WooCommerce Hosting Requirements: What Your Store Actually Needs

WooCommerce's official minimum requirements in 2026 are WordPress 6.9 or greater, PHP 8.3 or greater, MySQL 8.0+ or MariaDB 10.6+, a PHP memory limit of at least 256 MB, and HTTPS. Those are the floors published on WooCommerce's own server-requirements page (read September 10, 2026). But meeting the minimum is not the same as running a store well — the number that actually decides whether your checkout survives a busy day isn't on that list, and we'll get to it.

The official requirements, in one place

WooCommerce 10.8 and later officially require: WordPress 6.9+, PHP 8.3+ (tested up to PHP 8.4), MySQL 8.0+ or MariaDB 10.6+, a PHP memory_limit of 256 MB or more, and HTTPS support, with Apache or Nginx recommended. WooCommerce still technically runs on older versions (PHP 7.4+, MySQL 5.6+), but those are past their end-of-life and you should never launch a new store on them. If a host can't offer PHP 8.3 and MySQL 8, it isn't a serious option for a 2026 store.

PHP version: newer is faster, and it's a security floor

Run PHP 8.3 or 8.4, with OPcache enabled. Beyond meeting the requirement, each modern PHP release has brought real performance gains for WordPress and WooCommerce, so a newer version literally makes your store faster on the same hardware. It's also a security matter: older PHP branches stop getting security fixes, and a store that processes orders should never run on unsupported software. Any decent host lets you choose your PHP version in the control panel — check that 8.3+ is available before you sign up, and switch to it.

Memory and PHP workers — the requirement that isn't on the list

The official 256 MB memory floor is a starting point, not a target — practitioners recommend a PHP memory_limit of 512 MB or more once you add a real catalogue, a page builder and plugins, plus 2–4 GB or more of server RAM. But the metric that truly matters for a store isn't published as a "requirement" at all: PHP workers. Each concurrent checkout ties up a PHP worker for the whole request — hitting the database for cart and session data and calling out to the payment gateway — and none of it can be page-cached. A plan with few PHP workers will queue shoppers at checkout under load no matter how much "unlimited bandwidth" it advertises. We dig into exactly where that breaks in how much traffic cheap hosting can handle for a store.

Database, storage and the supporting stack

Use MySQL 8.0+ or MariaDB 10.6+ on SSD or NVMe storage — a store's database gets written to constantly (orders, stock, sessions), so disk speed matters more than for a static site. Object caching (Redis or Memcached) is not strictly required but is close to essential at scale: it keeps repeated database reads out of MySQL and is one of the biggest single speed wins for a busy WooCommerce store. Good managed WooCommerce hosts include object caching and a CDN by default; on shared hosting you may have to enable or add them yourself.

SSL and HTTPS are non-negotiable

HTTPS is a hard requirement, not an option — WooCommerce lists it in the minimums, browsers flag non-HTTPS checkout as insecure, and payment gateways require it. Every host in our field includes a free SSL certificate (usually Let's Encrypt), so this is table stakes rather than a differentiator. What still varies is the rest of a store's security posture — backups, malware scanning, firewalls and how card data is handled — which we cover in SSL and security for online stores.

Meeting the requirements isn't the same as running well

Almost every host can technically tick WooCommerce's requirement boxes; the difference between them is capacity and how they behave under real store load. A $3 shared plan and a managed WooCommerce plan can both claim "WooCommerce compatible," but only one keeps checkout responsive when twenty people buy at once. That's why our best ecommerce hosting ranking scores hosts on store capacity and renewal price, not just on whether they meet the spec sheet. Match the requirements first, then buy on capacity and the renewal number.

Recommended settings beyond the bare minimum

The official minimums keep WooCommerce running; a few recommended settings keep it running well, and they're worth checking because hosts vary. Set the WordPress memory limit generously (many store owners raise WP_MEMORY_LIMIT and WP_MAX_MEMORY_LIMIT well above the default), and confirm the PHP memory_limit is at least 512 MB once you have a real catalogue and plugins. A longer max_execution_time helps with imports, backups and bulk product edits that would otherwise time out. Raise upload_max_filesize and post_max_size if you manage product images or import large CSVs. Make sure OPcache is enabled — it caches compiled PHP and is one of the easiest speed wins — and, at scale, that a persistent object cache (Redis) is available. None of these are exotic, but a bottom-tier shared plan sometimes locks them down, so verify you can actually set them. Good managed WooCommerce hosts ship with sensible values already, which is part of what you pay for.

How to check what your host actually provides

Don't take a sales page's word for it — verify. Inside WordPress, the built-in Site Health screen (Tools, then Site Health, then Info) reports your PHP version, memory limit, key extensions and database version, and flags anything below WooCommerce's requirements. For a fuller picture, a phpinfo view or your host's control panel shows the exact PHP configuration, including limits like max_execution_time and the upload sizes. Check that you can choose your PHP version (8.3 or 8.4) and that a current MySQL or MariaDB is in use. If anything falls short, ask support whether it can be raised on your plan; on many hosts these are one-click or a quick ticket, and on others the answer tells you the plan is too constrained for a serious store. Doing this check before you commit — or right after you migrate — saves you from discovering a limit in the middle of an import or a busy sale, which is the expensive way to learn what your plan really allows.