Managed WordPress: Is It Worth the Extra Money?

Producing content for the internet is much more efficient using a content management system such as WordPress. Utilizing a company offering managed WordPress hosting may also be beneficial if it's imperative your site stays up and running continuously.

Hosting Basics

Hosting your WordPress site at a company offering this service is required to have it show up on the web. They have the software and technical know-how necessary to get your website seen by anyone who clicks on a link to your web pages. A bare-bones service offers access to the internet. If you need more features, you may want to utilize a managed wordpress service.

What Is Managed Hosting?

The data for your WordPress website is stored on a computer with a sufficient amount of memory, processing power, hard drive space, and security. This computer needs to be maintained regularly and correctly to ensure no malware and all software are current. This type of service is known as server-level management and is typically offered by all hosting companies.

 

Managed hosting takes it a few steps further, offering application-level management. Some of the features provided with this service include one-click WordPress-specific backup buttons, the ability to create a staging site easily, automated backups performed daily, website migrations, and much more.

Hosting Benefits

The main benefit of using a managed WordPress service is the optimization provided for WordPress. The host has tailored the server with your WordPress data to work exclusively with the software, providing optimal performance. The system is also tailored to offer the fastest, stable hosting architecture possible. Having the best security available is also an advantage of using this service.

Features

Using this hosting service provides automatic and manual backups, better WordPress support, automatic WordPress setup, automatically managed updates, staging environments, and a finely tuned dashboard. Other essential features include heightened security and better caching.

Drawbacks

Along with the many features offered with this service, there are a few downsides. The first one is a loss of flexibility. Using this service may make it impossible to utilize specific plugins.

 

A second downside is an increase in the price charged for the service. Anyone on a budget may want to consider if they need the extra features before committing. Another downside worth mentioning is likely the inability to use any other CMS, such as Joomla, with the service.

Is It Worth the Extra Cost?

If you only need to utilize WordPress and can afford this service, it's probably worth the extra cost. However, you may want to consider your budget, the amount of traffic to your site, and the type of site you are running before making a decision.

 

If you're just developing your site and it has low traffic, it may not be worth it. Another consideration you want to examine is the number of sites you have. Combining a high number with the service could be costly.

 

Using a managed service offers security, the best environment, peace of mind, and reliability. If you're getting a decent amount of website traffic and want to ensure your site stays active 24/7, the additional expense may be justifiable.