Today, there are numerous types of web hosting available.
A large number of providers provide managed and/or unmanaged WordPress hosting solutions aimed specifically at those who have WordPress websites.
Finding the best wordpress hosting services for your needs, on the other hand, isn’t always an easy task.
A strong hosting provider is at the heart of every successful website, and WordPress sites are no exception! If you want your website to run faster, be more secure, and stop giving you and your team headaches, you should migrate it to a managed WordPress host.
What is managed WordPress hosting?
It’s easy to fall behind on day-to-day maintenance as a busy website owner. However, if you are not performing regular backups, monitoring your site’s security, and other critical tasks, you may be on the verge of disaster.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by your to-do list, a managed hosting plan could be the solution. By choosing managed hosting, you can rest assured that all of these time-consuming tasks will be handled by a professional.
Consider a world in which you don’t have to worry about servers. A place where you can get away from the hassles of web hosting and spend your time doing what you really want to do: designing websites for clients, developing custom WordPress themes, creating content for your brand, or expanding your agency.
That is possible with managed WordPress hosting.
As the name suggests, this type of web hosting is geared toward WordPress sites. This means that everything a managed hosting provider does is optimised for WordPress, the best content management system (CMS). You can trust that a managed WordPress host is truly an expert in your site’s CMS, from the way they structure their servers to the people they hire for support.
Managed WordPress hosting vs Unmanaged WordPress hosting
For a long time, the debate between shared and managed WordPress hosting has raged in the WordPress community. However, comparing shared and managed hosting may not be as straightforward as it appears.
The difference between shared and managed WordPress hosting boils down to the additional WordPress-specific services and performance tweaks that managed WordPress hosting provides.
Managed WordPress hosting is similar to having a concierge service for your WordPress site, whereas regular shared hosting leaves much of the work to you in terms of backups, WordPress optimization, and other tasks.
However…
Shared hosting and managed WordPress hosting are not inherently dissimilar.
When people discuss shared hosting, they frequently use the phrase “generic cheap hosting” interchangeably.
But here’s the catch:
There are many shared hosts that provide a “managed platform” or “managed services,” and these hosts are frequently included in the list of managed WordPress hosts.
Shared hosting is simply a hosting plan in which your website “shares” resources with other websites on the same server.
Managed WordPress hosting is a collection of additional services and performance enhancements that sit on top of standard hosting.
That is why you can have low-cost shared managed WordPress hosting, such as Bluehost, starting at $2.75 per month, and high-end dedicated managed WordPress hosting, such as Pagely, starting at $499 per month.
7 reasons to choose managed WordPress hosting:
Faster loading websites
Not every website in the world can consistently deliver a fast website experience without fail. Why?
Most websites choose shared web hosting packages as a compromise. As a result, website speed varies inadvertently. A shared hosting plan will not provide you with a dedicated hosting environment tailored to your WordPress website’s specific requirements.
On the internet, speed is everything. We used to accept slow websites as the norm. Today, if a website takes more than a few seconds to load, visitors will abandon it and seek answers elsewhere. Google will interpret it as a negative search signal and may penalise your site as a result. Fortunately, with managed WordPress hosting, you can leave this to the professionals.
Managed WordPress hosting is not the same as unmanaged WordPress hosting. Businesses can host their WordPress website in a dependable environment that is tailored to their specific requirements. Most importantly, WordPress hosts can guarantee lightning-quick speeds that shared hosts cannot.
This is due to the use of dedicated servers to manage WordPress websites. Because these servers are tailored to the unique requirements of WordPress environments, website speed is naturally high.
Best wordpress security in Place
Another notable feature of managed WordPress hosting is the high level of security provided. If you choose a basic shared hosting plan, you risk having to deal with subpar security, which could expose your site to hackers, data breaches, or even a simple hardware failure.
In general, managed WordPress hosting includes strong security integrations to keep your content safe. SiteGround, for example, handles all aspects of your site’s security, including performing updates as needed and securing your site with a native firewall, among other things.
Many managed hosting providers have systems in place to assist with website defence. This frequently includes firewalls that detect and block malicious traffic automatically, which is an effective defence against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.
Some attacks, such as hacks that take your website offline, may be obvious. Some, on the other hand, are more subtle. Some providers will automatically log all attempts to write to the disc to assist you in detecting more subtle hacking attacks. This can be extremely useful for identifying malicious code and detecting attacks before they cause significant damage.
Staging Environments
You’ll want to make some changes to your website over time. This could include design changes like trying out a new theme or updating your plugins. If you apply these changes directly to your production site, you risk encountering a slew of issues. This can include everything from minor user experience issues to data loss and downtime.
It’s always a good idea to test your changes on a staging site, which is essentially a clone of your live website. This provides a secure environment in which you can experiment without jeopardising your live site. When you’re satisfied with the results, you can move the changes to production.
Creating a staging environment with some hosting providers can be a time-consuming and complex process. A reputable managed WordPress hosting provider, on the other hand, should provide a one-click staging or development environment:
Managed hosting providers can significantly reduce the time it takes to test upcoming changes by allowing you to quickly spin up a staging site. Some plans even allow you to merge your staging site back into your live installation right from the hosting provider’s dashboard.
Dedicated wordpress support
One of the best aspects of managed WordPress hosting is the excellent technical support. You can truly rely on their assistance because they not only have a good understanding of it, but they are also experts in it.
The technical support team is quite experienced, and they can assist you with a wide range of WordPress questions as well as provide reputable recommendations.
A well-managed WordPress hosting package includes everything from regular updates to server optimization to on-demand support if you run into any problems.
WP Engine, in particular, provides excellent technical support. It is one of the best managed WordPress hosting providers, and it basically takes care of everything to ensure that your website is up and running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
No need for multiple plugins
When you work with a managed WordPress host, they will take care of these basic site optimizations for you, allowing you to eliminate the need for a wide array of plugins.
While plugins aren’t inherently dangerous, it’s recommended that you use as few as possible. Your site will most likely perform better (because there will be less code to load), and staying on top of plugin updates will be a little easier. (Updating plugins also means improved site security!)
Even if you take precautions, there is still a possibility that you will install some unsecured third-party software.
When you’re using a theme or plugin that has a known vulnerability, a secure WordPress hosting provider can also help defend your site. WP Engine’s hosting environment, for example, limits the processes that can write to disc. This limits the amount of damage that a hacker can cause by exploiting a security flaw.
WP Engine will also scan your website for software with known security flaws. It will then disable any plugins that are posing a security risk to your site.
Automatic Backups
One significant disadvantage of generic hosting is website management. Businesses must hire WordPress developers to manage their websites and perform critical tasks such as website backups.
Dedicated WordPress hosts enable businesses to increase their traffic and visibility without having to worry about website management. This includes automatic backups and updates to your website.
By making regular backups, you will always have something to restore, even if a malicious third party hacks into your site and deletes all of your content. Some WordPress hosting providers, such as WP Engine, offer automated backups to make your life easier.
Ideally, your provider will provide these backups at no additional cost, with the option to manually backup your site as needed:
When selecting a managed package, it’s also a good idea to consider where your backups will be stored.
Many businesses lack the resources and time to deal with website management. Their sole goal is to increase website traffic.
Choosing managed WordPress hosting is thus a great option if you don’t want to deal with tasks such as backups and updates.
Scalability
Scalability is critical in scenarios where your website is inundated with customers or activities, particularly if you sell products; consider events such as Christmas, Black Friday, end-of-season sales, or other celebrations. It may be beneficial to your business, but it will almost certainly increase traffic to your website, which may cause it to crash.
You may not be well prepared to handle this type of situation, or you may lack the technical know-how to handle such situations, but this could result in a stressful event, and rebooting your website could take a long time, causing your business to suffer. However, if you have managed hosting, it has the necessary capabilities to automatically scale your website via dedicated servers, resulting in an efficient response to any surges and your site running smoothly.
You might not be able to prepare for this type of scenario on your own. Again, it comes down to whether you believe you have the technical knowledge to deal with a situation like this. It is stressful to experience a surge and crash, and it will take some time to restart your website. Managed hosting, on the other hand, has the ability to scale your website through dedicated servers in order to respond quickly to any surges and keep your site running smoothly.
A managed host will also have the staff – and resources – to deal with surges: they will have multiple datacenter locations to help ensure that your data is not all in one basket, so to speak. Unmanaged hosting typically has only one datacenter.
Conclusion
Unmanaged hosting necessitates technical knowledge, provides less value for the cost, and is time consuming because you must constantly manage/monitor everything yourself. This type of hosting can be stressful due to concerns about cyber attacks, crashes, bugs, or tasks such as backups, updates, and caching. This is why managed hosting can provide you with peace of mind by enlisting the assistance of a knowledgeable team to handle these challenges and issues.
Choosing the best web host is never easy. This is especially true when looking for a hosting partner who is worth the money you’re willing to invest.
This article breaks down the seven reasons why you should use managed WordPress hosting. Before settling on a managed WordPress host, readers should conduct their own research,what suits them best.
