In this post of Green Hat Expert, we shall discuss the best managed WordPress hosting in 2020.
Best Managed WordPress Hosting in 2020
To manage a WordPress blog is a hard nut to crack. You need to focus on different things including marketing, content, social media and so on. Before you pay attention to these things, you need to focus on the speed of your WordPress website. Whether it is running smoothly or not and your hosting is good enough for you and not creating issues for you.
Nowadays, there are several companies which are giving affordable solutions to their customers. The cost of the hosting is less than 5$ and you will get a shared hosting. It will be a great solution for you to take a start. If you are running a business site, you need a high-quality WordPress hosting to manage your website.
By using the word high-quality hosting, it means best managed WordPress hosting. It will be online for specific WordPress users. So it has become an eminent option among the users of WordPress and developers of websites. You can take a start by using WordPress.com VIP, but there are a number of options available in the market too.
If you want to solve your problem as early as possible so select out of these top 3 hosting providers we recommend and why:
1. WPEngine:
WPEngine is the best managed WordPress hosting for users and it is perfect for everyone. You will get everything you need and you will also get developer friendly tools. Additionally, you can also use WPEngine coupon to get 50% off or discount “wpkube50”.
2. SiteGround:
SiteGround is another best managed WordPress hosting for beginner as well as for advanced users. It is easy to setup and gives you outstanding support. You get support within 10 to 15 minutes and the rates are unshakable. These qualities enable it to become the best host for WordPress bloggers. You do not need a Siteground Coupon to get 60% off because you will get it without using a coupon.
3. FlyWheel:
FlyWheel is another best managed WordPress hosting which you will not change. It is due to the fact that they are perfect for small business, bloggers and agencies. It also gives a number of qualities and unique features including demo site, billing transfer, and blueprint.
Here is a quick comparison of the 3 Best managed WordPress hosting providers listed above (last updated on January 19):
| Name | Loads Under: | Suitable for (visits / month) | Cost per month | |
 | WPEngine | 0.26s | 25,000 | $29 |
 | SiteGround | 0.4s | 10,000 | $9.95 |
 | Flywheel | 1s | 5,000 | $15 |
Best managed WordPress hosting gives faster loading times along with better security and professional WordPress support. But quality comes with cost so it is a bit costly than other shared hosting companies. Managed WordPress host’s servers aim to give better and faster performance of WordPress with easy configuration.
In this post, we are going to give you basic information about 8 trusted and best WordPress managed hosting services. So it will be an easy task for you to select the hosting of your own choice for your own business.
What is Managed WordPress Hosting?
Managed WordPress hosting is only designed and optimized for the sake of WordPress websites. In other words, this hosting will take care of all the technical aspects of WordPress for your convenience. It will also enable you to create as well as share the great content with your users. You will get rid of the worries of site updates, up-time, site speed and other problems.
There are several hosting companies which are using their own CDNs and server caching. It will save you from the burden of cache plugins including WP Super Cache and W3 Total Cache plugins. It is also suitable for those users who do not possess technical skills and do not have time to manage the server.
The Pros of Managed Hosting for WordPress
Security:
Premium managed hosting will give you bulletproof security. It will give you a tight layer of security which will save you from hacking, DoS, malware and other security attacks.
Expert Support
It will not be a fair statement that shared hosting providers consist of poor support. There are many companies which have staff that is well-trained and have knowledge of WordPress. Still, they cannot give you support of different things including site functionality, performance and WordPress errors etc. But opposite is the case with managed hosting support, they will give you expert WordPress assistance.
Speed:
Speed is a part and parcel of site ranking and there are many things you can do to improve it. It includes the usage of cache plugin and content delivery network including MaxCDN and reduces the size of images.
Most of the best managed WordPress hosting providers enable content caching at server level which gives you relief from external cache plugins. If you will use a normal plan, there is a chance that you may need CDN to improve the speed of website.
Daily Backups:
They take a backup of your website on daily basis. It includes data, content, themes and plugins which you can access from your dashboard. It will save you some bucks if you are paying for backup or maintenance including BlogVault and Vaultpress.
Additionally, they also create a restore point and if you face any problem. You can restore your site to the previous version when your site was fully functional with one click.
Automatic Updates
You do not need to update your WordPress files to the latest version because they will do it for you. Whenever the update is released and you do not have to pay for this update. Your managed WordPress hosting will do it for you.
No Downtime
It will never go down whatever the amount of traffic is, on your website.
The Cons of Managed Hosting for WordPress
Expensive
First of all, it is expensive from shared hosting and there is a marked difference between shared and managed hosting. An average shared hosting plan costs 3.95$ only and managed hosting can be of 30$.
Limitations:
They do not allow you to use any plugin that uses resources. It includes cache plugins including WP super cache and W3 Total cache. We are going to give you a list of disallowed plugins shared by managed hosts.
cPanel:
If you were using shared hosting and now moving to managed hosting, you will feel irritation to use the portal of managed hosting. It is because it is a bit different.
Top Managed WordPress Hosting Providers:
WPEngine
(Loads under 0.26s, starts at $29, and comes with fantastic support)
WPEngine is one of the best managed WordPress hosting providers in the market. The price is expensive if we compare it to other hosting providers. It is because this company gives you fast loading, secure servers and great support. They have a team which can keep your website secure as well as fast. Therefore, it is the best and popular hosting company. HTC and Foursquare and SoundCloud are using it and they are brands.
It can make backup with one-click and restore process is also available in one-click. This feature is available in all hosting plans. Additionally, it will scan and monitor your website to save it from hacking attempts and in case of hacking, it will fix it free of cost. Additional features
- Staging area
It creates a copy of your live website so you can test new plugins and themes before making changes to your live site.
One Click Restore Point
One click restore point is helpful when something goes wrong with your website, theme or plugins. So you can use one click restore point to get the previous version of your website.
No Need for Cache Plugins
WP Engine has custom built ever cache technology which helps WordPress site to make fast enough for Google and other search engines.
Hacking Scans
If your site gets any attack, the company will fix it for you.
Pros:
You can add CDN easily to your site with one click and will get support for WordPress site. They have extremely fast and secure servers. Evercache is integrated and no cache plugins are required. In addition, they do regular attempts to scan hacking attempts in order to make your website secure and safe.
Cons:
WPEngine is costly than other managed WordPress hosting providers. It does not give flexibility in the plugin department.
WPEngine Coupons
Use this WPEngine coupon to get 50% off (wpkube50)
SiteGround
(Loads under .4s, starts at $7.95, and usually responds to support questions in 15 minutes)
Note: the support of SiteGround is super fast and priority support is not available in startup plan. Premium caching solution and one click staging is also not available in startup plan. So if you want to use these features you need to select GoGeek plan.
SiteGround is another best managed WordPress hosting provider and it is for those who cannot afford expensive hosting providers. SiteGround provides speed solutions and unique WP security at a reasonable price. In addition, it also gives all the shared hosting features including free domain name, WordPress installation, free WordPress migration, support and email accounts for 3.95$ only for one month.
Other features include:
- Unique WordPress Autoinstaller— Easy to setup.
- Autoupdater — It will update WordPress Core files and all of your plugins
- WordPress SuperCacher — To improve the site performance.
- WordPress staging — to test the new features before making it live.
- HHVM— to improve site speed and it will load faster in 200ms only than PHP. This feature is available only for cloud hosting.
WP-CLI comes pre-installed — to do multisite management if you want to.
Pros:
Gives autoupdate, autoinstall, staging features and caching for a low price. It also has WP-CLI pre-installed, Git and WordPress migration without additional cost. The security team is active and they regularly run security checks.
Cons:
It comes with Cloudflare and if you want to use MaxCDN, you will have to use plugins like WP total cache or W3 Total cache.
Flywheel
(Loads under 1s, costs $15, amazing dashboard, a lot of useful features, and a ton of happy customers)
Flywheel is another best managed WordPress hosting which is designed by creative minds to fulfill your needs. It focuses on your workflow and makes the working of web designers smooth. There are features like billing transfers to your clients, easy collaboration and staging sites etc. In addition, you can manage all your websites with one dashboard and it is an easy task.
It’s Like a Design Party on The Internet
Flywheel has staff of WordPress experts and most of them are designers so do not worry about your problems. The prices are reasonable and suit your needs. It includes pay per site plan which costs you 15$ per month. Additionally, there are bulk plans are also available for you if you are a serious developer. It will cost you 100$ per month. Custom plans are also available.
Key Features:
- Lightning speed– Designed specifically for WordPress sites and has unique features that affect your website with CDN.
- Nightly backups –It will automatically make backup of your website on daily or nightly basis.
- Around the clock security – it will monitor your websites constantly to avoid hacking attempts and malware and will fix the problems free of cost.
- More intuitive SFTP – they are working and collaborating with other designers to make the task easier.
Pros:
it loads your page quickly and you can use plugins of your own choice. Flywheel has a highly qualified staff which is expert in WordPress which can take care of your problems and needs.
Cons:
It is also more expensive than shared hosting and it will be a bit difficult to learn a new dashboard. According to our point of view, it’s dashboard is super easy to use.
Flywheel coupon:
Use flywheel coupon to get 20% off “flykube”
Bluehost WP Hosting
(Loads under 2s, starts at $12.49, and comes with bad customer support)
Bluehost is another best managed WordPress hosting provider which is available at reasonable price. The basic plan of Bluehost gives 100 million visitors per month with 2GB RAM, 30GB storage and 30GB backup storage. It has enhanced cPanel, 24/7 support from WordPress experts and you can add 5 WP sites. It also offers sitelock CDN with SiteLock pro. The minimum price is 2.95$ for the first month and will cost 24.99$/month after the first month.
Features of Bluehost:
- VPS-based — Built on a VPS platform, gives enhanced performance and site speed.
- Includes ManageWP — Can Manage and migrate multiple WordPress sites all from within one hosting plan.
- Robust security— Gives SiteLock, an advanced CDN, and SiteLock WAF.
- Expert support — All hosting plans include 24/7 access to WordPress experts.
- Enhanced cPanel— Makes the transition from shared to managed hosting more seamless when working within a familiar interface.
Pros:
Affordable, VPS, SiteLock security, and Manage WP for added convenience. Gives 24/7 support with enhanced cPanel.
Cons:
It is more expensive than some other managed WordPress hosting providers. It may not give as many features as compared to other plans and may not suitable for largest developers.
Kinsta
Kinsta is another fast and best managed WordPress hosting for WordPress users powered by Google cloud platform. The best feature of this hosting provider is unlimited visitors and unlimited page views on all plans. If you are a beginner in online business so you will not have to move to another hosting plan if your website starts receiving more traffic.
Kinsta has a premium quality customer service which is working behind the scenes to give the best results. Their team consists of professional developers who work with WordPress on daily basis.
Some other features on offer with Kinsta hosting include:
- Free Migrations– it gives uninterrupted service with free site migration for multiple websites. You need to send the request and Kinsta will take care of the rest. The dashboard of Kinsta will enable you to monitor the migrations and you can also manage them on your phone.
- Next-Gen Infrastructure– The company is powered by the Google Cloud Platform that offers automatic scaling, LXD containers, SSH access, PHP 7, WP-CLI automation, and Git. It also has a server level caching solution which can speed up your website and you do not have to use any caching plugin.
- Top Notch Security– Kinsta is based on multi-layer protocols on the back-end and this quality makes the site more secure 24/7. It also monitors your website every minute 1440 times in a day in order to run it smoothly for you.
Pros:
Powered by Google cloud platform with server level caching service for your WP site that gives an outstanding performance. The support team is dedicated and works around the clock and also monitor your website on daily basis. Additionally, they do not charge extra for extra page view or visitor.
Cons:
Kinsta has service charges that starts from 100$ per month on their business plan 1.
Pagely Hosting
(Loads under 0.09s, starts at $499, and overall perfect hosting for big businesses)
Pagely is a famous and best managed WordPress hosting that pay attention to security. It focuses on high class security and they also pay attention to the site speed so that they can load faster. It is replete with features including automatic plugin and WordPress updates, daily backups, press Armor custom WP security configuration that will keep the harm at arm’s length.
In addition, you can use any app or plugin of your choice. The price starts at 499$/month for 30 websites and 200GB bandwidth with all features. It includes:
- Convenient updates: Automatic WordPress Core and plugin upgrades with minimal interaction needed.
- Varnish caching: Advanced varnish caching layer that loads the site in millisecond.
- Free reign on plugins: Use almost any plugin or theme you want to use.
- Complete site scans: Gives real-time malware scanning and removal plus redundant firewalls and DDoS protection.
- PRESSCDN: This service starts at $9/month.
Pros:
Security focused, rich in features, best managed wordpress hosting with open attitude towards themes and plugins. It offers varnish caching and PRESSCDN to load site quickly.
Cons:
It is more costly than some other managed hosting providers.
Pressable
(Loads under 2s and starts at $25)
It is also known as Zippykid, it is a unique managed hosting service for WordPress and it gives 100% customer satisfaction. Therefore, it is rated no 1 in customer satisfaction. It has an appealing list of clients and testimonials, and the services are available on custom Reckspace hardware. The price plan begins with 25$ per month and it can handle 15k shared pageviews per month.
All plans include the following features:
- Rackspace Hybrid cloud— The best servers to store your sites.
- Daily backups— Your content will always be backed up automatically and in time.
- SFTP access— Secure file transfer protocol so your data will remain safe.
- SSL support— So you can set up shop and keep your customers secure, too.
- Malware scanning and removal— Never feel the effects of malicious hackers again.
Pros:
It is high quality and reliable hosting for businesses and developers. It includes SSL, CDN, malware scanning and removal for convenience.
Cons:
When we consider it’s price, it may not offer the best managed WordPress hosting plans and not suitable for those who want extraordinary features.
WebSynthesis
Websynthesis is another best managed WordPress hosting and it was started by CopyBlogger Media. They have produced the most popular products on the internet. It includes Genesis Theme Framework and ScribeSEO. Synthesis is using NGINX architecture to maintain the traffic and it consumes 1/8 of the resources. It has MediaTemple dedicated servers and the plan begins at 47$ per month.
Some of its features include:
- High quality servers— Get superior uptime and page load speed.
- SEO— Keyword and social media research included.
- Robust security — Enhanced security defenses.
- Content marketing — Content and website optimization included.
- Site Sensor uptime monitoring — Keep tabs on site uptime at all times.
Pros:
It uses NGINX architecture in order to load the site faster and gives SEO and content marketing tools. Uses site sensor uptime monitoring and enhanced security features for ultimate protection of your site and content.
Cons:
The price tag of the product is higher than other managed WordPress hosting and can go out of reach of newer developers.
WordPress.com VIP
WordPress.com VIP is not normal managed WordPress hosting provider. It can cost 5000$ per month and it is a wonderful choice for high traffic websites including MSNBC, TechCrunch, GigaOM and Time. It is also ideal for those people who are looking for enterprise level solution.
Some features include:
- SaaS— Turnkey infrastructure lets you build your site with confidence.
- CDN— Security is a top priority.
- Hourly backups— You will never lose a bit of data.
- Flat pricing— Pay monthly rate to get unlimited traffic, bandwidth, and storage without paying a penny more.
- 24/7 support— will answer your most pressing middle-of-the-night WordPress questions.
Pros:
It has SaaS, CDN, backups, 24/7 support all for a flat price.
Cons:
It is suitable for enterprise customers because the price tag is too much. Additionally, it is not appropriate for new developers and smaller website developers.
Do You Really Need Managed WordPress Hosting?
Best managed WordPress hosting is a perfect for both small and enterprise/high traffic website owners. If you are a blogger and developer, SiteGround is the best solution for you. The cost is less than other managed hosting companies and gives high quality support.
First of all, you need to know your achievement and priorities. If you are thinking to create a website that will drive a lot of traffic to your site, you need to get a managed host for it. It is because it will allow you enough traffic volume with stability for sites especially WordPress websites. If you are building a site for the first time and you purchase a managed host it may not be helpful.
You need to consider the customization and level of support you want. Shared hosting gives one click installations for your convenience, these can preload your website with settings that you may not like. Especially if you are a developer. If you will use a managed host, it will give you an opportunity to make smart decision while installation including security. It depends on your approach and achievement, what you want to do?
My Top Picks
After reviewing all the managed hosting providers, we consider every hosting provider as the best managed WordPress hosting. Let’s have a bird’s eye view of it.
SiteGroudn is for developers and bloggers who need features including SSL support, staging area, git integration at low price. They offer free migration, pretty inexpensive, and support team is quick. Most of the questions are answered within one or two hour. Live chat guys are not knowledgeable. So you have to go through ticket support system for technical questions instead of live chat group.
FlyWheel is for people who are not developers. Flywheel came into existence pretty late but they established themselves quickly. They offer managed hosting solution for WordPress, designers, small business owners and bloggers etc and easy to use. If you do not want to stuck with technical issues choose Flywheel. The dashboard of this company is very easy to use as compare to other companies. In short, Flywheel is not for developers but for those who can configure and setup WordPress sites.
Are you a developer? Use Pagely but they are expensive, it costs $499 / month).
Last year, Pagely had moved their servers to Amazon and since then they are providing world-class services for small blogs, membership sites, WooCommerce stores, SaaS solutions and global corporate sites. Their infrastructure technology has automatically daily backups, HHVM, built-in redundancy, real time malware monitoring, SSL acceleration, Press CDN, Press Armour and developer friendly tools including SSH, WP-CLI, GIT, Staging, REST API etc.
If you want everything, use WPEngine or Kinsta. These options are for you if you do not want to compromise the quality of support and developer friendly tools. We have been using WPEngine for a long time and did not face any trouble.
You can share your hosting providers and ideas in the comments section.
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**Data for speed tests data was taken from designbombs.com
