Best Web Hosting for Membership Sites Tested with PMPro

If your site runs Paid Memberships Pro (PMPro), the wrong host will slow it down, break key features like checkout and login, or fail under traffic spikes. Most hosts were made for blogs. Membership sites are different and need infrastructure built for multiple concurrent logged-in members, each with a unique view of paywalled content and account history.

This guide explains what makes membership sites uniquely demanding, how to vet your host, and the three hosting providers we actually recommend for PMPro sites in 2025 and beyond.

Why Membership Sites Break “Normal” Hosting

Most WordPress hosts are optimized for static pages and anonymous traffic. A restaurant site, a portfolio, or a blog post are no problem for a cheap hosting plan.

But membership sites are a different beast:

• Logged-in users on every page
• Payment gateway API calls
• Discount code validation
• Custom content visibility rules
• Dynamic dashboards and profile data
• Admins running various reports on member data
• Community and course integrations
• Third party calls to sync data to your CRM or EMS
• Occasionally members list imports and exports
• Checkout flows with real money at stake

All of this adds real-time, CPU-heavy load that shared or generic hosting are not designed to handle, especially under multiple concurrent users. And when aggressive caching is layered on top (which most hosts use to boost performance), things can start to break in serious ways:

• Members see the wrong content. One user’s dashboard shows another user’s data.
• Logged-in users get blocked from paywalled content they should have access to.
• Admin reports hang or time out or take 30+ seconds to generate.
• Checkouts fail silently or error out, especially during peak sales periods or high-traffic events.
• Dynamic content loads stale or out of sync, especially in course progress, forum activity, or renewal status.

These aren’t just bugs, they are points of failure that erode trust and kill conversions. That’s why membership sites need hosting designed for logged-in traffic, not blog traffic.

General Rules for Hosting a WordPress Site Running Paid Memberships Pro

Membership sites are not typical WordPress sites. They require more from your hosting provider. Skipping these essentials can lead to site slowdowns, broken checkouts, or worse, lost revenue. Here’s what to look for (and avoid).

Avoid Shared Hosting

Why it matters: Shared hosting is like renting a bunk bed in a crowded dorm. You’re sharing CPU, memory, and bandwidth with dozens (or hundreds) of other websites. You’re also potentially sharing security breeches and fatal flaws.

Membership sites involve logged-in users, real-time page access checks, payment gateways, and resource-heavy plugins. All of that puts strain on the server. Shared hosting doesn’t just slow down under pressure, it collapses.

Our advice: Always start with at least a VPS (Virtual Private Server) or a managed host with dedicated resources. Even better: choose a host that knows what logged-in performance actually means.

Budget for Quality Hosting

Why it matters: Cheap hosting often hides costs elsewhere: in performance degradation, downtime, or needing 4+ extra plugins to patch over limitations.

Expect to pay at least $30/month for hosting that can reliably power your PMPro site. Below that range, you are either looking at shared hosting or a plan that will not hold up under even light load.

Our advice: If your business relies on member payments, invest in infrastructure that can support it. Hosting is not where you want to cut corners.

Choose Linux Over Windows

Why it matters: WordPress (and PMPro) are built for Linux environments. Windows-based servers require extra compatibility layers (like WAMP or IIS), which introduce complexity and performance quirks.

Our advice: Stick with Linux-based hosting (Ubuntu or similar). It’s what we test against, what most managed hosts use, and what the vast majority of WordPress infrastructure is optimized for.

Dedicated IP and SSL Certificate: Non-Negotiables

Why it matters: Secure member logins, payments, and data protection require SSL encryption. Many hosts offer shared SSL, but for ecommerce or member sites, a dedicated IP and proper certificate setup improve trust and reliability.

Our advice: Make sure SSL is included (most hosts do this via Let’s Encrypt), and confirm that your site has its own IP address, not one shared with unrelated sites.

Upgrade If Necessary

Why it matters: Many site owners start with shared hosting or an entry-level plan. Then they forget to upgrade as their site grows. If you are noticing slow performance or checkout issues, your hosting plan is often the bottleneck.

Our advice: Don’t hesitate to move up to a VPS or better. Most quality hosts will assist with the migration, and you will see immediate improvements in site responsiveness and reliability.

Manage Caching (With Precision)

Why it matters: Most WordPress caching systems (especially on shared hosts) are optimized for anonymous traffic and static pages. Membership sites are dynamic.

Pages like /login/ or /membership-checkout/ must never be cached.

Improper caching leads to:

• Logged-in users seeing the wrong content
• Checkout failures
• Inaccurate dashboards or reports

Our advice: Choose a host that allows granular cache exclusions. Better yet if they include Object Caching at no extra cost, like PMPro Hosting. You should be able to exclude key PMPro URLs or disable caching entirely where needed.

Expect Performance Without Caching

Why it matters: If your site only performs well when caching is enabled, it is not truly performant. There are number of pages that you simply cannot cache. But, these pages must load quickly, or you’ll risk tanking your conversion rates.

Our advice: Test your site with caching complete disabled, especially for logged-in user pages. This is the true test of a host’s infrastructure. PMPro Hosting and MemberHost, for example, bake speed into the stack, not just cache rules.

Performance Benchmarks for Recommended Hosts

We ran early load tests to simulate 10 concurrent logged-in users hitting PMPro endpoints.

• t/s (transactions per second): the higher, the better.
• response time: the lower, the better.
• availability: percentage of successful requests.

Here’s how they stack up so far:

Endpoint / Action	PMPro Hosting	Kinsta Hosting	MemberHost
Login	18 t/s ~0.53s response time 100% availability	19 t/s ~0.50s response time 100% availability	TBD
Membership Checkout	2 t/s ~4.49s response time 9.1% availability	2 t/s ~4.59s response time 14% availability	TBD
Change Membership Level	52 t/s ~0.19s response time 100% availability	38 t/s ~0.26s response time 100% availability	TBD
Cancel Membership	51 t/s ~0.20s response time 100% availability	18 t/s ~0.52s response time 100% availability	TBD
Search Site	48 t/s ~0.21s response time 100% availability	19 t/s ~0.50s response time 100% availability	TBD
Admin Reports	33 t/s ~0.29s response time 100% availability	17 t/s ~0.56s response time 100% availability	TBD
Member Export (CSV)	43 t/s ~0.23s response time 100% availability	19 t/s ~0.51s response time 100% availability	TBD

We will update these results with full MemberHost numbers as soon as formal benchmarking is complete.