The library
Read Course Platforms Compared research guides about Course hosting, Hosting decisions, Migration planning, Costs, with current sources and practical next steps.
Start with your problem
Check renewal isolation before testing a cloned store.
Read the practical guide →Rehearse login, course progress, uploads, and recovery time.
Read the practical guide →Use a host preflight to check the destination first.
Read the practical guide →221 guides available
Kinsta from $35/month versus a DigitalOcean Droplet from $4/month: what the price gap buys, who should run their own server, and a worked yearly cost.
Research comparison · Updated
Compare a small fictional dataset and detect missing records, duplicate IDs, and broken purchase, progress, and job relationships.
Original synthetic exercise · Updated
Match support responsibilities, optional add-ons and a rollback plan before choosing a managed VPS for a course or membership site.
Research guide · Updated
Use a restorable copy, a serialization-aware replacement and an inspected dry-run report when a migration changes site URLs.
Research guide · Updated
Plan DNSSEC coordination and compare resolver evidence when a domain fails after a DNS-provider migration.
Research guide · Updated
Choose a supported PHP branch, reproduce the site on staging and check the workflows that a homepage smoke test misses.
Research guide · Updated
A worked acceptance kit separates scheduled time, execution, message acceptance, inbox receipt, and the final user action.
Research guide · Updated
Reproduce four checks against a local HTTPS test server: destination routing, certificate failure and redirects.
Original local demonstration · Updated
Prevent a cloned subscription site from becoming a second live payment system.
Research guide · Updated
Rehearse a WordPress restore and check content, login and uploads, including an incomplete copy that failed.
Original local demonstration · Updated
--resolveCheck the destination IP, TLS, page content, and redirects before a hosting cutover. Includes six recorded curl runs, including a wrong IP that still returned 200.
Research guide with a recorded demonstration on our own domain · Updated
Turn a busy class into a hosting requirement: PHP threads, uncached requests, LearnDash's own app sizing table, and a rehearsal you can run before you pay.
Research guide · Updated
The exact MemberPress URLs to exclude from cache, the logged-in cache settings for common plugins, and how to tell a cache problem from a capacity problem.
Research guide · Updated
Prices, PHP capacity, backups and support boundaries for LearnDash and MemberPress sites, checked against official pages on October 29, 2026.
Research comparison · Updated
A cutover plan for LearnDash or MemberPress sites: freeze or sync learner data, keep Stripe webhooks from being lost, re-apply cache exclusions, and roll back without losing new orders.
Planning checklist · Updated
A 15-minute decision test: is your problem the server or the application, what managed hosting actually covers, and when an upgrade is worth the money.
Research guide · Updated
Plan destination testing, changing data, traffic switching and a recovery decision before moving a live site.
Research guide with recorded read-only observations on our own domain · Updated
Worked first-year and renewal costs for SiteGround, Kinsta, DigitalOcean and KnownHost, plus the overlap, backup and labor lines most quotes leave out.
Research guide · Updated
When a course or membership site needs shared WordPress hosting versus a cloud VM you administer. Research comparison of published plan limits, not a benchmark.
Research guide · Updated
The timing math for lowering DNS TTL before a hosting cutover, what Cloudflare proxied records change, and what TTL cannot control.
Research guide · Updated
Which MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC and autodiscover records to copy before a host or nameserver change, for host mail, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.
Research guide · Updated
What Kinsta documents about its free migrations: site slots, timing, the $49 expedited option, what is excluded, and what to prepare.
Research guide · Updated
WP Engine's Site Migration plugin: documented requirements, multisite limits, what it skips, second-pass syncs, and what to check before pointing DNS.
Research guide · Updated
What SiteGround documents about its free Migrator plugin, the sites it does not suit, the paid manual transfer, and the 48-hour windows to plan around.
Research guide · Updated
What happens to Stripe webhook endpoints, signing secrets and retries when a membership site changes host or domain, with MemberPress and WooCommerce steps.
Research guide · Updated
Moving a course or membership site to a new domain: 301 redirect mapping, Google's Change of Address requirements, member logins, payments and email links.
Research guide · Updated
Why HTTP-01 certificates usually wait for DNS, when DNS-01 or a third-party certificate can be ready earlier, and what Kinsta and WP Engine document.
Research guide · Updated
When a course or membership database is too big for plugin or upload-limit migrations: wp db size, export, compression, import, and row-count checks.
Research guide · Updated
A cancellation checklist for the old host: final backups, email and DNS still hosted there, refund windows, domains held at the host, and auto-renewal.
Research guide · Updated
Host bandwidth and storage charges versus Cloudflare Stream, Bunny Stream and Vimeo, plus domain-restricted and signed playback for members.
Research guide · Updated
What Cloudflare APO costs, why it bypasses the edge cache for logged-in members, and which course pages still hit your origin server.
Research guide · Updated
What a persistent object cache does for LearnDash and MemberPress members, and how Kinsta, WP Engine and SiteGround offer and price it.
Research guide · Updated
Which plans include staging, what push-to-live copies, and how to avoid overwriting live orders, renewals and student progress.
Research guide · Updated
Backup frequency, retention, downloads and restore behaviour at four managed hosts, and why a course site still needs its own off-host copy.
Research guide · Updated
Published overage rates and counting rules, and how a course launch, daily student logins or self-hosted video can push a bill over plan.
Research guide · Updated
Droplet, backup and server-panel prices from SpinupWP and Ploi, and the patching, backup and security work that stays with you.
Research guide · Updated
What Teachable's help centre says you can export, what has no export path, and the LearnDash prices to budget for the destination.
Research guide · Updated
Site limits, staging rules and deactivate-then-reactivate steps for LearnDash, MemberPress and WooCommerce.com extensions during a migration.
Research guide · Updated
A research review of SiteGround shared hosting for small LearnDash and MemberPress sites: what the plans include, where logged-in traffic meets limits, and who should skip it.
Research review · Updated
Published storage, site counts, staging, backups and CPU thresholds for each SiteGround shared plan, mapped to course-site stages, with a worked upgrade example.
Research comparison · Updated
First-term versus renewal cost for StartUp, GrowBig and GoGeek over one, two and three years, how auto-renewal and refunds work, and when a longer prepay makes sense.
Research guide · Updated
Shared-style plans with fair-use CPU limits versus visit-metered managed hosting: cost at three traffic levels, logged-in caching, staging, backups and who each suits.
Research comparison · Updated
Published visits, storage, bandwidth, overage rules, disallowed plugins and renewal wording for SiteGround and WP Engine, with a decision checklist by budget and student volume.
Research comparison · Updated
What SiteGround handles that a Droplet owner must do, with published Droplet, backup and SiteGround prices and a worked total-cost example including admin hours.
Research comparison · Updated
Published SiteGround Cloud resources and prices versus GoGeek, the signals that justify the move, cheaper fixes to try first, and the billing terms that change.
Research guide · Updated
What SiteGround documents about CPU seconds, executions, memory, inodes and database size, why logged-in course pages use them, and a checklist for reading the usage graph before upgrading.
Research guide · Updated
The three common reasons course creators leave SiteGround shared hosting, which type of host answers each one, and the cases where staying (or moving up inside SiteGround) is the better call.
Research comparison · Updated
How SiteGround's dynamic cache decides what to cache, which cookies and URLs it already bypasses, what a membership or course site still needs to exclude, and how to verify each page with the X-Proxy-Cache header.
Research guide · Updated
Plan choice, PHP version, permalinks, staging, caching exclusions, cron and email checks for a LearnDash course site on SiteGround, drawn from SiteGround and LearnDash documentation.
Research guide · Updated
SiteGround's published hourly sending caps and recipient rules, set against the emails a course site sends at enrollment and during drip schedules, with a worked example of when to move transactional mail elsewhere.
Research guide · Updated
What SiteGround's WooCommerce-branded plans include compared with its standard WordPress plans, how renewal cron, caching and staging behave for WooCommerce Subscriptions, and the signs a subscription store has outgrown shared hosting.
Research guide · Updated
What SiteGround's 30-day (shared) and 14-day (cloud) money-back guarantee covers, why domain fees can still be due, how renewal refunds are prorated, and what to check before buying or cancelling.
Research guide · Updated
Kinsta's single-site and multi-site plans with visits, storage, CDN and PHP threads, the add-on and overage prices, the money-back terms, and a worked first-year estimate for a membership course site.
Research guide · Updated
WP Engine's Essential capacity tiers, Business and Enterprise plans, the per-site and per-license add-ons including the eCommerce Performance Pack, visit and bandwidth rules, and a first-year total for a typical membership site.
Research guide · Updated
Pro and Elite prices by site count and visit tier, what each plan includes, and when a course site gets value or overpays.
Research guide · Updated
Who patches, hardens and backs up the server under each option, published prices for similar RAM and CPU, and the admin-hours break-even.
Research comparison · Updated
Published first-term and renewal prices, panels, backups and support scope for SiteGround GrowBig and GoGeek against KnownHost's Basic managed VPS.
Research comparison · Updated
Published Droplet tiers mapped to PHP-FPM workers, MySQL memory and concurrent learners, with resize rules and a worked sizing example.
Research guide · Updated
Published Managed MySQL prices, connection limits, backups and failover against running MySQL on the Droplet, with who benefits and who should skip.
Research guide · Updated
Spec-for-price table, control panel licensing, backup and support scope from both providers' pages, with a checklist for comparing quotes.
Research comparison · Updated
The usual reasons owners leave WP Engine, matched to Kinsta, Liquid Web, SiteGround and DigitalOcean, with what you give up in each.
Research comparison · Updated
When Kinsta's visit metering or price is the real problem, when it is still the right call, and alternatives by budget with a trade-off table.
Research comparison · Updated
A starter, growing and high-volume shortlist built from LearnDash's documented server floor and the specs hosts publish, with first-year cost math and upgrade triggers.
Research guide · Updated
MemberPress's own requirements plus four selection criteria: uncached logged-in traffic, payment webhooks, scheduled tasks and email, with how SiteGround, Kinsta, WP Engine and Liquid Web line up on published features.
Research guide · Updated
Why renewals depend on a reliable scheduler and uncached checkout, what WooCommerce and Subscriptions require, and which published host features fit a small, growing or large subscription store.
Research guide · Updated
Tutor LMS's published minimums, WordPress's current recommendations, a plan-tier checklist, Tutor Pro costs and the signs it is time to upgrade.
Research guide · Updated
LifterLMS's recommended versions, its own guidance on shared hosting and the $30-a-month line, caching rules, and a pre-purchase checklist mapped to real plans.
Research guide · Updated
Where a low-cost plan genuinely works for a course site, the three corners not to cut, and a renewal-inclusive three-year cost table built from published prices.
Research guide · Updated
What BuddyBoss publishes about servers, why activity feeds stress uncached PHP, and which plans meet its 2 vCPU and 4 GB starting point.
Research guide · Updated
A three-year cost comparison using published Teachable plans and fees, LearnDash licence pricing, hosting and card processing, plus the control and maintenance trade-offs.
Research guide · Updated
Published Kajabi tiers against a WordPress host, LMS plugin and email stack, priced at 100 and 1,000 students, with the work Kajabi takes off your plate.
Research guide · Updated
Thinkific's hosted plans against a LearnDash licence plus hosting: published fees, student limits, payment fees and what you can export if you leave.
Research guide · Updated
Podia's plan and transaction fees against a small WordPress setup for a solo creator, with a break-even point and the maintenance you take on.
Research guide · Updated
Ten questions on skills, budget, branding, data ownership and integrations that point you to a hosted platform or WordPress, with published price anchors.
Research guide · Updated
Kajabi's documented exports for contacts, transactions and videos, what you rebuild by hand, and a cutover plan that keeps paying students enrolled.
Research guide · Updated
What Thinkific documents as exportable (users, progress, orders, video), the gaps you rebuild, and a subscription transfer checklist.
Research guide · Updated
Licence prices, renewal terms, free cores, what is bundled versus add-on, and how each affects your hosting choice, from official pages.
Research guide · Updated
MemberPress plan tiers and transaction fees against Paid Memberships Pro's free core and paid plans: gateways, course features and which suits a simple paywall.
Research guide · Updated
A five-part formula for a course site's real monthly hosting bill (base plan, visits or bandwidth, storage, add-ons, renewal) with three worked examples using prices published on 29 October 2026.
Research guide · Updated
A line-item first-year budget for a self-hosted WordPress course site (hosting, domain, LMS licence, payment fees, email and video) at a lean and a comfortable tier, using prices published on 29 October 2026.
Research guide · Updated
What managed WordPress plans from Kinsta and WP Engine add over SiteGround's premium shared plans (caching, staging, backups, metering and support scope), with a cost-per-feature table and the signs you should not upgrade yet.
Research guide · Updated
Control, plugin freedom, multiple applications, support boundaries and pricing model compared for KnownHost and Liquid Web VPS plans against Kinsta and WP Engine, with the signals that point to each.
Research guide · Updated
Published uptime SLAs from Kinsta, WP Engine, DigitalOcean, Liquid Web and KnownHost, plus SiteGround's stated guarantee: uptime figure, exclusions, credit amounts and claim deadlines, and what a credit is worth during a launch outage.
Research guide · Updated
Documented support channels and scope for plugin conflicts, custom code, migrations, malware, DNS and performance at Kinsta, WP Engine, SiteGround, Liquid Web, KnownHost and DigitalOcean, with a checklist to test support before you buy.
Research guide · Updated
How PHP workers (Kinsta calls them threads) cap concurrent uncached requests, what Kinsta, WP Engine, SiteGround and a DigitalOcean server document about them, and a worked example sizing workers for a quiz deadline.
Research guide · Updated
Which CDN Kinsta, WP Engine and SiteGround bundle, whether it caches HTML or only static files, bandwidth terms and add-ons, and what a CDN does and does not do for logged-in lesson pages.
Research guide · Updated
Published region lists for Kinsta, SiteGround, WP Engine, DigitalOcean and Liquid Web, why a CDN does not cover logged-in lesson pages, and how to pick an origin region.
Research guide · Updated
What Kinsta, WP Engine, SiteGround, Liquid Web and KnownHost document about malware scanning, cleanup cost and conditions, plus a recovery checklist for a hacked membership site.
Research guide · Updated
Which plans at Kinsta, WP Engine, SiteGround and Liquid Web support Multisite, how domain mapping and SSL work, and when separate installs are the safer choice.
Research guide · Updated
A pre-launch checklist covering how Kinsta, WP Engine, SiteGround and DigitalOcean bill and enforce spikes, temporary upgrades, cache rules, checkout tests and support escalation.
Research guide · Updated
An ordered checklist using Bluehost's backup tools and SiteGround's documented migration paths, with LMS progress, payment and email checks before you change DNS.
Research guide · Updated
How GoDaddy separates domain, DNS, hosting and email, how to carry email records across, and an acceptance checklist before you cancel GoDaddy hosting.
Research guide · Updated
Measurable signals such as CPU-second warnings, slow logged-in pages and late scheduled tasks, how to tell them from fixable app issues, and next steps by budget.
Research guide · Updated
Auto-renewal, refund, resource enforcement, suspension and data-after-termination clauses at SiteGround, Kinsta, WP Engine, Liquid Web, KnownHost and DigitalOcean, with where each is published.
Research guide · Updated
Published monthly and annual prices at Kinsta, SiteGround, WP Engine and DigitalOcean, what you can get back after prepaying, and a break-even example for a course site that may move.
Research guide · Updated
How keeping the domain with your host affects migrations, renewals and DNS control, with ICANN transfer rules and a checklist for either setup.
Research guide · Updated
Why host mail often falls short for enrollment and receipt emails, published free-tier limits at Mailgun, Postmark, SMTP2GO and Amazon SES, and the checks to run after setup.
Research guide · Updated
Host load-testing rules first, then a staging method with logged-in scenarios in k6, the numbers to record, and how to compare them with plan limits.
Research guide · Updated
Usage evidence to collect first, what lower tiers remove, published downgrade rules at Kinsta, WP Engine, SiteGround and DigitalOcean, and a rollback plan.
Research guide · Updated
Published migration and DNS timings from Kinsta, SiteGround, WP Engine and KnownHost, how site size and method change them, and a day-by-day planning template.
Research guide · Updated
What Kinsta, SiteGround, WP Engine, Liquid Web and KnownHost say their free or paid migration offers cover, what none of them cover, and when paying is worth it.
Research guide · Updated
What DigitalOcean documents for WordPress on each product, App Platform's ephemeral filesystem and SMTP limits, published prices, and who should choose neither.
Research guide · Updated
What Liquid Web publishes about its managed WordPress and VPS plans, what is bundled for logged-in course traffic, where support scope is unclear, and who will overpay.
Research review · Updated
Kinsta’s published plans, PHP threads, visit counting and overage rates, staging and backups, read for a site where most traffic is logged in.
Research review · Updated
WP Engine’s published plans and add-ons, its cache rules for logged-in users, disallowed plugins, visit overages and backups, read for a LearnDash or MemberPress site.
Research review · Updated
KnownHost’s published managed VPS plans, control panel options, management scope and backups, and who gains from dedicated resources without running the server.
Research review · Updated
Published frequency, retention, pricing and consistency of DigitalOcean Droplet backups and snapshots, why neither replaces an off-server WordPress backup, and a restore plan.
Research comparison · Updated
Which hosts publish data processing terms and EU regions, what choosing an EU data center does and does not settle, and a practical checklist. Not legal advice.
Research guide · Updated
Seat pricing against pay-per-GB delivery, domain-level privacy against signed embed tokens, LearnDash embedding rules, and a worked cost example for 500 students.
Research comparison · Updated
Platform fees by plan on Teachable, Kajabi, Podia and Thinkific against processor-only fees on WordPress, with break-even points and monthly cost tables at three revenue levels.
Research guide · Updated
Twelve buyer questions on traffic shape, logged-in share, renewal cost, staging, backups and support, applied to budget shared, managed WordPress, managed VPS and self-managed cloud hosting.
Research guide · Updated
List prices, renewal costs, site and visit limits, backups and support compared, with a two-year cost example and the point where Liquid Web's managed WordPress plans make sense for a course site.
Research guide · Updated
A fully managed WordPress platform against a self-managed cloud server: published prices, who is responsible for what, and a worked monthly comparison that counts administration time.
Research guide · Updated
Which paths to monitor on a course or membership site (login, lessons, checkout, scheduled jobs, certificate expiry), what common monitors include on their free tiers, and an alert checklist.
Research guide · Updated
The verifiable facts behind SiteGround: founding, ownership, Google Cloud infrastructure, published security measures, backup and refund policies, the documented November 2021 crawling outage, and what to check before paying.
Research guide · Updated
The promotions SiteGround listed on its own site on 30 October 2026: first-year intro pricing that needs no code, the free domain and transfer offer, the agency partner perks, and why the student program is not an option.
Research guide · Updated
Official prices, renewal rates, backups, staging, data centers and refund terms for SiteGround and Hostinger WordPress plans, checked 30 October 2026, with a four-year cost example and who each fits.
Research comparison · Updated
Entry and mid plans from both official pages on 30 October 2026: term pricing, renewals, backups, staging, migration terms and money-back rules, plus a three-year cost example for one LearnDash site.
Research comparison · Updated
A checklist built from SiteGround's knowledge base: confirm DNS, check SSL Manager, cover www, reinstall Let's Encrypt, enforce HTTPS the recommended way, fix mixed content and know when to contact support.
Research guide · Updated
SiteGround's Site Tools restore options, retention and on-demand limits by plan, and a course-site decision table for when to restore files only versus the database, with a pre-restore export checklist.
Research guide · Updated
Paid Memberships Pro's own requirements and caching rules for logged-in members, mapped to SiteGround, Kinsta, WP Engine and Liquid Web by site size, with the capacity factors each host publishes.
Research guide · Updated
Published multi-site limits, per-site cost, client access and site transfer features from SiteGround, Kinsta, WP Engine, KnownHost and DigitalOcean, with a 5-site and 15-site LearnDash cost example.
Research guide · Updated
Fix the WordPress database connection error after a migration in the order WordPress.org documents it: the four wp-config.php values, database user privileges, the DB_HOST value your new host publishes, then table repair.
Research guide · Updated
Why an HTTPS course site still loads http:// assets after a migration, which of them browsers block, how to find every one, and how to fix site URLs, stored content, embeds and page-builder data.
Research guide · Updated
Cloudflare's documented causes of redirect loops (Flexible mode, Always Use HTTPS, HSTS and conflicting rules), the fix order for a WordPress course site, and a pre-cutover check that the new origin has its certificate.
Research guide · Updated
WordPress's documented recovery path for the critical error message after a host move: the recovery-mode email, the debug log, and the PHP version, extension and memory differences that LMS and membership plugins are sensitive to.
Research guide · Updated
What happened to Media Temple, with dates as WP Tavern reported them, where former accounts now live, how to export a site from GoDaddy cPanel hosting, and the migration terms SiteGround, Kinsta and WP Engine publish.
Research guide · Updated
What Google and Squarespace say changed when Google Domains registrations moved to Squarespace, which features are not supported, and how to verify MX, SPF, DKIM and DNSSEC before a host migration or registrar transfer.
Research guide · Updated
What LearnDash's own documentation says about moving away from LearnDash Cloud: backups, the non-transferable license, plugins to replace, DNS, and the 24-hour cancellation window, plus a first-year cost comparison on SiteGround and Kinsta.
Research guide · Updated
What Liquid Web's October 2026 town hall recap says about LearnDash licensing, renewals, pricing and support for existing customers, and a practical checklist for renewal dates, site counts, add-ons and backups.
Research guide · Updated
PHP workers, full-page and edge cache, object cache, staging, SSH/SFTP, visits and bandwidth, each matched to the label Kinsta, WP Engine and SiteGround use and what it means for logged-in students.
Research guide · Updated
What each DNS record type does, which ones change when you move a course site to a new host and which must stay untouched, with a before/after zone table for a site that also runs email.
Research guide · Updated
Plain definitions of the terms in WordPress migration docs and quotes, each paired with the specific risk it signals for a membership or LMS site and the question to ask.
Research guide · Updated
Course-feature vocabulary from LearnDash documentation and the SCORM and xAPI specifications, with a column on which features create database writes or file uploads that change what your hosting must handle.
Research guide · Updated
How to read a VPS spec sheet from KnownHost, Liquid Web or DigitalOcean: cores and vCPUs, RAM, storage, transfer, root access, control panel licensing and the management scope each provider documents.
Research guide · Updated
Each hosting billing term with a worked invoice example and where it appears in SiteGround, Kinsta and WP Engine published terms and billing docs.
Research guide · Updated
What SPF, DKIM and DMARC each prove, how Gmail and Yahoo sender requirements apply to enrollment, receipt and newsletter email, and a setup checklist for each service that sends mail as your domain.
Research guide · Updated
Why drip releases, membership expiries and renewal reminders run late on quiet course sites, how WP-Cron is triggered, and how SiteGround, Kinsta, WP Engine and a DigitalOcean Droplet each document replacing it with a server-side schedule.
Research guide · Updated
What an inode is, how image sizes, cache folders, local backups, staging copies and mailboxes inflate the file count on a course site, the published inode limits for SiteGround and KnownHost plans, and how to measure and cut usage.
Research guide · Updated
The difference between WP_MEMORY_LIMIT, WP_MAX_MEMORY_LIMIT and the server PHP memory_limit, what LifterLMS, Tutor LMS and LearnDash publish about requirements, and what Kinsta, WP Engine, SiteGround and a cPanel VPS let you change.
Research guide · Updated
Why a single MP4 in the WordPress media library buffers for students on slow connections, how HLS renditions, playlists and segments work, and how a bitrate ladder changes storage and bandwidth math, with worked numbers.
Research guide · Updated
A cross-host table built from Kinsta's and WP Engine's published banned-plugin lists and the Liquid Web and Nexcess managed WordPress pages, flagging the caching, backup, migration, related-posts and view-counter plugins course sites often run, with each host's stated alternative.
Research guide · Updated
Which of SiteGround, Kinsta, WP Engine, Liquid Web, KnownHost and DigitalOcean include mailboxes, which only relay transactional mail or block SMTP, and what a course owner should budget for mailboxes and a sending service when the host provides neither.
Research guide · Updated
Which PHP versions Kinsta, WP Engine, SiteGround, Liquid Web and KnownHost document, how each handles end-of-life versions and automatic upgrades, how much notice they describe, and the php.net support dates a course site should plan around.
Research guide · Updated
A developer-access table for Kinsta, WP Engine, SiteGround, Liquid Web, KnownHost and DigitalOcean: SSH and authentication, WP-CLI, Git deployment, SFTP, root access and plan restrictions, so you know before buying whether a developer's workflow will work.
Research guide · Updated
The exact dashboard location, retention window and download route for PHP error and access logs at Kinsta, WP Engine, SiteGround and a DigitalOcean WordPress Droplet, with a worked example of tracing a failed checkout.
Research guide · Updated
Published upload and POST size limits at WP Engine, SiteGround and Kinsta, whether each can be raised, the Cloudflare proxy cap that overrides them, and SFTP routes for large course assets.
Research guide · Updated
Which hosts issue free certificates, which cover wildcard subdomains for course portals, which accept uploaded certificates, and who renews each, at Kinsta, WP Engine, SiteGround and DigitalOcean.
Research guide · Updated
What Kinsta, WP Engine and SiteGround document about proxying through your own Cloudflare account, the SSL mode each expects, the conflicts with their built-in layers, and a setup order that avoids certificate and redirect loops.
Research guide · Updated
Hosting account roles, per-site access, billing-only users and two-factor options at Kinsta, WP Engine, DigitalOcean, Liquid Web and SiteGround, with a role map for giving a VA, developer or bookkeeper access without the owner login.
Research guide · Updated
Refund windows, eligibility, exclusions such as domains and overages, renewal refunds and how to request a refund at SiteGround, Kinsta, KnownHost, WP Engine, Liquid Web and DigitalOcean, from each host's terms.
Research guide · Updated
How long SiteGround, Kinsta, WP Engine, Liquid Web, KnownHost and DigitalOcean keep files and backups after cancellation or non-payment, what else disappears with the plan, and an export-first checklist.
Research guide · Updated
How many WordPress sites and how much storage the entry and mid tiers at Kinsta, WP Engine, SiteGround and Liquid Web allow, whether staging counts, and a worked example for a course site plus staging plus a separate sales site.
Research guide · Updated
How cPanel's account-based tiers work, what one versus ten hosted accounts costs at cPanel's published prices, which managed VPS offers say the license is included, and the questions to ask before you assume it is.
Research guide · Updated
A cross-platform table of what each hosted course platform's help docs say you can export (students, progress, quiz data, videos, payments), what has no export at all, and the gaps you will rebuild by hand when you move.
Research guide · Updated
What a merchant of record is responsible for, what Teachable, Thinkific, Kajabi and Podia each say they calculate, collect and remit, and what a self-hosted WordPress seller using Stripe has to handle instead.
Research guide · Updated
Payout timing, first-payout delays, reserves and holds on Teachable, Thinkific, Kajabi and Podia from their help docs, plus a cash-flow example for a launch month.
Research guide · Updated
The DNS records each hosted course platform asks for, whether it supports a root domain or only a subdomain, and how to connect it without breaking email or the website already on your domain.
Research guide · Updated
A day-by-day orientation to the Site Tools sections a course owner actually uses on SiteGround (domain, SSL, backups, caching, cron, email, staging, security and resource usage) with what to check on day one and what can wait.
Research guide · Updated
A tour of the MyKinsta areas that matter for a course or membership site (domains, caching, backups, staging, users, email, analytics) with the setting to confirm in each during your first week.
Research guide · Updated
How sites and environments relate in the WP Engine User Portal, and the backup, cache, cron, SSL and user settings to confirm before you invite students.
Research guide · Updated
What the WordPress 1-Click image installs, what its setup script does, and the firewall, backup, monitoring, mail and cron jobs you own from day one, each tied to DigitalOcean documentation.
Research guide · Updated
What you control on a new KnownHost managed VPS, how WHM and cPanel divide the work, how to create a cPanel account per site, and the backup, SSL and security settings to confirm in week one.
Research guide · Updated
Portal orientation, staging, backups, automatic plugin updates with Visual Comparison, and PHP workers on Liquid Web managed WordPress, sequenced for a course launch.
Research guide · Updated
The six separate pieces behind a course website (domain, DNS, server, database, SSL and email), who supplies each on shared, managed and VPS hosting, and what breaks when one lapses.
Research guide · Updated
A week-by-week watch list for the month after moving a course or membership site: cron and renewals, email authentication and bounces, certificates, search crawling, backups, and the evidence to keep before cancelling the old host.
Research guide · Updated
SEO checks for a same-domain host move grounded in Google Search Central guidance, how they differ from a domain or URL change, and a sampling method for course and lesson URLs.
Research guide · Updated
A post-migration security checklist for WordPress course and membership sites: which secrets to rotate, which copies to delete, and the order for closing the old host without losing your rollback.
Research guide · Updated
A setup checklist for a new LearnDash install on Kinsta, built from both vendors' documentation: requirements, cache exclusions for course pages, PHP thread counts by plan, and Kinsta's server cron.
Research guide · Updated
What WP Engine documents about caching for logged-in users, path exclusions, PHP workers, memory, the 60-second limit and alternate cron, turned into a LearnDash setup checklist.
Research guide · Updated
The setup order for MemberPress on SiteGround from both vendors' documentation: cache exclusions for protected pages and payment notifications, a real cron job for reminders, and staying under SiteGround's email limits.
Research guide · Updated
WooCommerce's official server requirements translated into plan features to check, plus what subscriptions and memberships add: scheduled jobs, cache exclusions, concurrency and execution limits.
Research guide · Updated
WordPress.org's recommended versus legacy requirements, what PHP, the database, HTTPS and the web server each do, and how to confirm them on any plan before you buy.
Research guide · Updated
Moodle's documented PHP, database, cron, moodledata and document-root requirements for current releases, and why they point toward a VPS rather than WordPress-only managed hosting.
Research guide · Updated
What LearnPress actually documents (WordPress 6.0+, PHP 7.4+), why WordPress.org's recommendations are the better floor, which add-ons raise resource needs, and a sizing table by concurrent learners.
Research guide · Updated
Sensei LMS's published minimums, what selling courses adds through Sensei Pro and WooCommerce, the stricter server floor that results, cache rules and a year-one cost example on SiteGround and Kinsta.
Research guide · Updated
What the H5P plugin writes to disk and the database, the PHP extensions and upload settings it depends on, why it adds files faster than megabytes, and a checklist before you publish interactive lessons.
Research guide · Updated
What a SCORM zip contains and unpacks into, the PHP upload and execution limits it has to clear, how file counts hit hosting caps, the current state of WordPress SCORM plugins and a pre-upload checklist.
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How Spaces object storage and its built-in CDN are billed, the private versus public file trade-off for paid course material, the limits that affect video files, and monthly cost examples for three course libraries.
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DigitalOcean's documented block on SMTP ports 25, 465 and 587, which provider ports and API routes still work, and a setup and test sequence for enrollment and receipt email.
Research guide · Updated
A minimal inbound and outbound rule set for a WordPress Droplet built from DigitalOcean documentation, the limits and defaults that surprise people, and how to avoid locking yourself or the Droplet Console out.
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Which Droplet metrics and alert options DigitalOcean provides, what needs the metrics agent, starting thresholds for CPU, memory and disk on an LMS, uptime checks and their cost, and who should be paged for what.
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How DigitalOcean reserved IPs move between Droplets, what they cost assigned and parked, the outbound-traffic and SMTP catches, and a server-swap runbook that skips TTL waits on every rebuild after the first.
Research guide · Updated
What Kinsta's built-in APM records, how long it runs and keeps data, its documented performance cost, and how to read a slow quiz or checkout trace to decide whether a bigger plan, more PHP memory or a code fix is the right spend.
Research guide · Updated
What DevKinsta can pull from and push to Kinsta according to Kinsta's docs, what each push overwrites, and how to keep student data and live payment keys safe on a local copy of a course site.
Research guide · Updated
How Local's Connect feature pushes and pulls with WP Engine production, staging and development environments, what a push overwrites, which files never move, and a safe sequence when the live site holds membership data.
Research guide · Updated
What KnownHost includes for backups on WordPress hosting and managed VPS, how JetBackup 5 restores a single file, a database, cron jobs or a whole cPanel account, and a restore drill sized for a course site.
Research guide · Updated
Where Kinsta, WP Engine and SiteGround keep their own backups, why those copies share your host account's risks, which hosts offer an external backup add-on, and a 3-2-1 plan with worked monthly costs.
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Plain definitions of recovery point and recovery time objectives, how host backup schedules set your real numbers, and a one-page plan with roles, where credentials live and the order to restore a course business.
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A step-by-step move from WP Engine to Kinsta built from both vendors' documentation: what to export before you start, the free migration timeline, and the redirects, cache rules, cron and email settings that do not transfer on their own.
Research guide · Updated
A step-by-step SiteGround to Kinsta move: which SiteGround plugins to remove, why your mailboxes need a new home, and the DNS order that avoids losing email.
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Export a WP Engine backup, move the site with SiteGround Migrator or by hand, swap WP Engine caching and cron for SiteGround equivalents, and verify a membership site before DNS.
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Take Kinsta's weekly downloadable backup, import to SiteGround, recreate the redirects, cron and caching Kinsta handled for you, and check SiteGround plan limits on arrival.
Research guide · Updated
Build the Droplet, move files and database, split email off because SMTP ports are blocked, and take on the server jobs a shared host used to do for you.
Research guide · Updated
Strip server-specific config from a DigitalOcean WordPress build, decide what replaces your cron, object cache and mail, then follow the import route Kinsta or WP Engine documents.
Research guide · Updated
Back up from HostGator cPanel, import to SiteGround, sequence email and DNS so nothing bounces, and run a member-login verification pass before switching.
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For the common case where the domain stays registered at Namecheap: the nameserver switch that wipes records if done in the wrong order, the exact host-record edits, and the email choice.
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How WHM's Transfer Tool and KnownHost's free migration help work, what they move (accounts, mail, databases), what they skip, and the checks to run after the copy.
Research guide · Updated
What Wix's help centre says you can and cannot take with you, where an RSS import fits, how to rebuild members and payments, and a redirect map to protect search traffic.
Research guide · Updated
What Squarespace's WordPress export file includes and omits, why images can break after you cancel, how to rebuild member areas and products, and how to map URLs.
Research guide · Updated
Podia's documented contact and sales exports, how subscriptions behave in your connected Stripe account, and the order to rebuild products, access and student emails.
Research guide · Updated
MemberPress Importer's documented CSV templates and import order, how Stripe subscription IDs link imported records to existing billing, the PayPal caveats, and a test-import plan.
Research guide · Updated
What Themeum's migration tool lists as carried over from LearnDash, its version requirements, the warning that originals are deleted, and what to verify or rebuild by hand.
Research guide · Updated
An inventory, upload, embed-swap and cleanup sequence for lesson videos, with the WP-CLI commands and dry-run checks that make bulk embed changes safe.
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Stripe's documented options for keeping one account versus copying data to a new one, what a copy leaves behind, and how WordPress membership plugins attach to subscriptions that already exist.
Research guide · Updated
Why a hosted course platform export rarely includes usable passwords, how to import student accounts and enroll them in courses, and a password-reset email plan that avoids a flood of support tickets.
Research guide · Updated
The order to import users and content when combining two WordPress sites, which IDs change and what breaks when they do, and how to build a redirect map for the domain you retire.
Research guide · Updated
An itemised annual budget for a 500-student LearnDash site on SiteGround shared hosting, Kinsta managed hosting and a DigitalOcean VPS, including the LearnDash license, transactional email and video delivery, from fetched price pages.
Research guide · Updated
Worked annual budgets for a logged-in-heavy 2,000-member membership site on shared, managed WordPress, multi-site managed and managed VPS hosting, with the line items that grow with membership called out.
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Storage plus delivery math for a 50-hour (3,000-minute) course library at three viewing levels, using the published pricing of Cloudflare Stream, Mux and Bunny Stream, with Vimeo's bandwidth thresholds as a check.
Research guide · Updated
License, hosting tier and add-on costs for an active 1,000-member BuddyBoss community on a KnownHost managed VPS, Kinsta managed WordPress and a DigitalOcean Droplet, with the resource assumptions behind each choice.
Research guide · Updated
Extension, payment processing, hosting and email costs for a 300-subscriber subscription course store on WooCommerce, itemised from fetched pricing, with monthly versus annual billing compared.
Research guide · Updated
A worked estimate of monthly transactional email volume for a 5,000-student course site, priced on published Amazon SES, Postmark and Mailgun tiers, with the host-mail and Gmail limits that change the answer.
Research guide · Updated
Rollback triggers, what to keep running on the old host, a decision timeline for the cutover window, and how to reconcile orders and enrollments taken on the new host before you switch back.
Research guide · Updated
A fill-in inventory for a course or membership site move covering DNS, email, scheduled tasks, webhooks, integrations, licenses, certificates and account access, with commands and places to look for each item.
Research guide · Updated
When and what to tell students and members before, during and after a course site move, with plain-text email templates, an on-site banner, a support plan and the rules that keep the notice a service message.
Research guide · Updated
Who should own the domain, hosting and payment accounts on a contractor-built course site, how Kinsta and WP Engine document site transfers and user roles, and a handover checklist.
Research guide · Updated
A weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly maintenance calendar for a WordPress course or membership site run by one person, covering updates, backup restore tests, PHP support dates, certificates, licenses and access reviews.
Research guide · Updated
A step-by-step staging workflow for LMS, membership and checkout plugin updates, with what Kinsta, WP Engine and SiteGround document about copying, email, cron and database pushes, and a test script for enrollment and checkout.
Research guide · Updated
A pre-renewal hosting review for course and membership sites: when each host commits you, usage versus plan limits, the regular renewal price, unused add-ons, a backup restore test and a decision log.
Research guide · Updated
What happens after a .com or other generic domain expires under ICANN policy, how one registrar's grace, suspension and redemption timeline works, and the auto-renew, contact-email and lock checks that prevent a lapse.
Research guide · Updated
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