Managed vs Unmanaged WP Hosting: Which is Right for You in 2024?

Have you made your mind to develop a website for your brand? But still flowing through the challenges of choosing the right hosting plan that ticks all the boxes for your website hosting needs. When choosing a hosting plan decision between managed WordPress hosting and unmanaged hosting gains the most traction. The battle of choosing the best for your website must be based on the website’s specific needs, the level of technical expertise, and the availability of resources.

Managed hosting is perfect for users who are not much into the technicalities and admire convenience. All the security setup to technical things are taken care of by the hosting provider. However, Unmanaged hosting is perfect for users with high technical hold and can manage aspects like setup, maintenance, and so on.

Here we will cover the head to head difference between WordPress managed hosting and Unmanaged hosting.

What is Managed Hosting?

Managed hosting is a hosting solution where web hosts look after the website technical aspects. It includes various tasks like setting up and configuring servers, performing maintenance, applying security patches, updating software, backing up data, monitoring, and resolving issues with them.

With managed WordPress website hosting, clients can put off all their stress and focus on business growth. This ensures that servers never go out of line and operate smoothly.

Key Features 

The following are some of the key features Managed hosting:

• Managing servers: Managed WordPress hosting provider manage the servers’ setup, configuration, optimization, and maintenance to ensure performance.
• Security: It comes with top security features that protect against threats and vulnerabilities. It combines capabilities like firewalls, intrusion detection, malware scanning, and security updates.
• 24/7 Monitoring: Monitoring servers and network infrastructure is an ongoing process, ensuring any issues or concerns are identified and addressed promptly. As a result, WordPress hosting sites and applications have high uptime and reliability.
• Technical Support: It comes featured with the end to end technical support where you get high class technical assistance. To reach out to the technical team for any concerns, clients can use the phone, e-mail, and live chat.
• Backup and Disaster Recovery: It features backups and disaster recovery that make it easy for clients to back up data, which means less data loss and high-end data security. As a result, whenever there is hardware failure or data corruption, you can facilitate quick data recovery. 

Also Read : How to Host a Website for Free – Top Free Hosting Guide

What is Unmanaged Hosting?

Unmanaged hosting implies that the client handles managing every aspect of their server, including setup, configuration, updating, backups, monitoring, and resolving issues. Typically, unmanaged hosting providers provide the hardware and network connections but leave the rest to the client.

When choosing between managed and unmanaged hosting, clients who select unmanaged hosting must be technically savvy and resourceful to manage their WordPress hosting sites servers.

Key Features

The following features are typically offered by unmanaged hosting:

• Access to an entire server control: Unmanaged hosting comes with easy access to a complete server environment, including selecting the operating system and software, configuring it, and customizing it to suit their requirements.
• Flexibility: The client can enjoy the freedom to install, configure, and use any software or application on their server without restrictions.
• Admin privileges or root access: Linux-based servers usually give clients root access, while Windows-based servers give them administrator access, allowing them to modify the entire system.
• Allocation of high resources: With unmanaged hosting, clients can support high-traffic websites and resource-intensive applications with a lot of CPU, RAM, disk space, and bandwidth.
• Maintaining and monitoring your equipment: To ensure server safety and performance, clients are responsible for updating software, applying security patches, backing up information, and monitoring systems.

Head to Head Difference between managed WP hosting and unmanaged WP hosting

Management and Support

Managed WordPress hosting provides proactive support from experts. Website hosting companies handle technical issues, updates, and security concerns, keeping your website up to date and secure. Generally, users can contact customer support via email, live chat, or phone anytime. Many managed hosts offer additional services to simplify website management, such as site migration and staging environments.

On the other hand, unmanaged hosting offers limited support from the hosting company. Whether a user troubleshoots technical issues themselves or hires a developer is up to them. The lack of dedicated support makes it difficult for users with limited technical expertise to resolve issues themselves on WordPress hosting sites.

Performance and Optimization

Managing your hosting environment ensures that WordPress loads faster and performs at a higher level. Hosts use caching and content delivery networks (CDNs) to speed up their websites and make them responsive. Server resources must be managed when traffic spikes occur to ensure consistent performance.

Unmanaged hosting can strongly impact a site’s performance, depending on the user’s expertise and the server’s configuration. Users are responsible for optimizing their websites, but improving performance is also their responsibility. It is possible for improperly optimized websites to perform worse at peak traffic times, particularly if they take longer to load.

Security

It’s important for managed WordPress hosting provider to protect their websites against malware, DDoS attacks, and hacks. Most hosting packages come with regular security checks, firewalls, and intrusion detection systems. Hosting providers also apply security patches and updates automatically to ensure the security of websites.

The user of an unmanaged hosting service is responsible for implementing their security measures. This process involves configuring firewalls, scanning for malware, and installing SSL certificates. To keep them secure, WordPress installations and servers must be updated and patched manually. The lack of knowledge or recklessness puts websites at risk of malware and hacking.

Scalability and Flexibility

Managed hosting services are designed to handle increased traffic and resource demand. It is not a problem for hosting providers to adapt to growth. A rapid allocation of additional resources or a quick plan upgrade can be made when necessary. WordPress managed hosting gives users a sense of security despite limited customization options.

An unmanaged server provides more flexibility and customization since its settings can be changed and configured by the user. Customizable resources can be scaled to suit an individual’s needs. A well-managed scalability and resource system requires technical expertise and ongoing maintenance.

Also Read : What is Managed Shared Hosting? Who Benefits from It?

Types of Managed Hosting

Depending on your needs and preferences, various managed hosting options are available. The following types of hosting are available:

Shared Managed Hosting

The hosting provider handles maintaining the technical details of the server for many websites. This setup allows the hosted websites to share all server resources, such as CPUs, RAMs, and disk space. The shared managed hosting solution is usually suitable for medium- to large-sized websites with moderate traffic volumes.

Dedicated Managed Hosting

Dedicated managed hosting lets clients get access to their dedicated physical server. With this setup, the hosting provider handles server maintenance, security, updates, and so on. Clients can manage their server’s resources and performance and customize it as per needs.

Managed VPS WordPress hosting

Managed VPS WordPress hosting utilizes virtualized physical servers to provide dedicated resources to clients. Clients get CPU, RAM, disk space, and bandwidth from a single server, creating an independent virtual server instance.

Cloud Managed Hosting

Cloud-managed hosting allows you to scale your web application with flexibility and redundancy. WordPress hosting providers implement cloud-based hosting services to host websites and applications on interconnected servers in various data centers. Choose a leading cloud-based hosting provider like WeWP, and they will manage cloud infrastructure. 

WordPress Managed Hosting

WordPress managed hosting plan is designed to support, optimize, and secure websites built on WordPress. With a managed WordPress hosting service, the Managed WordPress hosting provider like WeWP manages all aspects of server infrastructure. It includes setup, optimization, security, and maintenance.

Types of Unmanaged Hosting

Self-Managed Dedicated Servers

A self-managed dedicated server is leased by clients exclusively for their use. It is the responsibility of the server administrator to oversee all the aspects of the server management process. This includes setting up hardware, installing software, implementing security capabilities, and maintenance.

Unmanaged Virtual Private Servers (VPS)

An unmanaged VPS is a virtual server instance hosted on a physical server without any management services provided. Users of virtual servers have root access and are responsible for setting up the operating system, installing software, securing the server, and performing maintenance. It offer greater control and flexibility, they require extensive server administration knowledge.

Cloud Infrastructure as a Service 

Cloud IaaS offers clients on-demand provisioning and resource management for virtual servers and networking infrastructure. Each client manages, configures, and secures their cloud infrastructure, including virtual servers and resources. Cloud IaaS provides scalability, flexibility, and pay-per-use pricing but requires cloud management and administration knowledge.

Also Read : When should a Business Consider Dedicated Server Hosting?

What should I choose? Managed WP Hosting vs Unmanaged WP Hosting

There is no set answer to choose between managed or unmanaged WordPress website hosting. It defines your website performance, so it is important to choose wisely. Therefore, closely consider your requirements and tap on the hosting solution that fits your requirements. 

Here are scenarios that define why to choose managed WordPress hosting and unmanaged hosting: 

When to choose Managed WordPress hosting? 

• It is ideal for those users with less technical understanding of maintenance, configurations, etc. 
• Removes all the stress of security breaches as the hosting company manages everything.

When to choose Unmanaged WordPress hosting

• Unmanaged hosting appeals to small businesses and individuals seeking a more cost-effective option.
• It is ideal when you have the technical skills to look after the website setup and maintenance.

Conclusion 

There is always a battle between managed and unmanaged WordPress hosting to get the best for your website. With the long debate, there is nothing you can define the best it is all based on your website needs. Well, anyday, Managed WordPress hosting is ideal for most as it relieves you from managing the technical aspects as the hosting provider takes care of it. 

If you do not want to compromise on your website growth chances, you can take on some reliable hosting provider like WeWP. They deliver the best hosting service for your website with top security features. It even opens room for scalability that will deliver the best for your website. They have a wide range of managed hosting plans available like Managed VPS WordPress hosting at an affordable price to meet your website hosting needs. You can reach out and get a top-notch WordPress website hosting service.