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What is Managed WordPress Hosting and When is it Worth the Extra Cost?

Your WordPress site is a valuable asset. As with any asset, you want to make sure it's secure, it runs efficiently, and is in the best hands possible. Managed WordPress hosting can be the solution, but it isn't an absolute cure-all! In this article, I'll explain exactly what managed WordPress hosting is, when you should choose it, whether it's worth the additional cost, and the various things to keep in mind when choosing a hosting service (plus a few recommendations).

Let's get started…

But First: A Few Hosting Basics

Let's begin at the beginning — always a good place to start! To make the best decision possible, you have to understand what various hosting packages contain and how they affect your site. Let's start with a broad definition of hosting.

"Hosting (or web hosting) is a type of service required to both store data and make websites accessible online (i.e. publicly accessible to people using the internet)."

Hosting is a service you buy from a company. In some cases this service includes only the absolute bare minimum — really just a publicly accessible place to store your website online. Other packages may include features that take the burden of security, performance, and general site management off your shoulders.

The more such features and services a hosting plan offers, the more likely it is to be referred to as managed hosting. When such hosting plans are specifically tailored to and optimized for WordPress (in terms of everything from the technical hosting environment to the more general site management features), we refer to them as managed WordPress hosting plans.

What Is Managed Hosting?

Most packages on offer today would be considered managed to some extent. Why? Because running a website is actually a lot more complicated than you'd think. Many folk have the necessary skills to create and run a WordPress-powered website, but how many people have network management skills? Can create Nginx files and/or apply operating system upgrades to their own servers via SSH?

All websites are stored on computers, much like the one you're using to view this article in fact. They have memory, a processor, a hard drive, ports that handle internet traffic and so on — and they all need to be taken care of on an operating system level. If there's a bug in the operating system, it has to be addressed. If malware has made its way into the machine, it needs to be cleared — and that's just scratching the surface of all the day-to-day things that need to be done to keep it all ticking along nicely!

This is a level of management that nowadays almost all hosts offer. In fact, it's in their best interest to do so. While this may seem like a kindness extended to the end user, don't think that there's nothing in it for the hosts themselves. Most users have absolutely no need to control their low-level hosting environment — and given the opportunity to do so, would mostly likely make a complete mess of things pretty quickly, leading to websites going down through no fault of the host: who would then likely be blamed and asked to get things running again.

In other words: by managing your server for you, hosts kill two birds with one stone. On one hand, they save you from yourself, and on the other, they save themselves from hordes of support tickets.

Let's call this type of management server level management — and unless you specifically search for bare metal servers, you'll most likely see all such features included in your chosen hosting package anyway.

There is, however, another branch of managed hosting services that allows you to perform many common higher-level tasks on your server, such as website backups. Let's call this second branch of services application level management.

Application level management services are the types of services offered in a managed WordPress hosting plans, such features will likely include server-level caching (and many other performance-specific services), automated daily site backups, core WordPress updates, website migrations and malware scanning, the ability to quickly and easily create staging sites, on-demand WordPress-specific one-click backups, and more — we'll go through many of these in a moment.

The Benefits Of Managed WordPress Hosting

In essence, the real overwhelming benefit of a managed WordPress hosting environment is that everything about it is completely tailored to running WordPress. General hosts (i.e. the type that host all kinds of websites running on all kinds of platforms) simply can't truly optimize their systems to one specific platform because they need to be able to run so many different types of software. The same server may be running a WordPress site, a Joomla site, a custom-made site using Laravel, a Node server, etc, etc. There is just no way to optimize for everything all at once!

Managed WordPress hosts, on the other hand, work exclusively with WordPress, and as such, they can tailor all their servers — from the operating system, file system, and command line tools — for optimal performance. A great example of this type of optimization is website caching — something that can be made to work much more effectively at a server-side level than it can by simply using front-end WordPress plugins.

Security is another sector where managed WordPress hosting excels. It's much easier to build a system that's secure when you know exactly what's running on it and what the weak points of a specific software (in our case: WordPress) are. Because hosts understand how WordPress reacts when someone tries logging in with incorrect details, they can build specific tools into the server that lock out any malicious attempts automatically.

The result of all this is a significantly faster, more secure, more stable hosting architecture. The whole thing is analogous to why you don't see your TV crashing, while your PC might do it from time to time. Even though modern TVs have little computers inside them, they are used for one — very specific — task. PCs support a huge variety of operations making them more prone to unexpectedly seizing up or going wrong in some unforeseen way.

Managed WordPress hosting systems need only concentrate on a single system — WordPress. This allows them to utilize WordPress' various strengths and dampen down its weaknesses resulting in an environment that does one thing, but does it extremely well.

Features Of Managed WordPress Hosting

At present, managed WordPress hosting companies offer a number of different features. The following is a rundown of some of the most useful ones — in no particular order.

Automatically Managed Updates

Automatic updates have been a feature in WordPress for quite a while now, however, managed WordPress hosting can take this a step further still. They can automatically apply security fixes as soon as they come out — in the same way they can also apply major WordPress version updates to sites. Where possible, some companies will even notify you in advance of such updates in order help ensure you always have ample time to prepare — just in case.

With almost all managed WordPress hosts, using the latest version of WordPress is usually enforced. This not only makes your website more secure (by closing any known security holes as quickly as possible), it also makes the host's own network more secure as a whole — the benefits of which will trickle down to you as a regular customer: more overall uptime and fewer attacks, etc.

Automatic & Manual Backups

Due to the popularity and well-documented nature of WordPress, specialized hosts can make the backup procedure more efficient, more reliable and generally faster. What's more, having the host make regular backups also makes your site easier to restore should things go awry (after all, what good is having a backup if you're unable to apply it yourself — for whatever reason). Having your host make regular backups that can then easily be used to restore your site (should you ever need to) is possible because the host is in the perfect position to understand the fixed structure of WordPress, which also lends itself to our next feature:

Better WordPress Support

Your mileage with support will vary from company to company, but I think it's a safe to say that an average managed WordPress host support will (or at least should) know significantly more about WordPress than a regular non-specialist host's support. Again, since WordPress is just one system, it's a lot easier to support any issues that arise when everyone's in the same boat.

Automatic WordPress Setup

A feature that allows you to get up and running with a new WordPress site in literally just seconds. When you need a new site, a complete WordPress install — and the necessary database connection, etc — will all be created for you automatically, all you need to do is fill out a short form with some admin and site details. Easy!

Staging Environments

Staging environments are a great feature for developers and/or site managers. A staging environment starts out as a perfect copy of your existing site, which is only accessible to you personally (or it has an obscure URL). Super handy for testing out new plugins/themes or updating/modifying code before applying any changes to your live site.

Finely Tuned Dashboards

Regular hosting dashboards aren't usually very user-friendly because they don't actually know which software you're using. As a result, they usually need to give you a whole host of different options — many of which simply aren't applicable to WordPress. On the other hand, some are so sparse that all they have is a few basic links to manage your database or your files and not much more. Managed WordPress hosting dashboards, on the other hand, can do all sorts of useful things, like provide you with individual statistics on usage/visitors, give others access to your account, show you if you have out of date plugins, tell you exactly which version of WordPress you're currently using, and so on.

Better Caching

As already mentioned above, due to the predictable nature of the WordPress environment, a much more efficient server-side caching solution can easily be implemented, which can dramatically impact your site speed by making sure each page is cached both as effectively as possible and for as long as possible.

With better caching, both the website owner the hosts themselves are happier — because by using the very best caching system possible, a website will both run faster and require less server resources, which in turn helps the host save money.

Heightened Security

We've already covered some basic aspects of security. Auto updates, better support, and (usually) daily backups all contribute to security, but there's actually a lot more going on behind the scenes with managed hosting. For example: strict WordPress-level policies.

Let's assume that a popular plugin announces they have a security leak. A general host can't do anything about this — more likely they won't even know about it! WordPress hosts continually monitor such news and may ban the plugin from being installed immediately. If it's a particularly nasty security issue, they may even deactivate all of these plugins straightaway (in which case they'd clearly contact site owners asap as well). While this may cause some website owners to grumble, it's a lot better than websites being compromised and/or crashing.

In short, when it comes to WordPress-related security issues, WordPress specific hosts can monitor things more easily and react faster and more efficiently than their counterparts.

Downsides Of Managed WordPress Hosting

So with all these great features and all the nice things I've said so far, could there be any downsides? Well, of course, there always are…

WordPress Only

I wouldn't consider this a downside as such, but it's still worth mentioning. There is absolutely no way you can get any other site on a managed WordPress host. Some of them give you more freedom than others, so although you may technically be able to also run a Joomla site for example, I pretty much guarantee it would be taken down as soon it's discovered.

Loss Of Flexibility

As I mentioned above, WordPress hosts have stricter policies than their counterparts — resulting in a better architecture, which more than makes up for any inconveniences in my opinion. That said, some plugins may be banned — with good reason. Third party aching plugins, for example, are typically not allowed, and neither are many other plugins that have a bad track record: often due to security and/or performance concerns. On the other hand, is this really so bad? After all, no one really wants a plugin that's insecure or eats up all their available site resources/memory.

Increased Price

Creating a quality managed WordPress hosting experience requires considerable know-how, technology, and money. The machines that house your websites tend to be a lot more powerful — and the additional cost is passed down to the humble site owner. There are some low-cost options out there but, in general, the lowest you'll want to go is about $30/month. The next tier is usually around $100/month, with prices generally rising pretty steeply after that.

When Is Managed WordPress Hosting Worth The Extra Cost?

My opinion here is pretty black-and-white. If you can afford it and only need to run WordPress, go straight for managed WordPress hosting! There are some addendums, which I'll flesh out in a moment, but this is the general rule of thumb I advise. Let's look at cases where managed WordPress hosting is not worth the extra cost.

Are your sites test or development sites?

If you're creating a quick test site or developing something online, you don't need all the power that comes with a managed package. A shared host will likely have more frequent downtimes and be significantly slower, but this isn't an issue for you: and the $5/month cost is much easier to stomach (especially when developing multiple sites/ideas at the same time).

Are you on a budget?

We've all been there: sometimes the extra $5 is just too much. If you have no choice, don't fret too much — especially when just setting out. If you're on a tight budget, saving money early on and switching hosts when you can safely afford to do so is a very reasonable tactic indeed (unless performance really is critical for your site/idea from the outset!).

Do you have mission critical non-WordPress components?

Some websites may run on WordPress, but they may have some outlying code that the site simply can't function without. In these situations, you'll need to use a high-quality general host that allows you to run anything freely instead.

Are your sites low-traffic?

If you have a low-traffic site that can live with a little downtime (a personal site perhaps that you've no intention of ever turning into a business), you simply may not need managed WordPress hosting at all. Sure, we all love seeing our website up 100% of the time and loading less than a second, but if you have a personal blog that's visited by only a thousand of so people a month, does it really make a difference if it is only up 99% of the time and loads in two or three seconds?

Do you have many sites?

Most hosts limit the number of WordPress installs you can have. With managed WordPress hosting: "Sure, you can have 30 sites, but hand over $350 a month please!" If all of those sites are money-makers that's fine of course, but be prepared to pay per site (or opt for a special multi-site deal). If you do have a high number of sites, it may be better to leave the low-traffic ones where they are, and only use managed WordPress hosting for the main ones.

In conclusion, I would strongly advise going over the five points above. If your answer is no to each one, my advice is to choose managed WordPress hosting every time.

Mistakes To Avoid When Choosing A Managed WordPress Host

Before we get to our list of top managed WordPress hosts, I'd like to caution you against some of the common pitfalls of choosing this type of host.

Modified Shared Hosting Is Not WordPress Hosting

Some hosting companies like SiteGround boast managed WordPress hosting on their website, but they aren't really 'true' managed WordPress hosts.

SiteGround is indeed a very capable host with great customer support, but their WordPress infrastructure is essentially the same as both their general shared hosting services and their Joomla architecture — not something we're looking for. This is a common pattern with many hosts, just because they advertise "managed WordPress hosting" doesn't necessarily mean that they are as 'managed' as some other, even more-specialist hosts.

Too Good To Be True

Another rule of thumb: You simply cannot buy good hosting for only a few dollars a month! If something seems too good to be true, it almost always is — especially in the world of hosting.

Note: for the below list of recommended managed WordPress hosts, I've opted for only companies that have architectures especially built for WordPress and features that support the platform exclusively.

Know What You're Paying For

Managed WordPress hosts will generally try and charge you for the exact resources (memory and disk space etc) that your site uses. However, it's important to also keep an eye on bandwidth/monthly visitor count too, since some hosts may charge an additional fee if you go over your allotted monthly allowance.

Some hosts will give you a fixed amount of bandwidth you can use, others will give you a monthly visitor cap. I'm personally not keen on the later, and even think it slightly unfair. My blog, for example, may use 10KB of bandwidth per page load, which means that I use up just 1Gb of bandwidth for a 100,000 visitors. A very large news site that uses 650KB however, would use up a whopping 65GB (i.e. way more server resources) for the same number of monthly visitors!

The true cost of hosting is incurred through bandwidth, not visitor count, which is why I think the visitor based pricing model is far from the best way of going about things.

Top Managed WordPress Hosting Companies

Finally, let's take a look at some of the best managed WordPress hosting companies in the market. The following companies all have good track records, know exactly what they're doing and specialize in hosting only WordPress-powered websites.

WP Engine

WP Engine is one of the largest and best-known managed WordPress hosts — and was originally part funded by Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com. Their three most common plans will set you back $29, $99 and $249/month.

I'm not keen on their visitor-based pricing model, but they are one of the biggest managed WordPress hosting companies in the market, and are indeed both highly rated and really very reliable.

Official Website

Flywheel

Flywheel is one of my favorite managed WordPress hosts (and is, in fact, the very managed WordPress host used to host this very site you're reading now). They have the cheapest entry-level truly managed WordPress hosting package, offer a heap of unique features, free site migrations, and boast both impressive performance and one of the best-looking dashboards on the market!

The cheapest plan contains correspondingly low resource usage but clocks in at a friendly $15/month. Their higher tier single site plans will cost you $30 or $75; bulk plans are available for $100 and $250/month.

(editor note: read our more in-depth Flywheel review here)

Official Website

Kinsta

Along with Flywheel, Kinsta is one of my favorites. It quickly became the largest managed WordPress host in Europe just two years after it was started and continues to be on the forefront of technology by putting their whole infrastructure on Google Cloud.

While Kinsta is technically great, it is however one of the most expensive options. Their cheapest plan costs $100 with $200, $300, $400, $600, $900, $1,200 and $1,500/month plans available out-of-the-box.

Official Website

Pagely

Pagely is another large company with an impressive list of clients: Twitter, Disney, Visa, Facebook — just to name a few. Their ability to scale is super impressive, although they also ask a relatively hefty price.

Their cheapest plan is $99/month, which allows for five sites. Their next tiers are $499, $999, $1249 and $2249/month respectively with an Enterprise option starting at $1,999/month.

Official Website

Switching From Other Hosts

I think the pricing makes it pretty clear that managed WP hosting can become relatively expensive quite quickly. These companies are so good at optimizing WordPress however, that your website will tick along exceptionally well on servers with considerably lower specs than your current shared or VPS.

Due to the added performance alone then, I think the $29 range is a no-brainer. If you have a site that's is important to you — especially if it makes money — you should almost certainly move it to managed WordPress hosting (see above for a list of circumstances when managed WP hosting isn't the best option). If you are currently paying about $5/month for a general shared hosting plan, you'll be paying more per month should you switch, but in return, you'll get a faster and more reliable website.

In fact, even if you're currently on a $50/month-ish VPS, you'll also likely do well to switch to a $30/month tier and even save yourself $21/month in the process (all things being equal). By all means ask your potential managed host and tell them your data usage stats, but you'll likely be well within the limits in most cases. If your site doesn't fit in the $30/month range, I'd seriously consider the switch to the $100 tier for the same reasons as the shared crowd. You're essentially making an investment in the future of your website/business, and may well see equally valuable performance gains almost straight away!

The higher price ranges (from $250-$1500/month for example) may seem pretty outlandish to most small-to-medium sized businesses, but for many large sites with 100,000s visitors per month, this amount actually isn't anything out of the ordinary. After a certain volume, you simply have to factor in higher hosting costs. Indeed there are plenty of self-managed VPS solutions that live in the $2,000+ range, not to mention getting your very own bare metal server!

Even if you have a large site, the optimizations that managed WordPress hosting offers can provide a huge benefit — I've actually witnessed a managed WordPress host shave off $3,000/month from a large client's hosting bill simply by optimizing their file storage practices alone!

The Bottom Line — Do You Need Managed WordPress Hosting?

The conclusion of this article is that yes, assuming you're running only WordPress, you should almost definitely go for managed WordPress hosting as opposed to shared, VPS or bare metal. In fact, for the performance boast alone it will likely make financial sense to do so for the majority of WordPress-business sites (after all: how many more conversions would your site make if it loaded a second or two faster — think customer satisfaction and SEO benefits, etc). In short: using managed WordPress hosting not only gives you a finely tuned environment in which your site will be better equipped to thrive and withstand traffic surges, it also provides added peace of mind in terms of additional reliability and security.

In some very specific scenarios, however, you may not have the option to go with managed WordPress hosting — fundamentally because the necessary funding simply isn't available, you need to run more than just WordPress, or your site is really only for personal use where things like better performance etc are of little to no real concern.

For the vast majority of sites however, yes, managed WordPress hosting may be considerably more expensive than shared hosting (and even a tad more than general VPS hosting), but the benefits really do generally far outweigh any additional expense!

Using managed WordPress hosting? Thoughts?

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