When looking for a WordPress host, you should differentiate between companies that offer a simple WP installer and those that specialize in managed WordPress hosting and are specialists. Unfortunately, not all hosting providers are "WordPress experts," Some providers entirely specialize in solutions for the most popular CMS on the market!
More expensive than hosting on an average shared server, the goal is clearly displayed here: to offer an easy-to-use, high-performance, secure, and fast solution that allows you to get the most out of WP's excellent CMS.
If you are a small to medium business, if your site is neither too heavy nor too complex, or if you don't expect to receive thousands of visitors per month, a quality shared web host that supports WP will probably be better. Than enough.
Are you embarking on a more ambitious project and need to achieve good performance levels without breaking the bank? Then, the plans presented on this page may interest you!
Outsourcing the management of your web hosting account can allow you to free up precious time without having to update to more expensive solutions such as VPS, cloud, or dedicated servers. The following web hosts can take care of all the technical aspects of running your website for you.
Shared vs. Managed WordPress Hosting: Why Choose the Managed One?
In recent times, we hear a lot more often about managed WordPress hosting, but what is it, and what exactly does this term mean? How is managed WordPress hosting different from shared WordPress hosting we've all come to know?
Let's learn more about the differences and advantages of one service over the other and the main reasons for choosing the managed hosting service today.
Shared WordPress hosting
- Anyone who builds WordPress websites has purchased in the past or is currently using this hosting service. Usually, users who turn to this solution have recently started using WordPress CMS, or they need to start a new blog. A new project with a limited budget.
- Let's try to summarize in three points the reasons why this turns out to be a suitable hosting service:
- a user has only recently started working with WordPress websites
- a user wants to migrate from WordPress.com to a web hosting that includes domain and email service
- hosting a website for a new project on a tight budget
- Shared hosting for WordPress usually has very low costs. However, in some cases, this can coincide with a service that is not always adequate. Sometimes, generic shared hosting does not include important features such as technical support, an SSL certificate for the website, an automatic backup, email addresses, and many other things that, although they do not seem necessary at first, may greatly increase costs once you decide to activate them.
- Plus, and this is a very critical aspect to consider, are you sure shared hosting is really optimized for WordPress? Well, that's not always the case. Usually, it's not at all. Shared hosting is designed to host WordPress websites but also websites created with different CMSs.
- All of this leads to a trade-off in the configurations of your hosting service, and often, for the hosting provider, to the inability to apply server optimizations.
- In short, very often, shared hosting must be considered only as a compromise, more or less good, for hosting different types of websites.
Managed WordPress Hosting
- Suppose your goal is to create a corporate website, a blog with high traffic with many accesses. In that case, it is certainly useful to seriously evaluate Managed WordPress Hosting because, for sure, this choice will prove to be an excellent investment in the long term.
- This hosting service allows a user to manage a large number of features and configurations that are specifically made for WordPress websites.
- There are many aspects, often underestimated, that you should consider when deciding to create a WordPress website because just installing the CMS is certainly not enough!
- Not having to worry about the correct and safe installation of the website, thinking about the best backup solution you need to implement, and planning the installation of security updates are all elements to be taken seriously, and that makes the purchase of this hosting the best choice.
Why Choose Managed WordPress Hosting
Below, we will list some of the most important topics that can help you understand why to choose this hosting service over the others.
1) WordPress hosting with advanced technical support
2) Optimized hosting for High Performance
3) Automatic Backup and Restore
4) Staging environment
5) Safe and reliable WordPress hosting
6) Additional WordPress tools: SEO-optimized hosting
List of The Best-Managed WordPress Web Hosts
Below, you will find a selection of our favorite hosts for managed WordPress.
1. Cloudways – Power and Speed!
When the performance of a web host is evaluated mainly according to its speed of loading, Cloudways definitely manages to perform well thanks to the ThunderStack cache technology, which has reduced the display time of the pages by almost 100%. Flexible and resolutely geared towards teamwork, Cloudways has equipped itself with essential tools: a dedicated programming interface, SSD hosting, multi-cloud infrastructures, and even CloudwaysBot, essential for gathering relevant insights in real-time. What to focus on developing its website while enjoying hosting in peace.
Prices
Billing is hourly or monthly, starting at $10 a month for a Digital Ocean package with 25GB of memory, 1GB of RAM, and a processor core. There are also costs for storing the automatic backups.
You can pick up other cloud hosting providers other than Digital Ocean, and full details are listed below:
- Digital Ocean: $10 / month
- Linode: $12 / month
- Vultr (High-Frequency): $13 / month – Our website (InfoMasta) plan
- AWS from Amazon: $36.51 / month
- Google Cloud: $33.18 / month
It's pretty straightforward and has flexible prices. They will give you Free SSL Certificates after you sign up with them. You can install/add unlimited applications (WordPress websites) on your new Cloudways hosting. Besides, they have dedicated firewalls for each server, so all your websites inside Cloudways hosting are safe and protected.
Our website (www.infomasta.com) is using Cloudways – Vultr High-Frequency hosting right now. We highly recommend it if you want massive visitors to come to your blog and not have a "website down" problem.
2. Namecheap
Namecheap offers various hosting plans to meet the needs of all website owners — regardless of industry or size.
Every plan is provided with powerful tools to help you achieve your goals and rock-solid security to protect your data and that of your site visitors.
Here's a look at Namecheap's multiple hosting plans, starting with what looks to be the best: managed WordPress hosting.
With Namecheap-managed WordPress hosting, you can get hosting for your WordPress website in seconds. The Namecheap-managed WordPress hosting is called EasyWP; this hosting service gives you most of what you need to start and maintain your WordPress online.
This way, you can focus on more important things like marketing your brand, building a bigger following, and securing your sales.
Find out what you get when you use EasyWP:
- 99% uptime guarantee
- Access WordPress installation
- Powered by Namecheap Cloud
- SFTP and database access
- EasyWP temporary free domain (use until you get your own domain registered)
- Built-in maintenance mode capability
- Easy backup and restore options
- Support for Namecheap domains
- Namecheap 24/7 support
- SSL certificates
- Owner dashboard
There are currently three managed WordPress hosting plans:
- EasyWP Starter: This plan comes with 10GB SSD storage, 50K visitors/month, and starts at $3.88 / month (the first month is only $1, and renewal is $28.88 thereafter).
- EasyWP Turbo: This plan comes with 50GB SSD storage, 200K visitors/month, and starts at $7.88 / month (the first month is only $2, $ 68.88 renewal thereafter).
- EasyWP Supersonic: This plan comes with 100GB SSD storage, 500K visitors/month, and starts at $11.88 / month (the first month is only $98.88 for renewal).
There is no doubt that these are reasonable prices. While there is also no way of knowing how long this sale price will last, like the other day, the prices of all hosting plans were different.
3. HostGator - Reasonably priced hosting with a range of options
Hostgator is a web hosting company that was founded in 2002. They are one of the largest web hosts in the world and host over 8 million domains. Hostgator is also one of the few companies that WordPress.org officially recommends.
Hostgator offers both shared and managed WordPress hosting plans. Shared hosting is their most popular plan and is what I use for my blog. Managed WordPress hosting is a bit more expensive, but it's worth it if you want the best performance for your blog.
Prices
- Starter Plan: $5.95 / month
- Standard Plan: $7.95 / month
- Business Plan: …starting at $9.95 / month
Hostgator also offers a free domain name and email address. They also provide an online shopping cart, a WordPress blog builder, a one-click WordPress installer, and excellent 24/7 support.
4. Hostinger
Hostinger is an international web host that has been in the market for over 15 years (2004). It has the most advantageous offers in terms of price while guaranteeing performance well above average.
Over the entire period when we had the opportunity to test their shared web hosting, Hostinger offered us near-perfect service continuity (99.995%). And as for the loading time of our test website (running on WordPress), we were not disappointed either.
On many tests, we found an average loading time of 0.5 seconds if you use Hostinger.
It's also good to know that Hostinger has data centers all over Europe and Asia and North America. So no matter what market you are targeting with your website, you will be able to best optimize your performance by locating your site in one continent rather than another. Speaking of performance, having free access to the LiteSpeed server function is a real plus since it will guarantee you above-average speed.
And, of course, a wizard is available to help you quickly create your website. This is especially true for WordPress.
Did we specify that you will offer an SSL certificate and a domain name? Well, it is now done.
Do you better understand why Hostinger is, for our teams, the best shared hosting currently available?
Prices
Let's come to the crux of the matter, the prices! Hostinger, the best-shared web host, offers 3 plans.
- Standard: $1.39 / month
- Premium: $2.59 / month
- Business: $4.99 / month
The choice will have to be made according to your needs. For example, do you need to host one or more sites? Do you want to enjoy unlimited traffic? How much is disk space required in order to host your site?
Either way, we believe you will find something to suit you. Indeed, the 3 offers all meet particular needs. And then you are not going to break the bank. With prices ranging from $1.39 to $4.99 / month, Hostinger is clearly the best-shared hosting in terms of price.
Now, to have access to such competitive rates, you will need to commit to 48 months with the host. The prices of the other offers are also advantageous, but a little less than in this case of the figure. Do not hesitate to make up your own mind on the question by clicking on the button below.
Plus, they offer a 30-day money-back guarantee for every shared hosting plan.
5. WPX Hosting
WPX Hosting has one of the fastest-managed WordPress hosts, powered by a high-speed Content Delivery Network (CDN), fast servers, high-performance SSD disks, and PHP7.
If you already have sites hosted elsewhere, you can have them migrated to WPX Hosting by their WordPress engineers.
All sites in your plan receive the Let's Encrypt SSL certificate for free. WPX Hosting also includes additional security measures, such as enterprise-wide DDoS protection, daily malware scans (with free removal), application firewalls, and spam protection.
In addition to the scheduled daily backups, you can perform a manual backup from the control panel whenever you want, for example, before installing plugin updates. In addition, you can use the staging area to test any changes or updates to plugins and themes before moving them to production.
WPX Hosting offers unlimited email addresses, which other managed WordPress hosts are not able to do the same.
WPX Hosting has an unmatched support offering. Not only do they respond quickly (less than 37 seconds), but they usually fix the problem within minutes. In addition, you can use live chat (the fastest option) or raise a support ticket.
Price: WPX Hosting plans start at $24.99 / month (2 months free when paid annually) for 5 websites, 10GB of storage, and 100GB of bandwidth.
6. Nexcess by Liquid Web
Nexcess is fast, secure, and hassle-free WordPress hosting, cloud-based, and managed by Liquid Web.
From the very beginning, they take care of all background tasks.
If you have an existing website, Nexcess will migrate it for free. If you're starting your site from scratch, you can have WordPress set up and install SSL quickly.
Every site you build benefits from server-level caching and automatic resource scaling to handle traffic spikes. And you don't need to worry about missing any new WordPress releases and security updates because Nexcess takes them automatically.
There are bulletproof backups to protect and restore your site, including automatic and on-demand backups. And if you need to test anything, like themes or plugins, you can create your own staging environment.
Suppose you happen to run into any problems. In that case, you can contact the experienced WordPress support team at any time of the day via live chat, by opening a support ticket, or by phone.
Price: Nexcess-managed WordPress hosting plans start at $ 19.00 / month for 1 site, 15GB SSD Storage, 2TB of bandwidth, Free SSL, and Unlimited Email.
So, Should I Really Pick Managed WordPress Hosting or Not?
Using specialized managed WordPress hosting will offer you advantages such as:
- Have a strong team behind you to guide you or answer all technical questions related to your site and the CMS.
- Do not worry about the updates and security aspects of the site.
- Do not have limited server support only. Most of the time, WP bugs are related to incompatibilities between plugins.
Overall, whether you choose to go with a managed plan or not depends on how much responsibility you want to take on your hosting environment.
If you'd rather do it all yourself, then non-managed options can be a great way to learn how to master WordPress. But, if you don't want to worry about this aspect of your hosting and want to let an experienced team take care of it, so you can focus on your site, take a look at Managed WordPress Hosting.
If you have any doubts, you can always start with an unmanaged hosting environment and move to a managed host in due course.
What to Look for In a Good WordPress Host
Some of the features that you will want to look at carefully when evaluating WordPress hosting services include:
- The performance of the host. If you want your website to be successful online, you absolutely need a successful web host. Beyond on-site optimization, your web host's hardware and software configuration will influence the loading speed of your site.
- The options are available. Web hosts that offer multiple plans will be able to meet the needs of your website as it currently is. Plus, you'll be able to grow your site with the same host while saving money when you're just getting started. Unfortunately, unlimited traffic is generally not supported on these kinds of plans!
- Backups and backup management system. A good backup management system is essential for the sustainability of your project!
- Customer support team. Having a dedicated support team behind you can help relieve much of the stress that you can sometimes feel while managing your site. But, eventually, you'll run into issues that need support, and you'll need a team to get help when that happens.
- Robust security features. Regardless of the size of your site, security is something you'll want to think about from day one. A good WP host will provide you with strong security features from the start.
- WordPress-oriented service. Some call themselves WP hosts because they offer easy one-click WordPress installation. But high-quality web hosts do offer WordPress-specific features that will help you get the most out of your site.
- Quality/price ratio. Of course, you want a web host that will improve your site's performance and increase its security, but not if you're spending a lot more than your site is actually making. You'll want a balance of WP-specific features at a price you can obviously afford.
Choosing a WP host is something you want to take seriously. However, when you begin your research, you will see that many of the features highlighted above are familiar to many vendors.
Since the WordPress hosting market is so competitive, you will usually be able to find a high-quality web host at a price that fits your budget.
