WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) in the world, powering over 40% of all websites on the internet. However, running WordPress on a traditional server can be costly, inefficient, and insecure. That’s why many web developers and bloggers are looking for alternative ways to host their WordPress sites, such as using ARM servers.

ARM servers are based on a different architecture than the conventional x86 servers, which offer several advantages such as lower power consumption, higher performance, and better scalability. In this article, we will show you how to install WordPress on Ubuntu ARM, using two of the best providers of ARM servers: Oracle Cloud and Hetzner Cloud. We will also show you how to use CloudPanel, a free and open-source control panel for managing your WordPress site on ARM.

Key Takeaways

• ARM servers are more energy-efficient, faster, and cheaper than x86 servers.
• You can get free ARM servers from Oracle Cloud or low-cost ARM servers from Hetzner Cloud.
• You can install WordPress on Ubuntu ARM using CloudPanel, a simple and powerful control panel for WordPress.
• You can enjoy the benefits of running WordPress on ARM, such as faster loading times, lower costs, and higher security.

What is ARM

ARM stands for Advanced RISC Machine, which is a type of processor architecture that uses a reduced instruction set (RISC) to perform operations more efficiently. Unlike x86 processors, which have complex and variable-length instructions, ARM processors have simple and fixed-length instructions, which allow them to execute more instructions per clock cycle.

ARM processors are widely used in mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, because they consume less power and generate less heat than x86 processors. However, in recent years, ARM processors have also gained popularity in the server market, as they offer better performance per watt and per dollar than x86 processors.

Some of the benefits of using ARM servers are:

• Energy efficiency: ARM servers use less electricity and produce less carbon emissions than x86 servers, which can save you money and help the environment.
• Performance: ARM servers can handle more requests and deliver faster responses than x86 servers, which can improve your website’s user experience and SEO ranking.
• Scalability: ARM servers can scale up or down easily according to your website’s traffic and resource needs, which can prevent downtime and overprovisioning.
• Security: ARM servers have built-in security features, such as memory protection and encryption, which can protect your website from hackers and malware.

You can check this article for a more detailed difference between ARM and x86

Where to Get ARM Servers

There are several cloud providers that offer ARM servers for hosting your WordPress site. However, not all of them are equally reliable, affordable, and easy to use. In this article, we will focus on two of the best options: Oracle Cloud and Hetzner Cloud.

Oracle Free Tier

Oracle Cloud is one of the leading cloud platforms in the world, offering a wide range of services and solutions for various applications and industries. One of the best features of Oracle Cloud is its free tier, which allows you to use some of its services for free forever.

One of the services that you can use for free is the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Compute service, which lets you create and manage virtual machines (VMs) in the cloud. You can choose from different types of VMs, including AMD-based VMs, Intel-based VMs, and ARM-based VMs.

The ARM-based VMs are powered by Ampere Altra processors, which have 80 cores and 160 threads each. You can get up to four ARM-based VMs for free, each with 24 GB of RAM and 200 GB of block storage. You can also get up to 10 TB of outbound data transfer per month for free.

To get started with Oracle Free Tier, you need to sign up for an Oracle Cloud account using your email address. You will also need to provide your credit card information for verification purposes, but you will not be charged unless you exceed the free limits or use paid services.

Once you have your account ready, you can follow these steps to create an ARM-based VM on Oracle Cloud:

1. Log in to your Oracle Cloud console and click on Create a VM instance.
2. Enter a name for your instance and select Change image source.
3. Select Canonical Ubuntu 22.04 Minimal as the image source and click Select image.
4. Select Change shape and choose VM.Standard.A1.Flex as the shape type.
5. Enter 1 as the number of cores or 4 and 6 to 24 as the amount of memory (in GB) and click Select shape.
6. Select Create new virtual cloud network as the network type and enter a name for your network.
7. Select Assign a public IP address as the public IP address type and click Create.

You have now created an ARM-based VM on Oracle Cloud. You can access it using SSH with the username ubuntu and the private key that you downloaded during the instance creation.

Hetzner Cloud

Hetzner Cloud is another cloud platform that offers ARM servers for hosting your WordPress site. Hetzner Cloud is known for its low prices, high performance, and excellent customer service. You can get ARM servers from Hetzner Cloud starting from €4.51 per month, which includes 4 GB of RAM, 40 GB of SSD storage, and 20 TB of traffic.

You can check this Hetzner Review for more details about Hetzner

To get started with Hetzner Cloud, you need to sign up for a Hetzner Cloud account using your email address. You will also need to provide your credit card information or use PayPal to add funds to your account.

Once you have your account ready, you can follow these steps to create an ARM-based server on Hetzner Cloud:

1. Log in to your Hetzner Cloud console and click on Add Server.
2. Enter a name for your server and select Ubuntu 22.04 as the image.
3. Select CAX11 as the server type and choose a location for your server.
4. Select Enable IPv6 and Enable backups as the additional features and click Create & Buy Now.

You have now created an ARM-based server on Hetzner Cloud. You can access it using SSH with the username root and the password that you received via email.

How to Install WordPress on Ubuntu ARM

Now that you have your ARM server ready, you can install WordPress on it using CloudPanel, a free and open-source control panel for managing your WordPress site on ARM. CloudPanel is designed to be simple, fast, and secure, and it supports various features such as SSL certificates, caching, backups, firewall, cron jobs, and more.

To install WordPress on Ubuntu ARM using CloudPanel, you need to follow these steps:

Oracle Free Tier Configs

If you are using Oracle Free Tier, you need to configure some settings before installing CloudPanel. You need to open the port 80 and 443,8443 on your instance’s security list, which are used for HTTP and HTTPS traffic. You also need to disable the firewall on your instance, which may interfere with CloudPanel’s firewall rules.

To open the port 80 and 443,8443 on your instance’s security list, you need to do the following:

1. Log in to your Oracle Cloud console and click on Networking > Virtual Cloud Networks.
2. Click on the name of your virtual cloud network that you created for your instance.
3. Click on Security Lists and then click on the name of your security list that is associated with your instance.
4. Click on Add Ingress Rules and enter the following values:
   • Source CIDR: 0.0.0.0/0
   • IP Protocol: TCP
   • Source Port Range: (leave blank)
   • Destination Port Range: 80
5. Click on Add Ingress Rule again and enter the following values:
   • Source CIDR: 0.0.0.0/0
   • IP Protocol: TCP
   • Source Port Range: (leave blank)
   • Destination Port Range: 443
6. Click on Add Ingress Rule again and enter the following values:
   • Source CIDR: 0.0.0.0/0
   • IP Protocol: TCP
   • Source Port Range: (leave blank)
   • Destination Port Range: 8443
7. Click on Save Changes.

Hetzner Configs

If you are using Hetzner Cloud, you do not need to configure any settings before installing CloudPanel. You just need to create an ARM VM

Step 1: CloudPanel Install

After the VPS server is created you will need to login to the VPS and start updating the VPS and then install CloudPanel.

Update VPS:

apt update && apt -y upgrade && apt -y install curl wget sudo

Then you should reboot the VPS.

Install CloudPanel:

We are going to install cloudpanel with MariaDB 10.11 on Hetzner:

curl -sS https://installer.cloudpanel.io/ce/v2/install.sh -o install.sh; \
echo "3c30168958264ced81ca9b58dbc55b4d28585d9066b9da085f2b130ae91c50f6 install.sh" | \
sha256sum -c && sudo CLOUD=hetzner DB_ENGINE=MARIADB_10.11 bash install.sh

We are going to install cloudpanel with MariaDB 10.11 on Oracle Free tier.

curl -sS https://installer.cloudpanel.io/ce/v2/install.sh -o install.sh; \
echo "3c30168958264ced81ca9b58dbc55b4d28585d9066b9da085f2b130ae91c50f6 install.sh" | \
sha256sum -c && sudo DB_ENGINE=MARIADB_10.11 bash install.sh

After the installation finishes, you can access the admin interface with https://serverIpAddress:8443, the video will have the details.

Step 2: Point Domain to Hetzner IP address

I am using Cloudflare for this, what you need to do is to go there and create an admin A record that you are going to use for accessing securely the admin interface and point the main domain to the IP address as in the below picture:

In the admin area, under settings, you need to add the admin URL as below:

Step 3: Create WordPress Website

To add a WordPress website is easy, you just go to Sites and hit Add Site, in there you have Create WordPress website:

After you introduce the details and hit create:

After the website will be created, you can go and edit the PHP to use the 8.1 or any version you may want:

If you are interested to know more about cloudpanel and server management you can check the Master Cloudpanel course.

Conclusions

In this article, we have shown you how to install WordPress on Ubuntu ARM using CloudPanel, a free and open-source control panel for managing your WordPress site on ARM. We have also explained the benefits of using ARM servers, such as lower power consumption, higher performance, and better scalability. We have also compared two of the best providers of ARM servers: Oracle Cloud and Hetzner Cloud.

By following this guide, you can enjoy the advantages of running WordPress on ARM, such as faster loading times, lower costs, and higher security. You can also easily manage your WordPress site using CloudPanel, which supports various features such as SSL certificates, caching, backups, firewall, cron jobs, and more.

We hope you found this article helpful and informative. If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to leave a comment below. Thank you for reading!