Wordpress on Amazon Linux 2023

I used Wordpress on Amazon Linux  for approximately one year, primarily for building, deploying, and managing websites hosted on AWS . During this time, I worked on setting up Wordpress environments, maintaining the server, handling updates, and optimizing performance for production use.

My main use case for Wordpress on Amazon Linux  is building and managing company websites and content-driven platforms. We primarily use it for corporate websites, informational pages, and learning or content management portals rather than pure blogging or high-traffic e-commerce. Wordpress allows for quick development and easy content updates, while Amazon Linux  on AWS  provides stability, security, and control over the hosting environment.

The best features of Wordpress on Amazon Linux come from the combination of Wordpress' ease of use and Amazon Linux 's stability and flexibility within AWS. From the Wordpress side, the most valuable features are the intuitive content management system, the large plugin and theme ecosystem, and the ability for non-technical users to manage content without developer involvement. This significantly reduces operational overhead and speeds up content updates. From the Amazon Linux and AWS side, the most valuable aspects are server-level control and reliability. Amazon Linux is well-optimized for AWS and integrates smoothly with core AWS services. We found the following particularly useful: integration with AWS EC2 , use of AWS Security Groups and IAM  for controlled access, easy monitoring through system logs, and AWS monitoring tools like CloudWatch.

Overall, the combination of Wordpress' simplicity and Amazon Linux's robustness makes it a strong solution for managing company websites in a cloud environment. Wordpress on Amazon Linux had a positive impact on our organization, mainly by saving time and reducing costs and simplifying workflows. Using Wordpress allowed us to build and update company websites quickly without relying on a dedicated development team, which significantly reduced development effort. From a workflow perspective, content updates became much faster because non-technical users could manage updates without needing developer assistance. This reduced dependency on technical teams and improved turnaround time for updates. We also benefited from cost control. Hosting Wordpress on Amazon Linux allowed us to scale resources based on actual usage rather than paying for a fixed or over-provisioned managed hosting plan. Overall, the combination improved efficiency, lowered the workload, and made website management more predictable and manageable.

Wordpress on Amazon Linux could be improved in several areas. One of the main challenges is performance optimization as sites grow. Wordpress can be resource-intensive when many plugins or high traffic are involved, and optimizing performance requires additional configurations such as caching layers, database tuning, and CDN  integration. More built-in performance guidance and default optimization would be beneficial. Security management also could be easier for non-expert teams. Although AWS provides strong security tools, better out-of-the-box scanning recommendations and monitoring for Wordpress environments would help reduce misconfiguration risks.

The documentation is open-sourced, and while AWS and Wordpress both have extensive documentation, it is often spread across multiple sources. A more unified, step-by-step guide specifically focused on Wordpress deployments on Amazon Linux covering security, performance, backups, and scaling could be very helpful. From a support perspective, troubleshooting issues often involves navigating between Wordpress community forums and AWS support resources. Clearer guidance on where responsibilities lie between the application layer and the infrastructure layer would make issue resolution faster and less confusing.

I have been working in the software engineering field for eight to nine months.

Performance, uptime, and integrations are stable because we use Amazon Linux. Security and access control, performance, uptime, and AWS integrations are key strengths of running Wordpress on Amazon Linux. From a performance standpoint, having full control over the Amazon Linux server allows us to tune the environment based on workload needs. In terms of uptime, hosting Wordpress on AWS infrastructure provides a reliable foundation. Amazon Linux is stable, and when combined with proper monitoring, backups, and restart policies, it helps maintain high availability. Integrations are another major advantage. Wordpress on Amazon Linux works seamlessly with other AWS services, allowing us to extend functionality beyond basic hosting. Overall, these features make Wordpress on Amazon Linux a dependable and flexible solution for running company websites in a cloud environment.

We run Wordpress on Amazon Linux on AWS EC2  instances. At the basic level, Wordpress can handle moderate traffic on a single Linux instance when properly configured. As demand grows, scalability can be achieved by increasing the instance size or adding additional resources, which is straightforward in AWS. For larger workloads, Wordpress on Amazon Linux can scale effectively by using cloud-native components such as load balancing, caching layers, and external storage, which we can implement easily on AWS. This allows the application to handle higher traffic and improve performance and availability. However, compared to fully managed platforms, scaling requires more planning and manual configuration.

We never reached out for customer support because we referred directly to documentation. We did not often need direct support, but when issues came up, we relied on the AWS documentation and support resources for infrastructure-related problems and the Wordpress community for Wordpress-specific issues such as plugins or themes. The large Wordpress community forums and plugin documentation were very helpful. There is no single dedicated support channel for Wordpress on Amazon Linux unless you purchase a premium AWS support plan. We referred to both Wordpress documentation and AWS documentation for Amazon Linux to solve the issues we encountered.

We evaluated two to three options before choosing Wordpress on Amazon Linux. We considered fully managed Wordpress hosting platforms, which offered simplicity and reduced effort. However, they are more expensive and provided less flexibility. We also looked at other CMS options and custom-built website approaches, but those require high development effort and longer setup time. Additionally, we evaluated hosting Wordpress on shared or traditional hosting environments, but those lacked scalability and security. Ultimately, Wordpress on Amazon Linux stood out because it offered the best balance between cost-efficiency, flexibility, and scalability.

The pricing and setup cost for Wordpress on Amazon Linux is relatively low. We used it via EC2 instances. Wordpress itself has no license cost, which is a major advantage. Amazon Linux is provided at no additional licensing charge when used on AWS. The primary cost is related to AWS infrastructure such as EC2 instances, storage, and data transfer. The setup cost was relatively low because we did not require specialized software licenses or expensive tooling. Because the environment is flexible, we could start small and scale resources only when needed, which helped control expenses.

I can advise that Wordpress on Amazon Linux is not recommended for beginners because some Linux knowledge is required. Linux fundamentals are necessary. My advice to others considering Wordpress on Amazon Linux is to first clearly understand the technical comfort level and website requirements. The setup works best for teams that want flexibility and full access to the server. I recommend starting with a simple, well-optimized setup and adding complexity only as needed. It is important to pay close attention to security hardening. It is also important to invest time in learning basic AWS concepts such as EC2, security groups, and IAM , as these play a key role in managing the environment effectively.

It is not recommended for beginners to start with Wordpress on Amazon Linux because it requires prerequisite knowledge of Amazon AWS fundamentals and Linux. While Wordpress is simple and we can refer to documentation for plugins and themes, it is essential to start with basic AWS fundamentals, which helps in understanding the environment before using Wordpress on Amazon Linux. I would rate this solution an eight out of ten based on my experience.

My main use case for Wordpress on Amazon Linux  is to deploy the website of our previous company and also the LMS . A specific example of how I used Wordpress on Amazon Linux for our website or LMS  is that the company website was entirely on Wordpress and hosted on Amazon Linux  using AWS  Lightsail servers. Our LMS was also entirely on Wordpress and used a Wordpress LMS plugin, and it was also deployed on Amazon Linux  on AWS  Lightsail. Later, we switched to AWS EC2  servers.

About my use case or how I deployed Wordpress on Amazon Linux, we went through the AWS console and created a server and deployed AWS right there.

The best features that Wordpress on Amazon Linux offers include that Wordpress is a very good system where you can start building your website, and I would say one of the main things is the availability of themes. You have thousands of themes available, and you can buy a theme, install it there, and you get a very nice looking site. Another thing is the Wordpress ecosystem, the whole ecosystem. Those are the main things.

The features of themes and the Wordpress ecosystem helped my team and made our projects easier. Our LMS is entirely on Wordpress and it is using a plugin called LearnDash , which is a totally all-in-one Wordpress LMS plugin that has support for almost everything. If some support is not there, we can install another plugin or another theme, in this case, to change appearance as well. You can get basically anything done, and LearnDash  is one of the best plugins I have seen that does the full job of an entire LMS.

Regarding the features of Wordpress on Amazon Linux, when it comes to specifically Amazon Linux, I have seen some good optimizations, such as how easy it is to start the whole server, start the database, and everything at one command. Those specific improvements for Amazon Linux when it comes to Wordpress are really good, such as checking status and restarting services with just one single command, unlike a normal Linux distribution where you would have to run multiple commands. Amazon Linux is actually optimized just for Wordpress in this case, so it is really good.

Wordpress on Amazon Linux has positively impacted my organization because it allowed us to start new websites really easily, and when there was something to edit on our website, we did not need to go to developers to get it done. Anyone could do it with the Wordpress element editor. We also needed landing pages for separate business entities or promotional campaigns, and when we needed that, Wordpress was the place to go because it was really easy to get started with.

With Wordpress, we saved a lot of time and money because if it was not for it, we would have to pay for developers and keep a team of web designers on our pocket to get our websites done. With the really easy, non-technical user-friendly editor, it is easy to do things. We could spin up a whole website within a few days, thanks to the Wordpress themes, which was a really big win.

While Wordpress is all good, one of the main key issues I see is performance. Wordpress is not actually suited for some tasks, especially with our LMS, as admin-side tasks such as adding new courses or changing course content used to take a lot of time, sometimes taking two or three minutes to reload or save simple content. Those kinds of performance lags are things we do not really appreciate.

Adding to needed improvements, Wordpress is not a system that is entirely optimized for some of the things that people use it for. Wordpress was meant to be a blogging system, but later optimizations were added, allowing it to be used for anything. The JavaScripts you run on top of Wordpress are causing performance issues. For our website, we had an issue where it would take five to ten seconds to load a very simple page, which is not good when it comes to performance. Performance is actually the number one complaint I have regarding Wordpress, along with the hidden errors that require effort to find.

I have been working in my current field for around three years. I have been using Wordpress on Amazon Linux  for around two years.

Wordpress on Amazon Linux is stable, but some plugins can make it a very unstable minefield. You have to be very mindful about the plugins you add, updates you do, and especially be cautious with unverified plugins as it can easily become unstable.

Wordpress on Amazon Linux is scalable. You can set up load balancing to make it scalable, but for a million-user project, I would not say Wordpress is the best choice; you might need a clean-coded alternative. However, for companies scaling from 100 to 10,000, Wordpress is actually an ideal solution.

The customer support for Wordpress on Amazon Linux was really good. Whenever we had issues, the AWS support team would contact us through messages or emails and resolve them easily.

Negative

We did purchase Wordpress on Amazon Linux through the AWS Marketplace .

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that it was free to use, but we had to pay for the servers. Lightsail actually offered us a very sweet deal at around $5 a month for the base plan, which was really good and provided us a lot of abilities with our website. For our LMS, which was memory intensive and had performance issues, we had to go for a higher plan.

With Wordpress, we saved money because we did not have to pay for products such as Framer  or Webflow, which charge a ridiculous amount of money. It also allowed us to build sites quickly, helping us attract more visitors to our website and thus increasing sales.

With Wordpress, we saved money because we did not have to pay for products such as Framer  or Webflow, which charge a ridiculous amount of money.

We did not evaluate other options before choosing Wordpress on Amazon Linux, but we did consider Webflow and Framer while doing so. They had nice looking UIs and websites, but were very expensive, and moving an entire website from Wordpress to them did not make sense, so we decided to stick with Wordpress.

My advice to others looking into using Wordpress on Amazon Linux is that it is a really good platform to start your websites. One thing I would mention is to look for a good theme and start from there. When installing plugins, be mindful not to install everything, as it can easily become unoptimized, sluggish, and buggy. Also, do not install unauthorized installations such as nulled plugins, as that keeps your site at risk. Purchase the plugin you want, install it, and if it does not work, you can always get a refund and try a new one. Be mindful, and you can have a really nice working website or service up and running within a week. Guaranteed.

My name is Rusiru Sapnindu and I work as a marketing automation specialist and a software engineer at AdUp. I previously worked at a company called Metana  as a research and development engineer. That is where I mainly used Wordpress on Amazon Linux.

Wordpress on Amazon Linux is deployed in my organization on public and private clouds. I would rate this product a 7 out of 10.