Ah, managed WordPress hosting. The one thing all beginners have in common (and why we’re here to help). You’ve heard your friends talking about it, you read an article or two on the subject and now you have several questions. Let’s see if we can help answer some of them by taking a look at what managed WordPress hosting is, who it might be a good fit for, and who might want to pass.
What is Managed WordPress Hosting?
The first question you’ll want to ask yourself when choosing your host is “Is WordPress hosting right for me?” A lot of hosts will tout their one-click installs for WordPress — and that’s important — but what about managed WordPress hosts? Where does that fit into the equation?
When people talk about managed WordPress hosts, they’re generally referring to a service where the host manages basic server administration for you including server software updates, monitoring for security vulnerabilities, and so on. Note that this type of hosting will not come cheap and should only be used by those with money to burn or an actual need for the features mentioned above.
Why do you need it?
So, why do you need managed WordPress hosting? The answer is a combination of performance, security, and support.
Performance: The web server is optimized to run WordPress only. It will be faster than the average shared hosting environment. Additionally, you have your resources so if someone else on the server uses too many resources it won’t slow down your site.
Security: Most importantly, this type of hosting keeps your website secure. A lot of effort has gone into making sure that no one can hack into WordPress and that any vulnerabilities are patched as quickly as possible. There’s also a firewall in place to keep out malicious traffic.
Support: You’ll get premium support whenever you need it for anything related to WordPress. You won’t have to wait days for a response either – usually, it is within hours or minutes depending on how busy they are at the time! This service provides better performance, security, and support than other forms of web hosting such as shared or VPS environments with fewer headaches!
Benefits of using managed WordPress hosting
There are many potential benefits to utilizing a managed WordPress hosting service, including:
- More automated updates and backups. This is great if you’re not especially tech-savvy or don’t have the time to do your maintenance work.
- Faster website speeds are achieved through better servers and resource allocation, which comes at a cost with cheaper shared hosting plans.
- More reliable site uptime and faster issue resolution from customer support teams trained in WordPress.
- Better security measures mean less risk of being hacked than with cheaper shared hosting plans.
- More resources for your website as it grows in popularity because you can easily upgrade your plan when needed (without having to move hosts).
- You’ll get more developer-friendly features like SSH access, version control, and GIT integration. This will help you create more comprehensive staging sites to test out changes before they go live on your main production site.
Managed WordPress hosting is an advanced, curated environment for hosting WordPress sites.
As a website owner, webmaster, or web developer, you’ll want to host your site on a hosting service that takes care of it for you.
- Managed hosting is far different from shared hosting. Whereas shared servers are managed by one company and under the control of one company, managed hosting is provided by multiple companies so each has control over a single server. This means that if one provider goes out of business or their server gets hacked, another provider can step in to take over and maintain service while the others resume their regular duties. The level of stability and security you have here cannot be matched by shared hosts.
- Migrations – When moving to WordPress from another system (WordPress doesn’t work with cPanel), your host should have automated scripts that will move your databases and files along with everything else without any user intervention. Your new server will come with everything pre-configured so take just a day or two to get everything working properly.
- Daily backups – A daily backup should be taken of all websites hosted on managed accounts along with their databases so even if something were to happen today or yesterday, an account administrator would be able to recover lost data quickly and easily since there’s usually nothing offsite requiring restoration as well as no possible risk of data loss if the server was ever stolen or hacked in any way whatsoever (unlikely)
Best Managed WordPress Hosting
This is a list of the top 5 managed WordPress hosting providers.
Each one provides a unique blend of features, performance, and price. We encourage you to read each review before deciding which provider is best for your site.
- Bluehost – Fast And Reliable Managed WordPress Hosting At An Affordable Price
- WP Engine – Best Overall Managed WordPress Hosting
- Flywheel – The Hassle-Free Managed WordPress Hosting Solution
- SiteGround – The most popular Managed WordPress Hosting
- Pagely – Premium Managed WordPress Hosting
Conclusion
Managed WordPress hosting is a smart option. Choose managed WordPress hosting if you want the best performance and security for your site, if you don’t want to worry about server maintenance and security, or if you want to get assistance from WordPress experts.