WordPress installation on DigitalOcean
This tutorial is a quick way of installing Wordpress on a DigitalOcean server, and will take you step by step from the choice of the webserver to the final installation of Wordpress.
DigitalOcean is a webhosting company that provides fast SSD based webservers. Among the good things provided by them, is the easyness of deploying a new webserver from scratch. That works like a charm, by comparing with AWS which is somewhat much more complicated to use and require a higher level of knowledges. For more information, have a look at the main page of DigitalOcean : DigitalOcean website
A web server is called a "Droplet" in the world of DigitalOcean. You can create as many droplets as you want, and destroy them just thereafter if needed. It's incredibily easy to manipulate. But, the main thing to know is that each droplet running, costs you a few bucks, as long as it is running. The price depends on the chosen web server characteristics, and on the used time.
Another point to take care of, is that even if you droplet is stopped, you always have to pay for the storage attached to your droplet, because the storage is never stopped.
Let's stop talking about DigitalOcean and just give it a try !
As a first step, you need to choose the distribution that suits your needs. In order to keep things simple, we'll go on a standard Ubuntu server, that already comes well equiped, and that is set as a default proposal.
Next, you need to choose the characteristics of your server. Just choose the standard plan, and it will be fine for testing purposes. By default, DigitalOcean proposes you the server priced at $40 per month. Again, for testing purposes, just choose the cheapest server, which is priced at $5 per month, billed hourly.
As our server already comes with storage, we don't need additional server storage for that installation of wordpress. We do not need either to setup automatic backups. Just let these options as is.
Concerning the region, the choice of the localization is very important when setting up a production server, in order to reduce latencies. Today, you can follow on the default choice of NewYork datacenter, or choose the one that seems the nearest to you.
Just keep all the other fields set as default, and click on the button "Create".
Within a blazing speed of around less than a minute, your droplet will be ready to be used. Just wait for the completion of the setup, indicated by the progress bar.