Best Managed WordPress Hosting in 2022

Learn how to choose the best managed WordPress Hosting in 2021. What is managed hosting and do you really need it for your website? We will explain when you might need managed hosting and which hosting companies to opt for if you do choose managed hosting.

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What is managed WordPress hosting?

Managed WordPress hosting is a service in which the hosting company takes care of all the technical details of running your website. This service will probabaly include:

• Daily back ups
• Increased security
• Faster speeds than you would get with shared hosting
• Premium support
• Core WordPress updates, some companies offer automatic updates on your plugins as well
• High uptime especially during busy hours, which means your website will load just as fast
• High performance features such as cloud hosting
• Developer friendly tools
• Scalability
• Staging platforms
• Global reach

What is the difference between a shared hosted website and managed hosting?

You will be sharing resources with other websites when using shared hosting. You will not have access to premium services unless you add them on and pay for them.

You will get access to premium features, such as high speeds, improved security, daily backups etc. when using managed hosting. However, you can only host WordPress sites on managed hosting platforms and you might not be able to use certain plugins that are incompatible with their systems.

To read more about the different types of hosting, please read Choosing the right webhosting

When would I need to use managed WordPress hosting?

You would use managed hosting in the following circumstances:

• You are involved in your business and don’t have time to take care of the details of running a website
• You are not techy and prefer to leave the details of managing your website to experts who have up to date knowledge and expertise
• You have a high traffic website and you need a platform that can handle surges in traffic
• You are in a competitive business and you need your website to load as quickly as possible so that you won’t lose customers

Why is managed hosting more expensive?

Managed hosting offers an array of premium services, greater support, better security, faster load times, better uptime, automatic updates and backups, and a host of other services.

If you are using shared hosting but you opt for cloud services, plus upgraded security, plus automatic backups, plus plugins or other paid services that will make your website faster, you might end up paying as much as you would with managed hosting.

What will managed hosting do for me?

Managed WordPress hosting will take the onus off of you for managing your website and leave you free to concentrate on your business or to create content.

Is managed hosting worth it?

It may be worth it to you depending on your needs. If you need to save time, if you are unfamiliar with the WordPress platform, if you are not techy and don’t want to manage your site, then managed hosting is for you. You’ll get the latest, fastest technologies, updates and hosting features with a managed WordPress site. Last but not least, you will get support from experts so that if and when you don’t understand something or mess up, they can help you correct it.

What is the best managed WordPress hosting company?

There is no best company, only the best for your needs and your budget.

What’s the difference between managed hosting and hosting that offers a C-PANEL?

Usually with managed WordPress hosting, you won’t have access to the set up part of the site. You will have a simplified control panel with less control over managing the technical aspects of the site. The hosting company takes care of all that for you.

Can I install my own choice of plugins on a managed WordPress site?

Yes, in most cases. Some plugins will be restricted due to the nature of the hosting company. Generally, it simply means that the host is already doing the job that the plugin would do. If in doubt, check with your hosting company to make sure they are compatible with their platform.

What is the fastest WordPress managed hosting?

I can build you a table and show you but that in itself is relatively meaningless, because speed is going to be dependent on your site itself. It matters how you build it, the theme you use, the page builder you use, the size of the images you load and fonts you choose. It also depends where you are in the world and where your audiences are relative to you.

All the big names are reputable. Do your due diligence and concentrate on building your site the right way from the ground up.

Should I start with managed WordPress hosting or the least expensive hosting?

There are two schools of thought on this subject:

Pro Managed hosting:

• If you are a novice or not techy, you might want help with the technical aspects of your website
• If your business takes up most of your time, you might want to delegate responsibility for the up keep your website
• You want superior performance

Pro shared hosting:

• If you have time to learn a bit about WordPress, you might want to go with the least expensive alternative until your website starts getting traffic
• You are on a tight budget and you have to do it yourself

Keep in mind that you can easily upgrade to managed hosting from a shared hosting plan. Also keep in mind that in the USA, at least, you can deduct website hosting services as part of your business expenses.

What should I do if I want to migrate my site to managed hosting?

Most managed WordPress hosting companies will have either a paid or a free service that will migrate your site with little downtime. I recommend using their expert services rather than attempting to do this yourself as it can be tricky.

I already purchased a domain name elsewhere.

That’s okay. Just ask your new host to change the DNS ( Domain Name System ) settings, so that your domain will point to your new address.

Does WooCommerce work with managed hosting?

Yes, WooCommerce works perfectly with managed hosting. Simply install your WooCommerce plugin as you would any other plugin.

What is the difference between WordPress.com managed hosting and other managed hosting?

WordPress.com is owned by a company called Automattic. It is easy to use but puts a number of various mechanisms, interfaces, and limitations on its plans.

WordPress.org is open source. You own your site an can build it without limitations.

Managed WordPress companies, or those that offer managed plans like SiteGround, Kinsta, BlueHost, Dream Host and many more fall under the WordPress.org umbrella

WordPress.com Cons:

• There are cheaper plans but you have to upgrade to the Business Plan in order to remove their logo from the bottom of your website. And that logo can make your business site look amateurish. However if you have a simple blog, it may be the way to go
• In order to use your own themes and plugins, such as page builders, you have to upgrade to the Business Plan which is $300 per year
• Additionally, they own your site and reserve the right to take it down if they find it in violation of their standards
• In order to monetize your site, you will have to upgrade your plan
• In order to have an e-commerce site you will have to upgrade your plan

WordPress.com Pros:

• Easy to use
• Managed for you

My advice: You will be happier with .org in the long run because you will have more control over your site. Do not be afraid of the set up. It is incredibly easy to do. Follow my tutorial here How to Build Your WordPress site

Which managed WordPress hosting would you recommend?

Read all about my recommended sites for various types of hosting, including pros and cons here. Use my link for SiteGround and take advantage of their discounted rates.

Best inexpensive managed WordPress hosting

What you get with SiteGround

• Google cloud
• Multiple data center locations
• $30 website migration
• Automatic backups
• No prohibited plugins
• Caching
• Cloudflare or your own choice of CDN
• WordPress updates
• Easy set up
• 99.9%uptime
• Free SSL
• Email service

Biggest Con:

Your webspace is capped at 10-30 GB depending on the plan.

SiteGround Plans:

Best upscale managed WordPress hosing.

Use my

There are more, higher priced Kinsta plans, depending on your needs and monthly traffic.

Kinsta also features an incredibly well written and informative blog that you can use whether you opt for Kinsta hosting or not.

Is Kinsta better for managed WordPress Hosting than veteran WP Engine?

From Kinsta:

• Kinsta has been the fastest WordPress host for five consecutive years (based on independent benchmarks).
• Kinsta supports 27 data centers across Google’s global network, whereas WP Engine only supports 11 GCP locations. Unlike Kinsta, WP Engine charges extra for hosting your site in certain locations.
• Kinsta uses C2 compute-optimized VMs (GCP’s fastest servers) for all plans in supported locations. In our tests, we found that C2 VMs are up to 200% faster than GCP’s lower-tier machines. While WP Engine offers C2 VMs on their expensive “dedicated” plans, lower-tier plans are stuck with less-performant servers.
• Kinsta performs weekly automatic MySQL optimization on all of your sites to optimize database performance. WP Engine doesn’t offer automatic database optimizations.
• Kinsta support, composed of WordPress experts and Linux engineers, is available 24/7 for every customer via live chat. Also, we don’t have a tiered support system, and our engineers are experienced and capable of solving any hosting issue on your site. While WP Engine also offers 24/7 support, they use a tiered support system.
• Kinsta offers free migrations from WP Engine and from other hosting providers. Migrations to Kinsta are handled by an expert engineers. This means you can rest assured that your site will be migrated safely. WP Engine handles migrations with a DIY plugin, which means you won’t receive a white-glove migration experience specifically tailored to your site.
• Kinsta has a simple billing model that’s only based on visits. WP Engine has both total visits and bandwidth limits in place across all of their plans which makes it difficult to estimate your monthly cost.
• Kinsta’s Agency Partner program makes it easy to manage hundreds of client sites and provides a cost-effective solution at the same time.
• Kinsta customers enjoy a free Cloudflare integration with an enterprise-level firewall and DDoS protection on all plans. WP Engine plans include firewall protection, you have to purchase their “Global Edge Security” add-on to protect your site from DDoS attacks.

Read More:

Kinsta, the WP Engine Alternative

Conclusion

Managed WordPress hosting might be the way to go for your business needs if you are:

• Not techy and prefer to leave the management of your WordPress website to experts
• Busy managing your business and can’t devote the time to managing your website
• Want optimal performance from your website including top speeds
• You have a highly trafficked website and you need fast page loads and great uptime – all the time