WordPress on Swiss web hosting
WordPress powers blogs, company websites and online shops of every size. At ThunderHosting it runs on our web hosting: Plesk in our Lugano data centre, with the WordPress Toolkit built into the control panel. You don’t need a special plan for WordPress: every web hosting plan includes one-click WordPress & Joomla, daily backups and free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates.
On this page you can read how the installation works, what you can manage yourself, how WooCommerce fits in and how we move an existing WordPress site to Lugano free of charge. Prices are in CHF or EUR, billed monthly or yearly.
WordPress in one click
The WordPress tab of the hosting dashboard installs WordPress for you. You don’t create a database or upload files by hand: you fill in a short form, and the dashboard shows the progress until your site appears in the list.
- Domain and path: install WordPress on your domain or a subdomain, in the main folder of the site or in a path of your choice.
- Version and language: pick the WordPress version (the latest is recommended) and the language of your site. The site is always set up for HTTPS.
- Your admin account: enter the site title, admin email, user name and password right in the form.
- Automatic updates: decide during the installation whether WordPress core, plugins and themes update automatically.
Your domain doesn’t have to point to the hosting yet: you can install WordPress first and look at the site in the Plesk preview while the DNS is not ready. Prefer another CMS? Joomla and other applications can be installed from Plesk.
Manage WordPress with the WordPress Toolkit
After the installation you manage your sites from the same dashboard, based on the Plesk WP Toolkit:
- Log in without a password: open the WordPress admin area with one click from the dashboard, or the full WP Toolkit in Plesk.
- Plugins and themes: install them by their wordpress.org slug, update or delete them.
- Updates: check for updates and update WordPress core, plugins or themes, or let them update automatically.
- Tools: clear the cache, switch maintenance mode on or off and flush the rewrite rules.
- Clone site: create a copy of your site in a subfolder on the same domain, for example to test changes.
- WP-CLI: run WP-CLI commands for the tasks that are quicker on the command line.
Is WordPress already installed on your domain, for example after a manual upload? With “Attach existing” the Toolkit finds the installation and manages it like the others. Our knowledge base explains every step, starting with the guide to installing and managing WordPress.
Daily backups and safe changes
Every web hosting plan includes daily backups of your hosting. They run on our side, without a plugin on your WordPress site.
Before a bigger change, such as a new theme or a major update, you can also clone your site to a subfolder with the WordPress Toolkit and try the change there first. Maintenance mode can be switched on in one click while you work on the live site.
WooCommerce: your online shop on WordPress
WooCommerce is the open-source shop plugin for WordPress. You install it like any other plugin, from the WordPress Toolkit with its wordpress.org slug “woocommerce” or in the WordPress admin area, and your shop runs on the same hosting as your website.
What a shop relies on is included in every plan: HTTPS with a free Let’s Encrypt certificate, daily backups, databases and email addresses on your own domain for orders and customer messages.
Choose your plan by storage and databases, since product images and order data grow over time; you can switch to a larger plan later. If your shop needs its own server with full root access, a VPS in Lugano is the next step.
Hosted in Lugano, close to your visitors
Your WordPress site runs in our data centre in Lugano, Switzerland, on the same platform as all our web hosting. Your website and its databases are hosted in Switzerland.
Every plan supports PHP from 7.4 up to the latest version, and the WordPress Toolkit clears the cache in one click. Want to know how fast your current site loads? Measure it from Switzerland with our free website speed test.
Moving an existing WordPress site
Already running WordPress with another provider? Free migration and consultation are included with our hosting: we move your files and database to ThunderHosting and set up your mailboxes, without downtime. Read how it works on our website migration page.
After the move you manage the site in the WordPress Toolkit like a new installation. Your domain can stay with your current registrar, or you can register or transfer it with us.