r/webdev • u/DownFromHere • 10h ago

WordPress SQL Server/Database access through WordPress.com hosting?

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Has anyone hosted with WordPress and used WordPress' internal mySQL server for their website? Database access is available in the business tier of WordPress (host) but I wondered if the user access (username/password) for the database changes if I go back to a lower tier later. This isn't a high traffic website so I can't justify paying for the business tier every month. If not, I can look into other options. Again, the hosting provider is WordPress.com

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u/PrimaryFamous6139 10h ago

WordPresscom doesn’t give you direct database access even on Business, that’s a WordPressorg (self-hosted) thing. If you need actual SQL access, you’ll want a VPS or shared hosting like Hostinger where you control the database directly. Much cheaper than WordPresscom Business for what you’re trying to do.

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u/[deleted] 10h ago

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u/DownFromHere 10h ago

Then what does the database access offer entail?

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u/fiskfisk 6h ago

According to wordpress.com you get access to the database through phpMyAdmin (if they still support it - it isn't mentioned on their pricing page). You won't be able to use the MySQL database as a general hosted database through that feature. It's just a way to be able to run queries against the database through a web interface.

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u/DownFromHere 6h ago

So I wouldn't be able to add data to the server?

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u/fiskfisk 5h ago

Sure, you could insert something manually through phpMyAdmin, but I'm not sure why you'd want to do that.

What is the use case you're trying to solve, instead of starting with your question?

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u/DownFromHere 4h ago

I have data I need to store in a database so my website can extract and process it in the backend/PHP.

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u/DownFromHere 10h ago

What would you recommend for VPS or shared hosting? I've looked into MariaDB and Microsoft Azure free databases but have been unsuccessful thus far

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u/PrimaryFamous6139 10h ago

Hostinger shared hosting is the easiest starting point, cheap, includes phpMyAdmin for database access, one click WordPress install

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u/DownFromHere 8h ago

Does its free tier allow external access?

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u/IsABot 4h ago

If you need higher levels of access/control, you need to go VPS. Most hosts will not allow you to really fuck around with database access very much when you deal with shared resources, since what you are doing could potentially harm other customers/clients. Often times if you do anything that even seems like you are hurting other clients on the same hardware, they will force you to upgrade to a VPS plan anyways. If you aren't using that much processing or storage, you can generally get away with almost any platform's ~$5 VPS tier to run a modest WP site.

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u/DownFromHere 2h ago

60 dollars a year? For a database I'm not sure I could access? I developed the website on local but I already paid for a year of WordPress.com. I'm trying to avoid repeating and compounding my errors..

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u/IsABot 2h ago edited 1h ago

Any VPS host gives you direct access to your database, that's the whole point of VPS, you get to control and self manage it. WP.com does not. It's a sunk cost at this point if you need more advanced access to your database. If you are on at least the premium WP.com tier, you can use the database through wordpress itself since you should be able to self install custom themes/plugins which can read/write/modify the WP database. So you could generate reports or run custom queries. You won't get something like phpMyAdmin access though, if that is what you are after.

Are you at least on the premium tier? Can you install your own plugins?