We have already blogged and reviewed Kinsta and WP Engine as among the best WordPress hosting service providers. As for the new readers, we deep dived into how the different WordPress service providers, especially Kinsta and WP Engine have kept website owners on top of their website's performance and uptimes. The posts explained all the features that make these two platforms as top choices for webmasters across the world, and there were a number of side by side comparisons drawn up as well.
This blog post will cover a larger topic - the importance and benefits of managed WordPress hosting. We will explain why more and more website owners are leaning towards managed hosting and also compare it with shared WordPress hosting so that the readers can decide for themselves on what they should go for
After that, we will extend our analysis to the other popular WordPress hosting solutions, for our readers to get an even better grasp of which platform suits their needs as well as their budgetary constraints the most. If you are looking to invest in an enterprise-grade WordPress hosting service but are clueless as to which one you should choose, we have all the answers for you.
Let's get on with it.
What is Managed WordPress Hosting and Why is it Important?
Managed WordPress hosting is an exclusive service that ensures that every technical resource or service needed to run a WordPress site is managed by the host. With a managed hosting plan, one makes sure that the server on which their website is hosted is not overcrowded with other countless websites.
How does it make a difference?
The underlying purpose behind hosting a website through managed hosting provider is to ensure a smooth experience for your website visitors.
Now there are all kinds of websites out there, in terms of the amount of traffic they receive every day. Some websites have just started out or are representing an individual or small business. With those kinds of websites, there is a chance that the website owner is not very bothered with the possible performance issues, which eventually hamper the user experience. But for the websites that draw a large amount of traffic and represent big businesses, website performance issues can prove fatal. They need their website to have an uptime of nearly 100 percent and provide users with a hassle-free experience at all times. This is where managed WordPress hosting provides to be extremely useful and scores over shared hosting.
User experience is what separates amazing websites from the mediocre ones, and if you seek giving great user experience, the decision to invest in managed hosting is only logical.
But let's get more specific: why does the Managed WordPress hosting come so recommended as opposed to the shared hosting? What makes it special?
High speedThe Managed WordPress hosting servers are specially configured to support WordPress, with the goal to ensure the WordPress hosted sites run as fast as possible, even in the face of an unplanned surge in web traffic. The server optimization is continuous, further ensuring you can focus on other aspects of your website and not worry about performance. Adding to this fact is that on shared hosting, your website is hosted on a server that hosts a number of other websites and every drop in performance is felt across all the websites on that server. It's not natural that when your website does not have to share the processing power, memory and disk space with other websites, it is going to operate with more vigor.
Add high-end features without bloating your websiteOne of the primary challenges that webmasters with shared hosting face is that they have to take the performance aspect in consideration every time they wish to add a plugin or make customization. A website can get really bloated and slow with too many plugins. So if you are someone who wants to load his website up with impressive customizations, the shared hosting can be a major headache, since it will slow down your website with every few plugins installed. This is again where managed hosting proves its worth. At any point, and for any reason, as and when you feel the need to add a new feature to your website, which may compel you to install a heavy plugin, managed WordPress hosting ensures that effects are only positive. The performance of your website faces zero fluctuations.
SecuritySecurity is one aspect you want to get a handle on at all times because web security threats are perpetually waiting around the corner. Whether they catch you off-guard by attacking the backend or whether you are are the one to be blamed for installing some distrustful plugins which inject malicious code into your website, the hackers can wreak havoc on your website. However, if you are running your website on a Managed WordPress hosting solution, you can rest assured that it keeps your site protected and nearly hacker-proof, by constantly scanning your website for threats and blocking off malware and malicious code.
Uptimes at almost all timesLet's be honest here - even the big players when providing the shared WordPress hosting service falter when a website is attracting huge traffic. It is not a rare phenomenon to see websites crashing at the time of increased website activity and downtimes are anyway common in general. However, managed WordPress hosting is naturally equipped to deal with such challenges or a copious amount of traffic. Downtime or crashing is a non-issue.
More reliable customer supportThe customer care take personal interest to ensure that your website is restored to an ideal condition.
The basic nature of managed hosting also helps to keep the site secure. Because your website is not sharing its server with other possibly vulnerable websites, on the account of it having its own dedicated server, this further boosts the security.
- With technology playing a greater role in the current business environment, support services have evolved from good-to-have to being the front and center of today's organizations. And it is no different in the context of the website hosting solutions. Kinsta really hits a home run here. So you may be a tech wizard or just a newbie, the after-sales services of Kinsta ensure that whenever you find yourself stuck with a question or a glitch in your website, the Kinsta support experts are available to help you out.
You can have the most basic level queries wanting to be answered or you may want to clear some complex and advanced doubts, the Kinsta support team is equipped well enough with their knowledge and expertise to take on any question and provide an answer that solves your problem in the most efficient manner.
- Kinsta is among the most pocket-friendly Managed WordPress hosting solutions. The most basic plan of Kinsta comes at 30 Dollars, which allows 1 WordPress install and provides 5GB of disk space. From here on, the next economic package comes at a price tag of 60 Dollars, which allows 2 WordPress installs and 10GB of disk space. It does provide the multisite support and you can use the site cloning feature as well. For businesses seeking more freedom and willing to spend a little more, the 100 Dollar plan allows for 5 WordPress installs and provides a disk space of 15 GB. From this package on, the plans keep on getting bigger, as they are targeted for large scale businesses. The business packages next in line start from 200 Dollars and go all the way up to 900 Dollars (which allows for no less than 80 WordPress installs).
WP Engine
From Kinsta, we move on to another hosting solution that has built a solid reputation for itself in the web sphere. In fact, WP Engine has been there from quite some time, and with every passing year, it has enhanced its features and the suite of tools it provides.
There is a host of businesses out there whose online presence has been enhanced due to the quality of hosting services provided by WP Engine. It not only helps in getting a website up quickly but also keeps the performance parameters right at the top of the charts. Like Kinsta, WP Engine provides a great return on investment through a mixture of the most modern features and the basic requisites that you want in your hosting tool.
Let's analyze at what all WP Engine has to offer:
- To begin with, one doesn't have to be a techie to set up a website using WP Engine. It makes the entire process extremely simple for a tech naïve, thanks to its self-explanatory tools and features. Of course, for somebody with advanced technical skills, WP Engine has a lot of ammunition up its sleeves for them to use and customize their website any way they want. And this features proves to be especially of use when a medium- or large-sized businesses is starting to establish its online presence by the means of building a website.
- In this rapidly changing digital environment where the focus is being shifted more and more on user-friendliness and adapting to a myriad of devices - desktops, mobile, tablets - it has become a new default for websites to be fast and responsive. Whether you are a B2B or B2C business, you need a website that not only adjusts to screens of all sizes because an increasing number of Internet users are using multiple devices in a day to access the Internet but also loads quickly on the devices. Discounting mobile or desktop can only cause a drop in traffic because an average web user doesn't appreciate when they are having trouble loading or reading or navigate a website just because the text is too small or buttons are too near.
- In addition, thanks to the managed hosting technology combined with efficient resource allocation by Kinsta, the memory limit is high and resources are allocated to your website in abundance.
- While responsiveness can be taken care of by using the right theme or plugin (with WP Engine, you have the freedom to load your website with a range of plugins without bloating the website), the speed parameter is taken care of using WP Engine. Having a good website speed and responsiveness is not just good for user experience, but it also provides you with SEO benefits since Google is particularly appreciative of fast and responsive websites.
- Web security as a concept has surely found its footing today, not so much out of a want to have an extra feature as to equip a website with an essential. WP Engine as a platform is fully conscious of this fact and has its hosting solution packed with robust security features that keep websites of all stripes - be it an eCommerce site or a SaaS app website - safe and secure. The data shared on a website powered by WP Engine is protected from getting stolen or misused by the advanced-level security aspects of this shared hosting solution.
- Talking of data, having your site secure is not enough. Data loss can happen due to threats of any form. This is why taking timely and very frequent backups become a must, especially for websites that are continually updated. WP Engine not only takes frequent backup but also provides the feature of automatic restoration.
- Lastly, but not any less important, the support services of WP Engine make a lot of difference. The customer support team at WP Engine comprises of a team of experts who have a track record of resolving the most complex of queries.
- Now when you are looking at the prices, the plans for WP Engine are very similar to those of Kinsta. The starter package comes at 35 Dollars, but gives you storage of 10 GB and monthly bandwidth of 50 GB. You then move on to the Growth package that costs 115 Dollars that provides local storage of 20 GB and monthly bandwidth of 200 GB.
SiteGround
Founded in 2004, SiteGround is among the earliest and leading players in the managed web hosting solutions arena. If you have been part of the web from a while now, it's impossible to have not heard of Siteground. Over the years, they have built a huge brand name, riding on the scale and quality of their hosting services.
As a Managed WordPress hosting service provider, SiteGround is a name to reckon with, and a go-to tool for businesses across all industries. It has also been compared to popular solutions like Kinsta.
- Speed is a major win in favor of SiteGround. Apart from the advanced technology at work - Time To First Byte (TTFB) which delivers the first byte of the first file right at the moment a request is made - there are other factors contributing to the high speed of websites hosted on SiteGround. They have their data centers scattered all over the globe, which goes a long way in ensuring great speed. When your data centers are few and far in between, the server has to send files covering a lot of distance, which affects the speed of delivery. But with SiteGround's presence across a myriad of regions across the world, delivery is fast.
In terms of scalability, SiteGround is great but their resource allocation also puts certain limits as opposed to something like Kinsta. There are limitations like system processes, number of connections, etc. which might cause performance issues.
All said some independent organizations like WebPageTest.org after running speed tests on websites powered by SiteGround and Kinsta and comparing the results found out that Kinsta is scoring over SiteGround at most centers. Similar results surfaced for uptime and downtime tests conducted by the likes of UptimeRobot and StatusCake, which highlighted how Kinsta-powered websites experience fewer downtimes or no downtimes at all as compared to the sites running on SiteGround.
- SiteGround is an extremely secure platform to host your website over. They keep things pretty tight up there with a robust code that makes it quite a task to hack the website.
- With customer support, SiteGround keeps things responsive and transparent. They also have a custom knowledge base that is very well equipped to answer the customer queries as and when they get stuck while using any of the features. SiteGround also constantly monitors the user comments, which is a great way to address customer grievances and further customize their services as per the feedback that keeps pouring in.
Cloudways
A relatively new player, Cloudways has already made a mark for itself in the web hosting arena, and not without merit.
- It enables easy installation of WordPress and a suite of other applications, making it hassle-free especially for non-geeks. The Cloudways dashboard is simple, easy-to-use and allows you to perform various tasks like managing admin privileges in a hassle-free way, upload different files, make modifications to site settings, etc.
- On the speed parameter, Cloudways scores high. The cloud server of Cloudways is hosted on highly reputed cloud providers, namely Amazon, Digital Ocean, Linode, Vultr, Google Cloud Platform or Kyup. These servers ensure your website does not face glitches in performance and stability.
- The Backups feature of Cloudways is operation by default, which implies you don't have to set reminders and worry about taking timely backups of your website. That said, you can modify the schedule as per your specific needs. Also, restoring the website is a matter of just a click, so no tech smartness needed there either.
- The support team of Cloudways is cooperative and quick to resolve queries. As the company has taken a stride into a new phase since Cloudways 2.0, we are seeing more zeal and reliability in the quality of its customer support service.
Flywheel
Flywheel comes as a strongly recommended Managed WordPress hosting platform that is making a lot of heads turn. It is known for delivering great performance and high speeds for websites, and that's why it is gaining popularity so fast.
- This platform is built on robust network infrastructure. What makes it good is that the infrastructure is maintained regularly and the software behind is of supreme quality.
- Aside from having a powerful setup, Flywheel comes with a built-in caching system that serves as a major boost to the websites powered by this solution.
- Flywheel also shows developer friendly characteristics since it gives developers enough room to experiment and customize to bequeath a site with great features that are created to suit the varying taste of the market. However, when compared to other hosting solutions like WP Engine and Kinsta, there is a slight compromise made on the performance, but Flywheel ensures that compromise is not very big.
- On the front-end, Flywheel is very easy to manage. Its dashboard is clean and intuitive and enables collaborations with other teams.
Conclusion
Having deep-dived into the various features and benefits of 5 of the best Managed WordPress solutions out there, you as an individual or business personnel would want to zero in on the platform that will suit your needs the most.
So while there are well tried-and-tested-over-years tools as well as a lot of shiny new things, if one stacks up each tool against every other, a conclusion can be drawn that Kinsta and WP Engine are providing the most value for money. Not only these two enterprise-grade WordPress hosting services are covering all bases, but they are also delivering a lot of focus and quality on every little offering and helping websites perform their fullest.