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
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/
✅ 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
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/
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
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:
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
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
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
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.
E) Dynamic Features
Pages that don’t cache easily are “expensive”, like:
- cart
- checkout
- login-based dashboards
- personalized pages
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
✅ 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
✅ 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
5) How Many WordPress Sites Can You Host on Each?
This section is where you see the real difference.
✅ 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
✅ 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
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.
✅ 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
✅ 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
✅ 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)
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.
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/
✅ 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
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.