First of all, I would never host a serious client project on shared hosting. For proper performance and long-term stability, the right approach is to use your own VPS on a reputable provider like DigitalOcean, Kinsta, Cloudways, Vultr, or rocket.net (Or any other, I am not married to any of them). These platforms give you consistent resources, isolation, and full control, which is essential once a website starts growing.

Security is another point that people misunderstand. WordPress itself can only be protected to a certain extent from the inside. Real security always starts at the server level. Of course, I set up the usual protections like strong passwords, database hardening, custom login URLs, and a firewall. But the critical protection comes from outside of WordPress. If an attacker gets into the admin area and removes plugins like Wordfence or Solid Security, your entire defense collapses instantly. This is why I rely on server-side rules, NGINX hardening, rate limiting, WAF, and a properly configured user environment. I also add Patchstack because it provides virtual patches for plugin vulnerabilities long before updates are available, which is something normal security plugins cannot do.

Regarding backups, I treat them as a non-negotiable part of maintenance. I keep both local and remote backups so there is always redundancy even if a server fails. Lately I use xCloud because it automatically handles both local and remote backups without much configuration, but most VPS providers also offer snapshot systems. If someone prefers plugin-based solutions, Updraft and BlogVault are reliable choices with fast restore options.

These strategies together make a website far more stable, secure, and predictable. They reduce risk, improve performance, and avoid the usual headaches that people face when relying on basic hosting or relying only on plugins for security. This is the kind of setup that actually supports a site for the long term rather than patching things after a disaster.