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Launching WordPress on a VPS is one of the smartest ways to get better performance, more control, and lower long-term cost—especially if you want to host multiple websites.

Two beginner-friendly choices people often compare are:

• DigitalOcean Starter VPS
• Contabo Starter VPS

Both can host WordPress successfully, but they serve different goals.

In this guide, you’ll get:

✅ A WordPress-focused comparison
✅ Realistic cost-per-website estimates
✅ What makes a website small, medium, or large in server load
✅ Clear recommendations depending on your use-case

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Quick Verdict (If You Want the Answer Fast)

✅ Choose DigitalOcean Starter if…

• You want to run one serious WordPress site
• You want stable performance
• You want easy upgrades when traffic grows

👉 DigitalOcean:
https://www.digitalocean.com/

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✅ Choose Contabo Starter if…

• You want to launch many WordPress sites cheaply
• You want the lowest cost per website
• You can manage optimization and performance tuning

👉 Contabo (Affiliate link):
https://www.jdoqocy.com/7a81cy63y5LNMNSQMOPVLNRSSRMNP

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1) DigitalOcean Starter Plan (WordPress Hosting View)

A typical DigitalOcean entry plan (used for WordPress) is a small VPS such as:

✅ DigitalOcean Starter VPS

• 1 vCPU
• 1 GB RAM
• 25 GB SSD
• ~1 TB bandwidth
• Price often around $6/month (varies by region/time)

Why people like DigitalOcean for WordPress

DigitalOcean is a favorite for developers because it offers:

✅ Predictable performance
✅ Strong uptime reputation
✅ Smooth scaling path (upgrade when needed)
✅ Great documentation and ecosystem

But here’s the limitation…

⚠️ 1 GB RAM is small for WordPress once you add:

• caching plugins
• security plugins
• backups
• multiple sites

So DigitalOcean Starter works best when you want quality over quantity.

👉 DigitalOcean official site:
https://www.digitalocean.com/

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2) Contabo Starter Plan (WordPress Hosting View)

Contabo Starter VPS plans usually give much larger specs for the price.

✅ Contabo Starter VPS (typical range)

• 2–4 vCPU
• 4–8 GB RAM
• 100 GB SSD (or more)
• Price often around $6–$12/month, depending on plan

Why Contabo looks like insane value

Because for WordPress hosting, RAM matters a lot, and Contabo gives more RAM-per-dollar than many providers.

That makes it excellent for:

✅ Hosting many WordPress sites
✅ Multiple client websites
✅ SEO niche sites
✅ Testing sites + staging sites
✅ Multi-site VPS setup

👉 Contabo (Affiliate link):
https://www.jdoqocy.com/7a81cy63y5LNMNSQMOPVLNRSSRMNP

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3) What Makes a WordPress Site “Small”, “Medium”, or “Large”?

WordPress site size is NOT decided by the number of pages.

A 10-page website can still be “large” if it’s heavily dynamic (like WooCommerce).
And a 500-page blog can still be “small” if everything is cached.

Here are the real factors that increase resource usage:

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A) Traffic (Visitors per Month)

More visitors = more load.

Even a simple site with low traffic is easy to host, but high traffic means:

• more concurrent users
• more page generation
• more bandwidth use

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B) Page Weight (Images + Scripts)

Heavy pages often include:

• large uncompressed images
• videos and sliders
• many scripts (ads, tracking, chat widgets)

These increase:
✅ load time
✅ bandwidth consumption
✅ CPU work for optimization plugins

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C) Plugins (One of the Biggest Factors)

Plugins can increase:

• PHP execution time
• database queries
• memory usage

Resource-heavy plugin categories:

• WooCommerce
• LMS + membership plugins
• booking plugins
• multi-vendor plugins
• security scanners

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D) Database Growth

WordPress databases grow fast due to:

• revisions
• product data
• orders
• users
• logs
• analytics and tracking

Bigger database = slower queries if not optimized.

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E) Dynamic Features

Pages that don’t cache easily are “expensive”, like:

• cart
• checkout
• login-based dashboards
• personalized pages

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4) Practical WordPress Size Categories (Simple & Realistic)

✅ Small WordPress Website

Examples:

• portfolio
• brochure business site
• basic blog

Typical profile:

• 0–5,000 visits/month
• mostly static and cacheable pages

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✅ Medium WordPress Website

Examples:

• SEO blog with consistent growth
• affiliate niche site
• small WooCommerce store

Typical profile:

• 5,000–50,000 visits/month
• more plugins + heavier pages
• moderate database activity

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✅ Large WordPress Website

Examples:

• WooCommerce store with daily orders
• LMS with logged-in users
• high traffic blog with ads + analytics

Typical profile:

• 50,000–500,000+ visits/month
• heavy PHP + DB usage
• high concurrency

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5) How Many WordPress Sites Can You Host on Each?

This section is where you see the real difference.

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✅ DigitalOcean Starter (1GB RAM)

Realistic capacity:

• Small sites: ✅ 1–3 sites
• Medium sites: ✅ 1 site
• Large sites: ❌ not recommended on starter

Why? Because WordPress needs RAM for:

• PHP workers
• MySQL/MariaDB caching
• background tasks (cron jobs)
• admin panel performance

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✅ Contabo Starter (4–8GB RAM range)

Realistic capacity:

• Small sites: ✅ 10–25 sites
• Medium sites: ✅ 3–8 sites
• Large sites: ✅ 1–2 sites

This is why Contabo is extremely popular for multi-site WordPress hosting.

👉 Contabo (Affiliate link):
https://www.jdoqocy.com/7a81cy63y5LNMNSQMOPVLNRSSRMNP

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6) Cost Per Website Estimates (Small / Medium / Large)

Let’s estimate typical monthly server cost:

• DigitalOcean starter VPS = ~$6/month
• Contabo starter VPS = ~$7/month (starter estimate; your plan may differ)

Now divide the VPS cost by the number of sites you can realistically host.

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✅ Small WordPress Sites Cost Per Website

DigitalOcean (1–3 small sites)

• 1 site → $6/site
• 2 sites → $3/site
• 3 sites → $2/site

Contabo (10–25 small sites)

• 10 sites → $0.70/site
• 20 sites → $0.35/site
• 25 sites → $0.28/site

🏆 Winner for multiple small sites: Contabo

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✅ Medium WordPress Sites Cost Per Website

DigitalOcean

• 1 medium site → $6/site

Contabo (3–8 medium sites)

• 3 sites → $2.33/site
• 5 sites → $1.40/site
• 8 sites → $0.88/site

🏆 Winner: Contabo

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✅ Large WordPress Sites Cost Per Website

DigitalOcean starter

❌ Large sites usually need bigger RAM/CPU. Not ideal on starter.

Contabo (1–2 large sites)

• 1 large site → $7/site
• 2 large sites → $3.50/site

🏆 Winner for starter-level large site hosting: Contabo
(assuming strong caching + optimization)

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7) Hidden Costs People Forget (Important)

Your VPS may be cheap per website, but WordPress still needs:

✅ Domain cost (per site)
✅ Email (optional but common)
✅ Backup storage cost
✅ CDN (Cloudflare is often enough)
✅ Security + monitoring tools
✅ Your time managing the VPS

⚠️ Biggest risk of hosting many sites on one VPS:
If that server goes down, all sites go offline together.

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8) Final Recommendation (Honest Verdict)

✅ Best for ONE serious WordPress website

DigitalOcean Starter is better if you value:

• stability
• consistent performance
• smoother scaling

👉 DigitalOcean:
https://www.digitalocean.com/

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✅ Best for MANY WordPress websites (lowest cost-per-site)

Contabo Starter is best if you want:

• max value
• many websites per VPS
• cheap hosting per WordPress install

👉 Contabo (Affiliate link):
https://www.jdoqocy.com/7a81cy63y5LNMNSQMOPVLNRSSRMNP

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Conclusion

If you’re building a network of WordPress sites or hosting for clients, Contabo Starter wins on cost-per-website.

If you’re focused on one primary website and want a more premium VPS experience, DigitalOcean Starter is a safer launch choice.

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