StellarWP Foundation Essential, $ 15.00/mo. on Cloud Shared

Foundation Essential has been added on Nov 5, 2025

🔌 Hosted domains :	1
🆓 free domains :	0
📌 Dedicated IPs :	0
💳 Payment Methods :	Credit / Debit / Prepaid Cards
🔨 Control Panel :	[In-house]
🔧 Category :	BackupWordpressFully ManagedWebsite Builder
✍️ Support Options :	EmailHelp Desk
🌏 Server Locations :	United States
⚑ Targeting :	US
💰 Money-back guarantee :	30 days
🚀 Uptime :	99.9 %

See also initial Foundation Essential plan location on their website!

*📜 Plan description

📄 Editorial Review

StellarWP(est. 2001 and part of CloudOne Digital) positions itself as a builder of WordPress solutions rather than a simple plugin shop. They assemble respected brands, invest in ongoing development, and emphasize a product roadmap that keeps pace with how people actually build, launch, and maintain modern WordPress sites.

What StellarSites Tries to Solve

StellarSites is their "solutions-based hosting" approach: WordPress without the assembly work. Instead of juggling a host, theme, security stack, backups, and performance add-ons, they package the essentials so a first draft site can be online quickly. An AI Website Wizard helps with initial setup, then Kadence tooling and curated templates take over for design. The pitch is familiar—SaaS-like simplicity—but with WordPress ownership and flexibility preserved.

Plans & Pricing

Entry pricing is listed at $180/year (about $15/month) for a bundle that includes premium hosting plus the core software stack. They contrast this with a notional à-la-carte total of roughly $1,756/year for similar components purchased separately (hosting, theme/builder, security/backups, SSL, CDN, and object caching). Plan tiers vary by included features and credits; the value story clearly favors the bundled route.

Included Stack (Highlights)

• Kadence WP: Theme, Blocks, and starter templates, with AI credits and progressive tiers that add Pro features (e.g., Theme Kit Pro, Blocks Pro, ShopKit for WooCommerce, conversions/insights tools, and a child theme builder).
• SolidWP suite: Security, backups, site management, and learning resources under one umbrella.
  
  • Solid Security (with Patchstack vulnerability data, 2FA/passkey support, bot/CAPTCHA integrations).
  • Solid Backups: Daily incremental backups, one-click restores, versioning, ~20 GB plan storage, and low server overhead.
  • Solid Central Pro: Multi-site management, SSL-secured connections, uptime monitoring and alerts, and hooks for SEO/analytics checks.
  • Solid Academy: Guides, tutorials, office hours, and an extensive livestream archive.
• Performance layer: Object Cache Pro (Redis) and a Cloudflare Enterprise CDN capability are part of the packaged ecosystem outlined in their comparisons.
• SSL & Maintenance: SSL certificates, automatic daily server backups, and one-click core/plugin updates (with visual compare) are part of the maintenance story.

Control & Administration

Site owners work through a StellarSites account dashboard for plan, site, and billing management, and use Solid Central for updates, uptime, and performance checks. Day-to-day content and plugin administration happens in the familiar WordPress Dashboard. There’s no mention of cPanel or Plesk; the experience is intentionally streamlined around WordPress tooling.

Security & Backups

Security is handled by SolidWP with round-the-clock monitoring, brute-force protection at local and network levels, automated vulnerability scanning (plugins, themes, core), virtual patching, and broad 2FA/passkey support. Backups are incremental and versioned, with easy restores and separate daily server-level backups as a safety net. For most small and midsize sites, this is a sensible baseline that reduces the usual maintenance burden.

Performance Notes

The combination of Object Cache Pro and an enterprise CDN tier addresses the two big bottlenecks for dynamic WordPress: database-heavy page loads and global asset delivery. While exact hardware specs aren’t detailed here, the platform’s emphasis on caching, a premium CDN, and Kadence’s light footprint points to a performance-first configuration suitable for blogs, marketing sites, lightweight stores, and course/event builds.

Data Locations & Uptime

They state data is hosted in the United States, with limited cases in the Netherlands. A detailed facility list isn’t provided. There’s 24/7/365 uptime monitoring and a public status page, but no explicit uptime percentage/SLA is advertised in this material. Teams with compliance or strict availability targets should request specifics before committing.

Money-Back & Billing

For StellarSites subscriptions, refunds are available for 30 days on annual plans and 15 days on monthly plans (monthly renewals aren’t eligible). Payments are accepted via major credit/debit cards, with some digital methods available in the customer account area.

Support

Support includes live chat and ticket/email. Posted live-chat hours are Monday–Friday, 5 AM–5 PM EST; outside these hours, assistance shifts to email/tickets. The tooling itself (Central, Backups, Security) aims to cut down on support needs by automating common tasks and surfacing clear alerts.

Who Benefits Most

• Small businesses and nonprofits that want a polished site without piecing together hosting, security, and backups.
• Course creators and event organizers leveraging LearnDash and The Events Calendar in a pre-configured, performance-minded environment.
• Shops on WooCommerce that prefer a tuned baseline (Kadence + caching + CDN) over a from-scratch stack.
• Freelancers/small agencies delivering consistent, low-maintenance WordPress builds quickly.

When It’s Not a Fit

• Developers needing root access or custom server stacks (VPS/dedicated with shell control).
• Agencies building fully bespoke themes/plugins that require granular infrastructure control.
• Users seeking a free website builder or a non-WordPress platform (e.g., Wix/Squarespace).