If you have a toothache, would you rather see a general practitioner or a dentist who specializes in dental care?
Your website is similar to your overall health. It will help you move your company forward if you use it correctly.
Unlike your health, which deteriorates over time, your website will add value to your company over time.
As a result, if you want your website to run smoothly, you should host it on a platform that focuses on its particular framework.
WordPress is the name that is associated with success when it relates to websites.
Businesses depend on WordPress rather than any other content management platform to improve their online presence.
WordPress is the world’s most common content management system (CMS), with 34.5 percent of all websites using it.
Regrettably, not everybody has the time or experience to run a website to its full potential.
That’s where managed hosting solutions come in to help fill the void.
In this post, we’ll look at what managed WordPress hosting is, as well as its advantages and drawbacks.
This article will also examine whether managed WordPress hosting is right for you.
Let’s get started…
What is Managed WordPress Hosting?
Due to WordPress’s success, many web hosting companies have opted to focus on WordPress and provide managed WordPress hosting.
Managed WordPress Hosting is a form of hosting service in which the host takes care of all technical details of running a WordPress site.
While most hosting plans leave the majority of the work to you, managed WordPress hosting relieves you of the responsibility of keeping your website up and running
Many website users would find it appealing because of this.
Managed WordPress hosting is just like a valet program in which the host handles all technical aspects of maintaining your WordPress site.
Speed, security, regular backups, WordPress updates, website availability, and scalability are all factors to consider.
The aim of managed WordPress hosting is to provide a truly stress-free environment so you can concentrate on running your enterprise and doing what you do best.
Top-quality support is one of the strongest aspects of Managed WordPress hosting. Instead of anyone reading a support manual, you’ll get help from actual WordPress specialists with plenty of experience.
To put it another way, you rent the hardware from the web host and pay them to manage your website and other server-related issues.
Benefits of Managed WordPress Hosting
When you choose top-managed WordPress hosting, you get a lot of great benefits and advantages.
However, the first step in selecting a reliable WordPress host is to learn about its benefits and drawbacks before deciding which option is best for your WordPress website.
We’ve outlined some of the benefits of using top WordPress hosting in this article.
1. Expert management
One of the best aspects of using a managed hosting provider is that it makes things easier.
You often deal with two interfaces: the WordPress interface and your web host’s management user interface.
You also have a lot fewer choices to consider in the above. The experience is a lot more streamlined since the provider takes care of a lot of problems and all non-WordPress-related choices are removed.
The WordPress installation is also carried out automatically.
You can’t put the word “managed” next to WordPress hosting services except if you have people who are qualified, experienced, and skilled enough to manage your WordPress site.
Simply put, when you sign up for managed WordPress web hosting, you are entrusting your WordPress website to the competent and highly skilled hands of the professionals.
Other web hosting services can provide WordPress support, but their capabilities and expertise are limited.
They may not be familiar enough with WordPress to tell the difference between a plugin issue and a server problem.
Managed WordPress hosting providers will also use all of their resources to identify the needs of a WordPress website.
For example, you’ll have access to customer service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and an IT expert at your disposal anytime your website has a problem.
2. Expert support
Every hosting package includes support as usual.
Some users are so technically savvy that they never need assistance. Furthermore, there are certain technical issues that can only be resolved by someone on the host’s end.
Since WordPress is by far the most common Content Management System (CMS) on the market.
As a result, the majority of trustworthy web hosts are familiar with the platform’s complexities and troubleshooting procedures.
Unlike other web hosts, the team knows a lot about WordPress.
There is, however, a distinction between being familiar with WordPress and being an expert on the platform.
You want whoever is assisting you to fall into the latter group as much as possible.
WordPress experts will help you troubleshoot problems quicker, provide WordPress-specific tips, and make your life simpler in general.
They warn against using SEO plugins, output plugins, and other similar tools.
It’s as if you have an army of WordPress experts at your disposal.
If you use a managed WordPress web host, you’ll have a much easier time accessing this level of technical support.
After all, you may pay a little more than the market standard price, but the higher price leads to better service in general.
3. Automatic updates
Automatic updates are a common feature that is available in WordPress and has been there for a long time.
Managed WordPress hosting, on the other hand, will go a step further by implementing security updates as soon as they are published, in a similar way that major WordPress version updates are applied to websites.
Some web hosts will also inform you in advance of such updates if necessary, ensuring that you still have enough time to plan.
Virtually all managed WordPress hosts need you to use the most recent version of WordPress.
This not only improves the protection of your website by easily closing any known security holes, but It also improves the overall security of the host’s network.
The advantages would filter down to you as a customer, resulting in fewer threats, higher average uptime, and so on.
4. Scalability
Websites often move from one method of hosting to another.
Typically, webmasters begin with shared hosting only to realize that it is insufficient once significant traffic begins to flow in.
In certain instances, the host would also ask you to update, assuming your site isn’t suspended for using too many resources.
As you can imagine, this is inconvenient and time-consuming.
Managed WordPress platforms, on the other hand, are always able to scale with the popularity of your website.
Digital computers and cloud servers house the majority of them. Scaling is as simple as making more resources accessible to places that need them.
You don’t even have to change the server; it will remain the same; all you have to do now is take more of what you require.
5. Automated backups
Can you imagine running your website for a few months or a year and then it suddenly goes down for no apparent reason?
If you don’t have any copies, the only choice is to start over from the beginning.
Always be ready for the worst-case circumstance, which involves regularly backing up your WordPress website.
Regular automatic backups are included in the price of a standard managed WordPress hosting plan.
Backups save the current version of your website and save it for emergencies, allowing you to recover it in seconds if your website crashes.
All gratitude to managed hosting companies who automatically back up your website.
Backups are provided with shared hosting, but most of them do not have routine backups.
VPS hosting requires you to set up your own backup plan as well as VPS archives, all of which cost extra money.
Not only do we have automated backups, but you should also be allowed to download a complete backup of your WordPress account (files and .sql file) at any moment.
6. Few plugins required
You don’t need any additional security plugins with managed WordPress hosting.
WordPress hosts look after and customize your WordPress site in order to improve and expand protection.
While there is no harm in using plugins, it is recommended that you use fewer plugins to improve the efficiency of your web.
With faster loading, your WordPress website will perform better because it will be carrying less load.
7. Staging environment
Developers and webmasters will appreciate this feature.
A staging area is a perfect replica of your live site that is only available to you. It’s great for trying out new plugins/themes or updating/modifying code before making any changes to the current website.
Since you can’t bear to have your website go down, you should always try out new updates, PHP versions, plugins, and updates on a development site rather than your live site.
Testing, on the other hand, for most web hosting services entails copying the website locally, testing, and then finding out how to move the changes back.
Many managed WordPress hosting companies provide one-click staging areas, which render testing a snap.
One-click staging or development environments allow you to duplicate your website with a single click.
8. Top-notch security
Managed WordPress hosting ensures that your WordPress site is safe and secure.
For your site to work at its best, security must be a primary concern.
By upgrading security settings, safeguards you from fraud and prevents your website from being hacked.
Security helps you to make regular backups and recover your data quickly.
Beyond backups and data storage, routine security checks for breaches and viruses can help you store your website’s data safely and limit it from being hacked. It improves the security of their WordPress servers by optimizing them. You won’t need any additional security plugins.
Two-step authentication is available with managed WordPress hosting.
It adds an additional layer of protection to your account, shielding it from fraudulent activity.
In most shared hosting environments, you won’t get any help if you get hacked or compromised with malware.
If your WordPress account is compromised, you are responsible.
Many managed WordPress hosting companies provide assistance in the event that your site is hacked, as well as malware protection.
With a top security feature, you get a limited number of login attempts and solid unusable password combinations that make it difficult to open by a random user.
9. Better caching
Due to the extreme foreseeable nature of the WordPress area, a much more powerful server-side caching approach can be easily implemented, and this can have a significant influence on your website speed by ensuring that each page is cached as appropriately and as long as possible.
Even if you use a WordPress caching plugin, your server must first load WordPress before delivering the cached page.
However, with server-level caching, your host can fully bypass the WordPress application and display the cached page instead, resulting in even improved performance.
The website owner as well as the hosting company profit from better caching.
This is because a website can perform better and use fewer server resources if the correct caching scheme is used, which will save money for the host.
10. SSL certificate
SSL certificates, or Secure Sockets Layer Certificates, are no more only for e-commerce pages.
Visitors will be presented with the dreaded two words “Not Safe” if your website does not have SSL Certificates.
As a result, your efforts to climb the search rankings will be thwarted because Google’s search algorithm includes SSL Certificates as a ranking metric.
Having SSL certificates for your website would be smoother if you use a managed WordPress hosting provider.
Setting up your own SSL certificate and encryption on certain hosting platforms is a hassle.
You’ll need to double-check that your hosting company and certificate vendor are compatible, then do a lot of back-and-forths to get the certificate set up.
Managed WordPress hosting solutions, on the other hand, have partnered with SSL Certificate vendors to make the process simpler and more efficient.
Not all WordPress pages are targeted by hackers. They just attack WordPress pages that are vulnerable to hacking.
If your WordPress website is properly guarded, no hacker would enjoy spending days and days trying to find the tiniest security flaw that will enable him to gain access to your server.
It only takes a few clicks to add the much-desired green padlock to your URL.
11. Choice of data center
Many managed WordPress platforms have their infrastructure distributed through multiple data centers around the world.
Users would benefit from this because the distance between the server and the viewer is a significant factor in page loading time.
So, if your business is primarily focused on a single area, you can regularly request that your hosting provider locate your website in the data center closest to that location.
In reality, several web hosting providers will ask you which data center you want to build your site in when you sign up.
However, they normally allow you to change it later if necessary.
It will be difficult to find a more generic host with this level of service.
12. Website speed
Managed WordPress hosting plans are tailored specifically for WordPress sites.
It suggests you can be confident that your website can perform at its best, with quicker download speeds and higher uptime.
You can use features like a CDN (Content Delivery Network) to improve the efficiency of your website even more. A CDN means that your content is delivered quickly anywhere in the world.
Slow download times would result in a negative user experience, lost sales, and a tarnished image.
You won’t have to care about users leaving your website because it took upwards of 3 seconds to load with managed WordPress hosting platforms.
See Also: Best Hosting For High Traffic Sites That Yields Outstanding Results
13. User-friendly dashboard
Regular web hosting dashboards aren’t always very user-friendly because they have no idea what applications you’re running.
As a consequence, others will present you with a slew of choices, many of which aren’t relevant to WordPress.
Others are so simple that they only have a few basic links for managing your database or files.
Managed WordPress hosting dashboards, on the other hand, will provide you with individual statistics on usage/visitors, inform you whether you have out-of-date plugins, grant others access to your account, and tell you exactly which version of WordPress you’re using, among other items.
14. Zero downtime
Your website will never experience downtime, no matter how much traffic it receives.
That implies that if you go to the Reddit or Hacker News homepages, your website will still be up and running.
Since most managed WordPress web hosting services have several data centers and use CDNs to distribute your website’s content, this is the case.
This ensures that if one of your servers crashes, the website will be switched to the next available server easily.
This means that with controlled WordPress hosting, downtime would be difficult to come by.
15. Time management
The most significant advantage of choosing managed WordPress hosting is the increased control over your time.
If you choose an unmanaged plan, you will have to devote a significant amount of time to website optimization, maintenance, security, and other tasks.
Managed WordPress hosting is, admittedly, more costly than other options.
However, the time you gain in exchange may more than makeup for the cost.
You may, for example, devote the extra time to optimizing the quality of your website and increasing your content production.
This should allow you to develop more quickly, increase your efficiency, and reduce the cost of managed hosting.
See Also: 20 Ways To Ditch The Overwhelming and Become A Productivity Powerhouse
Limitations of Managed WordPress Hosting
Will there be any drawbacks with all of these wonderful features and all of the nice things I’ve said so far?
Of course, there will always be a few.
1. Limited disk space
If you are familiar with web hosting plans, you would have noticed that with most shared hosting, you’ll get unlimited disk space.
This is not actually the case with managed WordPress hosting.
With managed hosting, you are limited to the amount of disk space available to you.
This is normally between 10 and 40 gigabytes of storage for $30.
Taking Bluehost for example, you’ll get unlimited disk space on their shared hosting plan:
While the managed WordPress hosting plan will only give you 20GB of web storage on their most basic plan (i.e. Build Plan).
See Also: SSD vs HDD – Which is the Best For Your Hosting Needs?
2. Pricing
This is a significant disadvantage of managed web hosting.
When contrasted to shared hosting, managed WordPress hosting is considerably more costly.
The most basic plan costs about $9.95 per month, while Bluehost’s shared hosting plan costs as little as $2.95 per month.
Bluehost Managed WordPress Hosting Pricing:
In addition, if you want faster speed, more storage space, or other features, you will have to pay more.
It’s good if you can afford these programs because the cost is reasonable as compared to the benefits.
However, these services are typically very costly for newcomers who have just recently launched their website and have yet to generate any revenue.
In such cases, it is preferable to start with shared hosting solutions.
If you’re on a small budget, however, cutting costs early and moving hosts when you can afford it is a viable option.
See Also: Can I Get Web Hosting For Free? – 9 Best Free Web Hosting
3. Not the fastest
I despise the fact that, despite their promotions, most managed WordPress hosts aren’t even close to being fast.
Unsurprisingly, many of them have dropped the “fastest host” tag and are now positioning themselves as “premium hosting.”
4. Limited websites
The majority of entry-level managed WordPress hosting packages will only let you host one website.
Furthermore, one of the issues you may encounter is the installation of multisite.
Managed WordPress hosting plans specify the maximum number of websites you may have, such as one or five.
A perfect example lies between Bluehost’s shared hosting plan and their managed WordPress hosting plan.
The shared plan allows for unlimited websites to be hosted:
While the managed WordPress hosting plan only allows for just one website.
5. Lack of .htaccess compatibility
.htaccess files allow you to make changes to your website’s setup on a per-directory basis.
NGINX is used by almost all managed hosts, so htaccess is not accessible.
This can be a concern if you want htaccess to perform specific tasks or work with specific plugins.
You can certainly use a plugin to do redirects and other things to solve this problem, but this adds additional PHP processing to each page load, slowing down your site.
6. Bandwidth limits
Just like the case with disk space, there is no unlimited bandwidth with managed WordPress hosting.
Most managed WordPress hosts have stringent monthly bandwidth or visitor quotas, such as 50GB or 30k visits.
For example, the allowable bandwidth for Bluehost starts at just 50,000 visitors per month, while it is unlimited for the shared hosting plan.
See Also: What is Disk Space in Web Hosting? – The Truth About Unlimited Web Space
7. Limited plugins
Plugins are common among WordPress users because they provide extra features to your website.
However, it’s a sad fact that several managed WordPress hosts refuse to use such plugins.
Since certain plugins are open source or third-party applications, managed hosting platforms have the ability to restrict access to them.
The majority of managed WordPress hosts make use of a variety of hosting technologies to improve speed and security. Plugins are not allowed for this technology.
This is mostly due to concerns about security and efficiency.
To emphasize the importance of your site’s protection, anything deemed a threat of some sort will be blocked by the host.
As a consequence, certain cache plugins or essential plugins that some users need could be limited.
Outside of WordPress, the managed web host performs functions such as WordPress authentication and backups.
Some hosts would even refuse to allow you to install new plugins.
See Also: The Essential Guide To Must-Have WordPress Plugins And Tools For Your Blog
8. WordPress specific
While I wouldn’t call this a disadvantage, it is worth noting.
You won’t be able to host any other content management system on a managed WordPress host.
Some managed WordPress hosts will offer you more flexibility than others, but even though you could theoretically run a Joomla site, for example, I’m pretty sure it would be pulled down as soon as is discovered.
9. No domain and email hosting
Most managed WordPress services expect you to cover all costs associated with email setup, DNS hosting, and domain name registrations and renewal.
A professional website’s domain name and email are just as critical as the server. The majority of managed hosting companies do not provide these features.
As a result, you’ll have to work with a different organization for those.
They will give you technical advice about how to install, but they will not do it for you.
This is particularly important if you want a low-cost web hosting server that can handle a domain and its associated emails.
However, if you already host your emails with a more secure 3rd-party service such as Office 365, Zoho, G-Suite, Rackspace, MXroute, and so on, this isn’t important.
This disadvantage, on the other hand, reflects the fact that managed WordPress hosts are solely focused on WordPress solutions.
Although they could easily provide these services, they’d rather concentrate on building the best-managed hosting framework for your website than spreading their company resources thin.
10. Less control
You don’t have influence as to how your hosting company handles all of your technical tasks with managed WordPress web hosting.
You don’t have quite as much say in what gets changed when someone else is in charge of all the technological aspects.
What needs to be modified or improved will be decided by the host.
Isn’t that the point, though? You don’t want to deal with the hassle of doing things on your own.
Frequency Asked Questions
1. Can I change my managed WordPress hosting later?
Yes.
If you are dissatisfied with your WordPress hosting provider, you can completely change them.
The majority of hosting companies have migration services that can be used with minimal downtime.
2. Are add-ons necessary when purchasing managed WordPress hosting?
No.
Most managed hosting providers will give you add-on services during the sign-up phase.
You should easily uncheck them because they would increase your hosting expense.
If you decide later that you need any of those add-on services, you can easily add them to your hosting plan from your account dashboard later down the road.
3. Do I need managed WordPress hosting as a beginner?
No.
Managed WordPress hosting plans aren’t necessary for total beginners.
In this case, standard hosting is typically the best choice.
Managed WordPress hosting is a premium WordPress-specific hosting environment.
It comes with automatic updates, professional WordPress support, and WordPress performance optimization.
This premium service is often more expensive, but it provides absolutely hassle-free WordPress hosting.
If you have a low-traffic website that can handle a little downtime, like a personal blog that you don’t plan to transform into a business, managed WordPress hosting might not be necessary.
You may also go with a lower-tier managed WordPress host that utilizes a shared hosting platform, such as Bluehost or SiteGround, if you are worried about price or if your website has a low traffic volume.
These web hosts aren’t quite as good as actual managed WordPress hosting, but they do provide a good middle ground between shared and managed WordPress hosting.
4. What are the best managed WordPress hosting?
Since there are plenty of web hosts to choose from, let alone the abundance of web hosting plans that available.
Choosing the best managed WordPress hosting is always a daunting task for most people.
However, if you are looking for the best managed WordPress hosting, the list below is your best bet.
5. Should I purchased managed WordPress hosting?
It is contingent on the situation.
Go for it if your blog has a lot of traffic and you have the funds. Your website will be well-protected.
Instead of wasting time on the technical side, you’ll be able to concentrate on creating content or growing your company with this arrangement.
If you are a novice with a low-traffic website, however, you can stick to shared hosting because it is less expensive.
6. What is the difference between hosting and WordPress hosting?
The word “web hosting” encompasses all types of web hosting services.
It’s a catch-all word that refers to any form of website hosting plan available.
WordPress hosting is a small segment of web hosting services that focuses on the WordPress website only.
Conclusion
Yes! You’ve made it to the end of this article.
By now you are more knowledgeable concerning what is managed WordPress hosting.
As you can see, there are many advantages of using managed WordPress hosting over all the other web hosting options such as shared hosting or virtual private servers.
Yes, managed hosting is more expensive, but you should consider it an asset in your business.
How much do you value your peace of mind, time, and data security? These are some of the factors to think about, and they should be enough to convince you to go with managed WordPress hosting.
Take the time to consider the benefits and drawbacks of each host to determine the one best meets your needs.
When you sign up for managed WordPress hosting, you’ll be putting your website in the hands of the best in the business.
These are professionals with the necessary knowledge, qualifications, experience, and expertise to provide the perfect atmosphere for your WordPress website to perform at its best.
If you’re curious about how much it costs to start a website, take a look at our guide on how much a website actually costs.
WebHost Bros is an online resource that helps you to find the best web host that is best for you. Here is our list of the best hosting providers in the market.