You’ve probably heard of managed WordPress hosting plans in your search for a web host. However, you might wonder why they’re so popular among website owners compared to other hosting options.
Understanding managed WordPress hosting will be crucial in your quest to find the best provider. This knowledge will empower you to make an informed decision.
In this guide, you’ll understand what managed WordPress hosting is and how to find the best hosting service provider for your WordPress website.
If you’re new to managed WordPress hosting, read on to learn:
- What managed WordPress hosting is
- Why you should choose managed WordPress hosting for your business
- How to find the right managed WordPress hosting plan
What is managed WordPress?
Managed WordPress is a specialized service offered by many web hosting providers. However, each provider may have a different definition for “Managed” hosting.
While this article will explain the most common ways web hosting providers offer managed WordPress plans, it’s important for you to compare each plan. This will ensure you find the one that best fits your unique needs.
Managed WordPress hosting vs. regular hosting
A shared hosting plan is one of the most common solutions for new websites and small businesses. In shared hosting, multiple websites are hosted on a single server, and they share the server’s resources, such as CPU, memory, and disk space. However, people who prefer sharing hosting to create a new website are likely on a tight budget.
If you’re new to online business, the affordable pricing of shared hosting might be tempting. However, it’s important to note that shared hosting doesn’t always work well if your website receives high traffic quickly. This understanding can steer you towards managed WordPress hosting.
Here’s why:
Since a shared plan is usually budget-friendly, the hosting provider depends on volume to make a profit.
Your website is sharing server resources with hundreds of other websites. As such, you’re
more likely to encounter security and performance issues.
You’ll experience problems if a website on the server gets hacked or sees a sudden increase in traffic.
The best managed WordPress hosting solves the problem of shared server resources in shared hosting.
The managed WordPress servers are configured and optimized for WordPress websites, so your website can handle any spikes in traffic and is less likely to experience downtime.
However, you get these extra features at a higher price.
While there are no solid standard features that define what managed WordPress hosting is, it commonly includes:
- Speed optimization
- Maintenance
- Higher security
- 24/7 support
Bluehost’s managed hosting uses the Cloud for its infrastructure. By combining the power of cloud hosting with WordPress.com, it’s optimized specifically for WordPress sites. And, unlike other hosting providers, Bluehost Cloud doesn’t restrict resources or penalize you for traffic spikes.
What is Bluehost’s Cloud hosting?
Bluehost’s Cloud hosting offers a stress-free, high-performance solution for your website. It utilizes cloud technology for superior speed, reliability, and scalability. It’s perfect for sites that experience sudden spikes in traffic, ensuring they remain online and run smoothly.
With built-in security features, automated backups, and expert support, particularly for WordPress users, it simplifies website management by handling technical tasks and optimizations behind the scenes.
Benefits of managed WordPress Cloud hosting
If you already have a website on a shared hosting plan, you can upgrade to Bluehost’s Cloud hosting. Here are some reasons why it can benefit your website:
Reduces the need for technical expertise
With managed Cloud hosting, you can bid farewell to the stress of needing extensive technical training. Hiring professional developers to manage your website is not always easy.
But with Bluehost Cloud, you get a small team of WordPress experts to ensure your website is stable and fast. This allows you to focus on more important things, like creating and developing your website content.
Also, managing a website can be a headache without the right tools. So, we’ve made management simple with organized integrations that update your website.
Some of the top features offered by Bluehost Cloud include:
- ManageWP: Manage and migrate multiple WordPress sites while backing up easily.
- WordPress-centric controls: Manage WordPress on your server with a custom-designed control panel.
Higher website speed
Managed WordPress hosts are optimized for performance at the server level. Since Bluehost uses Cloud hosting for its infrastructure, it distributes workloads across multiple servers.
As a result, traffic spikes won’t affect your website’s speed, and you won’t need to spend time installing software and optimizing to achieve faster loading times. It also uses an increased CPU frequency so that you can process more requests in less time.
Furthermore, Bluehost Cloud uses full-page caching or server-level caching. As a result, you won’t need caching plugins, which saves you the frustration of installing and managing them. Server-level caching is often more effective than plugins, especially during traffic surges.
One of the best ways to lock down conversions is to invest in a platform that speeds up your website. The faster your website loads, the better your bottom line will be. Bluehost WordPress solutions are built on our revolutionary VPS platform, which includes:
- VPS power
- Advanced NGINX architecture
- Custom PHP-FPM configuration
Additionally, Bluehost provides VPS and dedicated hosting plans. These plans offer NVMe SSD storage for faster data access and processing time. You also get a dedicated IP and full root access which allows you complete control over your hosting environment.
Offers scalability
Besides improving performance at the server level, the best managed WordPress hosting ensures your website stays functional and responsive during high traffic.
High traffic can strain server resources, leading to downtime. On the plus side, Bluehost Cloud hosting provides multiple servers, so if one server fails, other servers can still function and avoid downtime. Enjoy 100% network uptime backed by an industry-leading SLA replicating your site in real-time.
Furthermore, Bluehost has partnered with Cloudflare, a proxy between the server and your visitors. The proxy servers are located worldwide, and your website’s cached content loads from the server closest to your visitors. This brings your website closer to your global visitors, reducing global latency.
Off-site data centers around the globe will significantly boost your website’s uptime. Cloudflare’s CDN (content delivery network) and multilayered caching help keep up with the increase in server requests during high traffic.
If you use Bluehost’s premium Cloud hosting plans, your website will be hosted on servers that use SSDs (solid-state drives), which significantly reduces load times Bluehost also provides tier 3 data centers, coupled with NVMe SSD storage with its VPS and dedicated servers, which enhance your website’s scalability and reliability.
Has higher security
Most managed WordPress hosting services have built-in security systems, such as firewalls, to assist in cases of cyber-attacks or malware issues. In addition to those features, Bluehost’s Cloud hosting also offers the following:
Spam protection and malware removal
A well-managed WordPress host should offer real-time malware scanning of WordPress installations, networks, and hardware for worms, viruses, or spyware.
Your host should filter out harmful content before it reaches your website. With the right tools, WordPress security is easy. We use powerful SiteLock features, including:
- SiteLock security
- Advanced CDN
- SiteLock WAF
The support team can help you if your website gets hacked, but you’ll have to check if your host does it for free. Also, remember that a shared hosting provider does not protect you from server crashes if your website experiences a cyber-attack.
DDoS protection
Every managed WordPress plan includes DDoS protection to safeguard your website from Distributed Denial of Service attacks.
DDoS is a type of cyber-attack in which multiple compromised systems target a single system. It aims to make the website unavailable by overwhelming it with internet traffic.
Bluehost Cloud’s comprehensive security measures ensure that your site remains accessible and runs smoothly, even in the face of attempts to overwhelm it with traffic from multiple sources. With DDoS protection, we help maintain your website’s availability and performance, providing a more secure and reliable hosting environment.
Free SSL certificates
Some managed WordPress hosting providers, including Bluehost, partner with SSL certificate providers such as Let’s Encrypt. This makes adding a free SSL certificate to your website easy, and the installation process only takes a few clicks.
Automatic daily backups
Managed WordPress hosting ensures your website’s data is automatically backed up every day. This means you won’t lose your website content, even in an emergency.
Bluehost Cloud includes free Jetpack daily automated backups on all WordPress websites. So, you can easily restore your website should something go wrong. It also adds an extra layer of security with its data center redundancy.
If one data center has issues, your website automatically switches to a backup location. This keeps your site up and running smoothly, no matter what.
Automatic updates
Regularly updating your plugins helps protect your website from hackers and other security issues.
With Cloud hosting, you don’t have to worry about updating WordPress or your core software and plugins—it’s all done automatically and is always compatible. This keeps your site safe from hackers and fixes security gaps without you having to lift a finger.
Bluehost also alerts you about upcoming WordPress updates to ensure you have enough time to prepare. With caching optimizers on managed hosting solutions, you can comfortably remove unnecessary plugins from your website.
Fewer plugins are better for your website’s performance, and Cloud hosting makes updating them much easier.
It’s a hassle-free way to ensure your website is always running in the latest, safest version.
2-factor authentication
Bluehost’s Cloud Hosting boosts your website’s security by offering a simple way to turn on 2-factor authentication (2FA). This means that to log in, you’ll need your password and a special code, usually sent to your phone.
So, even if someone gets your password, they can’t access your account without that code. This extra step makes your website much safer from hackers, giving you extra peace of mind that your site and its data are well-protected.
Offers WordPress staging sites
A staging environment is an excellent feature for website owners or developers who want to experiment safely before their website goes live to the public.
Managed hosting comes with a handy feature called staging sites. Here, you can make sure everything works perfectly before you show it to your visitors.
Bluehost Cloud empowers you to test new features on your website privately. Then, you can preview the changes and make any necessary adjustments.
Provides dedicated customer support
Bluehost Cloud provides specialized customer support, ensuring that you have immediate access to experts familiar with WordPress-specific challenges if you encounter any issues with your WordPress site.
This expert assistance means quick and effective solutions, minimizing website downtime, and running operations smoothly.
With Bluehost, you can be sure the support team fully understands WordPress. In addition, our 24/7 chat support ensures our team is available to assist customers. They will answer questions about your WordPress website’s performance, uptime, and dashboard features.
Limitations of managed WordPress hosting
By now, you know what managed WordPress hosting is and its benefits. However, you must also be aware of the limitations of managed hosting before choosing a hosting provider.
Only deals with WordPress websites
Managed WordPress hosting is perfect for those committed to using WordPress. This type of hosting is designed to make WordPress sites work well, offering great performance and security specifically for WordPress.
However, you can explore other hosting plans such as VPS and dedicated servers. These plans offer NVMe SSD storage, dedicated IP, and full root access. They are best for users needing more control and performance. Thanks to their tier 3 data centers, they ensure 99% network uptime.
Some companies don’t offer domain names or email
Most managed hosting options require you to buy a domain name or sign up for an email service for your business separately. But the good news is that if you’re using Bluehost Cloud, we offer a free 30-day trial of Microsoft email when you purchase a plan.
Costs more
A traditional shared hosting option is generally more affordable than managed WordPress hosting, which can cost three or four times more.
On the bright side, your in-house IT infrastructure and maintenance costs are reduced as your hosting provider takes care of the physical hardware and its upkeep. While the costs may be higher, depending on your hosting needs, it may offer more value.
How to pick the best managed WordPress hosting plan for your website
WWordPress is an innovative platform with valuable features, including themes and plugins to help build professional websites.
However, running a WordPress website can be complicated due to its dynamic functionality. Although you can easily create a WordPress website, it can be hard to run it if you don’t have network management skills.
Managed WordPress hosting is helpful for website owners who need more technical knowledge. It can be a lifesaver when dealing with the core software, themes, and plugins.
If you know what managed WordPress is, you’re aware it can help you deal with security challenges. Your website is safe against plugin vulnerabilities, protecting you from potential hacks.
Managed WordPress hosting is ideal for anyone aspiring to build a business on WordPress, including WooCommerce businesses and freelancers.
Here are some features to look for when choosing a managed WordPress host:
- Security and performance services
- Hosting provider specializes in WordPress
- Dedicated backup storage
- Enhanced cPanel
- Dynamic upgrades
- Free website migration
- Free malware removal
- 24/7 customer support
- Guaranteed resources
- No or minimal overage charges for traffic spikes
Finally, read online reviews to understand user experiences before choosing a provider.
Now that you know what managed WordPress web hosting is, don’t wait for your website to crash or go down on a shared server. You might expose your business to hackers and suffer significant losses.
Bluehost’s Cloud hosting is one of the best options for security and performance. Sign up today to get started!
