Difficulty of a self-hosted WordPress site?

“Time” and “how difficult” are rather subjective – and it’s really impossible to predict, but, in general, it should not be that time consuming to maintain a site if nothing unexpected crops up. But that’s a big IF, as things do happen. And you will need to do updates – both for WP core and plugins/themes – but that isn’t usually THAT often (every few months?). You’ll certainly be better off if you are using well supported themes and plugins – in terms of updating, etc.

It also depends on who all has access to the site – as I’m sure you know, giving inexperienced people access to post or do whatever may create more problems for you to deal with :)!

I’d also suggest using a Host that actively and specifically supports WP – these are the officially recommended ones – https://www.ads-software.com/hosting/ – there are plenty of other options – but the forum guidelines don’t let us discuss hosting as it attracts too much spam. You can surely find lots of info on that subject on other sites, though.

Also, be aware that commercial products (themes or plugins) are not supported on these forums – so if you go that route, make sure you have good support from the vendor/developer.

Thanks a lot WPyogi. Since posting my message above, I discovered that there are other managed WP hosting companies that appear to be more robust (and support plugins) than WordPress.com. (They’re also a bit more expensive.)

My needs aren’t too complicated. Here’s the short list:

– ability to use any theme I want (from a reputable theme provider)
– ability to use a plugin for better organizing the media library (I really need the ability to create folders and subfolders in the library to keep hundreds of photos organized)
– ability to choose what I consider to be the best photo gallery tool/plugin
– ability to put a membership form on our website (for people to join our organization)
– possibly the ability to accept payments (though this might be better handled through PayPal)

That’s about it. The critical ones are media management-related (choosing a top-notch photo gallery and the ability to create folders/subfolders in the media library).

Right now I’m looking at providers like WPengine.com, Synthesis, and Page.ly…but still not sure if one of those would be better than going with a “manage it yourself” host?

Scott

I’m not familiar with any “managed hosting” so can’t offer an opinion on those – but I’m sure you can find reviews and whatnot on the web…

Do be sure to read all the fine print…as it would be unfortunate to think you’re getting one thing and find out that’s not the real story :).

Like I said, so much depends on you and the organization you’re helping out… I’ve worked with non-profits so I do understand some about that kind of situation. (Good for you for giving your time to the org :)!)

You might not know that DreamHost offers free hosting for non-profits – so that might be cost-effective and they do have great support for WP specifically… You could also post any questions on their forums – https://discussion.dreamhost.com/

Just adding my perspective in terms of time needed to operate a self-hosted site. I currently have five WordPress sites and I spend a max of 1 hour a week maintaining all of them, which I use to do things like keep WP and plugins updated, clear spam, and perform local backups.

Currently, most of my time is spent corresponding with partners and customers. However when I first kickoff a site, I spent 2-4 hours a day creating content, building relationships, and executing promotion activities.

In other words, once you get up and running, there is minimal technical maintenance involved but you may be working on many other activities. This, of course, would occur regardless of what tool you choose.

Thanks WPyogi and Gabe for the good thoughts.

At this point, I’m leaning towards canceling our WordPress.com account and going with one of the following:
WPEngine
Page.ly
Synthesis
LightningBase
(Hope it’s ok to post those names!)

Of course at the moment I’m basing my decision only on the websites for these companies…but they all appear to offer greater flexibility (e.g. use of plugins) and better security/backup features (plus things like CDN) than WordPress.com.

And these companies still give me the psychological advantage of not having to worry about WP upgrades, caching plugins, regular database backups, etc.

I do believe (and what you said Gabe backs this up) that I could handle a self-managed site…but I admit it—I’m so busy that I’m looking for every bit of assistance I can get! Which is why the managed WordPress hosting providers above seem comforting. ??

Obviously it depends on what your time means to you. I have no idea how much those folks charge but things like updating WP/plugins might only take you a few minutes each month.

Also, if you’re not performing local backups, then what they’re offering is possibly the same thing your host provider does for you, which could be something like last 30 days for all your files.