To succeed in online business, it is essential to focus on a wide range of fields such as marketing, rental servers, SNS, advertising, and content production. It’s a very painstaking task. Some people may feel depressed.
Today, I’ll show you why you should choose a managed WordPress hosting service over a shared server or a small virtual private server (VPS) .
Make your business more competitive with managed WordPress hosting 💪
What is Managed WordPress Hosting?
First, what exactly does WordPress managed hosting mean? Also, how is it different from shared hosting and DIY (Do It Yourself) type hosting ?
With managed WordPress hosting, you can not only host your WordPress site, but also effectively promote it to the world. It also comes with many features and support to keep your client’s site running efficiently, securely and quickly. The technical know-how can be left to the experts and focused on the business.
To illustrate this, let’s break it down into three commonly seen WordPress hosting scenarios.
1. Shared WordPress hosting
The first category is low cost WordPress shared server users. Examples of shared servers include GoDaddy , Bluehost , Hostgator , SiteGround , Media Temple , OVH , and GreenGeeks . The following people mainly use the shared server.
- The person who creates the website for the first time
- People migrating from WordPress.com
- People who have a limited budget and want to make it as cheap as possible
- Those who don’t understand the difference between hosting types and simply price it (this is something you wouldn’t normally want to avoid)
Shared servers usually cost a few hundred yen to 3,000 yen a month. There is nothing wrong with launching a site using a shared server, but there are some things you need to know.
Incurred unexpected costs
No matter how you calculate it, $ 3 a month after deducting expenses will not make a profit for the rental server operator. Even if you respond only once as customer support, you will already be in the red.
Shared servers make a lot of money with upsells and obscure pricing. For example, site migration , domain registration , renewal fees, SSL certificates ( even for WooCommerce sites ).
Unclear pricing system
Most shared servers offer what is known as an “unlimited resource” plan. You’ve probably seen it too.
However, infinite resources do not exist in this world . In reality, rental servers limit the site speed of customers who use a lot of resources. Then, the angry customer cancels. The mechanism is that the space is passed on to another person who does not use much resources.
Eventually, shared servers advertise cheap plans. There is a vicious cycle of upgrading, even though many users use less resources. Quantity is prioritized over quality.
Volume is important.
Lack of resources
Also, shared servers usually overcrowd and save resources because the plans are so cheap . Therefore, unknowingly, your website may share a server with more than 500 people. Performance issues that occur on other websites can affect your website.
Check out our CBO’s detailed article on the reality of cheap WordPress rental servers . You should be able to understand the surprising facts.
2. Self-made WordPress Hosting (VPS)
The second category is primarily startups or people with development or WordPress management experience. In other words, the person who runs the server himself. People in this category also generally try to save money. On the other hand, we are interested in performance and recognize the importance of performance in business success. It is common to use tools like Digital Ocean , Linode , Vultr VPS and ServerPilot for easier management.
Managing your own server is great. However, if you are not careful, it may backfire. Don’t choose this approach for your interest. Valuable time should be spent on business growth . For example, let Kinsta, who has been working on WordPress problem solving for over 10 years, host your site.
3. Managed WordPress hosting
The third category is primarily small businesses, high-traffic blogs , and organizations looking for specialized corporate WordPress rental servers . Those who choose managed WordPress hosting understand that it saves time and effort, is often tuned for the CMS they use, performs well, and is worth the investment. I am.
Managed WordPress hosting plans cost around $ 25- $ 150 per month, but may cost more depending on your site size and needs. You may know Kinsta , WP Engine , Flywheel , Pressable , Media Temple , Pressidium, Pagely . As examples of well-known managed WordPress hosting services .
Large companies such as jQuery, Plesk, Dyn, and NGINX are also building sites with WordPress. For more examples, see 130 Big WordPress Websites That Make Your Web Presence .
Why You Should Choose Managed WordPress Hosting
In this section, we have divided the users into the above three groups, but just because they fall into that category does not mean that the method of introduction is appropriate. Please decide which option is best for you. For example, some people run their own servers first and then upgrade to managed hosting as their business grows.
On the other hand, some people use managed hosting from the beginning and focus on growing their business. There are various options depending on the person. Here are nine benefits of managed WordPress hosting.
1. Excellent support
Great support is the number one reason to choose managed WordPress hosting . Generally, it’s only for WordPress, as it’s called managed WordPress hosting. That is, it does not deal with any other platforms or software such as Drupal or Magento. Focusing on one area will naturally increase your customer support expertise.
Kinsta’s customer support is all WordPress developers and Linux engineers. He has contributed to the core of WordPress or other open source projects and uses WordPress every day. That’s why Kinsta customer support expertise is second to none. I consulted via chat, but it’s outrageous that I have more knowledge than the person in charge. Kinsta never does that.
When Kinsta was first established, we were skeptical about how customer support should be in the industry . That is why we have built a radically different mechanism. At Kinsta, support personnel are not divided by level . Everyone has the skills to solve any problem. Since it is a waste of time, there is no need to circulate between multiple persons in charge. All Kinsta customers can chat with customer support members who support large and Fortune 500 companies 👏
I have tried several rental servers such as LiquidWeb , SoftLayer, WP Engine , Web Synthesis and Rackspace . Among them, Kinsta is the best in terms of support, speed and price. I was impressed with their knowledge and customer support skills. There is no mediocre question-and-answer loop, and I am very satisfied with the time it takes to respond. Prompt support from experts. You can’t expect any higher levels. Since using Kinsta, the WordPress site has become very fast. Other companies couldn’t expect this level of expertise. By the way, I also like the fact that the server can be scaled up for the target week so that it can handle the load in the event of a sudden increase in traffic. It’s really great.
2. Performance optimization
The second reason to choose managed WordPress hosting is that your environment is tailored specifically for WordPress .
If it’s a shared server or a server you run yourself, you should base it on a simpler machine. To achieve the same speed as managed WordPress hosting, you need to spend a lot of time installing and optimizing your software. Or, with a shared server, you may not be able to achieve the speed you want at all.
For example, many managed WordPress hosting services, including Kinsta, offer server-level caches and full-page caches . That is, the cache is supported by the server. Since no cache plugin is required, you can save the trouble of selecting a high-speed cache plugin. Cache plugins aren’t fun at all, so this alone will make you feel much better. By the way, server-level caching is generally faster than any plugin.
It is important to deliver as many assets from the cache as possible when traffic is spiked. Doing so will reduce the load on the server and display the content quickly. Kinsta has a cache analysis report that allows you to check the cache distribution status of website content .
High-performance managed WordPress hosting has the latest and greatest architecture and technology. One example is to adopt the latest versions of PHP, MariaDB , HTTP / 3 , and NGINX , which are essential for speeding up WordPress sites .
It’s a shame if your WordPress hosting server doesn’t get the latest version of PHP . Kinsta has introduced PHP 8 within a few weeks of its release date. We are also considering further speedup in 8.1. This allows customers to pre-test and improve the performance of their site for free upon release.
How important is the PHP version? According to our PHP Benchmark Report , PHP 8 is on average 18.74% faster than PHP 7.4. If your speed increases by 18% for free, you can’t go without the latest version 😉
Kinsta is the first rental server that uses Google Cloud Platform and its premium tier network for the entire plan. Kinsta has been recognized as a leading hosting provider on independent hosting review sites for several years. We are also the recommended rental server for Google .
Here’s an example of how we were able to significantly reduce site load times after migrating your website to Google Cloud Platform. Before the transition, it was in the range of 3 to 4 seconds, but after the transition, it is always less than 1 second (400 milliseconds or less in the United States). Just migrating to Google Cloud Platform has reduced loading times by a whopping 75 % .
The following is an example of a website that has moved from Kinsta to a shared server. Reading time has increased from 300ms to a whopping 14 seconds. Shared servers can’t handle high-traffic websites at all.
Here’s an example of another website that uses Kinsta. As you can see, the performance grade is 100. The loading time is 400 milliseconds. It can be said that it is very fast.
If you look at the HTTP headers, you can see that Kinsta is cached at the server level and no cache plugins are used.
Kinsta uses LXD for quarantine and management of each LXC container for all sites. This means that every WordPress site is stored in a separate container with all the software resources (Linux, Nginx, PHP, MySQL) needed to run it. Resources are 100% private and never shared with anyone else (or even between your own sites).
In addition, use virtual machines (VMs) in one of multiple data centers on Google Cloud Platform. Our VMs are configured to route traffic over Google Cloud’s premium tiered network. Compared to Google Cloud’s standard tier network, premium tier networks do most of their traffic through the private network of Google’s data centers rather than the public Internet. This will reduce network latency and reduce the load time of your WordPress site.
Each GCP virtual machine has up to 96 virtual CPUs and hundreds of gigabytes of memory. In addition, the applicable region adopts the computing optimized machine type (C2) . C2 has the highest performance per core in GCP and is ideal for compute-intensive workloads. Hardware resources (memory / CPU) are automatically allocated to containers at each site as needed by the virtual machine.
If you want to know how Kinsta designed the fastest WordPress hosting experience, check out this detailed article .
3. Data centers to choose from around the world
In addition to high performance at the server level, managed WordPress hosting services generally have a large infrastructure for international expansion. By using Google Cloud Platform, we have secured 29 regions . Customers are free to choose their data center. Includes the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia Pacific and several regions of South America. Strategically placing your website closer to your visitors and customers can reduce network latency , TTFB , and page load times.
Network latency is the time it takes to send data over a network. The farther the distance, the longer the waiting time. For example, if you run a WooCommerce shop for Sydney, Australia, you should choose Australia. If you select the United States, the page load time on your first visit will be very long. Since the first load is done from the rental server, it is very important to choose a data center near the site visitor.
The Content Delivery Network ( CDN ) can also speed up the rest of your website’s media loading speed . Kinsta uses Cloudflare’s network of more than 200 locations around the world to accelerate our customers’ assets. Moreover, it can be used free of charge for all plans .
Everything at Kinsta is delivered via the reliable Google Cloud Platform premium tiered network . This network is structured to reduce the distance and the number of relays as much as possible, enabling faster and more secure data transmission. Some rental servers use Google’s standard tier network to save money, but Kinsta believes that you should always use the best.
How much impact do different types of networks have? For intercontinental data transmission, premium tier networks average about 41 % faster than standard tier networks . For data transmission in nearby regions (within the continent), the premium tier is about 8 % faster . Communication time is only part of the total page load time, but stacking up to 1 millisecond makes a lot of sense.
4. Automatic backup (zero data loss)
What would you do if you suddenly lost all your data? We always have to be prepared for the worst, and keeping a backup of your WordPress site is one of the most important steps. High quality managed WordPress hosting offers automatic backup at no additional charge.
Shared servers may also include backup services, but are generally limited to high-priced plans. Also, if you use VPS to operate your own server, you will have to set up your own backup system and VPS snapshot function, which will incur additional costs.
Whether you’re backing up your WooCommerce shop or making a copy of your database , Kinsta makes it easy. All plans include 6 types of backup features .
- Once a day
- Once an hour
- Manual generation
- System generation
- Download format
- Linking with external services (Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage)
You can also restore the backup to a staging or production environment.
Having multiple backup settings for your WordPress site eliminates the need to use backup plugins, cPanel, FTP, or phpMyAdmin. As a result, you can save a lot of time.
5. One-click staging environment
No matter what, you can’t bring the site down. Testing for fixes, plugins, PHP versions, updates, etc. should always be done in the development environment, not in the production environment. However, most rental servers first copy the website to your local environment and test it. Once done, you have to consider how your changes should be reflected, which is complicated and time consuming. On the other hand, many managed WordPress hostings include a one-click staging environment that makes testing easy.
Since it is a one-click staging environment (development environment), you can duplicate a website with the touch of a button. You can access the development environment by using the test URL or general methods such as FTP, SSH, and phpMyAdmin. The changes you make can easily be reflected in the production environment from the dashboard .
6. Developer friendly (SSH, Git, WP-CLI)
Another benefit of managed WordPress hosting is a developer feature that is usually not available on shared servers. Features such as SSH connection, Composer, HeidiSQL, Sequel Pro, and Git are examples. None of the above features are available because SSH connections are generally not allowed on shared servers. Of course, if you operate the server yourself, you can set it, but you will need to do the corresponding work.
With Kinsta, you can easily access SSH connection information and the following development functions from My Kinsta.
- You can run different versions of PHP on each production site and staging environment. You can also change the engine with one click .
- Supports unique setups such as Bedrock and reverse proxy settings.
- Speed up with the Redis add-on.
WP-CLI is also one of the most popular tools in the WordPress community. It is a command line tool that can execute various WordPress operations with commands. For example, you can add or remove users, posts, categories, insert test data, search and replace in the database, and so on. WP-CLI is an ideal tool for developers. WP-CLI is available by default in Kinsta.
7. Rock-solid security
Don’t forget about security. Shared servers generally do not receive any support, whether hacked or attacked by malware. The same is true for VPS. If a website is hacked, it’s your own responsibility. Many managed WordPress hostings, on the other hand, have systems that protect your site from malware and also provide support in the event of a hack.
The external services used by the rental server are also important. We use Google Cloud Platform. This means that if you choose Kinsta, the solid security model that Google built over 15 years and is currently used to protect services such as Gmail and Google Search will be applied. At Google, more than 500 security professionals are currently monitoring full-time.Are you suffering from downtime or WordPress anomalies? Kinsta is a hosting solution designed to save you time! Check out our features.
Kinsta prepares a Linux container (LXC) on Google Cloud Platform and uses LXD to manage it. Not only your account, but each WordPress site is completely quarantined . Each site container runs on a virtual machine protected by a GCP firewall. This method is much safer than other companies. In addition, we also encrypt the stored customer data.
Not only server-level security, but the account itself is very important. No matter what type of hosting you choose, be sure to check if two-factor authentication is used. When someone else accesses your account, you can change your password, delete your website, change your DNS records, and so on. In Kinsta, you can use two-factor authentication with My Kinsta by linking with Authy .
If you choose a rental server with these features, you will benefit from support if something goes wrong. Not only can you save time, but you can run your site with peace of mind. It’s important to consider it an investment and choose a secure WordPress rental server .
8. Consider scalability
Scalability is also an important point when choosing a rental server. On shared servers, you have no choice but to upgrade if you run out of resources. Only if it hasn’t been stopped. Even if you use a shared server, you will eventually be forced to move to a dedicated server. It’s simply a hassle because you always have to check and pay attention to the upper limit. Also, it will take some time to migrate to the right server.
For VPS, scaling up is easier than a shared server, but disk expansion etc. may require server knowledge. In managed WordPress hosting, it’s usually all done on the server side. Customers will be notified when the specified limit is exceeded. If you need an upgrade, it’s literally just one click away.
Kinsta uses Google Compute Engine to achieve flexible scale . For example, many WordPress rental servers limit the number of CPUs per machine to 2-6. Kinsta, on the other hand, allows website containers to scale up to the required number of CPUs when traffic is booming. We also have a dedicated server that allows you to increase the number of PHP workers beyond the limits of your regular plan .
Also, the software container is separate. If necessary, the virtual machine automatically allocates hardware resources to each site container. Resources are never shared between websites. The result is a secure and private hosting environment that allows you to scale up or down server resources depending on your site’s traffic conditions.https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=brianleejackson&dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-1&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3NwYWNlX2NhcmQiOnsiYnVja2V0Ijoib2ZmIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1090082911418630144&lang=ja&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fkinsta.com%2Fjp%2Fblog%2Fmanaged-wordpress-hosting%2F&sessionId=c0d0df9566f5cc8611e8e077b0818e6802cb352a&siteScreenName=Kinsta_JP&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2582c61%3A1645036219416&width=500px
9. Excellent DNS (stable & quick lookup)
Finally, use good DNS . A separate contract is required for shared servers and VPS. Very few managed hosting offers good DNS. Of course, Kinsta is one of them. We offer premium DNS for all plans via Amazon Route 53.
DNS is like a phone book on the Internet. When you enter the address in the browser, the IP address association is referenced, although it is not actually visible to the user. The DNS server is responsible for the conversion. Like a web server, DNS has everything from pins to holes. For example, Amazon is famous. You can reduce DNS lookup time by using high-speed DNS.
Free DNS provided by domain registrars such as GoDaddy and Namecheap is usually very slow. Also, it is not stable and the lookup time varies. Google is an exception, armed with a huge infrastructure. Other good DNS are Amazon, Cloudflare, Dyn, DNS Made Easy, etc., which boast a very large infrastructure designed specifically for you.
Another reason why trusted DNS is important is protection from DDoS attacks. The large-scale DNS attack that occurred on October 21, 2016 may have reminded you of the importance of DNS. It was a good example of the need for multiple DNS providers. At that time, many corporate websites used only the attacked DNS, Dyn, so it went down completely. Companies like Reddit, Twitter and Spotify are all down.
However, a common challenge is that DNS usually sets high TTL values. So it doesn’t make sense for the above companies to add a second DNS provider on the day of the attack. Had the TTL been set to expire in days instead of minutes, it wouldn’t have been a solution. However, you can solve this problem simply by securing multiple DNS providers in advance.
Frequently Asked Questions About Managed WordPress Hosting
Finding a clear answer to your WordPress managed hosting question can sometimes be difficult. Therefore, I have summarized the frequently asked questions below.
1. What is Managed WordPress Hosting?
Managed WordPress hosting is a type of rational management system designed for websites running on the WordPress platform. “Managed” means that the server operator takes care of basic administrative tasks such as installing updates and setting up automatic backups.
2. What is a shared WordPress server?
A shared WordPress server is a hosting environment where multiple WordPress sites share space on the same server. This is the exact opposite of a WordPress dedicated server, where each WordPress site has its own server.
3. What is a VPS WordPress server?
The VPS WordPress server uses a virtual private server to provide a completely separate space on the server for each WordPress site. In many cases, back-end server tools will also be in full control.
For VPS, you are responsible for all hosting-related maintenance, such as WordPress updates and installations.
4. What are the benefits of a managed WordPress server?
Managed WordPress servers have the following benefits, for example:
- High reliability
- High performance, fast loading speed
- Automatic server management (backup, installation, updates, etc.)
- Latest hosting stack
- Strong security protocol
- Flexible scalability
- Staging environment
- A number of useful development tools
- Support from engineers familiar with WordPress
There are many other strengths .
5. What is the difference between a WordPress server and a managed WordPress server?
A managed WordPress server is a type of hosting for WordPress sites, where the server is responsible for many server operations on your behalf.
On the other hand, simply WordPress server means any type of server that supports WordPress-based websites, including those that do not act on your behalf.
6. Is the use of managed hosting worthwhile?
In most cases, managed hosting has a return you can afford. It’s also a trade-off between “needs” and “budgets,” but in general , managed solutions should give you much more than spending your time managing it yourself .
7. How to choose the best WordPress server?
As with all areas of online, the world of WordPress servers is undergoing rapid change. The best way to choose the best WordPress hosting is to keep getting fresh information on your own.
Check online reviews and reviews for each server to get an idea of how users feel about the service. You should be able to determine which server has the tools and services that save you the most time and effort. We also recommend that you check the support flow and business hours provided by each server.
At Kinsta, top-notch WordPress engineers are dedicated to supporting you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, without letting go of innovation . It’s all about achieving our unwavering goal of providing the best WordPress hosting service we can think of.
The quality of Kinsta’s support team is exceptional compared to competitors such as SiteGround , WP Engine and Flywheel .
8. Which Managed WordPress Hosting Should I Use?
There are many options. It may not be easy to choose one of them. However, with the best managed WordPress server, you can expect the following effects.
- Improved website performance
- Automatically updates and upgrades servers and platforms
- Smooth site migration
- Flexible support for scale-up
- Get quick support from WordPress savvy professionals
summary
As you can see, there are many benefits to choosing managed WordPress hosting over a shared server or VPS. For managed hosting, the cost is certainly high .
But this is a worthwhile investment. Isn’t it a reasonable expense considering time, security, and data security?
