Do you know which one is the most widely used Content Management System? Yeah, it’s WordPress!
From commercial websites to personal blogs, WordPress is widely used by millions of websites. Below are the few interesting facts on WordPress,
WordPress is a free open source platform which you can easily download from WordPress.org and use. However, you need to pay a little penny for the web hosting to use it on the internet.
Web hosting services further categorized into different types (shared, VPS, dedicated, etc.) depends on the power and performance.
If you have just started your new blog or online business a shared hosting plan would be enough for you. But as with the time if you experience any spikes in your traffic you should think about upgrading your web hosting.
Shared hosting is not recommended for websites with high traffic volume. They can't handle the spiking traffic which results in getting your website down.
Note: Not just websites with high traffic need managed WordPress hosting, but those Individuals, bloggers, and businesses without a much technical knowledge and lack of time to manage their website also should move to managed WordPress hosting.
Do you still think you need to switch to a managed WordPress hosting? If, Yes.
You’ve come to the right place! In fact, I’ve used several hosting providers in the past and many of them claim themselves as “The Best WordPress Hosting” providers.
Now, to shed limelight on the best options, I have done a little research and curated a detailed comparison of top performing managed WordPress hosting providers and listed out everything you need to know about them.
Quick Comparison of Managed WordPress Hosting Providers | |||
---|---|---|---|
Name | Price per mo. | Visits per mo. | |
$30 | ~ 20,000 | ||
$11.95 | ~ 100,000 | ||
$29 | ~ 25,000 |
Before looking into the top Managed WordPress Hosting Providers, let me explain a little more information on managed WordPress hosting including pros and cons.
What is Managed WordPress Hosting?
Managed WordPress hosting is an enhanced version of any regular web hosting. There was a time when all the site management work was the responsibility of the site owner.
But later due to heavy competition and rapidly growing use of WordPress. Many web hosting companies came up with an idea to become a specialize in WordPress managed services which are known as Managed WordPress hosting.
Managed WordPress Hosting is the one which is specially designed and optimized for WordPress websites and blogs. It is a service where your hosting providers manage all technical aspects of running WordPress without any errors.
By saying technical aspects of running a WordPress blog I mean security, speed, WordPress updates, daily backups, website uptime, and scalability.
All you need to do is just focus on creating and promoting your content. Or if you have other offline business tasks to focus on.
Moreover, you'll get 24 x 7 expert level support with a managed WordPress hosting.
Think of it as a manager for your business. Your hosting provider will manage all technical aspects.
Managed WordPress hosting is a perfect choice for those who don’t have a much technical knowledge or time to manage their online business or website.
Pros of Managed WordPress Hosting
There are some of the key features which make managed WordPress hosting a solid solution for bloggers and website owners.
Super-Fast: The site speed really matter for your online business to rank better the search engines ranking. The managed WordPress hosting will be specially configured to meet the needs and requirements of your WordPress blog/website.
Most of the managed WordPress hosting do enable caching at the server level and don't allow to use any external caching plugin. This makes them super-fast even if your site received a lot of traffic.
You can also use CDN networks to make your website even faster. As not all managed WordPress hosting plans come with a free CDN service.
Expert 24 x 7 Support: You will receive 24x7 expert level support by choosing managed WordPress. With the help of highly knowledgeable support team, you can get the right assistance with things like site functionality, performance, WordPress errors, etc.
Security: Managed WordPress hosting always provide anti-hack security for your WordPress blog or website. With managed hosting, there is no need for you to worry about malware attacks, DDoS attacks, data theft and other security threats as all hacking attempts will be blocked automatically.
Daily Backups & Restore: Managed WordPress hosting will take daily backups of your site including themes, plugins, and data which you can later access via the hosting dashboard.
They also provide restore feature – i.e. in case if something goes wrong, you can easily restore your site within few seconds in just a single click. This will also save you some money if your website is using any paid backup services.
No Downtime: Almost all Managed WordPress hosting comes along with 99.9% guaranteed uptime. So no matter, how much traffic your site gets, it will never go down.
Auto-Updates: Your WordPress updates will also be taken care by your managed hosting providers.
Cons of Using Managed WordPress Hosting
While all of this may sound amazing to you, it does not mean that there aren't any downsides. There are few disadvantages of using Managed WordPress Hosting services, such as:
Pricing: Compared to shared web hosting, managed WordPress hosting is quite expensive. For instance: an average shared hosting plan will cost you $3.95/mo, on the other hand, a managed hosting plan will cost you around $10-$100/mo. But while weighing the features offered by Managed WordPress hosting, the price is worthy.
cPanel: If you’ve decided to switch from shared hosting to managed WordPress hosting, you might face few difficulties as they have a very different kind of user dashboard. Actually, I should say managed hosting dashboard is customized with user-friendliness nature. They don't want you to see any complicated options. But that's what you actually don't want in your managed WordPress hosting.
Limitations: To avoid compromising with the site speed a very few selected WordPress plugins are allowed. Plugins that can slow down your website will be on their block list. This could be an issue when you have a large scale website such as multi-author WordPress blog.
Here is a list of disallowed plugins shared by WP Engine.
Best Managed WordPress Hosting Providers Compared
Here I am going to provide some information on top managed WordPress Hosting Providers, so you can make an informed decision about what’s best for you and for your online business.
First Let Us Start With,
Better, Faster & Powerful WordPress Hosting
Overview
Powered by Google Cloud Platform with regional data centers, Kinsta offers fast and powerful managed hosting solution for WordPress. Kinsta's WordPress-only environment with high quality hosting platform makes it to be listed among top best managed WordPress hosting.
Recently Kinsta has improved its user-friendliness and website design. But that is not the only changes they have gone through, two new affordable hosting plans are also added "Starter" and "Pro".
It used to be the hosting service not everyone can afford to buy because of its high pricing. But after launching its (Starter and Pro) pack they aim to make their services more accessible to new-to WordPress users, bloggers, and small business owners.
Kinsta offers 24/7 customer support behind the scenes with premium quality service. Some of the premium features they offer with all of their plans free CDN (KeyCDN), SSD storage, free SSL certificates, free site migration, daily backups, premium customized cache plugin and much more.
Pricing
$30 | $60 | $100 | $200 | $300 | $400| $600 | $900 / month - (Recommended) (Updated)
Features
Pros
24/7 Expert Support & Monitoring. Highly secured network with security protocols, firewalls, daily backups, uptime monitoring and more. For speedy page load; you'll get Nginx, LXD containers, PHP 7 and MariaDB on Google Cloud Platform. Single click staging for developers.
No overage capping limit with monthly visitors and CDN limit. Your site will keep on running even after reaching the limit, but extra fees will be charged.
Cons
After introducing their new hosting plans, I can't really come up with any disadvantage with Kinsta WordPress hosting. (Updated)
Best WordPress Support, Speed & Security
Overview
If you’re looking for an affordable yet effective managed hosting provider for your WordPress blog, then SiteGround might be the right option. It provides unique WordPress security and speed solutions at a very affordable price.
SiteGround offers all the shared hosting features such as free WordPress installation, free domain name, support, free WordPress migration, email accounts and a lot more for just $3.95 per month for starters.
Pricing
$3.95 | $5.95 | $11.95 / month - (Recommended)
Features
Pros
SiteGround's GoGeek plan will provide you almost all the features you'll get with any expensive managed hosting providers. Things you'll get with SiteGround; unlimited websites to host, free drag & drop builder, free WordPress install, migration, auto-updates, WP special caching, staging, WP repo creation.
For promising speed; free CloudFlare CDN, SSD storage, location-based servers, SuperCache, etc.
For security; anti-hack system, proactive security patches, daily backup (1 to 30 copies), easy restore with the support team, etc.
There are so much more to its advantages like 24/7 fast support, e-commerce solutions, free SSL certificate and emails.
Cons
Compatible only with CloudFlare! If you wish to use any other CDN services such as MaxCDN, you will have to use a third-party cache plugin such as W3 Total Cache and WP Total Cache plugin.
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The Most Recommended WordPress Hosting
Overview
WP Engine always comes on top listed among other managed WordPress hosting services. What makes them on top? Their advance website management platform, fast loading times and powerful robust servers which is a perfect solution to advance your online business.
60 days money back guarantee! It has a team of WordPress experts to keep your site fast & secure. It is used by many popular brands like National Geographic, Yelp, HTC, Foursquare, SoundCloud and more.
If you are a brand or business, seeking quality services over money then WP Engine can accelerate your business even more. Its affordable than Kinsta and better than SiteGround (performance wise).
Pricing
$29 | $99 | $249 / month - (Recommended)
Features
Pros
It offers fantastic support for your WordPress site, extremely fast, and secure servers. Single click CDN addition.
WP Engine's EverCache technology integrates with WordPress which can serve common pages 4-6 times faster than other hosting servers.
They serve static requests from its robust front-end layer system which help reduces the server load significantly and smoothly handles the traffic spikes without compromising the performance.
Cons
WP Engine is a bit expensive compared to other managed WordPress hosting providers. And it’s not compatible with plugins.
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When do you need Managed WordPress Hosting?
If you are just starting up your new website you should always start with a shared hosting plan until you face any major issues related to high traffic or technical management of your WordPress site. For shared hosting, I recommend SiteGround and Bluehost both are officially recommended by WordPress.
Common Indications that you need Managed WordPress Hosting:
All I can do is recommend you the best options for managed WordPress hosting services but when do you really need a managed hosting for your site is totally depends on your needs. Selecting the perfect hosting service could be varied depending on different websites.
With managed hosting there are so many advantages but the only disadvantage I see is the pricing. But if you can afford to buy managed hosting and can relate to any above mentioned indications. You should try out managed hosting for your WordPress site.
If you can't afford to buy managed hosting for your website there are always other good options like reliable shared hosting services for new bloggers.
I hope this article will come handy to you while looking for a managed WordPress hosting provider. Have you ever used any managed WordPress hosting? Which one is your favorite hosting service?
Feel free to comment and let us know your opinions about any of the hosts featured here.