7 Best LearnDash Hosting Options [IN 2022]

Best LearnDash Hosting Options

The truth is that there are a lot of hosting options that work well with LearnDash. If you currently have a WordPress website, you already have a host, and the chances are that will work just fine with LearnDash. However, certain requirements, demands, and optimizations must be met, especially when you’re selling courses that your hosting service most likely doesn’t provide.

That being said, it’s important to know why LMS hosting is different and the benefits it brings compared to typical hosting plans.

Why Hosting LMS Websites Is Different

LMS or learning management system is a tool to optimize digital learning. If you offer courses or educational content online, an LMS website is often the way to go due to the many benefits and optimizations it brings to online learning platforms.

Unreachable Content And Caching

Slow site loading times are typically due to a website’s inability to download content from the website fast enough. As a result, this increases loading times, and, according to Google, 53% of visitors will leave your site if it doesn’t load within 3 seconds. This makes page loading times extremely crucial to reducing bounce rates on your site. To fix this, we use content caching which is a way to increase page load times. As a result, it improves user experience and user retention.

This is done by locally storing assets such as (colors, images, fonts, JavaScript, etc.) in the user’s device. With WordPress caching plugins, this can be done very easily and is a great way to optimize page loading times rapidly. In a simple WordPress blog or portfolio, assets can be easily cached because each user sees the same thing, making for a quick site loading time.

However, most content cannot be cached with online learning platforms because every user has different course materials, course progress, recommendations, etc. This creates higher stress on website owners because choosing a high-quality hosting service is vital to your website’s performance.

Concurrent Users

Concurrent users refer to how many users are on your website at the same time. For simple WordPress websites, this is no problem since most content are cached, and all users see the same content. However, everything becomes much more complicated to cache with learning platforms because everything is personalized to the slightest detail. Personalization can include background, color, recommendations, advertisements, promotions, pop-ups, buttons, etc. This creates a heavier load for your website to handle all these concurrent users all at once while creating personalized pages for them.

You need to choose wisely and research which hosting service fits your website’s needs to fix this. This is because if the hosting option you have chosen cannot handle concurrent users, you will end up losing out on sales, customers, and opportunities.

There are a few things that can affect your platform’s concurrent usage, such as:

  • Course forums – creates live feeds and personalized media for each student.
  • Limited time courses – limited content causes a higher likelihood for students to access the limited courses simultaneously.
  • Drip content – which causes students to access dripped content simultaneously.

These are some things to think about when designing your website since these can dramatically affect your concurrent user count.

API for BuddyBoss App

Another great advantage of using LearnDash as your LMS is that you get access to integrations. One of them is BuddyBoss, an open-source WordPress application that helps LearnDash websites create flexibility, stability, control, and freedom to set up your learning environment. BuddyBoss allows you to sell memberships, develop courses, and easily foster an engaging community that’s determined to learn. This helps website owners create and optimize their learning platforms to their fullest potential. It is one of the best applications to integrate with LearnDash due to its unlimited capabilities.

Hosting Options

1. Cloudways

Cloudways

Cloudways is one of the best options for mid-tier websites that receive moderate traffic and concurrent users. However, Cloudways’ dashboard is a little more technical compared to the others listed. This creates a bridge between newbies and tech wizzes where both can work in harmony.

Cloudways is a great hosting option if you want to take the server management responsibilities off your shoulder and focus on the user experience instead. It also allows you to scale your platform to an enterprise level, leaving you with many options to plan for the future.

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Get Started With Cloudways

2. Kinsta

Kinsta

Kinsta is another excellent option for small to mid traffic websites, especially if you are strapped for cash and have a limited budget. Kinsta offers scalable plans that offer beginners a chance to plan for the future without burning a hole through their wallets. Kinsta also has one of the best if not the best analytics due to their customized dashboards, enabling you to find the optimizations needed in your website.

Kinsta also offers a free migration if you are using another hosting platform and 24/7/365 support which takes off the worrying and creates space for focusing on what matters, which is the user experience.

Get Started With Kinsta

3. LiquidWeb

Liquid Web

LiquidWeb is a great option if you have more funding and is looking for a large-scale website. LiquidWeb offers dedicated servers, server clusters, VPS, private VPS parent, automatic OS updates, and many more. LiquidWeb is focused on helping large-scale enterprises create the most optimized and user-friendly experience with the funding available. If you aren’t sure what plan to choose, contact one of LiquidWeb’s sales associates, and they will help you pick the best hosting plan which suits your needs. If you are a large-scale website owner or planning to create one, LiquidWeb might be the hosting for you, and if you are unsure, you can always set up a call with a sales associate.

Check out LiquidWeb

4. Pressidium

Pressidium

Pressidium is a robust and powerful hosting solution, and if you have the budget to back it up, your LearnDash website is on an excellent path. Pressidium offers incredible speed, scalability, security, automatic backups, staging sites, and many more. Pressidum is also trusted by many reputable sources such as media outlets, tech startups, Fortune 500 companies, and digital agencies. Pressidium is determined to create trusted technology that is built for speed and site performance. If you have the funding available and looking for a powerful hosting solution, consider checking out Pressidium since it’s highly suited for large-scale websites.

Check out Pressidium

5. Pantheon

Pantheon

Pantheon is more than just a hosting platform; Pantheon also believes itself to be a WebOps solution. Pantheon also receives high praise from Cornell University, Google, The Home Depot, United Nations, and more. Pantheon offers marketing and developer solutions and allows you to kick off campaigns quickly and rapidly move ideas to execution. This makes it a great hosting option for high-end websites that expect significant traffic and concurrent users. If you are interested in creating a website and need a WebOps solution, then Pantheon is the package deal, and you should consider checking them out below.

Check out Pantheon

6. WPEngine

WPEngine

WPEnging is the most popular WordPress hosting platform because it is budget-friendly and best suited for small businesses. Suppose you are starting small and don’t expect large amounts of traffic or scaling anytime soon. A good starter host is WPEngine since it provides you with the basics and is more than enough to get started.

Check out WPEngine

7. SiteGround

SiteGround

SiteGround offers 99.99% uptime, free SSL & CDN, free WordPress migration, and many more. This makes SiteGround a good candidate for smaller websites since its plans include everything a beginner would need to get started at a low price. SiteGround has been hosting since 2004 and currently runs 2,000,000 websites worldwide as of January 2020. If you are a small website owner or plan to own a small traffic website, SiteGround is worth checking out.

Check out SiteGround

What Hosting Services To Avoid

Hosting services can sometimes be misleading, too good to be true, or not recommended by the community. Now that we know the best hosting options for LearnDash, it’s time to look at the other side of the coin, which is what hosting services to avoid.

This is important to know because there have been many cases where website owners lose out on sales, customers, visitors, clicks, and much more. And the most disappointing part is that it can all be solved if they have taken the time to research which hosting services to avoid. This is because LMS websites are much different than regular WordPress blogs.

If you don’t plan on taking the recommendations on the best LearnDash hosting options, use this section as a guide on what hosting services to look out for.

  • GoDaddy
  • Bluehost
  • Hostgator
  • Hostinger
  • HostPapa
  • IONOS

It also goes without saying that choosing free options is highly discouraged due to its limitations. Choosing cheap hosting often means you are sacrificing functionality for a lower price. When building a LearnDash website, the functionality shouldn’t be compromised; therefore, cheap hosting is usually a bad idea.

About The Author

Andriy Haydash

Andriy Haydash

Andriy Haydash is a WordPress Expert who helps people build and launch successful WordPress membership and e-learning websites.

Note: Not all of the articles are written directly by me.
Affiliate Disclaimer: Some links in the post may be my affiliate links

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