Many companies offer you managed hosting at a low-price. The problem with all web hosting is what you are actually getting. Managed hosting companies promise a lot but this is often a marketing strategy. In this article, we take a look at what is most important when choosing a hosting company, and take a look at what many people overlook when they jump into managed hosting because it is marketed as an inclusive and easy solution.
Hidden expenditures are inconvenient when after making a purchase. Many web hosting firms claim that there are no hidden fees with their website hosting. That is not always the case because there are extra fees for website hosting.
Each component appears to be inexpensive since they have broken down what they offer into their simplest components. Furthermore, they provide discounts off this pricing in the first year to make costs appear even lower.
However, you can rarely get away with only the basics, so by the time you add up everything you need, you will quickly find that managed hosting is not as cost-effective as first presented.
For example, say that you wanted to host a WordPress website and you needed email addresses for your business. You need to make sure your hosting package includes everything you need. All hosting should include everything you need, and there are plenty of hosting companies that do provide all options included in one basic rate.
Increasing Costs of Managed WordPress Hosting Over Time
Managed hosting plans often start off cheap but costs increase as you need extra services. Once you are locked into most managed hosting plans, there is often no access to the back-end of your hosting.
That means you don’t actually have access to your hosting control panel. There are many issues that we solve for you at Lynx Search Engine Marketing that are included in our maintenance packages that are not included in managed hosting services.
Our fees are flat, and are inclusive. For example, we secure your site and back that up with site restoration if your website ever gets hacked (although that rarely happens and has not happened for a number of years).
Limitations of Managed WordPress Hosting
Managed hosting services are generally focused on providing services for numerous websites. The hosting company you choose should not limit the number of websites you can install, whatever the case.
Managed hosting services offer support but unmanaged hosting services also offer support. Whether you have managed or unmanaged hosting, neither services will make any changes to your website. In many cases, you will find that support quickly turns into sales of other services to solve your problem. This is a common strategy among all hosting companies.
Managed hosting services (and some un-managed hosting services) often reduce their rates to get you to buy. However, if you look closely they will increase those costs at a later date. With managed hosting, some of your website’s functionality is locked in to the hosting service. Moving a WordPress website to a new hosting service isn’t much of an issue unless it is installed on a managed hosting server.
Managed hosting services often limit the options for plugins and themes. This means you don’t have all of the flexibility that WordPress offers. While good developers know how to reduce the number of plugins in your theme, having the freedom to use the plugins required is a big issue.
Professional Advice
Based on years of experience, managed WordPress hosting often leads to extra costs down the road. It’s possible to handle many of these tasks yourself or install plugins to handle them for you on your non-managed website. Unless you have a gigantic website, low-cost unmanaged WordPress hosting will be more than sufficient. With over 10 years building and maintaining client websites for SMBs across Dallas at Lynx Search Engine Marketing, we have found most US based hosting providers of basic WordPress hosting do a great job of delivering on their promises.
We propose that you look about and compare the costs of hosting packages while making sure everything you need is included, and what you don't isn't. For example, free plugins can be used to backup your website to Google Drive.
There are a few things to lookout for, including RAM, emails, low-cost SSL certificates, low-cost domain names, and the freedom to manage the control panel as you wish. If you need a recommendation, get in touch with us.
What Is Unmanaged Hosting?
In simple terms, an unmanaged hosting service is one, where, you as a user, only get a hosting platform, without any additional services. A standard package should include unlimited hosting space, unlimited WordPress installations, and unlimited emails. When you get unmanaged hosting, you are free to handle your website performance, security, backups. While these maintenance tasks take time, there is a big reason why you don’t want to bundle all these hosting services into your hosting company. The key to managing future costs is being able to change providers.
There are many issues related to WordPress security and maintenance that good developers can solve at the point of installation. Hardening a WordPress website at the point of creation sets that website up for great security. Maintaining that website is the second major step.
What about the case where you are paying for website security but your website gets hacked? Will you have to pay for restoration? The answer is a simple yes.
Manage Your Hosting Company Effectively
Never be scared to ask your hosting service provider about application support features and what is included. And let’s not forget, managed hosting services become prohibitively expensive. You must pay for everything included in the hosting package. Many buyers find that they need other features that were not included in the original package at a later date.
What is Most Important When Choosing Hosting, Managed or Otherwise
In conclusion, despite all the claims, most SMBs don’t need the additional costs of managed WordPress hosting. That being said, unmanaged hosting is not simply the choice. What is offered, fully inclusive, is what is important. As mentioned earlier, if you need a simple consultation on your future website and hosting requirements, let us know. We are more than willing to give you our advice, without obligation.
