How to Host a WordPress Site on a Cloud Server Using EasyEngine

For some, moving from shared web hosting to a virtual dedicated server (VPS) can seem like a monumental task. Think again: Deploying a WordPress site on a VPS server takes only a few minutes, and it’s simple. Besides, a virtual server can be less expensive and more efficient than shared hosting.

With EasyEngine, you can create a WordPress site with a few commands. EasyEngine uses Docker technology to turn a complete Web environment (Linux, Nginx, PHP, and MySQL) into a portable, easy-to-deploy application.

What’s more, for only $ 5 / month, you can have your web server with DigitalOcean. It’s much less expensive than the majority of shared hosting packages.

In this tutorial, we will see how to deploy a virtual server with DigitalOcean and then install EasyEngine.

Step # 1: Creating a DigitalOcean Account

DigitalOcean is a cloud infrastructure provider. They offer various services such as virtual servers, database hosting, storage space, and content distribution (CDN) among others.

First, visit https://cloud.digitalocean.com/registrations/new and create your account. Not only is it free but you will receive a $ 100 credit to register.

Step # 2: Creating a Droplet

Droplet is the name given by DigitalOcean to their virtual server instances. To host your WordPress site with EasyEngine, you will need a Droplet using the Ubuntu operating system.

Here’s how to create a Droplet:

1. Log in to your DigitalOcean account.
2. Open the “Create” menu and select “Droplet:”

   

3. Under the “Distributions” tab, select Ubuntu 18.04:

   

4. Select the “Standard” plan at $ 5 per month:

   

5. Enable the “Backup” option, it’s only a $ 1 per month, and the whole process is automated.
6. Select the location of the data center where you want to deploy your cloud server:

   

7. Set the hostname for the cloud server. Do not use your domain name. Use a subdomain or just something else.

   

8. Now press the “Create” button at the bottom of the screen.

The Droplet creation should only take a few seconds at most.

Step # 3: Installing EasyEngine

Once the Droplet is active, you will receive an email from DigitalOcean. This email contains the IP address of the server as well as the password of the “root” account.

From the DigitalOcean control panel, click on the menu corresponding to your new Droplet, then select “Console”:

Log in to the console as a “root” user and use the password received by email. When you first log in, you will be prompted to change your password.

You are now at the Linux Ubuntu command prompt. Let’s start by updating the operating system. Type these commands at the prompt:

apt update -y
apt upgrade -y
apt autoremove -y

Once the updates are complete, install EasyEngine with this command:

wget -qO ee rt.cx/ee4 && sudo bash ee

Then create your first WordPress site:

ee site create votre-site-web.com --type=wp --admin-user=USERNAME --admin-pass=PASSWORD --ssl=le

Once the creation of the website is completed, EasyEngine displays the technical information related to the installation:

EasyEngine will even take care of requesting and installing a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate.

At this point, all you have to do is change the DNS records for your domain to point to the IP address of your DigitalOcean VPS.

Note that you can create as many WordPress sites as you want on a single Droplet. Not bad for $ 5 a month.

Some useful commands

Here are some basic commands that can be useful with EasyEngine.

View the list of WordPress sites:

ee site list

Disable a WordPress site:

ee site disable yourwebsite.com

Delete a site:

ee site delete yourwebsite.com

Restart a site:

ee site restart yourwebsite.com

Update the installation of WordPress on a website:

ee site update yourwebsite.com

Update EasyEngine:

ee cli check-update

You can find the complete list of EasyEngine commands here.

But what about performance?

I tested the loading speed of the WordPress site as it is after it was created with EasyEngine. No optimization has been made to the site.

Here are the results of the performance test performed with GTmetrix:

The loading speed is higher than that of several shared hosting services. With a bit of optimization, we can achieve a very decent level of performance. And if the traffic increases with time, it is possible to upgrade your Droplet without having to reinstall anything.

In return, Droplets do not have a control panel such as cPanel or Plesk. Everything must be managed from the command line. Fortunately, EasyEngine has been designed to require as little management as possible. But if you don’t want to deal with the hassle of server management, Cloudways is a great alternative. You can still get your WordPress site hosted with DigitalOcean but let the Cloudways team take care of it.

Do not forget to click here to get $ 100 free credit with DigitalOcean.