If you’re considering getting started with a WordPress site, then you may be considering your hosting options. There are many different hosting providers out there and this can make it difficult to make a choice. We admit that making a choice can be tricky, but we will at least walk you through what both shared hosting and managed WordPress hosting have to offer.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is a type of hosting that runs several sites on one server. These sites all vie for the resources of one server. Doing this lowers costs, but shared hosting can also lead to lower performance. With many sites running on one server, resources may become scarce for your site if another site is hogging all of them. 

With that being said, you can get shared hosting deals from as low as $3 per month. In addition, higher-end shared hosts manage resources well enough that you might seldom or never run into the problem of your site running slowly because of the other sites running on your shared server.

Shared hosting providers typically allow you to host an unlimited amount of sites with a plan instead of imposing a limit. In principle, you can also have an unlimited amount of visitors passing through the site, although your performance may be throttled if your traffic increases beyond a certain point. 

The same can be said about bandwidth. There aren’t any hard limits imposed, but again your performance may be throttled if you exceed a certain amount of bandwidth. Shared hosting also allows for the hosting of email accounts for free.

Don’t take the characteristics of shared hosting as being negative. Shared hosting has its benefits. The cost is clearly one of them and the performance of this type of hosting is just fine for sites such as hobby sites, small business websites, and some blogs.

Managed WordPress Hosting

Managed WordPress hosting can be delivered using shared servers, virtual private servers, or even dedicated servers. The point is that this type of hosting is optimized to give better performance for WordPress sites than shared hosting. 

Managed WordPress hosting usually comes with features that make the experience of hosting a WordPress site more seamless. Providers of this type of hosting typically take care of background maintenance, WordPress updates, backups, and security checkups. Stellar support is usually offered too.

In addition, Managed WordPress hosting providers typically offer a staging environment that allows you to test out intended changes without having to mess around with your existing site. You will also be provided with server-level caching and content delivery networks that essentially allow your site to load more quickly.

Note that you may have some restrictions placed on the plugins you’re able to use if you go with managed WordPress hosting. You might also have bandwidth limits imposed. You also won’t be able to host an unlimited amount of websites and you may not have access to email hosting. You’ll also be paying more. You can expect to pay anything from $12 per month and up.

If you’re in the business of managing a WordPress site that has high volumes of traffic, then managed WordPress hosting might be for you. With this, you will get better performance than shared hosting and, in many cases, better technical assistance. 

Final Thoughts

We hope that we have been able to help you make a decision on whether to go with shared hosting or managed WordPress hosting. Shared hosting is usually great for smaller websites. On the other hand, if you have higher levels of traffic, then managed WordPress hosting may serve you well. Also, if you need more technical assistance, then managed WordPress hosting may also be better for you. Consider your needs first and then make a decision based on them.