Creating a Free Website with WordPress Hosting Standard

WordPress Hosting Standard is a simplified version of Vendasta’s WordPress Hosting Pro product, designed to help small businesses quickly get online with an easy-to-use, eCommerce-ready website. It includes a visual builder, pre-installed store functionality, and hosting on Google Cloud—all at no additional cost for Partners on a paid subscription tier.

This guide outlines what WordPress Hosting Standard includes and walks through the full setup process.

What is WordPress Hosting Standard?

WordPress Hosting Standard is a hosted WordPress solution that comes pre-loaded with:

• Divi Builder – an intuitive visual page builder for customizing site layouts

• WooCommerce – a plugin for setting up and managing an online store

• Seven industry-specific templates – ready to customize for various business types

• Daily backups – the two most recent backups are retained

• Built-in analytics – view traffic, site speed, and popular pages

• Secure hosting – powered by Google Cloud Platform

• Free SSL certificate – automatically applied to secure your site

WordPress Hosting Standard is ideal for new resellers, businesses just starting online, or clients who need a fast and simple web presence.

How to Start Selling WordPress Hosting Standard

To begin offering WordPress Hosting Standard to your clients:

1. Log into Partner Center.

2. Navigate to Marketplace > Discover Products.

3. Search for WordPress Hosting.

4. Click Start Selling.

5. Select Done to complete the setup and publish it in your Store.

How to Set Up a WordPress Hosting Standard Site

Step 1: Choose a Subdomain

When a user first enters WordPress Hosting Standard, they’ll be prompted to set:

• Business name

• Marketing tagline

• Subdomain (e.g., mybusiness.websitepro.hosting)

Tip: Choose a subdomain that reflects the business name and is easy for customers to remember.

Click Next to proceed.

Step 2: Select a WordPress Hosting Template

WordPress Hosting Standard includes seven templates tailored to common industries:

Each template can be previewed before selection and is fully customizable using the Divi Builder.

Step 3: Customize the WordPress Hosting with Divi Builder

Once a template is selected, users can:

• Enable the Visual Builder for real-time editing

• Click on elements (text, images, modules) to edit, resize, or move them

• Add new sections by hovering and clicking the plus (+) icon

• Customize fonts, layouts, buttons, and spacing

• Use the media library to reuse or replace images

To save changes:

• Click the purple icon at the bottom of the screen to open the save menu

• Select Save on the right

• Return to the WordPress dashboard from the top-left menu

Step 4: Set Up the Online Store with WooCommerce

1. Create a WooCommerce account at woocommerce.com using the same email as the WordPress admin.

2. Complete the Setup Wizard to configure:

   • Store address and currency

   • Product types (physical, digital, or both)

   • Payment methods (Stripe, PayPal, or offline)

   • Shipping rates and zones

   • Optional add-ons like Jetpack (not required)

3. Start adding products:

   • Go to Products > Add New in the WordPress dashboard

   • Include product details, images, categories, and pricing

WooCommerce has extensive documentation and tutorials for managing orders, taxes, shipping, and more.

Managing Your WordPress Hosting

Built-in Analytics

The WordPress Hosting Standard dashboard displays insights such as:

• Website traffic trends

• Site load speed

• Most visited pages

This data helps users understand visitor behavior and performance.

Daily Backups

Backups are created automatically every day. WordPress Hosting Standard retains the two most recent backups. To restore a backup:

1. Go to the Backups tab in WordPress Hosting Standard.

2. Select a backup based on version/date.

3. Click Restore.

Each backup shows:

• WordPress version

• File and database sizes

• Number of posts, pages, and plugins

Limitations of WordPress Hosting Standard

• No support for custom domains (only subdomains)

• No staging environment

• Only two recent backups are stored

• Limited compared to WordPress Hosting Pro (but upgrade is easy)

Summary

WordPress Hosting Standard is the perfect entry point for businesses getting online for the first time. With free hosting, built-in store features, and simple customization, it allows your clients to launch a professional site with minimal setup. For more advanced needs like custom domains, staging environments, or full plugin flexibility, clients can upgrade to WordPress Hosting Pro at any time.