Shared or managed WordPress hosting – many WordPress website owners like you struggle to choose the right WordPress hosting.
Perhaps, you are also confused about how these two kinds of web hosting differ from each other.
With countless web hosting providers with different hosting packages, picking the right hosting tends to be more intimidating. So, you should better understand the key differences to be able to pick the right one for your WordPress website or blog.
Shared hostings are cheap and usually cost between $3 – $10 USD. Some hosts offer shared hosting for free as well. These hosting are great for small sites. In contrast, managed WordPress hostings are better-managed, expensive, and are specific to WordPress. Managed WordPress hosting plans usually cost above $25 to as much as $1000 per month or more.
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Shared hosting is simply a hosting plan where your website shares space and resources of a server with other sites. So, hundreds or even thousands of sites are parked together in shared hosting.
You can host a website built with any page builder or CMS like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, etc. It is a hosting platform where many sites share resources with each other in a single server. They share the bandwidth, disk space, and processing power of the server.
By its nature, shared hosting is inexpensive. So, this kind of hosting is ideal for sites that are new or small or with a tight budget. Usually, shared hosting costs around $3 to $5 per month.
Shared hostings are cheap hosting options. But, remember this kind of hosting comes with several responsibilities. Sign up for shared hosting and you have to set up and configure your site yourself.
Some of us may find this DIY task overwhelming. But, you don’t have to worry about it as long as you host on a reliable hosting company. Your website hosting company support team will invest their time in helping you set up WordPress and deal with issues you encounter during the process.
Shared Hosting comes with several benefits. Firstly, it is the most inexpensive option available on hosting. Secondly, you can host websites built on any platform (not just WordPress) in shared hosting. On top of that, the use of a simple control panel lets you take care of your website easily.
Here are the major pros of shared hosting.
As mentioned above, you will share your web server with many other webmasters in shared WordPress hosting. Hundreds of other sites are hosted in a single server. So, the hosting provider can keep the running cost low which reflects in the price of your hosting plan.
The shared hosting plans usually cost from $3 to $10 USD. You will also find some hosting companies providing WordPress hosting plans in more expensive or cheaper price rates than this. But, you get the idea – shared WordPress hosting is pretty affordable to even the small site owners or beginners.
Easy Management With cPanel
Many web hosting companies provide cPanel to website owners to manage their sites. cPanel is a control panel that you can access over a network connection. With cPanel, you can manage databases, domain names, backups, and mail accounts of your WordPress website.
Using cPanel is extremely easy. You don’t need any technical knowledge or even prior experience to use this web-based control panel. So, whatever the features your WordPress hosting plan offers you, you will have no hard time managing them.
Professional Email Service
Many businesses survive on email. Be it communication with team members or customers, email has always been a vital part of businesses.
With shared WordPress hosting, you will get a professional email service without any additional cost. Suppose, if you own a business, blossomthemes.com, then you can set up your business email like yourname@blossomthemes.com for free.
Forget free Gmail or Yahoo email accounts. They look unprofessional. Instead, you can get the benefits of using business emails of your domain. Your email looks brandable, professional, and your customers will trust your email.
You can easily set up new email accounts through your cPanel account.
Pros and cons are interrelated. With each benefit comes a potential pitfall. In shared hosting, your site will not have a dedicated resource. So, your site may have to deal with a few issues if you host it in a shared WordPress hosting.
Comparatively Slow
Unlike Managed WordPress hosting, shared hosting is not configured to run a single platform – WordPress only. Instead, it should be capable to run different kinds of application and CMS.
So, how does this affect the speed of your site? Since shared hosting has to compromise, or most probably ignore the tweaks and adjustments that would be ideal for WordPress sites. As a matter of fact, it is not only WordPress that shared hosting should look after.
As a result, WordPress sites hosted in shared hosting are not as fast as managed WordPress hosting sites.
Security Concerns
With shared hosting, you will experience limitations in security as well. Your server hosts your site along with hundreds or thousands of other websites in this kind of hosting. So, if a site hosted on the same server as you host your site gets infected, then your website’s security is also threatened.
Hosting high-traffic sites is definitely a no-no
Shared hostings come with limited resources. Since the server is shared between many websites, you will be sharing the resources like bandwidth and disk space with other websites.
If you host a high-trafficked site in shared hosting, it will not just affect your site, but other websites hosted on the same server as well. Simply put, shared hosting is not made for sites or blogs with high-traffic. Even a web traffic spike in a site takes up a lot of resources of the server. This affects the loading speed and performance of the site and the neighbor sites as well.
So, these are the major downsides you may experience while hosting your WordPress site in a shared WordPress hosting. A good host will put the effort into reducing the drawbacks. A good web host will host only a limited number of sites that its server will be capable of handling easily.
Below is the list of best shared WordPress hosting providers of 2021.
Best Shared WordPress Hosting in 2021
| Hosts | Starting Price | Money back guarantee | Disk Space |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bluehost | $2.95 per month | 30 days | 50 GB - Unlimited |
| Hostinger | $2.15 per month | 30 days | 10 GB - 30 GB |
| iPage | $1.99 per month | 30 days | Unlimited |
| InMotion | $3.99 per month | 90 days | Unlimited |
| HostGator | $2.75 per month | 45 days | Unlimited |
Managed WordPress Hosting
Managed WordPress hosting is the result of the popularity of WordPress. Most of the web hosting providers have now specialized in WordPress hosting with some management.
Managed WordPress hosting is a kind of hosting where the host manages the entire technical aspects of your website. Forget fretting about server configuration and technical fixes; focus on growing your site instead.
Managed WordPress hosting comes with added functionality like built-in caching, CDN, daily external backups, staging, better security, and more. The host will update your site, back your data, perform security checks at a regular interval, and gives your website a blazing fast speed and optimal performance.
You can also use high-tier managed WordPress hosting and resell WordPress hosting to your clients.
Pros of Managed WordPress Hosting
Despite being comparatively expensive, managed WordPress hosting comes with several benefits. The improved speed, top-level security, WordPress expert support, nearly perfect uptime, access to improved developer’s tools, and more.
Fast speed
Managed WordPress hosting is specifically optimized for WordPress sites. The server-level caching and the use of the latest version of PHP, MySQL, and Apache web server help in better performance and faster loading of your website.
Therefore, hosting a site in a fast managed WordPress hosting helps in reducing the site’s page-loading time considerably.
Your website’s speed can play a major role in the success of your site. With a faster business website, you will be able to deliver a better customer experience. Not just that, speed is also one of the ranking factors of Google.
Solid security
Shared hostings are capable of providing basic security to your site. But, while hosting online stores or business websites, you can’t afford to compromise on the security of your site, a managed WordPress hosting is the one to go for.
With a managed WordPress hosting, you will get the benefit of increased security. The host will perform a daily malware scan and pose an ability to beat off all kinds of cyber threats. The host makes sure your site remains safe from DDoS attacks, malware, and hacking attempts.
There are hundreds and thousands of hackers out there who send their robot armies to break into sites. They look for vulnerabilities in your sites – weak passwords, dated plugins or themes, codes, you name it. Those crawling robots attempt to control your site, send spam from it, or distribute malware.
Whilst you host your site in a managed WordPress hosting from a reliable host, you will not have to worry about any security issue. Such hosts work heavily on the safety of your site. Unfortunately, if somehow your site gets attacked by malware or hacking attempts, the host will make sure that they remove the malware and secure your website.
Automated regular backups
Making a regular backup is crucial to any site. Web hosts have understood this well and most of the managed WordPress hosting providers offer automated regular backups. On top of that, you can easily restore your backups whenever you need them, instantly.
Many shared hostings also offer an automatic backup option. But, the backup data are also kept in the same server that the original date lies at. So, the backup data are also equally prone to damage. But, the backup feature in managed WordPress hosting is at a different level.
In addition, managed WordPress hosts let you restore your backup data in a single click.
Automatic updates
Automatic updates is another benefit that you get with managed WordPress hosting. You will get automatic updates on almost everything including the operating system, PHP, MySQL, control panel, WordPress, and more.
So, with managed WordPress hosting, you can expect to run your site at peak efficiency with everything updated to run your site smoothly.
Top-class support
Support members in shared hosting have to deal with customers from not just WordPress sites, but from sites built by other CMS and site builders too. So, the support personnel in shared hosting are rarely WordPress experts.
In contrast, the support in managed WordPress hosting is on a different level. The entire team is focused on the WordPress platform and every single member of the support is most probably a WordPress expert.
Support personnel of your managed WordPress hosting knows which WordPress version and plugins you are using. So, they will be able to understand your issues immediately, look into them, and solve them in a matter of a few minutes.
Cons of Managed WordPress Hosting
Managed WordPress hosting also comes with a few downsides. The hosting costs more, you will have less control over your site management(but this is why you chose managed WordPress hosting), and sometimes updates don’t happen smoothly. Expect to see the major drawbacks of managed WordPress hosting below.
Higher cost
Managed WordPress hosting costs you more as compared to shared hosting. Almost everything you get with managed WordPress hosting is better than the shared hosting.
In managed WordPress hosting, the host will manage all the technical aspects of your WordPress site. So, the price is definitely higher than its counterpart.
The slightly higher cost for hosting can be a bit intimidating small site owners or new bloggers. But, if you run a business or a high-traffic generating WordPress blog or website, the benefit you get with managed WordPress is worth the additional cost.
Plugins limitations
For security or whatever reason, managed WordPress hosting providers don’t allow the use of a few plugins.
Managed WordPress hosts usually disallow you to use some specific plugins. They do it because the plugin conflicts with the service the hosts provide or use too much resource. For example, many hosting providers do not allow you to use plugins like WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache, and WP File Cache because they have their own custom caching environment.
Limitations like this give you fewer options to choose from, but it is to make your site better.
Anyway, the restriction is done to only a few numbers of plugins from thousands of available plugins.
If you are interested in managed WordPress hosting, below is the list of best managed WordPress hosting providers of 2021.
Best Managed WordPress Hosting in 2021
| Hosts | Price/month | Sites | Disk Space | Traffic/month | Uptime(Jan - March 2019) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WP Engine | $35 - $290 | 1 - 15 sites | 10 GB - 30 GB | 25k - 400k | 100% |
| Flywheel | $25 - $290 | 1 - 130 sites | 5 GB - 50 GB | 25k - 500k | 100% |
| Kinsta | $30 - $1500 | 1 - 150 sites | 5 - 200 GB | 20k - 3M | 100% |
| Pressable | $25 - $3000 | 5 - 250 sites | Unlimited | 60k - 20M | 99.99% |
| DreamHost | $19.95 - $79.95 | 1 site | 30 GB - 120 GB | 100k - 1M+ | 99.96% |
Conclusion
You must be seriously concerned about the right kind of hosting while building and running a new site.
Getting a pricier plan for a beginner website, or hosting a high-trafficked blog at a low cost, both are the wrong approaches to a successful web hosting. Having a clear idea about the right kind of hosting for your site is a key thing.
Signing up for shared hosting can be okay only until your website starts generating income. If you have a non-commercial and small site with low-traffic, then shared hosting is all good. The additional cost for managed WordPress hosting is not necessary.
But, if your WordPress site is not so small, or you are serious about the performance, speed, and security of your site, then you must move upwards to managed WordPress hosting. And as your website keeps on growing in traffic and revenue, you should move to better plans of managed WordPress hosting.
If you still have confusion about which hosting is good for your site or need help to find the right WordPress hosting for your website, you can comment down below.
We will suggest you the best hosts that are suitable for your blog or business website.
