WordPress is one of the most popular CMS available in the market right now and it allows you to create a website in minutes. Most of the hosting services now offer managed WordPress service for its customers. Advanced customers can also install WordPress using public cloud service providers like Azure and AWS. Hosting WordPress site on cloud offers advantages like auto-scaling, load balancing and self-healing.
There are several ways to host WordPress using Microsoft Azure and Azure App Service is one of them. Yesterday, Microsoft announced the public preview of the new and updated WordPress on Azure App Service. Based on the feedback from customers, Microsoft has made several changes to this offering, read about them in detail below.
- Updated image: When you deploy a new WordPress website, you will always get the latest stable versions of WordPress and PHP.
- Easier configuration: After you install WordPress on Azure App Service, you will be taken directly to the page where you can input your desired admin username and password. Once created, you can login to the admin dashboard. No other configuration required.
- Performance: To deliver great performance, Azure team has made a lot of WordPress recommended optimizations like using non default permalink structures, pagination of comments, using optimal PHP settings, and more. Microsoft is also installing the following two plugins by default to improve performance.
- Caching: The W3TC plugin uses a local Redis cache for faster processing of requests. Caching is implemented for WordPress pages, objects, and the database.
- Image Compression: Smush Plugin with recommended settings will enable minimal load times with the best quality image possible.
- Hosting Plans: Microsoft now offers four different hosting plans. And yes, you still have the option of scaling up and scaling out using your AppService/ Database.
| Hosting Plan | WebApp | Database (MySQL Flexible server) |
| Basic(Hobby or Research purposes) | B1(1 vCores, 1.75 GB RAM, 10 GB Storage) | Burstable, B1s(1 vCores, 1 GB RAM, 32 GB Storage, 400 IOPs) |
| Development(Development and Staging purposes) | S1(1 vCores, 1.75 GB RAM, 50 GB Storage) | Burstable, B1ms(1 vCores, 2 GB RAM, 64 GB Storage, 500 IOPs) |
| Standard(General Purpose production apps) | P1V2(1 vCores, 3.5 GB RAM, 250 GB Storage) | Burstable, B2s(2 vCores, 4 GB RAM, 128 GB Storage, 400 IOPs) |
| Premium(Heavy Workload production apps) | P1V3(2 vCores, 8 GB RAM, 250 GB Storage) | Gen Purpose, D2ds_v4(2 vCores, 8 GB RAM, 128 GB Storage, 700 IOPs) |
To create WordPress on Azure App Service, click here.
