I'm hosting a low-traffic website through WordPress.com and want to understand how database access works. The Business plan mentions database-related access, but I'm unsure whether it provides direct MySQL or SQL access, and whether the database username and password would change if I later downgrade to a cheaper plan. I can't justify paying for the Business plan indefinitely, so I'm also considering moving to another hosting provider or using a self-hosted WordPress setup. What would be the most affordable option if I need direct database control?
1 Answer
WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress are two different setups. WordPress.com manages the underlying infrastructure and generally doesn’t give you raw database credentials or unrestricted SQL access, even on higher-tier plans. If you need full control of MySQL or MariaDB, use the software from WordPress.org with an inexpensive shared hosting plan or VPS. That gives you ownership of the site files and database and is often cheaper for a low-traffic site.
That distinction helped. I was looking at MariaDB and Azure’s free database options, but I haven’t had much luck getting either configured. Is a basic shared WordPress host usually simpler than setting up a VPS?