WordPress is hands-down the most common application installed on most hosting accounts, especially shared hosting. Many major hosts have partnered with Automattic to highlight their WordPress-friendliness and many others have nice logos and graphics on their sites to indicate that they are WordPress-ready.

But what do you really need out of a host to run WordPress? The answer is, in truth, not a lot.

WordPress really doesn’t have a lot of requirements to run. In fact, you’ll be much harder pressed to find a host that doesn’t support WordPress than one who does.

However, just to be clear on the issue we’re going to take a look at the requirements of WordPress, some things you definitely want to have and other nice features to make the WordPress experience go a bit smoother.

Most likely you’ll find that virtually any host supports WordPress and the few who don’t are extreme outliers. Still, there are a few hosts you should shy away from when setting up a WP blog and at least a few reasons to watch out.

Official WordPress Requirements

According to WordPress.org, there are only three actual requirements for running WordPress and they are:

1. PHP 4.3 or Greater
2. MySQL 4.1.2 or Greater
3. Mod_rewrite Apache Module

Of those three, only two are actual requirements. Mod_rewrite is used for the Permalinks feature in WordPress, which is used by nearly all blogs, but is not a complete requirement. You can run WordPress without it but won’t be able to edit the permalinks and will be stuck with the “ugly” default URLs (?=xxxxx).

The two actual requirements are nothing special at all. As of this writing in mid-August 2010, PHP is in version 5.3.3 and MySQL is in 5.1.49.

In short, you need both MySQL and PHP but for both WordPress requires a version that is over one major release old. In fact, PHP 4.3 was actually released in late 2002 and MySQL 4.1.2 was released in May of 2004. In short, if your host has updated their PHP and MySQL within the last 6 years, they should be more than fine.

This means that, in practical terms, the only real requirement of your host is to have PHP and MySQL installed with Mod_rewrite to ensure that permalinks work. However, this only ensures that WordPress will work; you’ll need other features to make sure you have a smooth experience.

Host Features That Make WordPress Better

In addition to the official requirements, there are a few things I would say you definitely want to have on your server before installing WordPress, lest you begin pulling out your own hair.

1. Linux: WordPress will definitely run on Windows and Automattic has instructions on how to install it, but the process of installing and maintaining WordPress just goes much smoother on a Linux server for many reasons. For WordPress, which is PHP-based, Linux is just a better choice.
2. Apache: Of the stable, supported Web servers, Apache is the best for WordPress. Though WordPress can work on LiteSpeed and even run faster, the process is more complicated and less straightforward and there is no official guide for it.
3. FTP Access: If you want to install plugins and themes not in official directories, you will need FTP access. Increasingly hosts are not offering this and WordPress can install many themes/plugins directly but, for maximum flexibility you will want FTP access,
4. Control Panel: Whether it is CPanel, Plesk or a different panel altogether, a good control panel will help make your WordPress life a lot easier, especially when it comes to creating and maintaining WordPress databases. Though not necessary, it makes the process much easier in the long run.
5. Lots of Storage and Bandwidth: WordPress by itself is only a few MB in size but, if you want to actually use it to host your blog, you’re going to need some space for all of those images, audio files, etc. that you host. Make sure you have enough room to grow into with your host, lest you run out of space.

However, virtually all of these things are the most common configuration for a basic hosting server. Linux and Apache is far and away the most popular setup for a basic hosting account and nearly all provide FTP access. Control panels are slightly more rare and some hosts use very limited proprietary ones though most offer a more robust solution. The only real issue is storage space and bandwidth but that should not be a problem at all as even a very large blog only requires a few GB of space, far less than what most hosts offer.

In short, you will probably be more than fine at just about any host you can find. The real challenge, once again, is to find a host that doesn’t meet all of these needs and, currently, I can not name one off the top of my head.

Special WordPress Features Requirements

Given that nearly all of the requirements of WordPress, both official and practical, are fairly standard, what are some things that a hosting customer considering WordPress should actually watch out for. Well, here are a few:

1. CPU Cycles: WordPress is PHP-based and, by default, dynamic. This means it can be very CPU intensive and hosts that limit or charge for CPU cycles may be costly for WordPress users. Granted, with cloud hosting becoming more the norm, this is fairly standard. But it is something to be aware of.
2. Security Issues: Automattic recommends making sure your host has SuPHP installed for security reasons and it is probably a good idea. However, you may also want to ensure you can password protect directories, like your wp-admin folder, just for added layers of security. Read the WordPress hardening guide for more information.
3. Any Features You Want: Finally, if you want any special features such as SSL or the ability to prevent hotlinking, make sure your host has those features set up as well. Though these features aren’t associated with WordPress directly, they are often associated with plugins that are commonly used with it, making them worth asking about.

All in all though, unless you have a very specific usage case in mind for your WordPress installation, you probably don’t have too many special features to be worried about. You should be able to get by with whatever your host offers by default.

Bottom Line

WordPress doesn’t require a powerhouse of a server to run nor does it require the most modern setup to operate. Most hosts have well beyond the minimum requirements and have a good deal of experience running WordPress installations. In short, you should be fine just about anywhere you go.

The main thing to focus on is any special features you want or need for your site that go beyond the requirements for a vanilla WordPress installation and make sure that you can do it with your host.

The best way to do that is to simply ask. Contact the host’s sales team, explain what you want to do and have them tell you if it is possible, it is exactly what they are there for.

Still, you shouldn’t have too many problems finding a good host for a WordPress blog, it will be much harder to decide which one to settle with.

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