If you’ve never built a WordPress site before, picking a hosting plan could be confusing for you. A key factor in determining the success of your site is choosing between shared and managed hosting, two of the most common choices for WordPress sites.
Shared hosting can offer you the functionality you require for a reasonable price as a new website owner. However, managed hosting has a number of advantages that can tip the scales in its favor and make the additional cost justifiable. As a result, the choice may not be simple.
The benefits and drawbacks of shared and managed WordPress hosting will be discussed in this article. Then, by carefully examining the differences between the two, we will assist you in selecting the one that is ideal for you. Let’s dive in!
What is Shared WordPress Hosting?
Shared WordPress hosting could be a fantastic starting point for you if your website is fresh. There are still a number of significant advantages even though it often provides less capabilities than managed hosting:
- More features are becoming possible as a result of technological advancements including improved bandwidth, more server space, and more administrative options.
- Until you need to upgrade, you can construct your site and increase both traffic and audience.
Benefits of Shared Hosting
However, the main advantage of shared hosting is its cost. Providers can offer you really low costs because you are sharing server resources with other websites (for instance, our own shared hosting package starts at $7.95 per month).
Although your main priority may be your money, shared hosting has various disadvantages that you should think about before going that route:
- Given that other websites use the same resources with you, your server space and performance are constrained.
- You can be limited in the kinds of software you can use, which might prevent your website from expanding and growing to its full potential.
- As top tier help is typically excluded from basic plans, there are fewer or more limited options for support.
The most common option for most newly launched websites and blogs is shared hosting. It’s affordable, and you might not need to upgrade for a while if you don’t anticipate using many resources. The cheaper price point must be weighed against support, site backups, and performance difficulties.
What Is Managed WordPress Hosting?
In a nutshell, managed WordPress hosting refers to any server resources particular to your WordPress installation that are handled by your service provider. In other words, your hosting subscription will often cover chores like installing the platform, keeping it updated, and performing backups.
Managed WordPress hosting has a number of features and advantages, including:
- Better performance as a result of the server’s WordPress-specific optimization.
- Isolated assets. The resources offered with managed WordPress are just for your website, unlike shared hosting, so you can be certain that you won’t experience speed issues as a result of “neighbors” unintentionally consuming resources excessively.
- Access to superior, knowledgeable assistance (again, because the host specializes in WordPress).
- Scalability gives your website opportunity to expand as traffic volume rises.
- Website staging with one click. Use a sandbox environment to safely test modifications to your website; when you’re ready for your visitors to see the changes, push them to your live website.
- internal caching Caches are temporary storage spaces where copies of your site’s files are kept so they may be accessed more quickly. This enhances the functionality of your website and the speed at which users may access your content. With managed WordPress, caching is already configured at the server level, so you don’t need to add plug-ins to obtain it.
- One-click restoration and on-demand backups. You’ll also have the convenience of being able to request backups whenever you want in addition to automated, daily backups. It also gives you peace of mind knowing that you can easily restore a backup, giving you more control and security to secure your online assets before you make changes to your website or whenever you may need them.
If you need your provider to handle the labor-intensive task of keeping your platform up to date and secure, managed WordPress hosting is a fantastic option. It frees you from having to worry about the technological details so that you can just concentrate on your content and managing your primary company. But there are a few advantages to shared hosting that you might want to look into.
WordPress Hosting Differences Between Managed and Shared
Naturally, managed and shared hosting are not created equal, so you should take into account the significant variations depending on your present needs as well as your long-term growth strategy.
Both platforms offer their advantages and disadvantages in terms of features:
- Shared hosting for WordPress. When it comes to features exclusive to WordPress, these packages are more constrained. Although you can utilize tools other than WordPress, you’re only able to use them as long as you have access to the support and upkeep they require.
- Managed hosting for WordPress. You will depend on your host to manage your resource usage. This is typically a good thing because you’ll get better support because of your host’s knowledge and experience. For individuals who want to tailor their server to their precise needs, there are, however, fewer possibilities.
Which Hosting Strategy is the Best?
What hosting choice is the greatest, then? It all depends on what you require. Shared hosting is a popular choice for new website owners because it allows them to get up and running quickly and affordably. Before making a final choice, managed WordPress hosting should be taken into account because it has numerous advantages for powerful users and larger websites.
The pros and cons of shared and managed WordPress hosting have been covered in this piece, along with which is most suitable for your website. To sum up quickly:
- With shared WordPress hosting, you pay a little fee to share resources with other websites. This is an excellent first choice for a little website, blog, or online portfolio. However, when your website and its traffic increase, you might need to update. That will need for more funding as well as technical know-how.
- Managed WordPress hosting gives your website access to WordPress-specific services, strong tools, and dedicated resources. Due to these services, resources, and tools, they are advised for all business, e-commerce, established, already receiving traffic websites (including well-known blogs), and mid- to large-size agency websites built on WordPress that would profit from the optimized stability, performance, and user experience they provide. However, the price is higher for managed hosting so you need to consider that as well.