What is the difference between managed and unmanaged WordPress hosting platforms?
Your hosting platform for your WordPress site will generally fall into two categories: Managed and Unmanaged hosting.
The purpose of this resource isn’t to compare specific hosting companies, but rather to outline the general differences between managed and unmanaged hosting platforms so that you can help your client make an informed choice.
Unmanaged Hosting
Unmanaged hosting caters to the most common needs of a huge variety of websites, whether they’re static sites or dynamic sites powered by WordPress.
Some examples would be:
- HostGator
- BlueHost
- InMotionHosting
Some of these platforms may also offer a managed hosting tier at a higher price
Managed WordPress Hosting
Managed WordPress hosting offers optimized services for WordPress sites as well as a number of advanced services (such as Git to deploy).
Some examples would be:
- WPEngine*
- Flywheel
- Pagely
- Kinsta
PROS & CONS
Pros
Unmanaged:
- Very affordable!
- Many competitors (lots of choices)
Managed:
- Regular (daily) automated backups
- Better support, as they focus on WordPress sites so they know the platform very well
- Better uptime
- Very fast speeds
- Enhanced security
- Staging sites
- Advanced features (such as Git to deploy)
Cons
Unmanaged:
- Support can be pretty bad
- Slower loading times
- Security is minimal, and better measures will be up to you to implement
- Regular, automatic backups will be up to you to put in place
- Limited (if any) advanced features
- No staging sites
Managed:
- More expensive
- Plugin limitations (A few plugins won’t be permitted either because of security concerns or because the hosting service itself already provides the same service.)
- Can only run WordPress (So your static / Joomla / Drupal site will need to be hosted elsewhere! :))
Many developers believe that the money your client would save with an inexpensive unmanaged hosting platform is money they will have to spend eventually in attempting to address issues that would otherwise have been gracefully handled or entirely avoided with a managed hosting environment.
This being said - with the right tools, such as plugins to automate backups and enhance site security, for example, unmanaged hosting can definitely be a viable option!
Now that you have a better idea of the differences between the two types of hosting platforms, it will be up to you to decide! :)
*Disclosure: Skillcrush receives a small amount of compensation from anyone who uses the link here or in the lesson to purchase WPEngine hosting. However, we recommend WPEngine because it’s what we personally use and enjoy! You’re welcome to choose another hosting provider.
If this is your first time setting up a WPEngine* account, you'll likely want to purchase the Startup package. And you’re in luck! There are two great ways you can get a discount: you can get 10% off your first payment with the coupon wpe3free (so you get the biggest discount buying an annual plan) or you can try the coupon artofblog to get $25 off each of your first 3 payments (so you get the biggest discount buying a monthly plan). 😀