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As a WordPress devotee, I was so eager when I got the green light to redesign and relaunch a former employer’s WordPress site. I compared the solution at the time to a kindergartener’s craft project — held together with macaroni noodles and paste. The theme looked modern, but it was customized beyond recognition. Any update would mean days of rebuilding that we couldn’t afford, so our performance and security suffered. Although most of our problems were solved with a new theme and host of plugins, I was still spending more time than I wanted running backups, updates, and security scans.
Whether for experienced WordPress users or rookie site owners, many hosting providers are optimizing their infrastructure and support teams to handle the quirks, nuances, and routine chores that go into running a WordPress site at peak performance. Read on to see how you can take advantage of the world’s most popular content management system in a fraction of the time.
Managed WordPress Hosting Definition
At the most basic level, managed WordPress hosting gives you a hassle-free experience. Your provider will take care of all the technical aspects of security, speed, updates, backups, uptime, and scalability so you can focus on getting the best content and making the most profit.
How Does It Differ From Other Managed Services?
Hosts regularly offer managed services with VPS and dedicated plans, but managed WordPress packages dip into the shared hosting world to provide better services and experiences to the millions of site owners running the top-flight CMS. In addition to specially tuned hardware and software designed to run WordPress as quickly and securely as possible, service is tailored to the specific needs of the platform.
Semi- vs. Fully Managed WordPress Hosting
As with managed plans anywhere, pay attention to the fine print — “managed” means something different to seemingly every host. Semi-managed plans will typically only cover automated services, such as updates and backups, while fully managed services mean more personal attention to optimizing your site’s speed and scalability.
1. Best Managed WordPress Hosting (Overall Comparison)
There should be no surprise that InMotion Hosting, our Best for WordPress award winner, is also our favorite option for managed services. Already known for great support and reliability, InMotion offers unlimited storage, bandwidth, and number of WordPress sites on each account.
InMotionHosting.com
- WordPress pre-installed for you at checkout
- Zero-downtime site transfers
- WordPress updates done automatically
- Plugins, SSDs, and caching for top speed
- Help from WordPress fanatics and FREE SSL security
- Get started on InMotion now.
InMotion: Our Expert's Review
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Managed WordPress Hosting Plans |
|---|---|---|---|
| 90 days | Unlimited | FREE (1 year) | www.inmotionhosting.com/managed-wp |
See all top managed WordPress hosts »
2. Best for Cheap Managed WordPress Hosting
One of the most reputable and recognized hosts in the WordPress community, SiteGround combines affordability and usability to offer WP-centric dashboards, tools, and servers maintained by a seasoned staff. SiteGround brings in-house-built software for ticketing and support, an intuitive staging area for testing out updates to your WordPress site, and three caching technologies to eke out the most performance for the lowest cost.
SiteGround.com
- Managed services for all WordPress plans
- In-house-built technologies for speed and support
- WordPress kept up to date with automatic backups
- Easily test and deploy changes via staging area
- 3 levels of caching for optimal performance
- Get started on SiteGround now.
SiteGround: Our Expert's Review
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Managed WordPress Hosting Plans |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 10 GB - 30 GB | New or Transfer | www.siteground.com/managed-wp |
3. Fastest Managed WordPress Hosting
InMotion lets users choose between datacenters on each coast to ensure the fastest pageloads possible, and have Max Speed Zones that boost your site’s speed up to six times faster. With all-SSD infrastructure, InMotion reinvests in their hardware every year, ensuring your servers and routers are operating at market-leading speeds.
InMotionHosting.com
- WordPress pre-installed for you at checkout
- Zero-downtime site transfers
- WordPress updates done automatically
- Plugins, SSDs, and caching for top speed
- Help from WordPress fanatics and FREE SSL security
- Get started on InMotion now.
InMotion: Our Expert's Review
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Managed WordPress Hosting Plans |
|---|---|---|---|
| 90 days | Unlimited | FREE (1 year) | www.inmotionhosting.com/managed-wp |
4. Best for Fully Managed WordPress Hosting
A premium WordPress host, Liquid Web is given high praise by our team for their speed, advanced technical support, and reliability. The Liquid Web team offers comprehensive managed services for WordPress — from the one-click staging area to the automatic updates to the WordPress Core and 100% uptime for your website. Their ultra-performant hardware and iron-clad security are industry-leading, which helps offset the added burden from a pricing standpoint. You’re going to pay a premium for fully managed services, and Liquid Web is well worth the cost.
LiquidWeb.com
- Hassle-free managed WP hosting and Heroic Support®
- 1-click staging and backup restores
- Automatic backups and updates to the core and plugins
- Hardened security and lightning-fast SSD speed
- 100% uptime and 50% off first 2 months on any plan
- Get started on Liquid Web now.
Liquid Web: Our Expert's Review
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Managed WordPress Hosting Plans |
|---|---|---|---|
| N/A | 100 GB - 1.8 TB SSD | New or Transfer | www.liquidweb.com/managed-wp |
5. Best for Managed WordPress Hosting Reseller Services
When it comes to reselling managed services, you’re the one in charge of customer support. Finding a high-quality reseller program, however, can ease some of the burden. HostGator provides all sorts of powerful tools and flexibility to manage your business while still offering free and easy scalability. Along with weekly, automatic backups and around-the-clock server monitoring, HostGator’s award-winning support through phone, chat, and email will let you focus on your managed WordPress services.
HostGator.com
- Start your own company with cPanel reseller hosting
- Unlimited domains, emails, and MySQL databases
- 99.9% uptime guarantee and 400+ tutorials for your clients
- All web hosting reseller plans include WHMCS
- $200 in Yahoo!, Bing, and Google Adwords credits
- Get started on HostGator now.
HostGator: Our Expert's Review
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Reseller Hosting Plans |
|---|---|---|---|
| 45 days | 60 GB - 140 GB | $12.95/year | www.hostgator.com/reseller |
Let Your Host Handle the Hardware and Let the Blogging Begin!
I’ve learned to put my developer ego aside and appreciate the benefit of managed services. WordPress can be a challenging content management system to run well, so it’s worth giving the mundane and ultra-technical tasks to trusted experts while I create the content and products that drive business.
For other WordPress hosting options, be sure to check out our favorite WordPress hosts. Even if they don’t offer managed WordPress plans, many hosts include shared services and support teams that are optimized for the global WordPress community. For a complete list of the top recommended managed services for WordPress, click here.
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