5 Benefits of Managed Web Hosting
Managed website hosting can take a lot of the headache out of owning a website. Your host can handle all technical aspects of hosting, including automatic software installs and updates, website themes, and plugin troubleshooting and security.
For most website owners, there are major benefits over using a dedicated server or running a server yourself. Here’s a look at five distinct benefits of managed web hosting, and an insight into our experience at Design Shack of switching over to SiteGround!
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1. Automatic Software Installs + Upgrades
Anyone with a WordPress website knows that staying on top of updates is a big deal. With managed hosting, it is one less thing to think about. WordPress is always kept up to date.
Automatic software updates, installs and upgrades will save you time because you won’t spend time managing site information when you planned to make content changes.
With SiteGround, the WordPress tools are packaged with hosting on all plans. From launching a website with just one click, to auto updates that ensure you are always running on the latest software, all the management is made easy. Plus, this managed host is actually recommended by WordPress.org as one of “the best and brightest” hosting providers. (So you know you are in good hands!)
When it comes to business needs, automatic updates provide another benefit: there’s little to no management necessary for websites that aren’t being constantly updated. You don’t have to have someone on call for updates as they are released. This might seem like a tiny time and money-saver but can add up in the long run.
2. Automatic Scaling
Do you ever worry that your website will get so much traffic that it will struggle to cope? It can happen, particularly if you are linked from a popular or trending website (and it’s happened to us several times in the past!)
Managed hosting can save you from this potential issue, as accounts come with server monitoring that scans for irregularities or potential failures and will give your site more bandwidth to keep it running if traffic starts flooding in.
How do you know this works? Just look at a managed host’s uptime stats. SiteGround has a 99.99% uptime rate thanks to its server monitoring and backup systems. And that means you’ll never have to worry about your site going down again.
3. Automatic Backups
Speaking of backups, this is another chore that’s best left to someone else. Website owners who perform manual backups often fall out of the habit to find that when a backup is needed, the content is old or missing information.
Managed hosting takes care of backups for you – every single night. You’ll always have a usable version (and a few previous versions also) to ensure that if something does happen to your data, it can be recovered and restored in a hurry.
A good backup system creates the backup with minimal resource usage and is designed for quick restoration.
4. Built-In CDN and Caching
There are a lot of things that go on behind the scenes to make website load quickly. Content delivery networks and caching can enhance the user experience but aren’t always top-of-mind topics.
But the team behind a good managed hosting company will geek out on these ideas. SiteGround’s hosting platform is built on the latest SSD hardware. Plus it includes a custom caching tool, the SuperCacher, which uses NGINX technology to drastically increase WordPress speed. The servers support PHP7 and HTTP/2, and come with a free CDN to make your website fly.
The short story is that with managed hosting you don’t have to think about CDN and caching.
In case you are wondering, a cache temporarily stores static web objects. (You’ve probably been told to clear your cache if a website is behaving oddly.) A CDN is a combination of hardware and/or software that helps deliver content to users more efficiently but doesn’t rely on web caching.
5. Plenty of Advanced Features
Managed hosting generally comes with plenty of advanced features if you need them. SSH access, Git and multiple PHP versions are just a few of the things you’ll find with SiteGround. They also offer WordPress themes and tutorials as well as similar support for Joomla, Magento and Drupal.
Other features include:
- Free website transfer and website builder
- Free app installs
- Free email accounts
- Unmetered traffic
- Unlimited mySQL database
- Free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate
Design Shack Recently Moved to SiteGround
We’ve recently taken the decision to move our hosting to a custom plan with SiteGround, and we’ve been thoroughly impressed through the whole process. From useful advice on the level of service we’d need for our site, to helping us throughout the migration process, we’ve found all our interaction with them to be top-notch.
We have a fairly custom setup for Design Shack, consisting of a mix of WordPress with other technologies existing alongside it. While we performed the migration ourselves, we had a few fairly advanced technical questions that the SiteGround team were more than capable of handling. We’ve seen great performance increases on the hardware we’re running, and configuring our hosting setup was super-simple.
Caching-wise, we’re continuing to run our own WordPress caching system, along with the SiteGround SuperCacher, which has further improved the speed at which you should be able to access and browse the site. It works seamlessly with WordPress, and goes a long way to making the site feel a great deal snapper to navigate.
Conclusion
While we detailed some major benefits of managed hosting, it’s important to note the secure, reliable hosting should always be at the top of your wish list. And that’s what you’ll get with SiteGround.
The company has a strong reputation, live customer service and offers feature-rich service at competitive prices. Go take a look around and see which SiteGround plan works for you. There’s something for everyone, from small websites to large online community platforms!