A few years back, it wasn’t really easy for me to make the right choice of choosing the correct hosting for deploying my WordPress website neither was I aware that WordPress comes in two different flavors, which are WordPress.com Managed Host and WordPress.org which is an open-source software mostly used my Shared Hosting companies. You can read about the differences from WordPress.org’s official website.
These days, it is difficult for beginners to choose from Managed WordPress and Shared Hosting platforms. Although, these two types of hosting services share similarities they also have their distinct differences which are really confusing to most WordPress users. In this article, I will briefly share the differences between these two WordPress hosting platforms below:
1. Managed WordPress Hosting
This is the easiest form of hosting for WordPress site which is popular among most WordPress beginners. In a Managed WordPress Hosting environment that is built on cloud infrastructure, it is usually optimized for hosting a WordPress website only. One key feature of a Managed WordPress Host is that they do all the server micromanagement on your website for you like regular fine-tuning of the webserver for best performance and general server monitoring to keep your website secured and running smoothly so you don’t have to do the job of a webmaster. Due to security reasons, most of the time Managed WordPress Hosts can be very restrictive on the type of configuration you can apply or plugins you can install on your WordPress site. To make things easier for users to manage their website, Managed WordPress Host heavily customize their platforms with features only needed for the hosted website to run securely and also provides a very easy to use dashboard for users to easily adjust their website settings. Some examples of popular Managed WordPress Host you can find today are WordPress.com, easyWP, and WPengine amongst others.
? Some of the key qualities of managed hosting are:
1. Managed hosting platforms are optimized to run WordPress sites only, they usually restrict customization to the server settings and installation of certain WordPress plugins or other third-party software in the effort to enhance security for all users.
2. Managed hosting infrastructure does not share resources among users to reduce server failures, or security breaches in the event that another website on the platform is hacked or compromised.
3. The responsibility of server maintenance and configuration is solely handled by the Managed Host eg updating of PHP version, WordPress software or tweaking of any server settings, etc.
? At WP Rapids, we provide 24/7 WordPress management and maintenance service for your WordPress website without you having to worry about fixing your website issue. See our ➡️ available plans to get started.
2. Shared WordPress Hosting
Shared hosting is usually adopted by computer geeks and experienced WordPress website owners in order to cut down maintenance costs and carry out advanced customization on their website. In a Shared WordPress Hosting, multiple websites from other users are hosted on a single server with cPanel features which enables users to manage their WordPress website settings, databases, and other configurations. One key practice of Shared Hosting platforms is the sharing of resources like RAM, CPU, bandwidth, and disk space between hosted websites which may lead to performance issues and slow loading time for websites during times of heavy traffic. In Shared Host all website owners bear the responsibility of managing their own website. However, they are lots of Shared Hosting companies out there but Kinsta stands out because they implement cutting edge technology to provide fast and maximum uptime for all hosted WordPress websites. Kinsta has a very unique hosting infrastructure because it doesn’t fall into the category of the current traditional shared or dedicated hosting which we have today, their platforms are built on top of Google Cloud and all hosted website on their platform runs on an isolated container that contains the necessary resources required to run all hosted website, this means higher security for website, scalability and fast loading time.
? Below are some of the key qualities of Shared WordPress hosting
1. Shared hosting platforms accommodate websites developed in any language, for example, PHP, HTML, Python, etc it also allows the installation of other Opensource CMS like Drupal, PrestaShop, Joomla, etc. Shared Hosting platforms do not restrict users on the type of configuration they can apply to the webserver or plugins they can install on their websites.
2. Hosting resources are shared among all users. When there is a server failure or when security is compromised it affects all users on the shared server platform.
3. It gives users the freedom to make any configuration or server settings. Users are also able to update their WordPress and PHP software or even carry out any tweaking of their server files.
Conclusion
When choosing a hosting platform for your WordPress project there is no magic formula for making the right choices. However, you can make a better decision if you put into consideration the type of project you’re working on or if you have the technical skills and time for managing your website personally. At WP Rapids we’re more than happy to provide a free consultation to point you in the right direction towards making the best hosting choice for your WordPress project. If you don’t have the time or technical skills needed for maintaining your WordPress site, no worries we’ve also got you covered.
Now that you’ve read about the differences between Managed and Shared WordPress hosting in this article, which would you prefer for migrating your existing website or choose for your next WordPress website project? Please add your thoughts below.
