Top 9 Reasons to Choose Managed WordPress Hosting

Online businesses require plenty of attention to stay competitive. With so many websites for users to choose from, business owners need to stay on their toes to keep up with demand and create a website that continues to be rewarding, engaging and easy to use as well as ticking all the boxes that make it prominent in searches and appealing to online search algorithms.

To see great results, you need to create and maintain effective online marketing, social media engagement, content, site optimisation and security and go with a host that is reliable, fast and secure.

You also need to make sure your site is bug-free, all your connections and links are operating correctly and your pages are showing perfectly across desktops and mobile devices.

With a to-do list this long, on top of your day-to-day staff management, project running and service offering, it can become hard to keep all the requirements for a high functioning and efficient website well oiled and updated. That is why a managed WordPress hosting service can really help boost your online business capacity, freeing you up to focus on other aspects of your business and leave your website to the experts.

When it comes to website hosting options many businesses opt for shared hosting or small Virtual Private Server (VPS). This is usually to do with price. These options come with a smaller cost which can be appealing when you are starting out, but there are big impacts from heading down the cheaper hosting road. 

Part of what makes these platforms cost-effective is the do-it-yourself (DIY) hosting option but you need to keep in mind that the work to maintain and update your website needs to be done by someone, that might be yourself, or it might be someone in-house like your IT team or savvy marketing officer. This also costs money (and time away from other projects) so when you are calculating the costs, make sure you consider the full cost of doing it yourself as well as how effective and reliable your current self-managed systems will be.

If you are using your website as a hobby business and are not invested in it then small might be a better option, however, if you are serious about your business offering and are looking to create a viable and strong online presence, then you need to be looking at larger, more capable hosts that offer absolute security and the ability to scale and grow with your business demands.

A managed WordPress host gives you the ability to go head-to-head with your industry’s best performing online companies.

See How Chillybin Web Design Can Drive Massive Amounts of Traffic to Your Website

• SEO – drive people who are ready to buy directly to your website.
• Content Marketing – our team of native-English speaking writers will craft articles that position you as THE authority in your niche.
• Paid Media – pour fuel on the fire with paid ads that produce a steady stream of leads for your business.

Book a call

What Is Managed WordPress Hosting?

A managed WordPress hosting plan offers private compartmentalised space on a server as well as automated WordPress management, including installations, updates and backups as well as service centre support and dashboards with alerts, messages and current information about your site performance and issues.

In terms of work hours, it’s going to be cheaper than DIY because a lot of the systems provided are automated and programmed to look after the day-to-day behind the screens on your online business, keeping everything ship-shape with frequent scans, system checks and data backups.

As well as the background work of assisting with plugin errors and maintaining a multitude of updates, Managed WordPress Hosting comes with a range of added features, including security certificates and incredible speeds to help bump your website higher up on search engine rankings.

What Are My WordPress Hosting Options?

There are different pricing tiers to choose from. Just keep in mind that when it comes to hosting prices, you do get what you pay for, so it’s well worth investing in the best host you can afford for your business.

Shared WordPress Hosting

Ranging from anything from $3 to $25 a month, shared hosting has the lowest cost and is suited to start-up businesses. You will probably be familiar with hosts in this range like SiteGround, Dreamhost, Bluehost and GoDaddy.

Just make sure you read the terms and conditions carefully, paying the lowest price probably comes without any support and you may be charged extra per ticket. This can quickly add up, especially if you are starting out as you can expect to make a lot of mistakes while learning the ropes. 

You also need to be aware of the limits in place, these hosts favour clients that don’t use a lot of resources, if your site ends up being busy, you may see reduced speeds and problems with your website loading times. There is no loss to their business if you get fed up and leave, it creates space for a new client and frees up their server if you quit. Server space can get a little crowded in shared conditions. You may be sharing with hundreds of other websites which can cause lag, server issues and also run higher security risks. 

Don’t take those cheap prices at face value either. There is a wide range of fees and charges that are not initially included which can cost you in the long run too. This includes renewal fees, SSL certificates, domain registrations and any migrations. 

If you don’t have the budget for Managed WordPress Hosting and you expect to have less traffic while you set up and find your feet then this can be a good option. Make your choice carefully and be ready to be hit with extra costs as you build. You will need to switch to a more flexible and higher capacity host once your website volume outgrows your host capacity.

DIY VPS WordPress Hosting

VPS WordPress hosting offers access to virtual private servers. Each WordPress site is housed in an isolated compartment on a server, giving you greater privacy and security as well as higher performance compared to shared hosting. 

With VPS WordPress hosting there is no support at all. You will be responsible for all maintenance, installations, backups, updates and troubleshooting.

If you have some WordPress or web development experience and are confident with running your own background tasks and troubleshooting website issues you might prefer a WordPress VPS host. This is another money-saving option but again, you need to add in the cost of someone (maybe you) using time from other tasks to keep the website running. ServerPilot tools can make this an easier and more streamlined experience. 

This option is still in the lower budget price range but because the servers are private, you get more security, better service and better speed than shared servers.

Typical hosts in this bracket include Vultr, Linode and DigitalOcean. Make sure your WordPress operations are perfect and you can stay ahead of your business responsibilities, there is no point saving a few bucks on your server costs only to be haemorrhaging money through poor quality or unchecked nagging issues.

There are also hosts like CloudWays who offer all the benefits of a DIY VPS for your WordPress site as well as technical support that is similar to that of a Managed WordPress Hosting provider.

Managed WordPress Hosting

This is the best option for small to medium-sized businesses. A managed host will be able to handle high traffic and comes with included extras that will save you time and money in the long run, like included fees, personal support and troubleshooting assistance, fast response times, exert understanding of WordPress and SSL certificate. 

This is the ideal option because it ensures your website is given the best attention, the best security and the best performance, without you having to check-in, update or troubleshoot. That gives you time to work on other aspects of your business or for your in-house IT team to focus on looking after your staff’s IT needs, developing your software or creating new apps for your business.

The cost of a Managed WordPress Hosting plan will depend on your website size and any specialised needs you might have. Expect a price range from $25 to $150 a month for most sites and even more than this for complex cases.

Quality and well known Managed WordPress hosts include names like WP Engine, Flywheel, and Kinsta.

Reasons to Choose Managed WordPress Hosting

You need to choose the best option for your business website needs as well as the current budget you have available to you. As your business grows so will your income so you can look to upgrade to more sophisticated hosting options once you have the funding and demand to make this work. The key is in understanding what your options are and how these options impact your business so you can make informed professional decisions. Many businesses choose on price alone without really understanding what they can expect from their web host or what their ongoing website needs might be.

There are some big benefits that come with spending more on your website management including:

• High speeds
• Reliability
• Expert WordPress support
• Top security
• The ability to scale as your business grows
• Development pages for easy testing
• Automated backups, installations and updates
• Added development tools

Here are the nine top reasons why it pays to go with a Managed WordPress Host if you can:

Superior Support

Don’t discount the power of superior support. It probably doesn’t rank very high on your checklist when you are looking at web host quotes, but in all honesty, I’d put support as your number one priority. As well as being prompt with getting back to you, they are also experts in working with WordPress, meaning that they don’t have to research the answer, they know these systems like the back of their hand and can organise a fix with you then and there.

Most support systems run 24/7 allowing you to get answers to problems when you find them and have them fixed before your users are online. If you do experience problems while users are active you can get a response and fix them fast, to help them continue on their buying journey. 

You can also expect your host to be the main one finding issues with your site. They have automated checks that run frequently (i.e. every five minutes) to sweep their host websites and check for errors and in most cases, a fix will be applied within minutes.

Your support team is also there if you run into any issues at your end. If you need help with bringing a new idea to life, understanding an aspect of your site or making changes, they can give you the best advice on what plugins and steps you need to take to make it happen.

Optimised Performance

Speed is so important not just to your users but also to search algorithms. When your website is automatically optimised it enables super-fast loading times and also fewer errors and display problems.

Different options are available with different hosts but full page caching and server-level caching are pretty standard offerings from quality managed hosts. This enables your web page to be stored on the server so users can access the information faster all without the caching plugins you’ll need for cheaper services (sometimes to no avail).

Another element that assists with speed is PHP versions. Make sure your host offers the most up-to-date PHP as soon as it becomes available as well as current HTTP and MariaDB for speed boost combinations.

You want your website to load quickly, especially in high traffic periods.

Content Delivery Network (CDN)

Having access to a content delivery network (CDN) can help speed up your site’s media responsiveness. This is really important for big media files you might have. CDN uses a network of servers that operate globally, storing your media cache in multiple locations so that the server closest to the user has instant access. If you are locally based, this won’t be as big of a drawcard, however, if you have international users then having a server based in the users’ home country will drastically improve the speed and performance of file access and delivery. Most hosts will offer some kind of Cloud-based network to achieve global CDN. Just make sure their security measures up to their promises.

Isolated Server Containers

Shared hosting puts you side by side with other websites, hundreds, maybe even thousands of them. With Managed WordPress Hosting, every site is isolated in its own server container giving you added security and better performance. Along with your website, your container also holds all the software your site needs to run so the container doesn’t need to search outside itself to locate resources like PHP, MySQL, Linux and Nginx.

This gives you absolute privacy and better security. You do get this service with a DIY VPS as well, however, standard volume capacity is greater with the right Managed WordPress Host.

Ability to Scale

Scalability is another important aspect that is easy to overlook until you need it. Most shared servers have a low ceiling when it comes to being able to meet your traffic demands. This can be frosting if you are losing out just when you are going strong. When your traffic volume spikes, that’s when you need your server host to be there for you and get all those customers across the line.

Every business will have unique traffic patterns. You may experience explosive and sustained growth, peaks and troughs or patterned spikes depending on what you’re offering and when.

Whatever your business requirements you need your server to give every user fast and reliable access no matter the volume. You need access to scalable hosting options without having to pay for new agreements and break existing contracts.

If you are using DIY servers the VPS options can make it easier to scale as needed although it will require some experience and know-how to carry out.

Some Managed WordPress Hosting packages have set limits. If you go over this you will be notified and you can choose instant and easy upgrades from there to meet your business’s needs. At the same time if you are not using your expected volume you can just as easily scale down until you reach capacity again.

Automatic Backups

You should be getting server management assistance like automated data backups free of charge with your Managed WordPress Hosting.

You can opt for the backup periods that best suit your needs (hourly, daily, weekly, monthly) as well as have manual backups stored if you are getting ready to launch and update or migrate. 

Regardless of whether it’s something large, like your entire WooCommerce shop or a database copy, you should expect automatic and reliable backups and access to downloadable files.

Having flexible and automated options for your WordPress data backup and storage saves time and allows you to leave it to the experts instead of fiddling with backup plugins.

Advanced Security

To protect yourself from hackers and malware you’ll need to make sure you have secure web access as well as use providers who have strong protection through firewalls and security technologies. This includes their server security, cloud provider security and DNS security. Any quality managed hosting provider will have what you need to be secure and then some.

Unlike other hosting options, your managed WordPress host will most likely provide support if your website falls into a hacker’s hands in addition to providing the tools to help prevent malware attacks. 

Testing Platforms

A big hold up with upgrades, changes and new website capabilities is testing. It’s so essential to test everything possible off your website to make sure it’s the right fit and will gel with your existing online masterpiece so you don’t bring your entire website crashing down. That sounds like solid advice but who has time to copy their website to a development site, test and migrate the changes back before adding plugins, committing to changes or upgrading to different PHP versions? 

Most Managed WordPress hosting packages come with one-click staging environments to act as your development site (shortened to dev).

With one click you can explore your dev site in as much detail as if it were real and push any changes you approve through to production.

Premium DNS

When an end-user types a domain name into their web browser, DNS servers convert requests to IP addresses, which determine which server they will reach. The better the translation and server choice, the faster the user will be presented with their chosen website. Reliable DNS providers also protect your website from DDoS attacks. 

To make the most of this service, look for premium DNS providers (and hosts that offer multiple options). This isn’t something you can receive from a shared hosting provider or the DIY option, if you go with these you’ll need to buy this separately. With managed WordPress hosting, however, premium DNS should be included in the price so look for a host that partners with fast and reliable DNS providers such as Cloudflare, Amazon, DNS Made Easy and Dyn.

Conclusion

Now that you have a solid understanding of what makes Managed WordPress Hosting such a valuable investment, all you need to do is choose your host. There are plenty of options with different packages and prices which can make it challenging to choose. A little research will go a long way in helping you narrow down to find the right fit for your business. 

When comparing hosts look for a service that will:

• Offer professional and accessible support
• Improve website the performance
• Run automatic server and platform updates
• Include easy migration options, 
• Scale according to your traffic needs
• Offer extras as part of the service cost

We highly recommend WP Engine, which has proven time and again to go above and beyond to get your WordPress business site performing at the highest possible capacity. As well as our recommended WP Engine you can also check out these quality Managed WordPress Hosting providers.

Looking at the top reasons for choosing a WordPress Host will help you compare your providers and select the one that is going to offer you the very best value to suit your needs. You can also see what other users think about each host by reading online reviews and be sure to have accessible support high on your priority list.

If you need any advice or have questions about choosing the best-managed WordPress hosting for your business, reach out to the team at Chillybin today.