Deciding on whether to opt for unmanaged or managed web hosting can be difficult for business owners. Both options have different merits, but the best managed hosting providers take the stress out of web hosting and provide further benefits.
After identifying your choice of the best web hosting services for your organization, you need to decide whether to choose a managed plan or go it alone. In this article, we’ll explain why choosing a managed hosting plan makes better business sense.
Managed web hosting: What are the technical benefits?
There are a large number of technical benefits to choosing a managed web hosting plan. From a security perspective, managed hosting can be very advantageous because the job of monitoring and updating your site is outsourced to a third party dedicated to the task - learning how your web hosting impacts security is a huge part of understanding hosting.
Managed plans also include an assigned database administrator who will optimize your databases and implement bespoke, scalable data storage solutions too. Furthermore, a managed hosting provider will always ensure your website is backed up regularly.
How does managed hosting save you time and money?
Choosing a managed hosting plan can make a lot of financial sense. With all technical and administrative duties regarding your web hosting outsourced, you and your IT team can concentrate on other areas of your business.
Even though managed hosting is more expensive than unmanaged hosting, you can still save money by opting for the latter option. And if something does go wrong that you are required to deal with at an organizational level, the support included in managed plans is generally so advanced you’ll experience a fraction of the disruption you might with an alternative plan.
Is a managed web hosting service bespoke?
Managed hosting plans are customizable. This means a business can work with a provider to develop a bespoke managed hosting plan to suit their requirements. The process involves an in-depth consultation, so you can rest assured that all of your needs will be met.
Conclusion
There are lots of web hosting providers out there that offer both managed and unmanaged plans. In the end, deciding which to go for comes down to the number of resources you’re willing to set aside for hosting.
The benefits of managed hosting are great, especially if you don’t have a great deal of personal experience with web hosting. Managed plans do incur extra administration fees, but you should quickly see a return on your investment and reap the rewards of putting your hosting requirements in the hands of the professionals.
Further reading on web hosting
For details on cost-effective hosting, read our guide to the best deals on web hosting for cheap, or our guide to the best free web hosting. For more information on finding web hosting providers, read our feature on how to choose a web hosting service. Finally, look into the best website builders if you want to create a site.
