The best web hosting services offer the right balance of features and price for businesses to have their website hosted online, but with so many to choose form, it can be difficult to find the right product and provider. After selecting one of the best website builders with which to build a website, businesses need to ensure their site remains reliably online, secure, and quick to load.
Without those elements, no online business can survive in the modern digital world, and so choosing the right web hosting service is imperative. One key differentiator within hosting meanwhile is managed vs unmanaged hosting services, and you'll need to consider which of these is the option you should take for your site.
In this comparison of managed vs unmanaged hosting, we explain the two hosting types, look at their differences, and aim to help you decide which works best for your business's needs.
Managed vs unmanaged hosting: What’s the difference?
The most basic form of web hosting, and the most popular for small businesses dipping their toes into online business, is unmanaged hosting. As the name suggests, you’re essentially on your own. You rent hosting space on a server and upload your website to it. Installing software, designing a website, keeping your website up to date, and patching security holes is all up to you.
For many businesses, unmanaged hosting is perfectly fine. It’s cheaper than managed hosting, and you have complete control over your website. Most unmanaged services have an administration console that makes installing popular software such as WordPress and Shopify a one-click affair.
However, using unmanaged hosting means you’ll be spending time and money maintaining your website when you could have been spending it on building your core business.
Managed hosting is where the web hosting provider takes a more active role. The company keeps the server secure and optimized, and it continuously updates your software as new versions are released. Managed hosting providers usually make automatic backups of your site, and most have support staff that can help you with the technical challenges of running a website.
What benefits can managed hosting offer?
Managed hosting, while more expensive than unmanaged, offers several benefits that can save you time and money. A fully managed service works more like a wing of your business than an external service. It should be able to assist with third-party applications, website development, operating system updates, security patches, and server customization.
Website migration
A good managed service will also help you to migrate your website to its server, and while backups seem like an afterthought (until you need them), without frequent backups you risk losing your site completely, or at least losing days of work. If something goes wrong with your website or database, you could lose all of your precious customer data.
Back-ups
A managed service will automatically back up your website and database daily. You should check to see how long the service keeps old backups (aim for seven days or more), so you can roll back to a previous version if you need to. Check how quick and easy it is to restore your site from a backup, so downtime is minimized.
Support
Perhaps the most important service managed hosting offers is increased support. Having a team of knowledgeable, technically-minded people available to help via live chat, email, or phone at a moment’s notice can be very reassuring. It can reduce the time your in-house team needs to deal with the more mundane day-to-day chores of running a website, freeing them up to perform more important duties.
The level of support offered by managed hosting providers differs, so compare options as a priority when deciding which service to choose.
Security
Security should always be a prime concern for businesses operating online, and a breach in security can spell disaster for your brand image. A managed hosting service can take over most of the duties involved in keeping your website secure, including updating software, patching vulnerabilities, and informing you of potential security threats in your code.
Installation and maintenance
Finally, while unmanaged hosting may be enough for simple websites, if your business needs to use lesser-known or old software, then trying to get it up and running on a shared server can be a nightmare. Installing and running software with special requirements is much easier on managed hosting, as the company can make accommodations on the server to meet your bespoke needs.
Many services will be happy to talk to third-party developers and software vendors on your behalf to find solutions for your business.
Managed vs unmanaged hosting: Conclusion
Managed hosting may be more expensive than unmanaged hosting, but the value it adds through stronger security, better support, and automated backups can mean it pays for itself.
Further reading on web hosting
You can find out more about why we rate managed hosting over unmanaged hosting in our feature laying out why managed hosting is better for businesses. We also outlined seven reasons to choose managed WordPress hosting, should you have a WordPress site.
