Hosting Checklist: Searching For a New Hosting Provider?

Fed up with your current commodity host? Feeling more like a number and less like a person? Tired of long support queues or endless email threads without resolutions? We get it. That’s why we built the Rocket.net platform.

So, what questions should you ask in order to find the right host for you?

Hosting Matters!

When shopping for a WordPress hosting provider, don’t look at the prices. Don’t read their ratings. Don’t even look at their follower count, or their WordCamp swag. Instead, ask questions that reveal what happens when things go wrong:

Will you talk to a human or AI chatbot for support?

What’s the actual response time during emergencies?

Does the support team know your site, or will you re-explain issues to different agents?

These questions matter more than storage specs or uptime percentages — they determine whether you’ll feel confident or frustrated when your site needs help. No one talks about how great their dentist is when they don’t need a filling, right?

Over the years, we’ve talked to hundreds of WordPress site owners who are frustrated with their current hosting. Whether it’s slow response times, chatbot support that doesn’t actually help, or feeling like just another account number, the stories are remarkably similar.

We came across a recent Reddit thread that perfectly captured this frustration. A site owner fed up with their current host asked a simple but brilliant question: “What questions should I be asking that aren’t covered on sales pages?“

That question hit home because it’s true. Every hosting company lists their features, prices, and storage limits. Everyone brags about their pricing. But the real questions – you know, the ones that determine whether you’ll be happy a year from now — rarely appear on any pricing page. (By the way, this is why reviews are so important.)

So let’s talk about what you should actually be asking – and it’s not price.

“Rocket.net will never be a commodity hosting provider. Period. Why? Good web hosting is at the heart of any good, successful website.”
Rocket.net – Why Rocket.net Will NEVER Be Commodity Hosting

The Question That Started Everything

The Reddit poster mentioned something that resonated with us: frustration with chatbot support that just points you back to help documentation you’ve already read.

When you reach out to support as a last resort after trying to troubleshoot yourself, the last thing you want is a bot response that says “It sounds like you are asking about …. Here is our help page on that topic.”

This isn’t about being anti-AI or anti-chatbot. They serve a purpose. It’s about what happens when something breaks and you need actual help.

This is why we have live chat on our website instead of a form submission. The only difference is, with Rocket.net , our chat is a real human helping you in real time. At Rocket.net, we’ve maintained a 98% customer satisfaction rate across tens of thousands of interactions specifically because we don’t use chatbots for support.

Every conversation is with a real WordPress expert who can actually troubleshoot and resolve your issue. Our average response time is under 60 seconds, and that’s a human responding — not a bot pointing you to documentation that you already read.

Here’s your first question: “When I need support, will I talk to a human or a chatbot?”

If the answer is a chatbot or “it depends,” keep looking for another website host.

Beyond Hosting Uptime Guarantees

Every host advertises 99.9% uptime. That’s table stakes and unfortunately downtime is a potential reality for all websites at some point with multiple points of failure.

But what happens during the 0.1%?

When your site goes down at midnight on a Friday, or your checkout stops working during a sale, uptime percentages become meaningless. What matters is:

How quickly does support respond?

Can they actually diagnose WordPress-specific issues?

Do they just restart services, or can they identify root causes?

Are you stuck in a ticket queue with a 24-48 hour response time?

Here’s your second question: “What’s your actual support response time, and who will be helping me when something breaks?”

At Rocket.net, our Enterprise clients have immediate access to our team and we’re always ready to help with dedicated Slack channels. That’s not just for show — it’s because we know that when your site is down, every second matters.

Read: Rocket.net Redefines Disaster Recovery for WordPress

The “Will They Actually Know My Site?” Question

On commodity hosting platforms, you’re account number 106823847. You don’t think about that until it’s too late:

When something breaks:

You explain the issue to the first support agent.

You get transferred and explain it again.

The ticket gets escalated and you explain it a third time.

Nobody actually knows your site, your setup, or your business.

Maybe you even wait 24 hours for the ticket response.

And if you’re an agency owner, you’re probably thinking to yourself “I don’t have time for this.” You don’t. But also it’s a good time to reevaluate your care plan pricing. Also, when was the last time you took an actual vacation?

Here’s your third question you should ask a website host: “Will I talk to the same people who understand my site, or will I re-explain everything each time?”

This is why we built Rocket.net differently. Our support team has access to your site’s history, your previous interactions, and the context they need to actually help you.

For Enterprise clients with dedicated Slack channels, the team monitoring your site already knows your infrastructure before you ask for help. Slack is a huge part of our daily workflow and we want to make sure we keep it a part of yours.

The Infrastructure Questions Nobody Thinks to Ask

Here are some questions that reveal whether a host actually understands WordPress:

“What happens when my traffic spikes?”

“Unlimited bandwidth” is marketing. Reality involves physics and infrastructure. Ask them:

Do they use true Edge caching or a basic CDN?

What happens when a post goes viral?

Is there automatic scaling or throttling?

At Rocket.net, our Enterprise Edge automatically scales across 275+ global locations. When traffic spikes, your site doesn’t slow down or get throttled — the infrastructure handles it.

“What can’t I do on your platform?”

Every host has limitations. The good ones tell you upfront. Ask about:

Plugin restrictions

Resource limits that trigger throttling

Access to logs for troubleshooting

What happens if you outgrow your plan mid-month

“Is your platform actually built for WordPress?”

There’s a huge difference between:

Generic cPanel hosting that happens to run WordPress.

Generic dashboards (ours is an industry innovation).

Infrastructure specifically optimized for WordPress and WooCommerce.

WordPress has unique requirements: heavy MySQL usage, specific caching needs, WooCommerce checkout considerations. Ask if their platform is designed around these realities or if you’re just on a generic LAMP stack.

“Will your platform help improve my SEO?”

Your web hosting affects SEO through site speed, server uptime, security (HTTPS), server location, and scalability — all of which influence how Google and Bing crawl and rank your site.

“Good hosting runs in the background without you thinking about it. That’s what an SEO-friendly web host should do: Enable your optimization work to deliver results rather than limiting what’s possible.”
searchenginejournal.com

The Real Cost of Sale-Price Hosting

We get it — budget matters. But cheap hosting isn’t actually cheap when you factor in:

Lost revenue during downtime

Slow sites that hurt conversions

Your time spent troubleshooting

Weekend hours dealing with issues their support can’t handle

At Rocket.net, we focus on delivering value that goes far beyond the monthly price. That includes sub-60-second response times, WordPress experts who actually troubleshoot complex issues, and infrastructure that automatically handles traffic spikes without you having to think about it.

WordPress Hosting: What Actually Matters

You’re not just buying storage and bandwidth.

After hosting thousands of WordPress sites and talking to countless frustrated site owners, here’s what it comes down to:

That someone actually knows WordPress when you need help

Infrastructure that scales when traffic increases

Support that treats your site like it matters

The ability to focus on your business instead of babysitting hosting

That’s the difference between commodity hosting and a platform you can actually rely on.

One Last Thing

If you’re evaluating hosts right now, here’s the most important question you can ask yourself:

“When something breaks at the worst possible time, will I regret this decision?”

Everything else – storage, bandwidth, price – becomes features on a chart.

The real question is whether you’ll feel confident or frustrated six months from now.

At Rocket.net, we’ve built our entire platform around making sure the answer is “confident.” That’s why we maintain a 98% customer satisfaction rate. That’s why we don’t use chatbots.

Your WordPress site isn’t just a website. It’s your business. It’s infrastructure.

And that deserves hosting you can trust.

6 Questions to Ask When Switching WordPress Hosts

When evaluating a new WordPress hosting provider, focus on these critical questions:

Will you speak with a person or an AI chatbot when issues arise?

What happens during an emergency?

Will the team know your site, or will you repeatedly re-explain problems?

How do they handle sudden traffic spikes — automatic scaling or throttling?

Is the hosting specifically built for WordPress and WooCommerce?

What about plugin restrictions, resource limits, and other constraints?

The best hosting decision isn’t based on the cheapest price or highest storage; it’s based on confidence that when something breaks at the worst possible time, you’ll have expert support and reliable infrastructure backing your business.