Industry pundits predict that the eCommerce industry will grow to a whopping US$4.12tn by 2024. While the numbers might look unreal, given the steady growth of online commerce, the scenario is not very far-fetched!
What powers the eCommerce industry is reliable eCommerce platforms, of course, like Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, etc. That said, WooCommerce is one of the best options thanks to its optimized core that supports all types of small and mid-sized stores.
That said, to get the best performance out of WooCommerce, you need a hosting solution that ensures reliability, speed, and performance, and DigitalOcean checks all points.
This guide focuses on how to easily host WooCommerce on DigitalOcean. I’ll show you how to do this the easy way with Cloudways (managed way) and how to achieve this natively on DO (unmanaged way).
Let’s get started…
Why Host WooCommerce on DigitalOcean?
DigitalOcean is a cloud hosting provider that is headquartered in New York City, with 15 data center locations located in 9 different regions worldwide. This allows you to deploy a server closest to your audience for the best performance.
DO offers virtual private servers called ‘droplets’ that run on Linux.
The best part?
You can launch a basic droplet for as low as $4.00.
If you know what web hosting is and why it is crucial not to trust any cheap or unreliable web hosting provider, you’ll definitely get the appeal of DigitalOcean.
With that being said, let’s check out two ways to host WooCommerce on DigitalOcean—managed and unmanaged approach.
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How to Host WooCommerce on DigitalOcean [Managed & Unmanaged Approach]
We’ll cover two methods of hosting WooCommerce on DigitalOcean. The first method is going to be DO native, so you’ll need to sign up with your credit card to begin. Don’t worry. Your card is only charged at the end of the billing cycle or upon exceeding a usage threshold. That said, a pre-authorization charge of $1 will be incurred on your account but will be returned within a week.
The second method involves using Cloudways. You can sign up for a free trial without providing your credit card details. This approach is much easier as deploying a WooCommerce application on a DO server literally takes a few clicks.
Host WooCommerce on DigitalOcean Natively [Technical Approach]
To get started, make sure you sign up and create an account on DigitalOcean with your credit card.
.Once your account is created, follow the steps below:
- Click on the Create drop-down and select Droplets. Alternatively, you click on the link to head directly to the Droplet creation setup screen: Create WordPress-WooCommerce Droplet.
- You can select and configure the server specifications and other settings on the Create Droplets setup screen. The first step is to Choose Region where your server will be deployed. Choose a region for your DigitalOcean droplet that is nearest to your target audience.
- Next, choose a Datacenter.
- Next, scroll down, and you’ll see that WooCommerce is already selected under the Choose an Image option.
- Next, in the Droplet Type section, you can choose any plan that meets your requirements. However, I will go with Basic.
- Next, choose the CPU options for your DO droplet. I’ll select the lowest plan, i.e., $6/mo—$0.009 /hour
- Now select the authentication method. Using SSH keys for authentication is the recommended option. However, if you are not familiar with SSH keys, you can choose the password option, which I’m going to choose for the sake of simplicity. Make sure to set a strong password for your root user.
- Finalize all the details and click the Create Droplet button to create a droplet.
- Now your Droplet will be created in under a minute.
- Finally, here’s the server I created:
- You’re not done yet. Now we need to install WordPress on our server. To do this, we need to log into the Droplet via SSH to finish the WordPress setup. I’ll use Command Prompt on my Windows machine.
- Type ssh root@[your server’s IP]. Then, enter the password that we chose earlier.
- Once you enter your password, you’ll be able to access WordPress 1-Click App Droplet via SSH. Here, you’ll be prompted to enter your Domain or subdomain name. Since we don’t have a domain name, we can just type in our server’s IP address.
- Next, you’ll be prompted to create your new admin user account for WordPress. So, enter an email address you want to associate with your WordPress account.
- Next, choose a username you want to use to log into your WordPress dashboard.
- Next, choose a password.
- Next, choose Blog Title. I’ll type: WooCommerce DigitalOcean.
- Type “Y” when a prompt asks to verify if the information entered is correct.
- Next, you’ll be asked to configure LetsEncrypt to secure your site. You can choose to do this later as well, but I’ll go ahead and type “y” to configure LetsEncrypt SSL for my site.
- Next, enter your email address to receive urgent renewal and security notices. You can also type ‘C’ to cancel. I’ll go ahead and enter my email.
- Now type “Y” to agree to LetsEncrypt’s terms of service.
- Now type “Y” if you’re comfortable sharing your email address with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I see no harm in this, so I’ll just agree with it. Your account will be registered when you type “Y.“
- Now, select which names you would like to activate HTTPS for. I’ll leave the input blank, as that will pick all names available to me. In my case, it is www.142.93.114.68.
- Now, your WordPress installation will be complete.
- To access your WordPress site, use https://%YOUR_DOMAIN_Name%/wp-admin. Since we don’t have a domain, we used our server’s IP as a Domain and subdomain name. So we’ll use that to log in to our WordPress site.
- Now, you can enter your username and password to log in to your WordPress dashboard.
- And that is it. You can see that WooCommerce is installed on your WordPress installation. Now you can go ahead and design your store as you like.
- Here’s what our WooCommerce site will look like by default:
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Host WooCommerce on DigitalOcean With Cloudways [Easier Approach]
As you can see, natively deploying WooCommerce on DO requires some technical knowledge and quite a few steps. We’ll now deploy a WooCommorce application on a DO server through Cloudways-managed hosting to show you how simplified the second method is.
The best way to experience the power of the WooCommerce and DigitalOcean-based combo is to take advantage of the free trial period offered by Cloudways.
Let’s check out the easy steps to host WooCommerce on DigitalOcean.
Begin the process by clicking the START FREE button. Enter a valid email and a password for your Cloudways Managed Hosting Platform account. Since I already have an account, I’ll just sign in.
- The next step in installing WooCommerce on DigitalOcean is to verify your email address to complete the signup process on Cloudways.
- Once your verification is complete, you can create a new DigitalOcean server on Cloudways. I’ll choose Woocommerce Version 7.8.2 with WordPress Version 6.2.2 as my application and type in my Application Name and Server Name.
- Next, select the Cloud Infrastructure. While we do offer our customers the choice of five market-leading Infrastructure as a Service providers (IAAS), I’ve selected DigitalOcean for the purpose of this article.
- Select your preferred server size. Hover over to the server sizes to see the RAM and CPU sizes.
- Select an appropriate location for the server. Ensure that the server is located close to the target audience, as this speeds up the page load speed for the users!
- This is it! Your selections in the previous steps are consolidated into a server that is ready for use within minutes. Once the process ends, your WooCommerce store (powered by DigitalOcean) is open for business!
- Now, it will take a few minutes to take your server live.
- Once your server is launched, you will see two tabs: Servers and Applications. Click on the Applications tab.
- Select your Application → Access Details → Admin Panel to get your WordPress dashboard login credentials.
- Great! We have successfully installed WooCommerce on the DigitalOcean server using Cloudways. If we access our application, we can then login using our credentials.
- Enter your credentials, and you’ll be logged into the WordPress dashboard with WooCommerce already installed.
- And here’s the frontend of our WooCommerce site that we created with Cloudways.
Exploring Cloudways
Now that you have launched your server on managed WooCommerce cloud hosting provider Cloudways don’t forget to check out its features and offerings. In particular, see the custom-built recipe of the ThunderStack cloud infrastructure that powers the Platform to increase your website loading speed by 100%.
Other features include a free SSL certificate by Let’s Encrypt, and 24x7x365 support from the qualified experts who manage your servers. These are only some of the features that you can avail of when you sign up on Cloudways for a FREE Trial of 3 days on managed DigitalOcean Cloud hosting.
With Cloudways, you can focus on planning your marketing strategies and store management process and leave the rest to the platform.
Conclusion
There you have it. This is how you can host WooCommerce on DigitalOcean. In this blog, I walked you through two ways to deploy the WooCommerce application on DO:
- Using the native DO method, involving launching a droplet and using SSH to install WordPress WooCommerce.
- Using Cloudways managed hosting to deploy WooCommerce application on DigitalOcean server.
Both approaches are simple to follow; however, Cloudways makes things a lot easier by offering a platform through which you can launch your WooCommerce application in just a few clicks.
If you need help with anything or have suggestions, do let me know in the comments below.
Launch WooCommerce on DigitalOcean for High-Performing Stores
8 Data Centers, 150+ Features, Advanced Security, 24/7 Expert SupportSarim Javaid
Sarim Javaid is a Sr. Content Marketing Manager at Cloudways, where his role involves shaping compelling narratives and strategic content. Skilled at crafting cohesive stories from a flurry of ideas, Sarim's writing is driven by curiosity and a deep fascination with Google's evolving algorithms. Beyond the professional sphere, he's a music and art admirer and an overly-excited person.
