What is Managed WordPress hosting and why it’s good for WordPress website?

WordPress hosting

WordPress is a Content Management System (CMS). It is popularly used by bloggers though it is also used for creating various kinds of websites. It is estimated that there are more than 60 million websites that use WordPress. Almost a third of all the top websites are created using WordPress. The popularity of WordPress has ensured that most people prefer to use WordPress to create their websites.

Once you create your website, you need to host it on a server. Many hosting companies offer a number of attractive plans for users to host their WordPress website. This includes hosting with just the basic features, while other plans can take care of other aspects like security, management of the site, etc. Hosting companies offer hosting plans for all kind of websites – WordPress, Joomla, Node, and so on.

What is managed WordPress hosting?

Hosting can be managed or unmanaged. Usually, most hosting providers offer unmanaged services. They only offer space on their server with some basic tools for managing your website. Managed hosting is where the entire burden is on the provider to keep your site up and running, provide security and take care of all issues related to the site.

Managed WordPress hosting is where the managed hosting provider exclusively hosts WordPress websites. The popularity of WordPress has ensured that there are many managed WordPress hosting companies.

Services offered by managed WordPress hosting

When you choose a managed WordPress hosting provider, you can expect the following services from them.

1) Automatic setu

When you opt for managed hosting, you would have a facility of the automatic setup of your WordPress site. All you need to do is fill a simple form, and you would be able to do the entire installation within no time. The site installation with the necessary database connection would be made available for you.

2) Zero downtime

With a managed hosting, you can be assured of zero downtime of your server. This ensures that your website will be up, running at all times, and your visitors will not experience any downtime issues.

3) Increased spee

Managed WordPress hosting servers have the best configuration to run WordPress sites, as compared to other providers who do not provide such a specific configuration. This ensures that your website would be much faster and your users would have a great experience in terms of fast loading webpages.

4) Automatic updates

WordPress offers automatic updates to all its users. However, in managed hosting, the provider would also take off automatic security fixes. They ensure that you have the latest version of WordPress. They provide timely updates and also notify you of updates. Ensuring the site is up to date making it more secure. This too is beneficial for the provider as all websites that it hosts would be secure.

5) Support for WordPress issues

Since the hosting company provides exclusive WordPress hosting, they would be able to support on all issues related to WordPress. Any problem related to WordPress can be resolved by the provider, making it convenient for the website owner.

6) Backups

The advantage of choosing a managed hosting for your WordPress site is that the provider would take care of backups of your website. The provider can schedule automatic backups. The backups would be taken at regular frequencies, and the process would be fast and managed by the provider. In case of any problem, restoring would be easy and would be taken care of by the provider.

7) Customized dashboards

Most web hosting providers offer a dashboard facility for users to manage their site and get reports about site performance. These dashboards, in most cases, would have few features only. When you work with a managed hosting provider, it will ensure that you have a dashboard that can be customized specifically for your WordPress website. You can use this dashboard to get complete information about your website. You can find out statistics of your website visitors, track bandwidth usage and also get many other analytic reports.

Now that we have discussed the features of managed WordPress hosting, we also need to discuss the downsides of it. The cons of opting for managed WordPress hosting are:

Cost: Managed WordPress hosting is much more expensive than regular hosting. Because the provider exclusively manages WordPress websites, the fee charged would be high. You would need to spend around $30 per month for basic managed hosting services. The more features you need, you would need to pay more. You may end up paying at least $100 per month if you need all the features to enjoy the benefits

Lesser control: If you are technically sound about website management, then you may want to handle your site yourself. Opting for managed hosting gives you lesser control over your website.

Should you go for managed WordPress hosting?

The answer to this is, if you are just going to blog on your website, then you may not need managed hosting. However, if you have a business and want your website to be handled professionally, then choosing managed WordPress hosting is a good idea. If you don’t have budget constraints and want 100% uptime, then you should choose managed hosting for your WordPress website.