All You Need to Know About Managed WordPress Hosting

The managed WordPress hosting comparison and reviews

Here’s our comparison and specific recommendations for those looking for the best managed WordPress hosting services out there.

1. SiteGround (www.SiteGround.com)

💸 Pricing: $2.99, $4.99, $7.99 / month

SiteGround offers the cheapest managed WordPress plans, catering both to bloggers and non-technical people, as well as developers that need advanced features like Git integration and staging areas.

Among their entire offering, the GrowBig and GoGeek plans stand out as the best managed WordPress hosting options. The former is a more affordable setup ($4.99), while the latter is more powerful (less accounts on the server) plus offers “geeky” features for developers and enterprises ($7.99).

Overall, the GoGeek plan is a nice solution for people who want to experiment with the platform on their own, apart from getting all of the standard hosting features that come out the box.

👍 Pros

• Officially recommended by WordPress.org.
• Free Let’s Encrypt SSL for all plans.
• Git integration.
• Free PCI compliance (for e-commerce).
• Staging.
• SSD drives.
• CDN included.
• Multiple websites on a single account.
• 24/7 support. Via phone as well.
• Free backup and restore features.

👎 Cons

• Even though the cheapest plan is enticing at $2.99 / mo, it won’t be the best solution for most high-traffic sites.

2. Bluehost (www.bluehost.com)

💸 Pricing: $19.95, $29.95, $49.95 / month

Bluehost offers several different hosting plans depending on your needs and the type of website that you want to launch. One of the more interesting and powerful ones is their “WP PRO” tier, which is a fully managed setup.

As part of it, you not only get classic Bluehost’s web server admin panel but also an all-in-one marketing center and dashboard, good SEO features, email marketing features, and social media tools. The servers have also been optimized for performance.

No matter which specific tier of the WP PRO plan you select, you get to launch an unlimited number of websites, set up unlimited domain names, unlimited subdomains, plus there’s no limit on the disk storage or bandwidth.

Moreover, Bluehost also gives you a 1-hour onboarding concierge call. During the call, you work with a WordPress pro who will help you set up your site with Bluehost. They can also assist you in selecting a theme and the right set of plugins for your site.

💡 Note: If you’re not sure if the WP PRO plan is something you need then consider getting started with the classic plan of Bluehost’s (from $1.99 / mo.). That one also has great onboarding and gives you access to some of the “managed hosting” features for a fraction of the price. You can later on upgrade to a higher-up plan if needed.

👍 Pros

• Unlimited websites, disk space, bandwidth/traffic.
• Fully managed experience.
• Staging environment.
• Instant WordPress installs.
• 1-hour onboarding concierge call.
• CDN enabled for your site.
• 24/7 customer support.

👎 Cons

• The support quality has mixed reviews among users.
• Picking a data center location isn’t straightforward.

3. Cloudways (www.cloudways.com)

💸 Pricing: $11.00, $24, $46, $88, up to $285 / month

Cloudways offers managed WordPress hosting for developers and agencies. This hosting service focuses particularly on performance, coming with packages that bring extensive storage, bandwidth, and RAM. Security is another strength that Cloudways relies on; if you choose this host, you’ll get dedicated firewalls, non-stop real-time monitoring, automated backups, auto healing servers, regular patching, and more.

Cloudways is the hosting service that you should consider if your company works with big amounts of (sensitive) data. You can choose a pricing plan based on your preferred cloud server. You’ll get the cheapest deal with Digital Ocean (Cloudways’ parent company) and Linode, while the most expensive one is on the Amazon server.

👍 Pros

• The prices are actually decent for the multitude of services you get.
• There’s no visitor number limit on pricing plans.
• Each pricing plan allows unlimited websites.
• Dedicated cloud servers.
• User dashboard with 1-click staging and application monitoring.
• Cloudflare Enterprise CDN.
• 24/7 support.
• Advanced caches.
• Unlimited application installation.
• Automated WordPress updates and backups.

👎 Cons

• Support is only provided via live chat and the ticketing system. You need to buy the Advanced and Premium Support add-ons to unlock other support channels.

4. Kinsta (www.Kinsta.com)

💸 Pricing: $30.00, $59.00, $96.00, up to $1,650 / month

Kinsta is a smaller player compared to the other companies on this list, but they’ve quickly earned their spot in the landscape due to the high quality of their hosting platform and an overall WordPress-only focus. Kinsta is more of a premium solution, but what you get for your investment is a highly optimized platform, ready to take on a large number of visitors, automatically scaling, supporting SSH, WP-CLI, Git, integrating a CDN, and offering many many more perks. Not only that, but Kinsta has launched two pricing plans that are more affordable for smaller businesses.

👍 Pros

• Powered by Google Cloud Platform and their premium tier network.
• 1440 daily uptime checks per site.
• Free CDN for every plan.
• Automatic scaling.
• Support for Let’s Encrypt, SSH, WP-CPI, Git, and more.
• Free website migrations and hack fixes.
• Staging and cloning environment.
• Weekly automatic MySQL database optimizations for your WordPress site.
• Quick SSD storage.
• Self-healing PHP.

👎 Cons

• The cheapest option is $30.00, significantly more than some of the other options on this list.
• Although you do get access to the Google Cloud Platform for cheap, the lower priced plans have fairly low monthly visit maximums.

5. Flywheel (www.getflywheel.com)

💸 Pricing: $13.00, $25, $96, $242 / month

Albeit a somewhat new player in the managed WordPress hosting space, Flywheel has made a name for themselves very quickly. They’re a great choice for non-developers who want to launch a WordPress site and make sure that it’s going to work with no interruptions.

Potentially great for designers, small business owners, freelancers, bloggers, and all non-technical people in general.

👍 Pros

• Ultra beginner-friendly interface and easy to use.
• Data centers around the world – your website will perform well no matter where your audience is.
• Built-in caching and automatic backups.
• 24/7 live chat customer support for all plans.
• Free SSL for all plans.
• Flywheel has a policy of no overage charges.
• Some relatively inexpensive pricing for those just getting started with managed hosting.

👎 Cons

• Additional server features can get expensive. For instance, if you want SSL, CDN, and multisite ability, that’s an additional $30 / mo on top of your current plan.
• Phone support is no longer provided.

6. WP Engine (www.WPEngine.com)

💸 Pricing: $20.00, $40.00, $77.00 / month; custom pricing available for bigger setups

Managed WordPress hosting is something that WP Engine has offered ever since the company was created, and it’s what originally put them on the map among other firms more established at the time.

Despite some rough episodes along the way (problems with its growing infrastructure), WP Engine seems to have found its balance. Right now, WP Engine offers managed solutions that are somewhere in the middle of the road between beginner-friendly, and developer-friendly WordPress hosting.

👍 Pros

• CDN included for all plans.
• Great scalability – suitable for websites rapidly growing in traffic.
• Free automated migration.
• 24/7 chat support for all plans. 24/7 phone support starts with the “Growth” plan.
• Free access to the Genesis Framework and over 35 StudioPress WordPress themes.
• Included SSL certificates.

👎 Cons

• High overage costs, even up to $1 per every 1000 visits.
• It’s reported that WP Engine tends to modify native WordPress code quite heavily, making it hard to move to another host in case you need to do so in the future.
• The add-ons for options like WordPress Multisite, geotargeting, and additional sites can get pricey.

7. Presslabs (www.Presslabs.com)

💸 Pricing: from $33, $84, $150, $180, $330 / month

Presslabs offers high-performance managed hosting for personal use, agencies, and publishers with website networks and web development clients. There are many varied pricing plans to choose from. That being said, you’re paying for an incredibly fast, secure, and reliable hosting environment that’s completely managed for you. Presslabs is meant for personal site owners, publishers, and agencies with rapid growth in mind. In short, Presslabs customers expect tons of traffic in the near future and don’t want any hiccups along the way. However, there’s no way the average business would be able to afford the Publisher Plan.

On the other hand, the Developer plan is completely free and offers an excellent environment for workflows, along with plenty of custom tools. It seems like Presslabs makes the most sense for developers and extremely fast-growing publishers. Overall, we’re not factoring in the Developer Plan in this comparison since it doesn’t seem to qualify as a managed WordPress hosting plan.

👍 Pros

• Collaboration features for managing your agency or publishing team.
• Git-driven environment for development.
• 24/7 email and phone support. The general support is during normal business hours, but Presslabs has emergency email and phone lines.
• Free SSL certificates.
• An included CDN with HTTP/2.
• Incremental backups every 15 minutes.
• Staging environments.
• A beautiful and powerful dashboard powered by ReactJS Technology.
• A Developer Plan is provided at no cost.

👎 Cons

• The pricing makes it completely out of the question for many businesses.
• Even after paying $599 per month you still must pay extra for additional pageviews.

8. LiquidWeb (www.LiquidWeb.com)

💸 Pricing: $17.50, $32.50, $65.80, $90.80, $124, $249, $457.50, $832.50 / month

LiquidWeb caters to agencies and online professionals with multiple websites. It has everything from Cloud VPS to custom solutions, but the WordPress managed hosting starts with a plan that supports one site and 15GB of SSD storage. With solid speed, security, and customer support, LiquidWeb should be considered by larger enterprises and those who need quality managed hosting for several websites.

👍 Pros

• Plans that support anywhere from one to 250 sites. You can also get a custom price for more sites.
• Daily, automated website backups.
• Staging areas to test your sites.
• Free SSL.
• Development tools including Git and SSH.
• 24/7 customer support through chat, email, and phone.
• A fairly reasonable monthly price to host 10 websites.

👎 Cons

• LiquidWeb has some history with downtime issues.

9. GoDaddy (www.GoDaddy.com)

💸 Pricing: $2.99, $11.99, $18.99, $20.99 / month

GoDaddy is really expanding deeper into the WordPress space every day. Or at least it seems like it. The company has been releasing many new for-WordPress products lately, and they seem like they really have a grasp on what’s needed for a more traffic-heavy WordPress website. Their managed WordPress hosting plans offer good server performance, with modern technologies and additional security features.

👍 Pros

• The second cheapest host on the list.
• One-click staging sites for all your websites.
• Backups up to 90 days.
• Automatic daily malware scans.
• Quick SSD storage.

👎 Cons

• You need to be careful going through their checkout process / shopping cart. There’s a lot of upselling going on … for things you might not necessarily need. Most of those additional offers are enabled by default.
• Allegedly, GoDaddy is not the easiest host to leave if you ever need to.

10. Pagely (www.Pagely.com)

💸 Pricing: $199, $299, $499, $999, $2500 / month

At the time of this article, Pagely seems to be a more developer-centered solution among the companies presented on this list. It’s also the fastest of the managed WordPress hosts. First off, they’re now using Amazon’s servers, which gives them access to many of Amazon’s advanced features. For instance, they let you take advantage of things like SSH, staging, Git integration, WP-CLI and more. You also get the power and privacy of a VPS. That being said, Pagely is also much more expensive than most managed WordPress hosts.

👍 Pros

• Real-time malware monitoring.
• Advanced developer features.
• Automated daily backups.
• Built-in redundancy.
• Great scalability.
• You can use nearly any plugin or theme you want.
• Each plan supports a large number of sites.

👎 Cons

• Phone Support is only available on select plans. You’d think for $299 per month you could call someone.
• The highest overall prices on this list – starting at $199 / month.

11. WPMU DEV hosting (premium.wpmudev.org)

💸 Pricing: $8.00, $30, $60, $120 / month

With WPMU DEV hosting, you will get to choose two pricing models based on your needs. Either buy a membership to the whole WPMU DEV platform, or get only the hosting service starting at $4. The prices scale up from there depending on the server power that you require.

If you decide to go with their membership based plan, you get access to a number of tools and plugins. And, chiefly, you get a $10-$30 worth of credit towards your hosting plan. Just as an example, your $30 credit that’s part of the Agency membership allows you to use up either three Bronze hosting plans, or one Silver plan with no additional payments.

WPMU DEV is a new player to the WordPress hosting landscape. They provide a wide range of premium services, plugins and themes, delivered as part of a single membership and meant to make managing and growing your WordPress website easier.

On the hosting front, they offer a fully managed setup that runs on a VPS platform. Every hosting plan gets its virtual machine with containerized server resources (this includes RAM, SSD storage, a vCPU, etc.).

Each setup gives you a choice of one of eight data centers all over the globe, good security features (WPMU DEV’s own Defender and Automate services), object and page caching, CDN, backups, staging environments, and automated migration tools.

👍 Pros

• Great security features to keep your site safe.
• A really nice UI, which contributes to an overall great user experience.
• Backups handled for you.
• You get to choose the server parameters that you need.
• Easy migration.
• Staging environment included.
• You get a whole suite of extra tools and plugins bundled in.
• Multiple support options available: big knowledge base, a members forum, 24/7 live chat, ticket support.

👎 Cons

• It’s more expensive to get started with since you have to buy a whole subscription to WPMU DEV, and can’t just get the hosting.
• The pricing structure overall can be confusing.

What is managed WordPress hosting?

Managed WordPress hosting means that hosts handle basic hosting administrative tasks, such as installing WordPress, security, speed, WordPress updates, daily backups, website uptime, and scalability.

But hold off on the WordPress hosting companies thing for a moment. Let’s talk 1/4 mile drag racing.

If you wish, you can drag race with your everyday stock Honda Civic.

But if you watched The Fast and the Furious, you know that in order to get some real good 1/4 mile times out of it, you need to get specific work done to that Civic.

… Get a tricked out turbo charger, a tuned chip, better tires, a better tuned gearbox that puts the power to the wheels quicker (or whatever, I’m no expert here).

So at the end of the day, you still have the Civic, but it’s been optimized to perform at its best in a 1/4 mile drag race.

WordPress hosting is somewhat the same.

Under the hood (no pun intended), a web server is a web server, and it’s usually built with the same components. Every car has an engine, some wheels, and all the other usual parts. But it’s how these parts are set up, and what kind of specific parts they are, which makes all the difference. It’s what makes a car purpose-built for one thing or the other.

While all web hosts can handle WordPress, the best managed WordPress hosting has been optimized for WordPress websites specifically.

More than that, it usually features some side-services revolving around things like expert support, automatic updates, backups, and so on. It’s like a concierge WordPress hosting package, where you not only get the hosting, but also everything else that will enrich your experience further.

Essentially, having your website hosted on a managed WordPress hosting platform gives you the freedom of not having to worry about the technical stuff, and simply focus on the true essence of your work online – running your business, publishing content, selling your products and what-evs.

What’s the difference between shared hosting and managed hosting?

Here are some of the things that you usually don’t have to worry about if you’re on a managed WordPress hosting plan vs. its shared hosting for WordPress counterpart: