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Heard of ‘managed WordPress hosting’ but wondering what it actually is? How it differs from other forms of hosting, and whether or not it’s worth the additional cost? Here’s a quick video on all you need to know.
Let’s take a look…
What Is Managed WordPress Hosting – And Is It Worth The Extra Cost?
Direct link to watch the video over on YouTube.
– (note: video credits to Topher DeRosia – creator of HeroPress)
Video Transcript:
Hi, this is Topher, with WinningWP! In this video we’re going to answer the question, “What is managed WordPress hosting? And is it worth the extra cost?” First I want to take a look at what unmanaged hosting is. In the old days, before hosting was a commodity business, if you wanted a website, you had to get a computer, then you had to get a big internet connection. Then you had to install all the software, and you had to keep it secure. If it went down, you got up in the middle of the night and you fixed it yourself. These days, people who really know what they’re doing have put together great big server farms and they take care of all that stuff, and you get to rent some space from them and they make sure the hardware stays up, that the software stays updated, and that security is maintained. So that’s regular managed hosting. But we want to look at managed WordPress hosting. Now, not all hosts have everything on this list, but these are things that you’ll commonly find on managed WordPress hosts. Automatically managed updates, automatic and manual backups, better WordPress support, because they know what you’re running, automatic WordPress setup, staging environments, finely tuned dashboards, better caching, and heightened security. But what do all these things mean? What does that actually get you? First of all, faster sites. Much faster sites. Google has made it very plain that they rank faster sites higher than slower sites. So if ranking in Google matters to you, you want a faster site. Managed WordPress hosting can get you that. Also faster recoveries from problems, if the server goes down or there’s a hack or something like that, you have backups, and support knows how to help you get them back in place. There’s also reliability in uptime. Your site simply does not go down as often as cheaper hosting. And then there’s peace of mind from security. Managed WordPress hosting is simply run differently from cheaper hosting. It is inherently more secure, just because the way they build it. Now there are some disadvantage. For one thing, it’s WordPress only. So if you have a site that’s a mix of WordPress and some other CMS or Ecommerce platform, then often you can’t have your site on managed WordPress hosting. There can be a loss of flexibility. Most managed WordPress hosts have a list of plugins they don’t allow, but the reason for that is that they usually provide that service themselves, and it’s usually done better than a free plugin. There’s also an increased price, but that’s to be expected with better service. So when is managed WordPress hosting worth the cost? When you need speed, when you need security, and when you need reliability. And the situations where you might need those things are when you’re making money from it, or when you have lots of traffic, and lastly, when you can afford it, because, to be honest, if you can afford it you really should be on managed WordPress hosting. It’s simply better and you should be there. Here are four of the top managed WordPress hosting companies. The prices here range anywhere from dollars a month up to dollars a month, and so there’s a place for you at any scale. You can get your beginner site in at the bottom, and keep it on managed WordPress hosting right up to the point where you’re making millions of dollars from your site. So to reiterate, if you can be on managed WordPress hosting, you really should be. If you’d like to learn more about WordPress, check out WinningWP.com.
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