How isolated containers keep your WordPress site secure

When searching for a web host, it’s easy to get distracted by attractive pricing, sleek dashboards, and promises of speed. Many hosting providers highlight these aspects, often downplaying critical features like security.

This is because people are drawn to visual appeal and affordability without digging deeper into what truly matters — how secure the hosting environment is.

Security should be at the top of your priority list when selecting a host. It’s not just about finding a service that claims to offer security. It’s about understanding how that security is implemented and guaranteed.

For example, many providers offering cheap hosting plans rely on shared hosting environments. They may advertise security alongside affordability and convenience, but they often fail to mention that the technology behind shared hosting can introduce significant security risks, particularly for WordPress sites.

This is where isolated software containers come in. They take a more modern approach to securing websites and avoid the compromises that come with shared environments.

This article helps you understand why isolated software containers offer superior security compared to shared hosting and how they can safeguard your WordPress site.

Why shared web hosting is not the best choice

Shared web hosting has existed for a long time, dating back to the days of basic HTML websites. Users loved the low cost and the large amount of storage they offered. You could easily host several basic sites on a single account, making it easier to live with any shortcomings.

Things have changed. The rise of content management systems (CMS) like WordPress has placed greater demand on hosts.

These days, a host must power a database, process code (such as PHP), and serve large media files. This creates more potential for exploits and breakage, and these sites require more resources and tighter security measures.

Here’s why shared hosting isn’t an ideal choice for modern websites:

• You share more than server space — Shared hosting accounts share everything. You share the server’s operating system, CPU cycles, memory, and more. There’s no guarantee that your site will always have the resources it needs.
• Your accounts are not completely private — Other users may not be able to see your account, but a hacker with root access can. From there, they can spread malware across the server and access account and user data.
• Sharing resources impacts performance — A site using too many resources will impact others on the server, leading to poor or unstable performance. If any site experiences a DDoS attack, this may slow down or even crash other sites on the server.

As an agency, shared hosting can seem like a good deal since you host multiple sites. However, the issues above point to why this is a bad idea. You could end up with hacked sites or be hampered by poor performance.

This negates any pricing advantage you may gain from using shared hosting. The truth is that shared hosting was once all most users needed. However, its best days are over.

Better security through isolated software containers

The security demands of modern websites mean that sharing resources is too dangerous. Web hosts needed to evolve.

New technology was needed to ensure a safer hosting environment. One that allows each site to exist independently of each other.

Isolated software containers are one such solution. They build a virtual wall around each website, mitigating the impact of other sites on the server. They’re also more secure and performant.

Let’s look at how isolated software containers work and why they’re a better option for WordPress.

What are isolated software containers?

An isolated software container is a standalone package that includes everything you need to run an application — like your WordPress website. Each container has dedicated resources, including memory, CPU cycles, and file systems. The only shared resource is the server’s OS kernel.

This setup introduces a more complex environment than shared hosting, requiring a host with expertise in configuring and maintaining these containers securely and efficiently.

How do they work? Here are the components for an isolated software container:

• Linux containers — are the backbone of most isolated software containers. They allow you to create lightweight, secure environments where applications can run in isolation. Kinsta uses LXC (Linux Containers) and LXD (a container hypervisor) as the underlying container technology for our servers.
• Secure configuration — Keeping containers isolated and secure requires a carefully configured server. This involves using secure namespaces, which separate different processes, and control groups (cgroups), which allocate resources like CPU and memory. This setup ensures that each container only has access to its allocated resources, preventing interference from other containers.
• Dedicated resources — Each container includes dedicated resources, ensuring that your application has the CPU cycles, memory, and storage to perform optimally.

At Kinsta, we leverage all the key ingredients of isolated software containers to deliver a high-performance, secure hosting environment.

Each website operates in its isolated container, ensuring that resources like CPU, memory, and storage are allocated exclusively, optimizing performance and stability. This setup allows us to provide a reliable and secure experience for every site we host.

In addition, we integrate with top-tier technologies like Cloudflare and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to add an extra layer of security and performance. Kinsta uses Cloudflare’s built-in firewall to filter suspicious traffic and prevent DDoS attacks, while our CDN services, powered by Cloudflare, enhance performance with image optimization and HTTP/3 support.

We also take advantage of encryption. Kinsta only accepts encrypted connections via SSH and HTTPS. We also offer free SSL certificates with wildcard domain support.

For more details on how isolated software containers work, see “Isolated container technology: Everything you need to know.”