When you’re trying to figure out where to host your WordPress website, you’ll see a variety of different terms. Two of the most common are “shared hosting” and “managed WordPress hosting.”
As a newbie, it can be difficult to understand the difference between shared hosting and managed WordPress hosting , and which one you should actually choose for your WordPress website.
To help, I’ll explain how these two types of hosting differ, and which one you should choose based on your current situation.
Shared Hosting vs Managed Hosting: The Basic Difference
Before I give some specific advice on whether you should choose shared or managed WordPress hosting, I think it’s important to first introduce the two types of hosting.
How Shared Hosting Works
With shared hosting, you "share" a web server with numerous other webmasters. Depending on where your website is hosted, you could be sharing server resources with hundreds of other accounts.
This has its pros and cons…
By adopting this sharing approach, the host is able to reduce costs and provide you with very cheap prices.
The downside, though, is that your site won’t have dedicated resources. So if the host puts too many accounts on the server and usage on those accounts suddenly spikes, your site could slow down… even if it’s just other people’s sites that are having problems .
Good shared hosts will try to mitigate this by adding some isolation and limiting the number of hosting accounts on the server , but not all shared hosts do this well.
How Managed WordPress Hosting Works
Managed WordPress hosting is a set of WordPress-specific services and optimizations added to regular hosting plans.
You can find all types of managed WordPress hosting, including shared hosting. Yes, you can find hosts that offer both managed and shared options ( WP Engine’s cheapest plan is a good example):
Even though managed WordPress hosts use a shared hosting environment, they are generally less likely to overload their servers, so the negative performance aspects above don’t apply .
Beyond that, the additional services are what really make managed WordPress hosting unique.
Managed WordPress hosts will typically:
- Implement special WordPress security rules to keep your website safe
- Optimizes hosting environment specifically for WordPress performance
- Automatically updates the WordPress software as well as themes and plugins ( sometimes )
- Automatically back up your site every day
- The agencies that provide support are WordPress experts, not general hosting experts
- Has staging site functionality so you can easily test changes and updates to WordPress
You'll also typically get a custom hosting dashboard instead of the generic cPanel control dashboard that most shared hosts use.
Dashboard Example Kinsta Managed WordPress Hosting
Why You Might Want to Choose Shared Hosting
The main advantage of shared hosting is the price . If you have a limited budget, then there is no need to choose basic shared hosting.
But most of us don’t have unlimited budgets!
That’s why shared hosting is the most popular type of WordPress hosting .
When you analyze price vs. performance, shared hosting offers incredible value for most webmasters, especially bloggers who are just starting out.
This is why I recommend shared hosting to anyone who is just starting a blog.
Until your blog starts getting higher traffic and starts making money, paying more money for managed WordPress hosting won’t provide much benefit.
Are there any disadvantages to shared hosting?
Yes - I've already mentioned the main disadvantages:
Get performance at higher flow rates .
While most shared hosts will still load quickly when your site only has a handful of visitors, that will change once your site becomes popular and has more content.
On high-traffic websites, shared hosting often cannot keep up with the load and the performance of your website suffers.
Additionally, some cheap shared hosts offer low-quality support in order to keep costs down and take on too many customers. Of course, you can certainly find shared hosts that offer quality support, but they are rare.
Finally, while your host may provide a little help, you will have to take on more responsibilities, such as:
- Performance Optimization
- Safety
- Backup
- ETC。
Why You Might Want to Choose Managed WordPress Hosting
The main advantages of WordPress hosting are convenience and **performance . It’s **inevitable that you’ll pay slightly more than you would with cheap shared hosting .
However, when you pay extra for managed WordPress hosting, you’re definitely not wasting money.
Managed WordPress hosting will:
- Save your time
- No special WordPress knowledge required
- Build a more efficient website from day one
I’ve discussed many of these features before, but here are a few examples of what I’m talking about:
- Built-in security controls mean there’s less chance of your website being hacked.
- Automatic backups mean your data is always safe.
- Performance optimization means your website loads quickly without any manual work. For example, most managed WordPress hosts already have caching features implemented, so you don’t need to worry about configuring a caching plugin .
Moreover, if you face any problems, you can get help from a team of WordPress experts.
Also, from my experience migrating ShoutMeLoud from a shared server to a VPS and finally to managed WordPress hosting, it saves a ton of time and hassle in maintaining a server.
Are There Any Disadvantages to Managed WordPress Hosting?
Well, as you might expect, the main downside is that in order to get all those handy features, you’ll need to pay a higher price.
If you’re on a budget, you can find free plugins that give you the convenience of managed WordPress hosting without paying the higher prices.
For example, you can use:
- UpdraftPlus Free Automatic Backup
- BlogVault offers advanced backup and security
- Wordfence offers free security protection
- WP Super Cache for free caching and more.
Although it's not a great experience, it's both cost-effective and effective.
Also, another small downside is that some managed WordPress hosts ban certain plugins for performance reasons.
For example, it’s not uncommon for managed WordPress hosts to ban some popular related posts plugins.
Typically, only a few types of plugins are banned, but you should check carefully before buying to make sure you can use all the plugins you need.
Some great shared and managed WordPress hosting to get you started
If you are a new blogger, I recommend starting with shared hosting . Then, as your site grows, you can move to managed WordPress hosting for higher performance and more convenience.
For shared hosting, I recommend the following two options for beginners. Both are very cost-effective, starting at around $4 per month:
If you’re ready to upgrade from shared hosting, I have a whole article on the best WordPress hosting . But overall, I recommend Kinsta . In fact, I currently host SidelinePlay. Read my full Kinsta review to learn more.
Do you have any other questions about shared hosting and managed WordPress hosting? Leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer them.
Here are some handpicked guides for you to read:
- How Much Does It Cost to Start a Self-Hosted WordPress Blog?
- Beginner's Guide to Web Hosting Plans
- Best WordPress Hosting for Serious Bloggers
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.
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