Not sure whether to choose regular web hosting or a Managed WordPress hosting package? What exactly are the differences between both? We’ll help you decide!
With a regular web hosting plan, you are renting space on the web host’s servers to store your website’s content so that it is available on the internet. Regular website hosting comes in different forms to meet the needs of different customers.
Managed WordPress hosting, on the other hand, is a kind of website hosting exclusively for customers with websites built on WordPress. These plans come with WordPress-specific features and all the website’s backend are managed by the web host, making it appealing to website owners who don’t want to bother with all the technical stuff.
In the rest of this article, we’ll discuss what website hosting and Managed WordPress hosting are, how they work, the differences between regular website hosting and Managed WordPress hosting, and how to choose which is right for you. Let’s dive right in.
Key highlights
- Web hosting is a service that makes your website available on the internet by giving you space to store your website content on a web server.
- Managed WordPress hosting is a type of web hosting specifically designed for WordPress websites where the technical aspects of managing the website are delegated to the web host instead of the website owner.
- There are different types of web hosting catering to different website needs.
- With managed WordPress hosting, you can enjoy more specialized support, better security, and website staging, and don’t need to be tech-savvy.
- Regular hosting offers more hosting types, affordability, and more control.
What is website hosting?
Website hosting is a service offered by a web hosting provider (also known as a web host) where space and resources on a web server are rented out to you, the website owner, for you to store your website content so that it is available on the internet.
The amount of storage space and computing resources allocated to you by the web host depends on the type of website hosting you go for.
Your website hosting provider is responsible for keeping your website secure and functioning properly so that when a visitor tries to access your website, all the right content is served up reliably.
How does website hosting work?
So how does website hosting work? As we discussed earlier, when you buy a web hosting plan, you are renting space on the web host’s servers to store your website’s content.
Your website content is simply images, text, and files arranged in a particular way specified by your website’s code – HTML and CSS.
Now the fun part – when a visitor searches for your website, they type in your domain name or click on a link, and then the web hosting provider serves up your website content to their browser.
Choosing your web host is choosing the home for your website and is incredibly important as it affects your website’s security and performance. A web host with poor service means your website may not load reliably or may take too long to load when someone visits, and could have you lose potential customers.
Website hosting providers also make it easy to create and manage your website, by offering complementary services like website builders, control panels, domain registration, email hosting, SSL certificates, and CMS-specific features.
Types of website hosting
The amount of web resources – storage space, bandwidth, RAM, etc. – you get from your hosting provider depends on the web hosting plan you go for. Here are some of the different types of web hosting plans and who they are best for:
Shared hosting
The most common type of regular hosting is shared hosting. As the name implies, in a shared hosting environment, you share computing resources with other website owners on the same physical server.
Due to the nature of shared hosting, it is the cheapest form of website hosting and is best for new websites or websites with little traffic – personal blogs, portfolio websites, etc.
One downside to shared hosting is that traffic spikes on one website will likely affect all other websites hosted on the same server.
VPS hosting
VPS hosting – short for Virtual Private Server – is typically what website owners choose after they outgrow their shared hosting plans. In a VPS hosting environment, you still share the same physical server with other websites but portions of computing resources are dedicated to you.
VPS hosting plans handle traffic spikes better and are more flexible. They are great for mid-sized websites like eCommerce websites and news websites. VPS hosting plans do require some technical expertise though.
Cloud hosting
Cloud hosting is an innovative kind of web hosting where websites share computing resources over a network of servers rather than a single server.
This makes cloud hosting the most flexible kind of web hosting and many cloud hosting plans allow you to increase or reduce your resource demand, and you only pay for the resources you use.
Cloud hosting guarantees excellent uptime and scalability, but it’s typically more expensive than shared and VPS plans.
Dedicated hosting
Dedicated hosting is the most enterprise-y kind of web hosting. With a dedicated hosting plan, a physical server and the entirety of its resources are delegated to your website.
You have full control of the web server, you can choose the operating system and software you want to use, and you can customize the hosting environment to meet your needs.
Dedicated hosting is the most expensive kind of web hosting and is best for websites that handle sensitive data and large amounts of traffic – financial companies, eCommerce businesses, etc.
WordPress hosting
Many website hosting providers also offer WordPress hosting – a CMS-based type of web hosting that caters specifically to websites built on WordPress.
These WordPress hosting plans come with WordPress-specific features like pre-installed themes, 1-click installs, and WordPress-specific support, to help website owners manage their WordPress websites conveniently.
What is Managed WordPress hosting?
WordPress hosting plans are designed for WordPress websites but managed WordPress hosting takes it a step further. With managed WordPress hosting, the web host is responsible for the administrative aspects of managing your WordPress website so you can focus on the customer-facing side of your website – content, SEO, design, plugins, etc.
Managed WordPress hosting plans have become very popular among website owners as they make WordPress website management easy for just about anyone.
How does Managed WordPress hosting work?
With a regular, unmanaged WordPress plan, you get a ton of WordPress-specific features like WordPress preinstalled or 1-click WordPress installation, malware scans and removal, WordPress staging, WP themes, WordPress-specific support, etc.
A managed WordPress hosting plan includes all these and takes it a step further by taking administrative roles like software updates, security features management, backups, performance optimization, etc., off your hands.
With more advanced Managed WordPress plans, you can also get access to features like WordPress code optimization, WordPress plugin management, WooCommerce management, and your website design done for you.
So basically, with managed WordPress hosting, all the technical stuff and intimidating back-end of managing your website is done for you.
Regular hosting vs Managed WordPress hosting
Now that we have seen how regular web hosting and managed WordPress hosting work, how exactly do they differ? What are the benefits and limitations of each type of hosting?
Regular hosting
Regular website hosting in the context of this piece describes unmanaged website hosting plans that may or not be optimized for WordPress sites.
Benefits
Variety
The first and most glaring benefit of regular hosting is there are more web hosting tiers and packages available to you. There is a web hosting plan for every kind of website and you’ll be spoiled for choice.
Shared hosting plans for newer websites, VPS plans for mid-sized websites, cloud hosting for websites that experience very significant traffic spikes, and dedicated plans for enterprise-level clients.
With regular hosting, you are not limited to only WordPress. You can think of regular hosting as the jack-of-all-trades and you can find the right plan irrespective of the CMS you are using.
Affordability
Regular hosting, and shared and VPS hosting in particular, are the most affordable kinds of hosting on the market. Specialized web hosting plans are more expensive and may not be for you if you are on a budget.
More technical control
If you are very tech-savvy and want more control over your website’s backend, then regular web hosting types like VPS, cloud, and dedicated hosting may be the best. These plans offer more access to the server and also allow you to install as many plugins as you want.
Limitations
Security
With regular hosting plans like shared plans, security is a big concern as attacks on a single website can easily affect other websites hosted on the same server. For the more advanced hosting plans, you are in charge of managing your security and are liable for any vulnerabilities.
Less specialized support
The support you get with a regular hosting plan is not specialized and the web host’s support agents may not know how to tackle issues that require expert eyes.
Performance
If you are just creating a new website, shared hosting is likely the kind of regular hosting you’ll be going for.
With shared hosting, if a particular website on your server is handling a lot of traffic, your own website’s loading speed may be affected due to limited resources.
On the other hand, if your own website’s traffic spikes suddenly and overloads your current allocated resources, it may take a while to upgrade and accommodate your new resource demand.
Managed WordPress Hosting
Managed WordPress hosting tackles many of the issues faced with basic regular shared hosting as well as those with more technical hosting plans, specifically for WordPress websites.
Pros
Less tech expertise required
With a managed WordPress hosting plan, you don’t need to be tech-savvy to manage your WordPress website unlike other regular hosting types like VPS and cloud hosting, or dedicated hosting that typically requires having a dedicated IT team.
Whether you are new to website management or have a large portfolio of websites, managed WordPress hosting makes all the technical aspects of managing your website, done for you.
Better website performance and speed
With managed WordPress hosting, the web host is in charge of testing and optimizing your website’s performance to ensure quick loading speed.
Traffic fluctuations in other websites won’t affect yours and if your website is about to get overloaded, the web host delegates the required resources automatically to handle incoming traffic and data demand.
Better security
Most managed WordPress hosting plans come with built-in security features to protect your website from malware, WordPress security scams, and external attacks. They also typically include content delivery networks (CDN), web application firewalls (WAF), and extra security from third-party providers like SiteLock.
On most regular hosting plans, to get some of these features, you’d have to pay extra. A top-tier managed WordPress hosting plan will also typically feature automatic website backups to protect your website data and auto-updates to ensure you are using the latest software all the time.
Tailored support
Managed WordPress hosting plans offer the best support for WordPress websites. It makes sense – most customer agents on regular web hosting are used to handling generic web hosting queries. So when you need help with WordPress-specific issues, they may not be experienced enough to tackle unique scenarios.
With managed WordPress hosting, you have access to agents who have been trained specifically for WordPress management and tackling WordPress error messages. Some managed WordPress hosting plans even give you your dedicated agent that you can always reach out to directly.
WordPress staging tool
WordPress staging is one of the most appealing features offered with managed WordPress hosting plans. With a WordPress staging tool, you can test changes in a staging environment without affecting your live website.
You can change themes, add plugins, and make design modifications to the WordPress staging environment and see how they’ll look on your website and spot any flaws that need tweaking before launching them on your live website.
Cons
Only good for WordPress websites
The most obvious limitation of managed WordPress plans is they are only good for WordPress websites. If your website is built or managed via a different CMS, then you may be better off with a regular hosting plan.
Typically more expensive
Managed WordPress hosting plans are also more expensive than regular shared or VPS hosting plans, thanks to the extra benefits you get to enjoy. If you have a small website and are on a tight budget, a managed WordPress hosting plan may not be the best for you yet.
Regular vs Managed WordPress – which should you choose?
Regular hosting and managed WordPress both have their place and cater to different kinds of website needs. When should you choose regular hosting or managed WordPress hosting?
When do you need regular hosting?
For new websites
Regular shared hosting is typically the better choice if you have a new website that isn’t pulling a lot of traffic yet. Most of the limitations of shared hosting start to show when your website is getting a lot of visits.
Not built on WordPress
If your website is not built on WordPress and you have no plans of migrating to the CMS, then a regular web hosting plan is the one for you. The more generic features you’ll get will be more useful for you and you won’t have to pay extra for built-in WordPress software you will never use.
If you have an IT team
If you are an enterprise handling huge volumes of traffic or sensitive data, and you have your own dedicated IT team to manage your web servers, then you won’t need a managed WordPress hosting plan. A cloud or dedicated hosting plan will be more suited to your needs.
When do you need Managed WordPress hosting?
If you are not tech-savvy
Managed WordPress hosting shines when you don’t want to bother with all the technical stuff. If you are new to managing WordPress websites, a managed hosting plan is probably the best for you.
Higher traffic
If your WordPress website is pulling a lot of traffic, a managed WordPress hosting plan makes the most sense since you’d want to focus on the customer-facing side of your website – SEO, optimizing your website for conversions, A/B testing website copy elements, etc.
You won’t have to bother with most of your website’s backend and can go fully on-page to manage the aspects of your website that move the needle on your business.
How to choose a web hosting provider
Decided on regular hosting? How to choose the right web hosting provider for your website? What are some of the features to look out for?
Types of hosting provided
The best web hosting providers should offer different types of web hosting – shared, VPS, cloud, dedicated, and WordPress. Some web hosts also provide eCommerce-specific plans like WooCommerce as well as niche hosting plans like reseller hosting and agency hosting.
Complementary features/services
You want to get as much value as possible from whichever hosting plan you choose, so you should vet the complementary features and services that the web host is offering.
Features like SSL certificates, domain name, CDN, SSD storage, email, free migration tools, malware scans, etc. are must-haves.
Support
You want a web host that offers 24/7 support through as many channels as possible – live chat, video guides, knowledgebase articles, social media, email, tickets, phone support, etc.
Also, do well to test the host’s support response times by creating a ticket and observing how quickly you can reach an agent and how knowledgeable they are.
User interface
The right web host should provide you with the best admin control software. A cPanel is standard but some web hosts provide their own customized control panels so that even people without technical experience can manage their hosting plans and websites conveniently.
Security features
Free security features like SSL certificates, auto backups, CDN integration, and malware are standard on many web hosting providers. For more advanced features like SiteLock and web application firewall (WAF), you’ll typically have to pay extra.
How to choose a Managed WordPress hosting provider
On the other hand, if you have figured out that managed WordPress hosting is better for you, how do you choose the best provider? What are some of the features you want to look out for?
Features in regular web hosting plus…
The best managed WordPress hosting providers will give you most of the features you’ll get from a regular web host plus WordPress-specific features including:
WordPress pre-installed or 1-click installs
You own a WordPress website so it makes sense that your provider should make setting up the WordPress software as easy as possible. Your managed WordPress hosting plans should come with WordPress pre-installed or at least give you 1-click installs for WordPress.
Automatic website migration tool
If you were hosting your WordPress website on another provider, the managed WordPress hosting provider you are considering should give you a free website migration tool to transfer your website conveniently and quickly.
WordPress automatic updates and on-demand backup
Automatic WordPress CMS updates and WordPress website backups should be provided out of the box to ensure your website’s security and premium performance.
WordPress staging tool
We discussed how a WordPress staging tool helps you make tweaks to your website safely and this feature should be included in your managed WordPress hosting plans.
WooCommerce optimization
If you plan to run an eCommerce website, then you want your managed WordPress plan to come with WooCommerce-specific features and optimization packages. The WooCommerce plugin allows you to create an online store on your WordPress website.
Other features
Some managed WordPress hosting providers now feature AI tools built into their plans to help with faster content publishing.
ClikIT Care – Best Managed WordPress hosting and Maintenance
If you are looking for a managed WordPress hosting provider that gives you the most features out-of-the-box and takes WordPress support seriously, ClikIT Care is the one for you.
You will never have to worry about getting affected by other websites – on each plan, we give you a dedicated CPU, memory, and an IP. You also enjoy a web application firewall (WAF) built-in and auto backups with an impressive 720 restore points so you can quickly get your website functioning properly in case of any tweaking mishaps.
With ClikIT Care, setting up your website couldn’t be easier. You get 100 templates for free. Simply choose a plan, pick a template, and sit back as your website gets created for you.
Any plan you choose is also ClikIT compatible. ClikIT is first your WordPress help desk, so you’ll always have all the support you need. We are WordPress experts and are proud to have handled every possible WordPress issue under the sun.
Some of the other features you get with ClikIT Care include a free migration tool, multisite compatibility, free SSL certificates, a WooCommerce-ready package, detailed site analytics, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
