If you are looking to migrate your WordPress site to one of the best managed WordPress hosting services, here are the best managed WordPress hosts:
| Managed Service Providers | Recommended minimum plan | price |
|---|---|---|
| Kinsta | Pro | $70 per month |
| WP engine | Growth | $76 per month |
| WPXHosting | Business | $20.83/month |
| SiteGround | GoGeek | $11.95 per month |
Before you get into the details, let me tell you how I tried more than 10 web hosting companies to compile the most comprehensive list of the best managed WordPress hosting on the internet.
I started SidelinePlay back in 2016 at a shared hosting company.
However, over time, things changed and SidelinePlay became popular, so traffic increased. I knew I had to move to a more powerful hosting service that could handle the growing demands of my blog.
Eventually, I made the switch to managed WordPress hosting . I tried several hosts until I found Kinsta , which also currently hosts SidelinePlay.
Kinsta is one of the best managed WordPress hosts, but I’ll also list some other great hosts at the end of this article.
If you are a beginner, I think you can still go for cheap WordPress hosting . If your blog gets some traffic, you can consider using managed WordPress hosting.
Best Managed WordPress Hosting Providers
Now that you know what I look for when searching for a good hosting, here is my list of the best WordPress hosting for your high-traffic blog.
1.Kinsta
I host SidelinePlay with Kinsta, which is recommended as the #1 hosting by WordPress experts.
They have specially crafted their hosting plans to make heavy WordPress sites run faster. They use Google Cloud infrastructure, fully integrated with Cloudflare and all the best technologies like Nginx, PHP8+, Redis, and Object Cache. This ensures your website is blazingly fast.
Even though SidelinePlay has become quite popular, I was still able to keep page load times under 1 second with Kinsta hosting.
Their support is also top notch. When I was migrating SidelinePlay to Kinsta, I ran into issues with some old plugins not working with PHP 7, and guess what, Kinsta’s CEO stepped in and offered to help . That’s how dedicated they are.
Kinsta also offers other great features, such as:
- The data centers are located in different continents, so you can choose the location that suits you best.
- Automatic daily backups and on-demand backups
- Security - Multiple firewalls, DDoS and security scanning to keep your website safe
- Easy-to-use staging area
- Free Wildcard SSL Certificate
- Competitive pricing
- Premium customer support available 24/7/365
Speaking of pricing, here’s what you’ll pay with Kinsta:
Their cheapest plan starts at $35/month and goes up from there. I'm on their Business 4 plan, which lets you customize your pricing - one of their benefits for being an early customer.
From personal experience, I can say that Kinsta is a top WordPress hosting provider. You can read a detailed review of Kinsta hosting here .
2. WPEngine
WPEngine is another top hosting provider. One of their strengths is that they offer more affordable plans than Kinsta. I’ve had some trouble with them in the past, but I know a lot of people who are very happy with their service.
If your blog isn’t big enough to require Kinsta’s features, you can opt for one of WPEngine’s plans and get many of the benefits of managed WordPress hosting for less money.
WPEngine's cheapest plan starts at $35 per month for one WordPress site that gets up to 25,000 visits per month. So if your blog is still under 25,000 visits, this is a good, affordable option.
All WPEngine hosting plans include the following useful features:
- Built-in caching. WPEngine has its own Evercache technology to speed up your website
- Temporary Storage Area
- Backup and one-click restore points
- Security Scan
- Expert support
Keep in mind that all of their plans are charged per visit, while Kinsta allows unlimited visits. That’s why I only recommend WPEngine hosting for blogs that get well under 25,000 visits per month . Otherwise, you’re in danger of getting high bills like I did.
Here are the plan costs for WPEngine:
3. WPX Hosting
WPX Hosting is another highly-rated managed WordPress host with a reputation for fast performance.
All WPX Hosting plans come with:
- Unlimited site migrations (manually performed by WPX Hosting staff)
- Free SSL Certificate
- Server-level caching
- Integrated CDN
- Automatic backup
- Free email hosting ( most managed WordPress hosts don’t offer this )
- Staging Site
- Malware Scanning and Hack Fix Guarantee
WPX Hosting has decent features and performance at a very reasonable price. Plans start at $24.99 per month (or $20.83 when billed annually), which is about the same price as other managed WordPress hosts. However, there is one key difference — WPX Hosting’s entry-level plan allows you to host up to 5 websites, while most other hosts only allow you to host one. The only limitation with WPX is the limited number of data center locations, but they mitigate this by offering a free CDN that allows for faster speeds around the world.
So if you have several websites that need hosting, this is really valuable.
4. Pagely
Pagely is a great managed WordPress host that allows you unlimited access to your website like Kinsta.
They have six different plans, so you can easily choose the one that works best for you. Just make sure the plan you choose gives you enough bandwidth, or that you can always add more bandwidth as needed.
All Pagely plans come with the following basic features:
- Comprehensive updates for your WordPress software and plugins
- Built-in Varnish cache
- Daily backups
- Development tools such as GIT and WP-CLI
- Temporary Storage Area
Page.ly's cheapest plan is $199 per month.
5. Pressidium
Pressidium is a great option for entry-level bloggers on a budget. Their plans start at $21 per month for up to 10,000 visits per month. Keep in mind that like WPengine, you’ll be limited in the number of visits you can get when using Pressidium hosting.
Their plans all include the following features:
- Automatic Updates
- Staging Site
- Backup
- Cache and CDN support
If your website receives less than 10,000 visits per month, Pressidium is also a good, affordable option.
Some Other Managed WordPress Hosting Options
The ones I listed above are the best of the best, but if you’re still interested in more options, here’s a quick list of more excellent managed WordPress hosts:
What does Managed WordPress Hosting mean?
As the name suggests, this type of web hosting is designed and optimized specifically for WordPress websites.
As I was looking at and thinking about some WordPress server optimization slides that one of the engineers at WordPress.com had made, I realized there are a lot of things we can do to scale our servers to handle high traffic .
With shared hosting or managed VPS, performing such optimizations is impossible , and that ’s why* we face massive slowdowns or endless downtime issues.
Now, my friends, this is where dedicated WordPress hosting comes into play.
This specialized type of hosting is called “managed WordPress hosting”.
For beginners, managed WordPress hosting is **much better than any other entry-level hosting. (Start **with shared hosting , though, because they are less expensive.)
Managed WordPress hosting takes care of every step of server optimization for hosting a WordPress blog/website** . Their technical team is trained to manage WordPress servers and the best part is, they know WordPress blogs * inside and out*** .
So, when you discuss your issue with their customer support, make sure you get an immediate solution .
Managed WordPress hosting companies offer server-level caching and CDN, so you don’t need to rely on WordPress caching plugins to keep your server well-optimized.
This makes your website load faster, and you don’t have to deal with the technical hassles associated with hosting!
Isn’t that great?
Now, these types of hosting platforms are perfect for any commercial WordPress blog, large WordPress website, or non-technical person (mainly, spending money on hosting is not an issue).
Let’s look at some of the advantages of using managed WordPress hosting.
Benefits of Managed WordPress Hosting:
“Managed hosting” can be defined as the day-to-day management of WordPress by the web host so that you can focus on other things (like creating epic content).
With this type of hosting, tech-minded professionals will ensure that critical WordPress platform updates, plugin updates, and other site-specific updates are installed as soon as they become available .
They also handle speed optimization and backups , as well as a number of other tools designed to enhance your experience when using WordPress.
Safety
Professionals who provide people with managed WordPress services understand the platform better than your typical web host. They also know how to use it in the most effective way.
To keep your website safe, they will enhance it, provide you with an extra layer of security , and also manage the firewall they create .
support
These hosting providers will also provide you with *excellent customer support, which is *the most significant advantage when comparing managed WordPress hosting providers to cheaper or free WordPress hosting services .
Many hosting providers just provide space for people , but they don’t know much about the WordPress platform itself. If you happen to run into problems, these providers may not be able to accurately help you.
With managed WordPress hosting, you pay a fee and get access to people who truly understand the platform and can provide you with the help you need efficiently and effectively.
Let me tell you about a great experience I had recently with Kinsta ( a managed WordPress host ) when they changed server architects and moved ShoutMeLoud to their new platform:
- I had some old plugins installed and the site was slowing down due to PHP compatibility issues. Their support team worked around the clock to investigate the issue, helping me find *all the outdated plugins and adding *additional code where possible to keep the site running smoothly.
Automatic daily backups
It’s stressful when all the content you worked so hard on gets wiped out due to technical issues.
How painful would that be?
Just imagine how devastating it would be to lose all of your website’s data and have to try to recreate everything.
The thought of such things makes me uneasy.
It is vital to backup your WordPress blog .
With a quality managed WordPress host, you don’t have to worry about this. All of the hosts on this list will back up your site every day so that your data is always safe.
Not only does it backup, but if you run into any issues, you can easily revert to the previous day’s backup. Plus, with them, you barely have to worry about the security of your WordPress .
Sometimes, scary things happen, like:
- Your website has been hacked
- Database crash
- All the content on the website disappeared for unknown reasons.
Normal hosting services can't help you with this.
There's a very good chance you 'll lose all your data . Not having backups is a huge problem.
With managed WordPress hosting, you don’t have to worry about losing your data. Nightly backups are usually included in the price you pay for the service.
Most of these companies offer offshore backup services , which are free of charge and do not require you to pay any extra cost.
When you lose everything due to a tragic event, you will feel ** *very *depressed **. Creating a backup can ensure that even in the face of an adverse crisis, everything will be fine.
Caching makes your website fast
I’ve talked about the best WordPress caching plugins before, but when you choose a good managed WordPress host, they’ll do caching at the server level.
This is the most effective form of caching. With server-level caching, you don’t even need to install a plugin to speed up your blog.
Set up a staging area to avoid breaking your site
This is why a staging area is so important for bloggers:
They allow you to test changes before making them on your live site.
So if you want to add a new plugin or try out a new theme, you can set it all up in the staging area and then apply the changes to your live site once you’re satisfied.
This is a really great trick for making changes. Most shared providers don’t offer this, so it’s a unique service you get when you pay for hosting. On Kinsta , it’s also easy to create and delete staging sites .
Which Managed WordPress Hosting Should You Choose?
It's hard to recommend because your choice depends on the needs of your site. I believe you should stick with shared hosting for as long as possible . Once your site grows big enough, I always recommend Kinsta if you can afford it. You'll get excellent support, fast speeds, and unlimited visits.
If your budget isn’t big enough for Kinsta , you can consider something like WPXHosting .
Regardless, you’ll have to consider your needs as they apply to aspects like pricing, features, access, support, and scalability .
Is managed WordPress hosting worth it? Managed hosting is definitely worth the money. Server architects make sure your WordPress runs smoothly, and customer support ensures that any new challenges are addressed promptly. I have been using managed WordPress hosting since 2015, and it has been one of the best decisions I have made in my online career.
Have you used one of these managed WordPress hosts? Which one did you like best? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments.
Also read:
- Which is the top WordPress hosting for high traffic websites?
- SiteGround Review: Is Shared Web Hosting Your Best Choice?
Disclosure: Some of the links in this article contain affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you click through to visit us, at no extra cost to you. See how SidelinePlay is funded, why it’s important, and how you can support us.
Was this helpful?