Editorial note: Goji.my may earn a commission if you subscribe through links in this article. This does not influence our independent rankings. Our methodology.
WordPress runs the majority of the world's small business websites, and it is undemanding: any ordinary shared hosting account can run it well. What follows is what WordPress actually needs, which plan size is sensible, and how to get it installed on a DirectAdmin account.
What WordPress needs from a host
Three things, all of them standard: PHP at a reasonably current version, a MySQL database, and somewhere to put the files. That is the whole list. Anything a host advertises beyond that — caching layers, staging copies, managed updates — is convenience rather than requirement, and a site can be fast and secure without any of it.
Every Goji plan includes PHP with a version you select yourself, MySQL databases and phpMyAdmin, so WordPress runs on all of them. The plans differ only in how much room and how many databases you get.
Which plan size fits
One WordPress site needs one database. Starter includes one, which is exactly right for a single site. If you intend to run a second install — a staging copy, a client's site, a separate blog — you need a plan with more databases, which is where Growth and above come in.
Space is rarely the constraint. A fresh WordPress install is around 100 MB; what grows is your media library. The limit worth watching on a busy site is inodes, because plugins arrive as thousands of small files.
Installing WordPress
There is no one-click installer on Goji hosting today, so the installation is the standard manual one. It takes about ten minutes.
- Create a database. In your Goji dashboard open your hosting service and use the Databases shortcut, which signs you straight into that part of the control panel. Create a database and a database user, give the user access to it, and write down all three values — database name, username and password.
- Download WordPress from wordpress.org and unzip it on your computer.
- Upload the files into your site's public folder using the File manager shortcut, or over FTP. Upload the contents of the WordPress folder, not the folder itself, or your site will end up at /wordpress/.
- Visit your domain. WordPress detects that it has not been set up yet and asks for the database details from step one.
- Finish the setup form — site title, your admin username and a strong password — and the site is live.
The first things to do afterwards
Check that your site loads over https. The SSL certificate is issued automatically, so this normally just works; if WordPress is still writing http links, set both the WordPress Address and Site Address to the https version under Settings → General.
Take your own backups. There is no one-click restore in your Goji dashboard today. The control panel gives you the tools to download a copy of your files and your database whenever you want, and doing that before any big change is the difference between an inconvenience and a disaster. A scheduled backup plugin that saves to your own storage is a sensible addition.
Keep WordPress, plugins and themes updated. Out-of-date plugins are how the overwhelming majority of WordPress sites are compromised — far more often than anything to do with the host.
Keeping it quick on a shared plan
Install fewer plugins than you think you need; every one adds files, queries and another thing to update. Resize photographs before uploading them rather than letting the browser shrink a 4 MB original. A caching plugin makes a genuine difference on shared hosting. And choose a current PHP version — you can switch it yourself, and recent releases are meaningfully faster than those from a few years ago.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a one-click WordPress installer?
Not at the moment. The manual installation above is the supported route and takes about ten minutes. Everything WordPress requires — PHP, MySQL and phpMyAdmin — is included on every plan.
Can I move an existing WordPress site here?
Yes. The usual approach is a migration plugin, which packages your files and database on the old host and unpacks them on the new one. If you would rather not do it yourself, get in touch before you buy and we will tell you honestly what is involved for your particular site.
Which PHP version should I choose?
The most recent version your theme and plugins officially support. Newer PHP is faster and receives security fixes; very old versions receive neither. You can change the version yourself from the control panel, so it is easy to test and step back if a plugin complains.
Do I need a plugin to get SSL working?
No. The certificate is issued and renewed for you at the server. A plugin is only useful for fixing mixed content — pages that load an image or script over http after you have switched — and even that is often solved by correcting the two URLs in Settings → General.