TABLE OF CONTENT

INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS SHARED AND MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING?

THE DISADVANTAGES OF SHARED HOSTING.

THE ADVANTAGES OF MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING.

DISADVANTAGES OF MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING.

CONCLUSION.

SHARED VS MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING1.INTRODUCTION

• HOSTING IS AN INDISPENSABLE PART OF ANY WEBSITE. CHOOSING A PLAN THAT’S

IDEALLY SUITED TO YOUR NEEDS IS CRUCIAL TO SERVING A FAST, SECURE WEBSITE

TO YOUR VISITORS. AS SUCH, THE HOSTING PLAN YOU CHOOSE CAN OFTEN

DIRECTLY INFLUENCE YOUR WEBSITE’S EARNINGS!

• THE AIM OF THIS PRESENTATION IS TO COMPARE SHARED (SHARED HOSTING IN THIS

SENSE MEANS HOSTING A WEBSITE ON ANY GENERAL SHARED WEB SERVER) AND

MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING. PERHAPS YOU’VE COME ACROSS THESE TERMS

BEFORE, BUT AREN’T YET CLEAR ON A FEW THINGS, LIKE: WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS

OF MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING? IS IT WORTH THE ADDED COST? IS IT WORTH

SWITCHING FROM SHARED TO MANAGED? IF SO, READ ON!

WEB HOSTING

2. WHAT IS SHARED AND MANAGEDWORDPRESS HOSTING?

• BEFORE WE GO FURTHER, LET’S HAVE A CLEAR VIEW AT THE TWO SERVICES, I.E.

SHARED HOSTING AND MANAGED HOSTING.

• SHARED (SHARED HOSTING IN THIS SENSE MEANS HOSTING A WEBSITE ON ANY

GENERAL SHARED WEB SERVER) HOSTING IS THE CHEAPEST MEANS OF HOSTING

A WEBSITE. IT CATERS TO THE MOST COMMON NEEDS OF A HUGE VARIETY OF

WEBSITES FOR A VERY LOW PRICE — WHETHER THEY’RE POWERED BY

WORDPRESS OR NOT.

• MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING, ON THE OTHER HAND, CATERS TO A VERY

SPECIFIC MARKET (MORE ON THIS BELOW) BY OFFERING BOTH HIGHLY-TUNED,

WORDPRESS-OPTIMIZED SERVERS AND A NUMBER OF ADVANCED SERVICES.

• THIS MEANS — IN ESSENCE — THAT MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING IS A

TECHNICALLY SUPERIOR FORM OF HOSTING IN ALMOST EVERY WAY.

3. THE DISADVANTAGES OF SHARED HOSTING

• THERE ARE A NUMBER OF ISSUES WITH SHARED HOSTING, MOST OF WHICH STEM FROM ITS BUSINESS MODEL. ALTHOUGH THE ACCOUNTS ARE CHEAP, THEY’RE CHEAP BECAUSE HUNDREDS (SOMETIMES THOUSANDS) OF USERS ARE PUT ON THE SAME SERVER. THIS LEADS TO THE SO-CALLED “BAD NEIGHBOR EFFECT”.

• THE SERVER, WHICH HOUSES HUNDREDS OF ACCOUNTS, HAS A FIXED AMOUNT OF MEMORY. IF ONE WEBSITE EXPLOITS MORE THAN ITS FAIR SHARE OF THE AVAILABLE MEMORY, ALL THE OTHER SITES HOUSED ON THE SAME SERVER WILL EXPERIENCE ISSUES BECAUSE OF THIS ONE “BAD NEIGHBOR”. THIS ESSENTIALLY MEANS THAT ONE TROUBLED WEBSITE HAS THE POTENTIAL TO CAUSE THOUSANDS OF UNRELATED SITES TO LOAD SLOWLY, OR EVEN — IN THE WORST CASE SCENARIO — NOT AT ALL.

• ON TOP OF THAT, MEMORY ISN’T THE ONLY RESOURCE THAT GETS DIVIDED UP ON A SHARED SERVER. BANDWIDTH, PROCESSING POWER, STORAGE… EVERYTHING HAS TO BE SHARED BETWEEN THESE ACCOUNTS.

• IN ACTUAL FACT: WEBSITES ON SHARED HOSTING ARE NOT DEPENDABLE. WHAT’S MORE, DUE TO BOTH RESOURCE RESTRICTIONS (REMEMBER: RESOURCES MUST BE SHARED) AND THE FACT THAT SHARED-HOSTING ENVIRONMENTS MUST, GENERALLY SPEAKING, BE ABLE TO RUN A LARGE VARIETY OF APPLICATIONS (I.E. NOT ONLY WORDPRESS), THEY’RE VERY OFTEN MUCH SLOWER THAN THEIR MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING COUNTERPARTS.

4. THE ADVANTAGES OF MANAGEDWORDPRESS HOSTING

• BY CHOOSING A MANAGED WORDPRESS HOST OVER A SHARED HOST, YOU’LL

NOT ONLY BE ABLE TO EFFECTIVELY SIDESTEP THE “BAD NEIGHBOR” PROBLEM

ALTOGETHER (MORE ON THIS BELOW), BUT ALSO REAP A NUMBER OF VERY

SIGNIFICANT ADDED BENEFITS, SUCH AS:

BLAZING FAST SPEEDS

• EVERYTHING ABOUT MANAGED HOSTING SERVERS IS OPTIMIZED TO RUN WORDPRESS. IN CONTRAST, SHARED HOSTS NEED TO BE ABLE TO RUN ANY KIND OF PLATFORM/APPLICATION, SO THEY HAVE TO FORFEIT ALL THE WORDPRESS-SPECIFIC TWEAKING AND FINE-TUNING THAT MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTS ARE ABLE TO DO.

• ON MANAGED HOSTING, EVERYTHING FROM THE HARDWARE TO THE SOFTWARE IS BUILT FOR WORDPRESS WEBSITES. THEY’LL HAVE SERVER-LEVEL CACHING IN PLACE AND WILL LIKELY BE RUNNING THE MOST OPTIMAL VERSION OF PHP, MYSQL AND APACHE — ALL OF WHICH WILL BE INDIVIDUALLY CONFIGURED TO GIVE THE BEST PERFORMANCE POSSIBLE.

• IN SHORT, RUNNING A WEBSITE ON MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING CAN OFTEN REDUCE A SITE’S PAGE-LOAD SPEED BY SOMEWHERE IN THE REGION OF 1-2 SECONDS OR MORE! THERE’S NO DOUBT THAT YOUR WEBSITE’S SPEED IS GOING TO BE CRITICAL TO ITS SUCCESS. IN SHORT: THE FASTER IT IS, THE BETTER. THIS IS IMPORTANT NOT ONLY FOR BETTER CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE, BUT ALSO BECAUSE GOOGLE TAKES A WEBPAGE’S SPEED INTO ACCOUNT (AMONGST A WHOLE HEAP OF OTHER FACTORS) WHEN DETERMINING WHERE TO RANK IT IN SEARCH RESULTS.

ENHANCED SECURITY

• BASIC SECURITY SWEEPS ARE LIKELY PERFORMED BY SHARED HOSTS TO ENSURE THAT THEIR HUNDREDS OF USERS ON EACH SERVER AREN’T HIT BY ALL SORTS OF THREATS. MANAGED WP HOSTING HOWEVER, TAKES SECURITY TO A WHOLE OTHER LEVEL.

• INCREASED SECURITY PROTOCOLS, DAILY MALWARE SCANS AND THE ABILITY TO WARD OFF ALL KINDS OF CYBER THREATS (SUCH AS DDOS ATTACKS) ARE FEATURES YOU’LL FIND PRETTY MUCH AS-STANDARD ON MOST MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING PLANS.

• AT THE END OF THE DAY, HOWEVER — NO MATTER HOW SECURE YOUR SERVERS ARE —WEBSITES (ESPECIALLY POPULAR ONES) STILL OCCASIONALLY END UP BEING ATTACKED. IF YOUR SITE IS UNFORTUNATE ENOUGH TO GET HACKED ON MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING, YOU’LL ALMOST CERTAINLY BE BETTER OFF SINCE YOUR HOSTS WILL LIKELY HAVE BOTH MORE WORDPRESS-SPECIFIC KNOW-HOW AND BE WILLING TO APPLY IT TO GET YOU OUT OF A FIX THAN A GENERAL SHARED HOST (A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT THIS FURTHER DOWN) WILL.

AUTOMATED BACKUPS

• I SIMPLY CAN’T EMPHASIZE ENOUGH HOW

IMPORTANT IT IS TO MAKE REGULAR

BACKUPS OF YOUR SITE! LUCKILY, MOST (IF

NOT ALL) MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING

PLANS INCLUDE NOT ONLY AUTOMATED

DAILY BACKUPS, BUT ALSO FEATURES THAT

LET YOU QUICKLY AND EASILY RESTORE TO

YOUR BACKUPS SHOULD YOU EVER NEED

TO.

• MANY SHARED HOSTING SERVICES DO

OFFER AUTOMATIC BACKUPS VIA CPANEL.

HOWEVER, THESE ARE ALMOST ALWAYS

STORED ON THE SAME SERVER; MEANING

THEY’RE JUST AS SUSCEPTIBLE TO DAMAGE

AS THE ORIGINAL DATA. IN ADDITION,

RESTORING TO ONE OF THESE BACKUPS IS

USUALLY NO TRIVIAL TASK.

• IN CONTRAST, MANAGED WORDPRESS

HOSTING USUALLY OFFERS ONE-CLICK

RESTORES THAT WILL BRING YOUR WHOLE

SITE BACK ONLINE WITHIN MINUTES, IF NOT

AUTOMATIC UPDATES

• WITH MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING, YOUR WEB SERVER WILL BE MANAGED BY

PROFESSIONALS WHOSE GOAL IS TO ENSURE THINGS ARE PERFORMING AT PEAK

EFFICIENCY. AUTOMATIC UPDATES COVER NOT ONLY EVERYTHING FROM THE

OPERATING SYSTEM ON THE SERVER TO PHP AND MYSQL ETC., BUT ALSO

WORDPRESS ITSELF!

• THIS MEANS THAT YOU WILL ALWAYS BE RUNNING THE LATEST, MOST STABLE AND

MOST SECURE VERSIONS OF JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING.

• SHARED HOSTING SOMETIMES OFFERS SOMETHING SIMILAR, BUT WITH A SLIGHT

TWIST. SHARED HOSTING OPERATORS WILL ALSO TAKE CARE OF MAINTAINING YOUR

SERVER ESSENTIALS, HOWEVER, THIS WILL BE DONE FAR LESS PROACTIVELY AND

PRIMARILY INCLUDE ONLY THE OPERATING SYSTEM, CONTROL PANEL, PHP, MYSQL

AND APACHE — AT BEST. IT WILL NOT, GENERALLY, INCLUDE WORDPRESS — WHICH

YOU WILL NEED TO MAINTAIN YOURSELF.

• IN SHORT: A SHARED HOST’S GOAL IS NOT TO KEEP YOU HAPPY. INSTEAD, IT’S TO

KEEP THE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF PEOPLE ON A SERVER HAPPY. YOUR SERVER WILL

ALWAYS BE OPTIMIZED TO RUN EVERY POSSIBLE COMBINATION OF APPLICATIONS,

BETTER SUPPORT

• SUPPORT PERSONNEL AT YOUR SHARED

HOST MAY BE EXTREMELY FRIENDLY, BUT

THEY’RE UNLIKELY TO BE WORDPRESS

EXPERTS.

• HAVE YOU EVER HAD ISSUES WHERE THE

STANDARD RESPONSE WAS: ‘MAKE SURE

WORDPRESS IS UPDATED AND MAKE SURE

YOU AREN’T USING BAD PLUGINS’? OR THAT

OLD CLASSIC: ‘TRY DEACTIVATING YOUR

PLUGINS ONE BY ONE TO SEE IF ONE OF

THOSE IS THE PROBLEM’?

• MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTS KNOW

EXACTLY WHAT VERSION OF WORDPRESS

YOU’RE RUNNING (SINCE THEY THEMSELVES

ARE THE ONES MAINTAINING IT) AND WHAT

PLUGINS YOU HAVE INSTALLED. THEY WILL

USUALLY BE ABLE TO HOME IN ON YOUR

PROBLEM MUCH MORE QUICKLY AND WILL,

GENERALLY SPEAKING, BE ABLE TO SOLVE

ISSUES THAT SHARED HOSTS WON’T EVEN

BETTER UPTIME & SCALABILITY• DUE TO THE HIGHLY-TUNED NATURE OF THE SETUP, YOUR WEBSITE WILL BE ABLE TO

HANDLE A MUCH HIGHER NUMBER OF VIEWERS WITH A MANAGED WORDPRESS HOST THAN IT WOULD BE ABLE TO WHEN RUNNING ON SHARED HOSTING — ALTHOUGH KEEP IN MIND THAT MANY LEADING HOSTS WILL HAVE PREDEFINED LIMITS ON THE NUMBER OF MONTHLY VISITORS YOUR SITE WILL BE ABLE TO ACCOMMODATEBEFORE BEING SUBJECT TO ADDITIONAL CHARGES.

• IT’S WORTH MENTIONING THOUGH, THAT IN ACTUAL FACT, SOME MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTS DO, IN FACT, RUN THEIR SERVICES ON SHARED SERVERS — I.E. SOME WILL ACTUALLY SHARE A PORTION OF THE SERVER’S RESOURCES WITH OTHER USERS. HOWEVER, IF RESOURCES ARE SHARED, THEY WILL BE BOTH MUCH, MUCH BETTER ALLOCATED BETWEEN FEWER USERS — MEANING THAT THE “BAD NEIGHBOR EFFECT” IS USUALLY ALL BUT COMPLETELY NEGATED. IN SHORT, EVEN IF YOU PURCHASE ONLY AN ENTRY LEVEL MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING ACCOUNT, YOU WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY STILL RECEIVE A VASTLY SUPERIOR LEVEL OF UPTIME.

• FURTHERMORE, IF YOUR SITE DOES START TO OUTGROW THE PARTICULAR MANAGED WORDPRESS PLAN YOU’VE CHOSEN, TECHNICIANS WILL USUALLY SOON LET YOU KNOW THAT YOU’LL NEED TO CONSIDER UPGRADING TO A HIGHER-LEVEL OF SERVICE.

• THE REAL BENEFIT HERE IS THAT SINCE YOUR WEBSITE IS ON A STANDARD PLATFORM, THERE WILL BE NO MIGRATION HASSLE — UNLIKE WHEN HAVING TO MOVE FROM A SHARED TO A VPS (VIRTUAL PRIVATE SERVER) OR DEDICATED SERVER.

5. DISADVANTAGES OF MANAGED WORDPRESS

HOSTING

BASED ON ALL OF THE ABOVE, I’M SURE THE PROSPECT OF A

MANAGED WP ENVIRONMENT IS BEGINNING TO SOUND

PRETTY GREAT — AS INDEED IT SHOULD! HOWEVER, BEFORE

YOU DECIDE, THERE ARE SOME DOWNSIDES OF WHICH YOU

SHOULD BE AWARE.

A HIGHER PRICE TAG• THERE’S NO GETTING AWAY FROM IT: MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING HAS A HIGHER PRICE TAG

THAN SHARED HOSTING. IF YOU’RE RUNNING A SERIOUS ONLINE BUSINESS/ENDEAVOR, THEN OF COURSE THE ADDITIONAL COST WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY BE MORE THAN JUSTIFIED. IF, HOWEVER, YOU’RE SIMPLY RUNNING A PERSONAL OR NON-PROFITABLE BLOG, THEN IT MAY BE WORTH SACRIFICING ALL THE ABOVE-MENTIONED POTENTIAL BENEFITS AND STICKING WITH SHARED HOSTING IN ORDER TO KEEP COSTS TO A MINIMUM INSTEAD.

• ENTRY-LEVEL MANAGED WP HOSTING PLANS TEND TO START AT AN ABSOLUTE MINIMUM OF AROUND $30 A MONTH. THIS WILL USUALLY GET YOU A MANAGED WORDPRESS SERVER ON A SHARED ENVIRONMENT. THE “BAD NEIGHBOR” EFFECT STILL TECHNICALLY EXISTS ON SUCH PLANS. HOWEVER IT’S ALMOST COMPLETELY CANCELED OUT BY THE OPTIMIZATIONS PUT IN PLACE (AS MENTIONED ABOVE).

• THE MORE EXPENSIVE MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING PLANS WILL GENERALLY ALLOW FOR SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER LEVELS OF TRAFFIC, EVEN HIGHER LEVELS OF PERFORMANCE, AND ENTIRELY ELIMINATE THE “BAD NEIGHBOR” PROBLEM BY RUNNING ON VIRTUAL PRIVATE SERVERS THAT SHARE EVEN LESS RESOURCES. HOWEVER, THESE TEND TO START AT ABOUT $160-$250 A MONTH.

• IF YOU’RE UPGRADING FROM A GENERAL SHARED HOSTING PLAN, YOUR WEBSITE WILL LIKELY BE ALL SET FOR QUITE SOME TIME WITH AN ENTRY LEVEL MANAGED WORDPRESS PLAN OF COURSE —DON’T GO SPENDING MORE THAN YOU NEED TO BY PRE-EMPTING THE FUTURE BEFORE IT HAPPENS! AS YOUR WEBSITE GROWS YOU CAN KEEP IN TOUCH WITH TECHNICIANS ABOUT UPGRADES — WHICH CAN THEN BE APPLIED TO YOUR ACCOUNT AS AND WHEN THEY’RE NECESSARY.

• ON THE SURFACE, THE PRICE COMPARISON DOESN’T LOOK ALL THAT FAIR. YES, $30 A MONTH IS MORE THAN THE $4-$5 A MONTH A SHARED HOSTING PLAN WILL COST YOU, BUT IT CONTAINS SO MANY ADDITIONAL SERVICES — NOT TO MENTION MUCH, MUCH BETTER PERFORMANCE — THAT, IN MANY CASES TRYING TO SAVE THE DIFFERENCE IN PRICE IS REALLY JUST A FALSE ECONOMY!

LIMITATIONS ON PLUGINS

• MANY MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING COMPANIES WILL OFTEN PUT CERTAIN

RESTRICTIONS ON USABLE THEMES AND PLUGINS. THEY MAY DISABLE SOME

PLUGINS BECAUSE THE TASK THEY PERFORM IS HANDLED ON THE SERVER LEVEL

(LIKE CACHING), OR THEY MAY DISABLE THEM FOR SECURITY REASONS, FOR

EXAMPLE.

• WHILST THIS LIMITS YOUR OPTIONS, IT’S OFTEN DONE FOR YOUR OWN BENEFIT

(AS HARD AS THAT MAY BE TO SWALLOW). ONE OF THE PLUGINS USUALLY NOT

ALLOWED ON MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING PLATFORMS, FOR EXAMPLE, IS

THE EVER-POPULAR WP TOTAL CACHE, WITH THE REASON BEING THAT

MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING SERVICES USUALLY HANDLE CACHING ON A

SERVER-LEVEL — WHICH IS ACTUALLY A FAR SUPERIOR WAY TO GO ABOUT

DOING IT!

INFLEXIBLE INFRASTRUCTURE

• THIS ONE ALMOST GOES WITHOUT SAYING: YOU CAN ONLY USE WORDPRESS ON

MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTS. YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO RUN OTHER SYSTEMS

SUCH AS JOOMLA, DRUPAL OR MAGENTO ON THE SAME SERVER.

• THIS IS, OF COURSE, AN ABSOLUTE DEAL-BREAKER IF YOU NEED TO RUN

SOMETHING OTHER THAN JUST WORDPRESS!

6. CONCLUSION

• YOU HOPEFULLY NOW HAVE A GOOD OVERALL UNDERSTANDING OF THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SHARED AND MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING. IN SHORT: IF YOU’RE RUNNING A WORDPRESS-POWERED WEBSITE AND HAVE $30 A MONTH TO SPARE, YOU SHOULD ALMOST CERTAINLY MAKE THE SWITCH TO A MANAGED WORDPRESS HOST.

• BUT WAIT, THERE IS MORE! LET ME INTRODUCE TO YOU A TOP-NOTCH MANAGED WODPRESS HOSTING WITH NO RESTRICTION ON ANY THEMES OR PLUGINS ON YOUR SITE.

• I MEAN YOU CAN USE ANY THEME OR PLUGIN OF YOUR CHOICE AND STILL HAVE ALL THE BENEFITS OF MANAGED WODPRESS HOSTING