Last updated - July 8, 2021
If you are a soon-to-be website owner and you suddenly find yourself at a crossroads between shared vs managed hosting, then don’t fret, this article is for you! It will provide you the necessary guidance to figure out which hosting package is most suitable for your needs.
The Pros and Cons of Shared Hosting
To anticipate the question of costs that inevitably pops into the mind of every consumer, shared hosting is the more cost-effective option. Now, on the question of definition, the clue is in the name.
In shared hosting, website hosting services are offered by a single server, the resources of which are shared among the range of users. By the same token, the costs for the services are shared, thereby keeping the users’ expenses to a minimum.
This combined with other qualities – e.g. the easy handling of shared hosting thanks to the customer support services, the automation of website building procedures and the handling of maintenance and security settings by the host – make shared hosting attractive especially for newcomers. Well-known providers in this field are for example BlueHost or GoDaddy.
Sharing is Not Always Caring
Resource sharing may significantly limit the administration possibilities of the user and the availability of much needed hosting essentials. Say, for example, the number of visitors for your website unexpectedly skyrockets.
The bandwidth offered by shared hosting plans – it being shared among all of its users – is not made for this kind of high traffic. At best, this negatively affects your site speed; at worst, your site experiences downtime. In any case, you risk a significant loss of visitors.
Similarly, since you can’t share the good without the bad, be aware that even if it is not you but another user who is running a high traffic site, your website can still be impaired by this activity.
The same goes for the issue of cyber security. Once the server is hacked, through no fault of your own, your site might be affected. And since your administration accessibility is limited, you don’t have the option of switching to another security provider.
To avoid these risks altogether, it is recommended to upgrade your hosting package to managed hosting – especially if you’re planning on running a high traffic site.
Managed Hosting as the Alternative?
To explain what managed hosting is, the clue is, once again, in the name.
It’s a hosting service that, beyond managing the hardware server along with the operating and software-systems, offers an extended range of services to further facilitate the management of your website. Unlike shared hosting, administrator access is granted to the website owner.
To ensure compatibility between the hosting services acquired and the CMS used for your website, the choice of the hosting provider should be dependent on which system you are using. WordPress, being the most commonly used CMS worldwide, this article will be addressing managed WordPress hosting.
Consider your site traffic
Managed WP hosting is the package for you if you run a high traffic website and/or if you don’t have the capacity to manage the time-consuming technicalities of running a website.
Providing assistance in website management is no novelty, so let’s focus on the additional range of services that explain the appeal of managed WP hosting instead. For instance, to help website owners maintain a consistently fast-running site, managed WP hosting providers offer a website speed optimizer.
Mind you, as per Google, page speed is one of the “Most Important SEO Ranking Factors”. The adaptability of the resources provided to your website’s traffic inflow is another service that helps users maintain a consistent page speed level without having to change their hosting package.
Furthermore, managed WP hosting offers the option of staging environments, i.e. you can modify your website in staging mode before letting it go live. Depending on which provider you choose, backups, cyber security and much more are included in the range of hosting services. To get a better idea of what those packages include, take a look at what providers, such as Kinsta and 10Web, have to offer.
To Share or not to Share…
In a nutshell, the choice of the suitable hosting service depends on the long-term purpose of your website.
Are you running a small site and expect your traffic inflow to stay low and the administrative tasks simple? Then shared hosting is recommended.
Are you striving to run a high traffic site and lack the necessary time to manage it carefully and professionally? Then managed WP hosting will help you maintain website efficiency.
