WordPress and AWS - High Availability Hosting Explained

Perfect Partners for High Availability Solutions.

If your business's website is critical and built on WordPress, you need a high-availability solution. High availability ensures your website remains accessible even during hardware failures, software issues, or unexpected traffic spikes.

WordPress powers over 40% of websites, and since 2008, we've built campaign sites, corporate websites, and customer portals on the platform. However, in our experience, traditional hosting solutions limit WordPress’s potential and increase your risks, which is where AWS comes in.

We combine WordPress with Amazon Web Services (AWS)'s robust infrastructure and services to deliver high availability to meet our clients’ business demands = no downtime, lost revenue, or reduced customer trust.

AWS: Delivering the Backbone of High Availability

AWS is a leading cloud computing platform with a robust infrastructure for high availability. For example, when delivering high-availability WordPress sites, we choose AWS because of its global data centres. This ensures that your website remains accessible during server failures or traffic spikes.

Key AWS Services for High Availability

• Amazon EC2 - Scalable virtual servers adapt to varying traffic loads.
• Amazon S3 - Reliable, scalable storage for your website assets.
• Amazon RDS - Managed databases with automated backups and high availability.
• Amazon CloudFront - A global CDN that accelerates website load times.
• Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) - Distributes traffic across multiple servers to prevent overloads.
• Auto Scaling - Automatically adjusts server resources based on traffic demand.

Why choose AWS over Azure for WordPress hosting

Azure is the right call for most enterprise WordPress deployments, particularly when your organisation already runs on Microsoft infrastructure. But AWS has genuine strengths that make it the better fit in specific situations.

AWS leads on raw ecosystem maturity for WordPress. Services like Amazon EC2, RDS, CloudFront, and Elastic Load Balancing have been widely used for WordPress at scale for longer than their Azure equivalents, and the volume of community documentation, managed plugins, and third-party tooling built around AWS reflects that. If your team has deep AWS expertise, or your stack already leans on AWS services such as S3 for media storage, that institutional knowledge has real operational value.

AWS also tends to offer more granular control over infrastructure configuration. For engineering teams who want to fine-tune their hosting environment, custom VPC setups, reserved instance pricing, or specific compliance configurations, AWS gives more surface area to work with.

Where AWS makes the clearest case is for organisations with no existing Microsoft dependency. If Office 365, Active Directory, and Azure DevOps aren't already part of your environment, the integration advantages that make Azure compelling simply don't apply. In that scenario, AWS's broader WordPress-specific tooling and larger managed hosting partner ecosystem become more relevant factors.

The honest answer is that both platforms can reliably deliver high-availability WordPress. The right choice depends on your existing infrastructure, your team's expertise, and which ecosystem you're already invested in. We work with both, and we'll tell you which makes more sense for your situation before the project starts.

The Synergy Between WordPress and AWS 

Deploying WordPress on AWS maximises the strengths of both platforms, ensuring your website handles daily traffic fluctuations and unexpected surges while maintaining high availability.

The benefits of the WordPress-AWS combination include:

• Scalability - AWS’s auto-scaling handles traffic spikes without performance issues.
• Redundancy - Multiple data centres minimise downtime.
• Security - AWS’s security features, including DDoS protection, safeguard your website.
• Global Reach - Fast content delivery worldwide enhances the user experience.
• Cost Efficiency - Pay-as-you-go pricing optimises costs.

Arekibo - your WordPress partner 

We have a significant track record of delivering WordPress solutions, all optimised for high availability. Our team ensures your website is visually engaging, technically robust, scalable, secure, and underpinned with tailored support and maintenance services. Plus, while your customers engage with your digital presence, our dedicated hosting team focuses on delivering high availability on AWS to ensure your website consistently delivers a great customer experience.

Additional Reading - High-availability + WordPress + AWS

• WordPress.org – WordPress Statistics - Key statistics on WordPress's global usage, highlighting its dominance as a content management system.
• AWS - What is AWS? - An overview of AWS’s core services and benefits, essential for understanding its cloud computing capabilities. 
• Cloudflare - What is a Content Delivery Network (CDN)? - Cloudflare explains the role of CDNs in enhancing website performance, a key resource for those interested in faster, more reliable web delivery.
• Amazon - Auto Scaling Overview - AWS’s Auto Scaling page explains how to maintain website performance and cost-efficiency by automatically adjusting server capacity, ideal for businesses managing variable traffic.

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