of all WordPress sites hacked in 2025 were running on outdated or poorly maintained hosting environments — Sucuri Hacked Site Report 2025 & Wordfence State of WordPress Security 2025
If you’re still on cheap shared hosting from 2018, this article is your wake-up call.
The Shocking Truth Behind the 2025 WordPress Hack Statistics
Every year, Sucuri, Wordfence, and Patchstack release their annual “State of WordPress Security” reports. The 2025 numbers are the most alarming yet:
- 74% of compromised sites were hosted on servers running PHP versions older than 8.1
- 61% were on hosts that hadn’t applied server-level patches in over 180 days
- 58% were on hosting plans that still used cPanel with known vulnerabilities from 2022–2024
- 43% were on hosts that disabled automatic core, plugin, and theme updates “for stability”
- Only 9% of hacked sites were running on modern, actively maintained managed WordPress or cloud platforms
In short: the hosting provider you choose in 2025 is now the #1 determining factor in whether your site gets hacked or not — even more than outdated plugins.
What “Outdated Host” Actually Means in 2025
Most site owners think “my host is fine” because the site loads and admin panel load quickly. Unfortunately, that has almost nothing to do with security. Here are the technical red flags that placed 74% of victims in the danger zone:
| Outdated Factor | Still Used By | Risk Level |
|---|---|---|
| PHP 7.4 or older | 41% of hacked sites | Zero security support since Dec 2022 |
| No server-level WAF (Web Application Firewall) | 67% | Allows brute-force & zero-day exploits |
| No automatic malware scanning & removal | 69% | Infections stay hidden for months |
| cPanel/WHM unpatched since 2023 | 38% | Known RCE vulnerabilities |
| No HTTP/3 & Brotli support | Indirect indicator of old stack | Usually means old Nginx/Apache |
| Shared hosting with account isolation disabled | 54% | One hacked neighbor = everyone hacked |
Case Study: The $7/month Host That Cost This Agency $87,000
In March 2025, a U.S. digital agency with 43 client sites woke up to every single site defaced with ransomware demands. All 43 sites were hosted on the same “unlimited everything” $7/month shared host they’d used since 2016.
The attack vector? A 2023 cPanel zero-day that the provider never patched because “it would break some legacy accounts.” One compromised neighbor account → lateral movement → all accounts on the server encrypted.
Recovery cost: $87,000 in emergency cleanup, lost client trust, and Google blacklisting penalties.
Moral of the story: Cheap hosting isn’t cheap — it’s prepaid pain.
Why Modern Hosting Prevents 90%+ of WordPress Hacks
Here’s what the top 10% of unhacked WordPress sites have in common in 2025:
- PHP 8.2 or 8.3 only – Actively supported, huge security improvements
- Server-level WAF + rate limiting – Blocks brute force, bad bots, and zero-days
- Containerized or account-isolated environments – One site hacked ≠ server hacked
- Automatic core, plugin & theme updates (with visual regression testing)
- Daily malware scanning + one-click removal
- Immutable infrastructure – Servers are rebuilt from code, not patched forever
- Edge security layer (Cloudflare Enterprise, Fastly, etc.)
Hosts that provide all of the above saw less than 0.8% compromise rate in 2025 — compared to 74% on outdated hosts.
The “Hidden” Hosting Features That Matter More Than Price
Stop looking at disk space and bandwidth. In 2025, these are the only specs that actually protect your site:
1. Active PHP Version Support
PHP 8.3 became the minimum secure version in late 2024. Any host still offering PHP 7.4 as default is effectively telling hackers “come on in.”
2. Server-Level Web Application Firewall
A plugin-based firewall (Wordfence, Sucuri plugin) is good. A server-level WAF that blocks exploits before they reach WordPress is 100× better.
3. Real Account Isolation
True isolation (CloudLinux + CageFS or full containerization) means your neighbor’s Joomla exploit can’t touch your WordPress site.
4. Automatic Everything
Best hosts now auto-update WordPress core, plugins, and themes nightly — with AI-powered visual regression checks so nothing breaks.
5. Immutable Backups Kept Off-Site & Offline
Daily backups stored in a different data center (and preferably immutable) are the only real insurance policy.
2025 Hosting Risk Scorecard (Free Checklist)
Score your current host. If you score fail 3 or more of these, you’re in the 74% danger zone.
| Question | Yes/No |
|---|---|
| Is your server running PHP 8.2 or 8.3? | |
| Does your host have a server-level WAF? | |
| Are accounts fully isolated (not just “we say they are”)? | |
| Are WordPress core & plugins updated automatically? | |
| Do you get daily off-site, immutable backups? | |
| Does the host patch server software within 48 hours of release? | |
| Is malware scanning & removal included and automatic? | |
| Do they use LiteSpeed or OpenLiteSpeed (not old Apache)? |
Failed 3+? Start planning your migration this week.
The Hosts That Had Near-Zero Hacks in 2025
Based on Wordfence, Patchstack, and Sucuri telemetry, these providers had the lowest infection rates in 2025:
- Kinsta – 0.3% infection rate
- Rocket.net – 0.4%
- WP Engine – 0.7%
- SiteGround – 0.9%
- Cloudways (DigitalOcean & Vultr droplets with Cloudflare Enterprise) – 1.1%
- Flywheel – 1.3%
All of them share the same DNA: modern stack, aggressive patching, containerization, and server-level security long before WordPress loads.
How to Migrate Without Losing Sleep (2025 Edition)
Modern hosts have made migration painless:
- Most offer free migration with zero downtime
- Many include staging environments so you can test everything first
- 100-day money-back guarantees are now common (Rocket.net, Kinsta)
- Use tools like All-in-One WP Migration or Duplicator only as backup — let the new host handle the heavy lifting
Final Warning
The next big WordPress exploit is already in the wild. Attackers are scanning for outdated PHP versions and unpatched servers right now.
If your hosting control panel still looks like it’s from 2015, you are on the list.
Don’t wait for the ransom note or the Google “This site may be hacked” warning.
Move to a 2025-ready host today — your business, reputation, and SEO depend on it.
Ready to get off the 74% list?
Here are four hosts that passed every security checkbox in 2025 with flying colors:
Stay safe out there.
— The Hosting Security Team
December 2025