2017 Best Managed WordPress Hosting (10 Providers to Consider)
Forget about all the buzz surrounding how the managed WordPress hosting industry is coming to an end; it is not. Just like how a scientific calculator still needs a mathematician to get the most out of it, new server technology requires someone to manage it. The truth is, the place of WordPress in managed hosting will be intact for many years to come.
For the web developer, this may seem like a possibility because they have gotten used to it and found a better and easier way to do it. But for the average person who hardly knows what web hosting is, let alone the services for WordPress hosting, it may be harder to believe. Most businesses and users want a decent personal or business website, and this type of hosting will serve them right.
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Nearly all hosting companies can handle WordPress, but there are those that have optimized their services towards managing WordPress sites specifically. Hosting your website with a managed WordPress hosting provider gives the user added peace of mind that everything is being well taken care of, monitored, and managed. A managed WordPress hosting provider makes it possible for the user to pay more attention to their business and content, and less has to go into the technical and management aspects of their website.
The Benefits of Using a WordPress Site
There are several reasons that your business should use a WordPress site. WordPress sites are typically easier to create than other websites, and you can manage your website from virtually any computer. It is a self-contained system and therefore, does not require any HTML editing or FTP software.
Search engines can also easily read the code that WordPress uses and can easily index the content found on a WordPress site which means you can better optimize keywords and boost your overall search results.
You also retain the control over your website. You will not have to wait for someone else to perform your updates or change anything because you are granted the access to do these changes yourself, in your own time.
Finally, WordPress sites are completely customizable, and you can easily market and showcase your own brand on the site. The blog application is already built in and ready to use, and you have the option to add whatever plugins you see fit.
Once you have created your WordPress website, it is time to consider the hosting company you will employ to help manage it.
The following is a review of the best managed WordPress hosting providers and plans that are currently available in 2017.
| COMPANY | MAX VISITS | RATING |
| HostGator | 25,000/month | |
| WP Engine | 25,000/month | |
| Flywheel | 5000/month | |
| SiteGround | 10000/month | |
| Kinsta | Unlimited | |
| Pagely | Unlimited | |
| Pressidium | 30,000/month | |
| Web Synthesis | 25,000/month | |
| Bluehost | 100 million/month | |
| Liquid Web | Unlimited |
HOSTGATOR
HostGator thrives in almost every aspect of web hosting so expect nothing less when it comes to WP hosting. HostGator has turned out to be a suitable web host provider for those who want to set up and manage a powerful WordPress website or blog affordably. The best thing about HostGator is that they will handle the migration of your old WordPress website to their new platform themselves.
If you are well versed with the WordPress Dashboard, then you will find it easier to manage your website which means their managed WP hosting plan will work well for those still new to blogging. If you are an advanced user, their plans are not just affordable, but feature rich and come with super-fast speeds. Other important features to expect include:
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Premium CDN
- Easy access to email accounts
- Malware detection & removal
- Automatic off-site backups
- Automatic security updates
In place of a cPanel, they have included their own user control panel that is easier to use, especially concerning administrative functions. Since it is hosted on a Cloud platform, you are guaranteed high and consistent speeds and high-quality and remarkable performance. At just $5.95/month, you can have their most basic plan which comes complete with a 50GB storage and 1GB backups.
WP ENGINE
If HTC, SoundCloud, and Foursquare already trust WP Engine and have it as their chief WordPress host, then we have good reason to trust in WP Engine as well. Since its inception, WP Engine has focused all of their focus and efforts on WordPress and managed hosting which really is the reason why the company is easily able to stand out among its close web hosting competitors.
WP Engine’s pricing is a bit higher than other managed WordPress hosting plans but what you spend is what you get concerning excellent customer support, highly secure servers, super-fast loading times, and so many other features.
Here are a couple of awesome features you can expect from them:
- 1-click backup process & restore point (for all hosting accounts)
- Great scalability
- Constant website monitoring
- Staging area
- Free automated migration
- Custom-built EverCache System
WP Engine deserves a huge pat on the back for their customer support service. Their customer support is an aspect of their company that they have invested in greatly and WP Engine’s customer support team is comprised of skilled WordPress experts who are always in touch with their systems and more than knowledgeable enough to ensure everything is done to precision.
FLYWHEEL
Flywheel may be a newcomer to the web hosting industry but make no mistake about their potential. For the short time they have been hosting, they have gathered a solid reputation and a huge following among web users. The users who have purchased their WordPress hosting services only have positive feedback to give for their services. Users who are benefiting from Flywheel’s web hosting services include non-developers, web designers, creatives, bloggers, and small business owners.
Flywheel was built with each type of web user in mind and offer managed hosting services that suit almost every hosting need. Some particularly beneficial features you can expect from Flywheel include:
- Colorful and extremely functional dashboard
- Super-fast speeds
- Automatic nightly backups
- Constant security/malware monitoring
- Unlimited project collaborators
- Intuitive SFTP
Flywheel’s support team is packed with WordPress wizards. Much of their support team is comprised of designers as well, so you can bank on them knowing how to provide you with satisfactory WordPress solutions to any issues you may be experiencing.
The pricing remains at an affordable level, and as your needs change, you can find another plan option that will suit your growing business. If your situation becomes too complicated or complex, or you are now in the market for a more customized hosting plan option, they have a plan to fit your needs.
SITEGROUND
SiteGround exists purely for those looking for the perfect mix of quality features and affordability. Diversity underlines their services. For a manageable and affordable price, you are guaranteed high security and remarkable speeds, regardless of the plan you choose. Whether you are a novice in the web hosting industry, a blogger, or a web developer, SiteGround has a package that will suit your needs perfectly.
One thing to keep in mind, however, when setting your hosting budget is that a couple of SiteGround’s premium features such as priority customer support, one-click staging, and premium caching solutions are not included in the start-up plan. If those are features that you deem to be a necessity, then check out their GoGeek Plan. The following are additional features you can find with certain SiteGround plans:
- Free WordPress installation
- Free Website Migration
- Free domain name
- Email Accounts
- Unique WordPress Autoinstaller
- WordPress SuperCacher
- WordPress staging
- Pre-installed WP-CLI
SiteGround is the ideal choice for managing your WordPress site, especially if you are on a budget or looking to find a hosting service dedicated to WordPress hosting with feature-rich plans able to fit different situations.
KINSTA
Kinsta made it onto the list as one of the best managed WordPress hosting providers for several reasons. The first reason is due to the speeds and consistency that this web host provider offers. Everyone who has used Kinsta managed hosting services in the past, or currently, admits their speeds are unmatchable. Best of all, they designed their plans to enable WordPress sites of all sizes, light to heavy duty. Kinsta also ensures that they continue to run with lightning speed.
Additionally, Kinsta makes use of the Google Cloud infrastructure and the next generation technologies we have available today from HHVM, Nginx, PHP5-FPM, and Memcache.
Kinsta offers the following beneficial and necessary web host feature
- Unlimited visits
- Daily & on request backups
- Top security- regular security scans and multiple firewalls
- Simple staging area
- Free Migrations
The unlimited visits and page views mean you will not find yourself running around and switching between hosting plans when your website starts to get massive traffic. If you are a business that experiences higher web traffic on their site, then a Kinsta plan will be a perfect fit and accommodate your growing business needs.
Customer support is excellent as well. You can expect premium quality service any time of the day or night. Prices for the plans start at $100.
PAGELY
Pagely focuses on nothing but web host services to manage WordPress sites. Simplicity and ease of use are what sets them apart from other web hosts. Like Kinsta web hosting services, Pagely offers you unlimited visits as well. Much of their effort is invested in security because it is their prime aim to offer high-class security as well as lighting speeds.
Use of Amazon servers entitles Pagely to dozens of Amazon’s advanced features, whether it is the Git integration, SSH, WP-CLI, or Staging. The following features can be found in several of Pagely’s web hosting plans:
- Advanced developer options
- Automated daily backups
- Great scalability
- Real-time malware monitoring
- Built-in redundancy
- Compatibility with almost all plugins, apps or themes
Pagely offers their users a total of seven different plans, therefore, finding a plan that perfectly suits your hosting needs will not be a challenge. Overall, Pagely has several plans that are feature-rich and top security guaranteed. They also offer outstanding compatibility and boast of faster speeds.
PRESSIDIUM
Before we discuss the plans, you can find with Pressidium, here is some additional information on this WordPress hosting provider. Behind the company lies a team of experienced system engineers and web developers whom are extremely passionate about WordPress and technology in general. With such a team, you can't expect anything but top, innovative, and quality services.
Of all the things that make them great managed WordPress providers, their pinnacle platform comes out on top. Pressidium’s platform exists as an innovative feature that is designed to offer Enterprise Architecture. Pressidium utilizes state of the art technologies and systems that are mostly reserved for huge organizations, but they make these services available to their customers.
High-quality features that can be expected through Pressidium include remarkable speeds, unmatched availability, and guaranteed uptime. What was previously thought to be reserved for huge organizations, is now available to you through Pressidium at affordable and manageable prices.
All Pressidium plans include:
- Automatic updates
- Backups
- Caching and CDN support
- Staging Sites
- Free migration service
- Top security features
Any entry-level blogger on a budget will appreciate the fact that Pressidium has a plan as low as $24.90/month, which is basically a single site plan. There are also custom plans for their larger enterprises. Should their services not satisfy the needs and features you expect then they offer a 60-day money-back guarantee to claim back your money. The presence of expert WordPress support also adds reliability to their services.
WEB SYNTHESIS
Ever heard of CopyBlogger Media? They include the geniuses behind some of those popular WordPress-related products such as Scribe SEO and the Genesis framework. These are also the same minds behind Web Synthesis. At just $47/month, you can have their entry-level managed hosting plan which comes complete with all the standard features for managed WordPress hosting plus a lot more.
Important things to note about their services dedicated to the WordPress space include:
- Robust security
- Managed performance Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting
- Top servers
- Marketing and SEO tools
- Genesis framework
- Automatic updates& backups
- Site Sensor for uptime monitoring
- 24/7 customer support service
Uses of NGINX architecture puts them ahead of the pack because it enables them to sustain web traffic that is twice as large as the average web traffic of a smaller business, while only utilizing about 1/8 of the available resources; this also leads to faster and more consistent load times.
Security is a top concern for many of us and for this reason, they made their security initiatives more robust with some of the best enhanced features to award a more solid defense.
If content marketing dominates your website’s growth strategy, then you have every reason to go with Web Synthesis. For the blogger at the lower level, their managed WordPress hosting plans will definitely fit you well.
BLUEHOST
No talk on shared hosting will end without the mention of Bluehost. BlueHost has dominated the managed WordPress hosting platform for years. But that’s not where they shine alone. Ever since they came up with a service for managing WordPress sites, the same has repeated itself across the board of web host providers. BlueHost offers secure and fast hosting at an extremely affordable price.
Here are some features you can expect from their entry-level plan:
- 100 million visits/month
- 30GB storage
- 30GB backup storage
- Enhanced cPanel
- 24/7 support
- Up to five Managed WP sites
- SiteLock CDN & Pro
On top of the above mentioned features, all of their plans are VPS-based which automatically means the speeds and performance are top notch. Security is also robust, and you get 24/7 access to their WordPress experts. At just $12.49, you can have their entry level plan. However, this introductory offer will slightly increase the following month to $24.99. But compared to other web hosts, BlueHost’s pricing is still relatively affordable.
LIQUID WEB
Before they stepped into managing WordPress sites, Liquid Web was already a huge name in the dedicated and cloud hosting space. What made them popular in the two spaces is what puts them on top in this space too. Since they own their own data centers, top performance is guaranteed. On top of that, you are set to get excellent support from their customer service and technical support teams.
Just like Bluehost, they also host all their plans on a VPS platform and for their most basic plan, you will have access to all the standard features for you need to manage your WordPress site. They include:
- Optimized SSD storage
- Automatic plugin updates
- Built-in CDN
- Automatic backups
If you care a lot about performance, Liquid Web is the web host you will never go wrong with. Pricing starts at $89.00/month. If you are on a budget or your business is quite small, then the price might discourage you, but there is always a more affordable option amongst those managed WordPress hosts we’ve already seen.
Conclusion
Finding the best managed WordPress hosting provider is often an overwhelming task, especially when you have specific features or attributes you are after. As much as every host advertises themselves as the leading web hosts, it is always wise to go beyond that and sometimes check out the available managed WordPress hosting reviews for each.
Fortunately, the bulk of the work has already been done by us and so what remains is for you to sort through our collection to find what suits your business and your individual needs the best. All of the hosting plans and providers that were reviewed are special in their own ways and offer different features to manage and host your WordPress website successfully.
If you are just starting out in the hosting industry and would wish to understand what managed hosting is before moving on to make your selection, please watch the video below:
At one point, you may find yourself needing to scale your plans as your business grows. In such situations, HostGator has always emerged as the preferred option for many website owners due to its great scalability services and diverse features.
HostGator makes it easy to set up and manage your WordPress site or blog, and they also make it possible to migrate an older website. WordPress hosting limits their use to only being able to work with the WP dashboard, otherwise known as the backend of WordPress.
However, HostGator offers off-site backups and regular security updates, automatic malware detection and removal, as well as unlimited bandwidth. Instead of a cPanel, HostGator utilizes what they call a Customer Portal.
The Customer Portal includes links to the following menu applications and settings: Manage WordPress, Cache Settings, Email Accounts, Delete WordPress install, CodeGuard, Sitelock, and Manage FTP option. The Manage WordPress option will take you directly to the dashboard and manage FTP Accounts allows you to access your files.
If you are looking for a mix of affordability, value, and resilience, then a HostGator managed WordPress hosting plan may be the right fit to continue to run your business effectively and successfully.
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