Hosting

Disciple.Tools is free as in "freedom".

Download the software and run it anywhere you want. No restrictions. No dependency on us. You own your data. You own your ministry future.

Recommended Hosting Services

Premium Hosts

Premium WordPress hosts will take away most of the pain from the responsibility of hosting Disciple.Tools. These hosts are usually marked by full-service customer support, fast servers with good response time, and pro-active security and server health monitoring. 

  • Free SSL Security Certificates
  • Great Customer Support
  • Fast Servers
  • Pro-active Security and Server Management

WPEngine.com (the one we use)

WPEngine is a world class WordPress hosting service with great customer support. Their service is fast, easy to manage, and has free SSL security for your Disciple.Tools site. $25 / mo (last we checked)

Flywheel (getflywheel.com)

Flywheel is owned by WPEngine and offers the same quality but targeted at single site hosting. $15 / mo (last we checked)

Kinsta.com

Kinsta is a top premium host competitor for WPEngine and offers the same enterprise level hosting quality. $30 / mo (last we checked)

Budget Hosting Services (Caution)

Budget Hosts

Budget WordPress hosts (usually under $10 a month) have a pattern of weaker customer support, slower servers and server maintenance. You can still have great experiences with these hosts. All of these are recommended by WordPress.org on its public page.  

  • Free SSL Security Certificates
  • Great Customer Support
  • Fast Servers
  • Pro-active Security and Server Management

Bluehost

Bluehost is a well known and long-time anchor in the WordPress hosting market. They are the top recommendation on WordPress.org for WordPress hosting. $8 / mo (last we checked)

Dreamhost

They are recommended by WordPress.org for WordPress hosting. $3 / mo (last we checked)

SiteGround

SiteGround offers fast servers and well attested customer support. They do not offer multisite support, but for launching a single Disciple.Tools site, they would be a good choice. They are recommended by WordPress.org for WordPress hosting. $15 / mo (last we checked)

Incompatible Hosting Services

WordPress.com

WordPress.com is a great host for free simple websites, but they heavily control the themes and plugins allowed on their servers. For this reason, Disciple.Tools and the plugins developed for it are not compatible with this kind of shared, highly restricted hosting.

7 Simple Steps to Hosting Yourself

1

Download Disciple.Tools (this will download a compressed file called disciple-tools-theme.zip)

2

Select a hosting service (listed above) and sign up for an account. The hosting company will setup WordPress for you and send you login information.

3

Sign in with the information the hosting company gave you to your new WordPress site. 

4

Navigate to the site admin area of your WordPress site. There is usually a link on the home page of a new WordPress site, or you can add /wp-admin to the url of your new site.

5

In the Admin area, navigate to “Appearance” in the left navigation menu and then “Themes”. On the themes screen, select the “Add New” button at the top of the screen, and then “Upload Theme” button at the top again. 

6

Select the “disciple-tools-theme.zip” file you downloaded in step 1 and then click “Install Now” button.

7

Enjoy Disciple.Tools!