hosting is the foundation for all of these website performance essentials. 

As one of the world’s most popular eCommerce platforms, WooCommerce is the go-to for most businesses working with WordPress. So, at KIJO (web design agency in London) as part of our KIJO’s Marketing Managers’ Guide to WooCommerce and eCommerce series, we’ve put together this article regarding WooCommerce hosting. 

This guide explains why specialised WooCommerce hosting makes all the difference, and what to look for when choosing the best solution.

What is eCommerce Hosting?

eCommerce hosting is a type of web hosting specifically designed to handle online stores. Unlike basic shared hosting, it’s built to support:

• High traffic volumes and unpredictable spikes (like Black Friday promotions).
  
• Secure transactions and customer data protection.
  
• Fast page loads to keep customers engaged.
  
• Reliable uptime so you don’t lose sales due to crashes or slowdowns.

Good eCommerce hosting combines performance-focused servers, robust security, daily backups and scalable infrastructure. This is so your store stays online and runs fast, even under heavy demand.

Does WooCommerce Provide Hosting?

No, WooCommerce itself does not provide hosting. WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that turns your WordPress site into a fully functional online shop. To use WooCommerce, you’ll need to host your WordPress website with a third-party hosting provider.

That’s why choosing the right hosting partner is crucial. Your server’s performance directly affects checkout speed, order processing and customer experience.

Related Read: KIJO Cloud: Blazing Fast WordPress Hosting

Can You Self Host WooCommerce?

Technically, yes. However, it’s not recommended for serious eCommerce websites.

Self-hosting WooCommerce means managing your own server (like running it on your own physical machine or unmanaged VPS). Whilst this can offer full control, it requires deep technical expertise to handle:

• Security patches
  
• Server configuration
  
• Performance tuning
  
• Backups and failover planning

For most businesses, self-hosting is too risky and time-consuming. Choosing a professionally managed WooCommerce hosting provider (like KIJO Cloud) is far safer, more scalable and frees your team up to focus on sales and marketing (not server maintenance!)

What is the Difference Between WordPress Hosting and WooCommerce Hosting?

WordPress hosting is optimised for running standard WordPress websites, such as blogs or company sites. WordPress hosting focuses on speed, updates, and security for general content.

WooCommerce hosting, however, goes a step further. A WooCommerce hosting package is:

• Specifically tuned for high-volume product catalogues and checkout processes.
  
• Optimised database configurations to handle orders and inventory changes in real time.
  
• Advanced caching rules that won’t break dynamic cart content.
  
• Extra security layers to protect customer data and payment transactions.

In short, WooCommerce hosting is purpose-built for the unique performance and security demands of running an online store.

The Different Types of eCommerce Hosting

Of course, not all hosting is created equal. Here’s how the main options stack up for an eCommerce site:

Shared Hosting

• This is the cheapest option, but your site shares server resources with many others.
  
• Shared hosting often means poor performance during high traffic.
  
• This type of hosting is not recommended for WooCommerce. It’s generally considered too risky for transactions.

VPS Hosting (Virtual Private Server)

• A step up from shared hosting. VPS hosting offers dedicated slices of a server.
  
• VPS offers more control and better performance, but you’ll need technical know-how to manage it properly.
  
• It may still require manual scaling during peaks.

Dedicated Hosting

• Dedicated hosting offers an entire server dedicated to your site alone.
  
• This means guaranteed high performance and control. However, it can be expensive and requires server management skills.
  
• This is best suited for very large stores and businesses with in-house IT teams.

Managed WordPress/WooCommerce Hosting

• Managed WooCommerce hosting is fully optimised and managed for you.
  
• It provides automatic updates, backups, security patches, and performance tuning built in.
  
• It also offers scalable infrastructure to handle spikes. This is ideal for stores with fluctuating traffic.
  
• This is the top pick for most growing WooCommerce shops, and a hosting service we offer here at KIJO. Managed eCommerce hosting lets Marketing Managers and business owners focus on sales, not servers. This is the style of hosting we’d recommend unless you have an experienced IT team who specialise in WordPress and WooCommerce hosting.

Hosting Providers We’d Recommend

• Kinsta
  Kinsta offers high-performance managed WordPress hosting with Google Cloud infrastructure. It’s excellent for scaling WooCommerce.
  
• WP Engine
  WPEngine is another leader in managed WordPress hosting with strong WooCommerce optimisations and great support.
  
• SiteGround
  SiteGround offers reliable WordPress hosting with good performance at an accessible price point.
  
• Cloudways
  Cloudways is a flexible managed cloud hosting solution. Good for stores that want scalability and control without managing servers themselves.

When choosing your eCommerce hosting, look for:

• Proven uptime and speed stats.
  
• Automatic backups.
  
• Free SSL certificates and advanced security.
  
• Staging sites for safe updates.
  
• Excellent support that understands WooCommerce.

Additional Hosting Features to Look For

Choosing the right eCommerce hosting goes beyond speed and uptime; it’s also about having the right operational safeguards and scalability in place. The following features can make the difference between a smooth sales day and a costly outage.

Backups & Disaster Recovery

Of course, even the most stable eCommerce site can run into issues; a failed plugin update, a compromised password, or accidental deletion of key data. That’s where regular automated backups become non-negotiable.

• Look for daily (or even hourly backups for larger eCommerce brands!) to protect against lost orders.
  
• Look for a storage backup of 30 days or more, and ideally an option to copy the backups to an offsite location. This is so you can be certain that they’re safe if your main server fails.
  
• A one-click restore option is vital to get your store running again quickly.

KIJO Pro Tip:  Managed WooCommerce hosting often includes automatic backups. If it doesn’t, set them up manually using a reputable backup plugin.

Staging Environments

A staging site is a clone of your store where you can safely test updates, new features, and seasonal promotions before going live.

• Prevents checkout disruptions from untested updates.
  
• Lets you preview campaign designs before launch.
  
• Enables marketing and dev teams to work without affecting customers.

Choose a host with one-click staging creation and easy syncing back to your live site.

Support Options & SLAs

If your checkout goes down, every minute matters. Your hosting provider’s support speed and expertise are just as important as the technology they offer.

• Opt for 24/7 support with live chat or phone access.
  
• Make sure the team is trained specifically in WooCommerce, not just general WordPress.
  
• Review their Service Level Agreement (SLA) to understand guaranteed response and resolution times.

Automatic Scaling

Traffic spikes should always mean more sales – not server crashes! Automatic scaling ensures your hosting resources grow instantly to handle surges, then scale back down when demand eases.

• Ideal for events like Black Friday, Boxing Day,  flash sales, and viral campaigns.
  
• Prevents slowdowns without manual plan upgrades.

Often included with cloud-based WooCommerce hosting (including KIJO Cloud!)

Load Balancing, CDNs and Optimised Infrastructure

When planning eCommerce hosting, it’s not just about picking a server. It’s about ensuring your entire setup can handle real-world traffic, protect customer experience and keep your store converting when it matters most. 

Learn more in our article regarding eCommerce performance optimisation: Speed Up WooCommerce: Optimise Your WooCommerce Site’s Performance

Our Final Thoughts on WooCommerce x eCommerce Hosting

Choosing the right eCommerce hosting for WooCommerce is one of the smartest investments you can make. With the right setup, you’ll boost site speed, protect customer data and ensure your store stays open and converting, even when your users are all shopping at once!

For expert guidance on WooCommerce hosting, consulting with specialists like us at KIJO (one of London’s leading WooCommerce web design agencies) can ensure your store operates at peak efficiency. This means you can be certain you’re delivering a seamless shopping experience to your customers.