DigitalOcean is an affordable cloud hosting service provider with its prices starting as low as $5 per month for a droplet (server) with 1 core CPU, 20 GB SSD storage, and 512 GB RAM. Unlike other shared hosting service providers, you do not have to worry about the cost of availing the SSD Storage Hosting by DigitalOcean as it offers SSD storage by default and there is no need to pay anything extra. A DigitalOcean droplet functions like a little server that comes with Linux Operating System.
WordPress is one of the most popular content management and blogging platforms in the world. It allows you for creating and managing a website. The creation and using a WordPress-based site provides the users an endless number of plugins as well as attractive themes for additional functionality. This article explains the creating and using a WordPress site with the help of ServerPilot on a DigitalOcean droplet at a price as low as $5 per month.
DigitalOcean offers a private virtual server to the organizations and with just one click of the mouse, the users can install the apps like WordPress. However, there is no control panel provided like that on a shared hosting to manage the emails, databases, and so more. Therefore, there is a need to install a control panel on the DigitalOcean droplet.
Hosting WordPress on a DigitalOcean Droplet
One can do this in the following ways:
- Manual installation and configuration of all the necessary software updates like MySQL, Apache, PHP, and so more
- Installing WordPress automatically while creating a droplet
- Installing a proper control panel for hosting the WordPress sites
What is ServerPilot?
ServerPilot is a specifically designed control panel for the DigitalOcean droplets. It is not open-source, but it is available for free. Some of the main features of ServerPilot for DigitalOcean include:
- It is free
- Integrates seamlessly with DigitalOcean
- Fast, lightweight control panel for the servers
- The essential software for running WordPress that is installed on the DigitalOcean droplet (server)
- Secure and super simple to use
- The users can install important apps like WordPress, make use of FTP, and even manage the MySQL databases with much ease
Setting Up ServerPilot on a DigitalOcean Droplet and Installing WordPress
To start with installing and using WordPress with a $5 droplet in DigitalOcean with the help of ServerPilot, the users would, first of all, need to register and open a proper ServerPilot account. In order to set up a ServerPilot account with DigitalOcean and to install WordPress, the users have to:
- Make a connection of the DigitalOcean droplet to ServerPilot
- Create an app and then, install & use WordPress
Connecting the DigitalOcean Droplet to ServerPilot
In order to achieve the same, the users can follow the following series of simple steps:
Step 1: Simply login to the particular ServerPilot account with the help of the required credentials
Step 2: After this, you can click on the option “Connect Server”.
Step 3: Enter the proper droplet IP address and the root password
Step 4: Select a proper password for the SFTP
Step 5: Now, click on the option that says “Connection to ServerPilot”
Note: ServerPilot only works on 64-bit Ubuntu 14.04 droplets or 64-bit Ubuntu 16.04 droplets.
Once the droplet has been successfully installed & connected to ServerPilot, the users can now see the connected server in the dashboard of the ServerPilot. This implies the successful installation of ServerPilot on the VPS platform.
Installing and Using WordPress
For doing this, the users can follow a series of simple steps as:
Step 1: Create a proper app
Step 2: In the ServerPilot dashboard, navigate to the recently connected server
Step 3: Here, click on the option “Create App”
Step 4: Enter the particular app name along with the domain name
Step 5: Now, click on the checkbox indicating WordPress and then, enter the desired information
Step 6: Choose the particular PHP version
Step 7: Finally, click on the option “Create App”
DigitalOcean offers a great ease of creating, installing, and using WordPress with $5 plan per month droplet with the help of ServerPilot. There stands a huge difference between using shared hosting and the hosting plans & services offered by DigitalOcean. Some of the basic advantages of using DigitalOcean as a reliable web hosting service provider include:
- Cost: Any shared hosting service provider would cost around $10 per month that account to around $120 per year. On the other hand, a typical droplet (the smallest one) by DigitalOcean costs just $5 per month that accounts to $60 per year. This is just half the amount of investment and total costing on your web hosting services.
- Speed: Another major advantage offered by using a DigitalOcean droplet in comparison to the ones offered by other hosting service providers is the top-notch speed. On any typical shared hosting, your website can be loading really fast at a speed of around 1.19 seconds. However, in a recent case study, it was observed that with using DigitalOcean as the hosting service provider, the speed of website loading raced up to around 694 ms. Sometimes, the loading speed can also come down to as much as 300 ms.
- IP Address: Another major advantage offered by DigitalOcean in comparison to the shared hosting is that the IP address of the users is not shared with any other user or websites. This is simply great to ensure the top-notch security of your website operations and activities.
By setting up and using WordPress with the help of DigitalOcean droplet with the help of ServerPilot, the users are highly benefited with multiple features and ease of functioning. With the hosting price as low as $5 per month, you cannot expect to receive a bundle of additional features with any other web hosting service provider. ServerPilot on a typical DigitalOcean droplet can enhance the installation and use of WordPress sites with much ease.