Hosting Requirements for a WordPress e-commerce site?

I can't seem to find out what level of hosting I'll require for a WordPress e-commerce website. (yes, I realise this will vary based upon a heap of factors but I'm looking for some ballpark ranges for each factor)

I'm thinking about such plugins as WP e-Commerce, Shopp, etc... for instance all those mentioned in http://mashable.com/2011/06/16/wordpress-ecommerce-plugins/ ! (tips with direction there would be nice... but perhaps I just need to research more first, or maybe later create an entirely new question for that instead!)

This isn't a massive store I'm talking about, I'm referring to the e-Commerce twin of your typical business brouchure site (the sort of thing which would easily be fine on your standard decent shared hosting provider if it was non-e-commerce). So just a handful of products, few dozen at the very most.

So, should I go for a good shared host still (I've been using Hostgator for websites in the past) or go for a VPS? (and if VPS, what level of VPS?!) I'm quite sure a dedicated server is way over the top for what we need (plus I don't expect my client's budget would stretch that far, they're a non-profit).

I'm just trying to get a handle on the starting point, for instance even when I look around with Zen Cart, Magneto, etc (which can be "integrated" with WordPress and would be the next step up) they don't seem to be clear with what is the minimum starting level for a small low traffic site. Although I'm sure it would be at least a VPS, and shared hosting is out of the question entirely!

Thanks in advance! :-)

Topic shared-hosting vps e-commerce hosting-recommendation plugin-recommendation Wordpress

Category Web

1
answered at

I would say for a small store stick with the basics, PHP 5.2.4+ and MySQL 5+ some individual plugins may require higher versions of PHP or MySQL. I don't think you would necessarily need a VPS depending on traffic. My general rule start small, if you grow, great, most host (and all good host) make it easy to upgrade your plan.

One thing I will say is if you are processing credit cards you'll need a SSL certificate and a dedicated IP address. This sometimes can be trickier on a shared host but not impossible.

EDIT: Regarding hardware, I would say it agian depends on the site and how many views you are getting. My advice is to start small and then upgrade if needed. I have had some clients want to go big at first, such as a VPS then if they don't get th traffic they expected switch host.

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