David Carralon

Helping you succeed with SEO

Best Managed WordPress Hosting Comparison (2023)

You’re reading this article because you probably are looking for the best managed WordPress hosting provider to join other WordPress experts. With the many online options, it can be confusing to choose the best provider that meets your needs.

A managed WordPress host gives you peace of mind when running your website since you don’t have to worry about all the technical stuff.

This post reviews the best managed WordPress hosting providers to ensure you make an intelligent decision for your WordPress website.

As WordPress experts, we’ve done the research for you, and the hosting providers featured in this guide are based on unique features, usability, performance, pricing, support, and more.

What Is Fully Managed WordPress Hosting?

Managed WordPress hosting solution gives you the convenience of running your WordPress website without worrying about all the technical aspects like handling backups, security, performance checks, updates, and installing the WordPress itself.

This package makes it easier to manage your WordPress websites, as most technical stuff isis handled by the web host. Depending on your hosting provider, some offer premium features and customer services to ensure you solve any glitches as quickly as possible.

Essentially, “managed” WordPress hosting allows you to focus more on running your online business.

Advantages of Managed WordPress Hosting

  • Managed web hosting providers use the latest technology innovations to ensure your site is fast and secure.
  • The hosting provider offers daily backups to keep all your data safe. You can restore your site anytime you want to.
  • Clients get excellent support in case they need assistance with their website.
  • Some web hosting providers take care of core updates like updating plugins, themes, and more.

Disadvantages of Managed WordPress Hosting

  • A managed WordPress plan is costly compared to shared hosting.
  • Optimizing your site using specific plugins can slow down your website.
  • Managed WordPress hosting limits you to hosting only WordPress sites. HTML and other related sites aren’t allowed.

Factors To Consider When Choosing a Managed Hosting Provider

Choosing the right managed hosting provider for your website can be tricky. There are plenty of options to choose from, and you can easily fall for the first provider that comes your way.

One of the main things you should realize is that you shouldn’t decide solely based on online reviews. Some reviews you read online only list specific providers because they’ll get a commission.

This review is different since we’ve tried and tested the managed WordPress hosting companies featured herein. This ensures you can make informed decisions on the best provider to work with.

To settle for the best hosting provider, consider the features they offer.

First, determine what the provider will help you manage, like backups and updates. If they are ready to help you with these technical aspects of your site, it’s a good sign.

It’s also important to consider the security features they offer. How does the provider intend to keep your site safe while maintaining solid speeds and up-time? Chat with their sales team and ask any questions where you need clarification.

If you’re a beginner, go for a hosting provider who will help you if you have a problem with your site. Excellent customer service matters a great deal here.

Best Managed WordPress Hosting in 2023

Let’s take a look at managed WordPress hosts to check out the best-managed WordPress hosting sites for you to check out.

Cloudways

Cloudways banner

If you’ve researched managed WordPress hosting providers, you’ll notice that most providers tend to offer similar features. While the prices might differ a little bit, they offer similar packages.

But Cloudways is different, and this could benefit you in many ways.

Cloudways lets you choose the cloud hosting provider you want to use from these platforms:

  • Google Cloud
  • Vultr
  • DigitalOcean
  • Linode
  • Amazon Web Services

After choosing your ideal cloud server infrastructure, Cloudways takes over configuring and maintaining the server while at the same time providing you with all the handy tools to manage your website.

With this approach, you get exceptional performance for your site at a fraction cost. But this might be somewhat technical for newbies.

Cloudways has a variety of features. Let’s check them out.

  • Attractive User Interface

    Cloudways comes with a modern and attractive user interface that makes it easy to use. It features a well-organized custom panel to give any new user an easier time.

  • Fast Server Response Time

    Cloudways allows you to choose any server you want to work with. The good thing is that all their servers are high-speed.

    Some server regions are faster than others. For instance, Asian regions like Japan have a response time of 68 ms, while others like Mumbai have an 82 ms response time.

    Cloudways doesn’t support LiteSpeed servers but uses Nginx and Apache servers to offer fast server speeds.

  • Fast Load Speeds

    Cloudways offers breakneck website load speeds. A website loads in under one sec. Most users report even faster loading speeds with further optimizations using other plugins.

    Fast loading speeds are crucial for SEO, and it helps in better audience retention.

  • Uptime

    Cloudways doesn’t guarantee its uptime, but it still stands out among the best. On average, it offers 99.99% uptime.

  • Cloudways Stress Test Results

    Even with high traffic, Cloudways still offers fast response times. The average response time in peak traffic is about 263 ms, which is quite remarkable. This means Cloudways can comfortably handle high traffic.

  • No Domain Name

    Unlike its rivals, Cloudways doesn’t help you register a domain name. You also don’t get any free domains with them.

    But if you haven’t purchased your domain from any hosting provider, Cloudways allows you to preview your site. It’s a free feature you can use forever.

  • Backups and Restoration

    Cloudways allow users to create three backups – scheduled backups, on-demand backups, and local backups.

    Scheduled backups are done by the hosting provider, but you can easily customize your preferences.

    These manual backups are performed for on-demand backups when you’re about to make big changes to your website.

    Local backups store your latest site data on your local server. As for backup restoration, you can restore your site data with just a click using Cloudways Restore Service.

  • Customer Support

    Cloudways offers 24/7 live chat and email support. However, they don’t offer call support.

  • Free SSL certificates

  • Fast server speeds

  • 99.99% uptime guarantee

  • 3-day free trial

  • Low storage for low-tier plans

  • No email hosting

  • No domain name

  • Extra charges for additional customer support

Cloudways pricing plans start at $12/month, with the highest tier going for $96/month. Prices differ depending on the RAM, processor, storage, and bandwidth.

All their plans come with the following:

  • Free SSL
  • 24/7 support
  • Cloudflare add-on
  • 24/7 real-time monitoring
  • Staging environment

Hostinger

Hostinger

Running on a tight budget? Hostinger is one of the affordable managed WordPress hosting providers that offer managed WordPress hosting services for as low as $1.99 per month. Even with the cheap pricing it provides, its package comes loaded with many features.

Everything is done for you, and if you’re starting out, you can get things up and running in minutes. 

Hostinger offers competitive prices and great speeds as their servers run on LiteSpeed. Compared to Apache, LifeSpeed is relatively fast and will provide remarkable speeds to your WordPress site.

The best part is that when launching your site with Hostinger, it comes with LiteSpeed already installed.

Here’s a look at Hostinger’s package features.

  • Optimized for WordPress Performance

    Hostinger’s managed WordPress hosting solution is well-optimized to ensure your site loads faster for all users.

    As previously noted, their servers use the LiteSpeed plugin and SSD drives to give your website fast loading speeds.

  • Free Email

    Even with as little as $1.99 per month, Hostinger allows you to create your own email using your domain name. For other plans, you can make more emails for your website.

    An email with your domain name offers your business a huge advantage. It creates a good professional image of your business when engaging your clients online.

  • Free Domain Name

    All Hostinger’s hosting plans offer a free domain name. If you don’t have one already, you can get a free domain name if you’re setting up your website from scratch. However, you don’t get a free domain name with their Single WordPress plan.

    You can pick the domain name extension of your choice, including .tech, .com, .org, and so on.

  • Free SSL

    Unlimited free SSL comes with all their dedicated hosting plans. SSL certificate gives your page the padlock icon that’s usually found on the top left side of your URL address bar.

    An SSL certificate builds credibility and trust, as your customers will know that your site is secure.

  • 24/7 Support

    You can reach Hostinger’s support desk all around the clock. You can contact them using their live chat feature or via email.

  • Developer Tools

    There are plenty of developer tools that Hostinger offers in all their plans. For instance, the WordPress staging tool allows you to stage your site on a different platform from your live site.

  • Hostinger Stress Test Results

    Hostinger can handle increased traffic pretty well.

  • Fast loading speeds

  • Free SSL certificate

  • Managed WordPress

  • Better WordPress performance

  • LiteSpeed cache plugin

  • Daily backups

  • Free domain from Starter plan

  • Free email

  • 24/7 support

  • Multiserver locations

  • High renewal prices

  • Uptime is somewhat unreliable

Hostinger has four pricing packages, including Single WordPress, WordPress Starter, Business WordPress, and WordPress Pro.

WordPress Starter is $2.99/month, while Business WordPress and WordPress Pro are $3.99/month and 11.59/month, respectively.

All their pricing plans come with the following:

  • Managed WordPress
  • Free SSL
  • Cloudflare protection
  • Free site migration
  • 30-day money-back guarantee

WP Engine

WP Engine

WP Engine has been offering a managed WordPress hosting package since it launched, and it’s still leading the pack in 2023.

The company has upgraded and offers several developer tools to help you personalize your site and take it to the next level. If you’re running a basic blog or a small business, WP Engine is overkill.

However, WP Engine is an excellent option for big businesses looking for outstanding performance and superb loading speeds.

The hosting provider guarantees the best website performance without having to work with any developer to help you maintain your page.

WP Engine also has outstanding customer support. Keep in mind that they only host WordPress, meaning you’ll always get a rep that knows just about anything and everything that has to do with WordPress.

With the technical aspects out of the way, WP Engine gives you ample time to focus more on the business side of things. 

Here are a few of the most important features of WP Engine.

  • Dedicated Support

    Unlike most hosting providers, WP Engine offers you various support options, including email, phone support, and live chat.

    You can quickly access the support desk right from the sign-up page. They offer expert assistance since their team only focuses on WordPress hosting.

    Users can also take advantage of WP Engine’s resource center to learn more about how to get around the platform and the provider’s features.

  • Fast Loading Speeds

    WP Engine offers consistent loading speeds across its servers. Testing its speeds from different locations revealed almost similar score results. On average, WP Engine provides a load speed of about 1.6 seconds.

  • Performance-Enhancing Features

    This hosting provider stands out due to the various performance-enhancing features it offers. All packages offer a free Content Delivery Network (CDN) service.

    You can also use their Page Performance tool to boost your website’s speed. GeoTarget is another excellent tool that helps you optimize your page for specific geographical regions.

  • One-Click Staging

    The hosting provider offers a staging feature that allows you to test any changes made before making things live. You can make quick changes before committing yourself.

  • Easy To Use

    While WP Engine is designed to handle the most robust users, it features an easy-to-use interface. It offers plenty of customization and scalability options.

  • WP Engine Stress Test Results

    WP Engine stress test results show a steady performance even in high traffic. Results show steady uptime with no downtime.

  • Multiple Server Locations

    WP Engine has servers in 19 countries. These servers can be found in Australia, the US, and throughout Asia and Europe.

  • Solid, consistent performance

  • Optimized for WordPress sites

  • Expert support

  • Easy to use

  • Multiple server locations

  • Expensive, especially for high-traffic sites

  • Lower storage capacity

WP Engine isn’t cheap when it comes to hosting costs. It comes with four plans – Startup, Growth, Scale, and Custom plans.

The Startup plan costs $25/month, the Growth plan costs $95/month, and the Scale plan costs $241/month. You can quote a custom price for their Custom plan package.

Flywheel

Flywheel

Flywheel is a popular WordPress hosting provider for a good reason. They offer robust features for WordPress users and agencies.

If you’re running an online agency business, Flywheel is the best hosting provider to turn to. It features a suite of collaborative tools that can help your agency grow.

Features for Flywheel hosting include the following:

  • Performance

    Flywheel delivers exceptional performance thanks to the additional features it offers. For instance, since they only deal with hosting WordPress, they have ensured their servers are well-optimized.

    The provider partners with MaxCDN to offer free CDN services to its users. They also partner with the Google Cloud platform to provide users with a powerful infrastructure.

  • Interface

    Flywheel’s interface is relatively easy to use. It comes with a modern design and allows for easy management in a single dashboard. There are step-by-step instructions to guide beginners to navigate from one end to the other.

  • Loading Speeds

    Flywheel has several servers across the globe to deliver incredible website speeds. Website loading speed across different servers loads in less than 2 seconds.

  • 100% Uptime

    Flywheel has no downtime, and it delivers 100% uptime. You can rest assured that your site visitors will always find your website available.

  • Customer Support

    You can reach the customer support desk via phone support or live chat. The support team is well-versed in WordPress and will quickly help you resolve issues with your managed site.

  • Flywheel Stress Test Results

    Flywheel shows steady performance with fast loading speeds even in high traffic.

  • Exceptional support service

  • Various WordPress performance tools

  • Fast, stable performance

  • Free CDN in all plans

  • User-friendly interface

  • Premium-level prices

  • Limited storage for the starter package

Flywheel offers four plans, including Tiny, Starter, Freelance, and Agency plans.

The tiny plan costs $15/month, the Starter costs $30/month, the Freelance costs $115/month, and the Agency plan costs $290/month.

SiteGround

SiteGround

SiteGround is a good choice if you’re looking for managed hosting that’s more robust, like WP Engine. The good thing about Siteground is that it’s cheaper than its counterparts.

SiteGround gives you the freedom to choose any of its six data centers to host your site. It has servers in Asia, Australia, Germany, the USA, the UK, and the Netherlands.

Another reason to go for SiteGround is that it comes with WordPress-specific features that will boost your site’s performance.

The best features of this hosting provider include the following:

  • Performance

    SiteGround uses the best technologies in all its hosting packages. For instance, it uses an SSD storage medium to guarantee fast website spreads. It also uses NGINX to help boost how fast your website can load.

    Users can also customize their sites using CloudFlare to optimize their pages to suit clients from different geographical locations.

  • Interface

    SiteGround features a simple interface. Its control panel provides quick access to the most important areas a user should work with. One can customize the most important tools for easy accessibility.

  • Loading Speeds

    As noted above, SiteGround uses the best tech tools to offer faster loading speeds. The average loading time for its servers is less than two seconds.

  • Uptime

    This hosting provider offers up to 99.99% uptime. Under SiteGround’s Service Legal Agreement, the provider guarantees 99.99% uptime. If the provider goes below that, they offer free one-month hosting as compensation.

  • Customer Support

    SiteGround customer care team is very responsive. They’ll solve any WordPress issues you might be experiencing within 15 minutes.

    It offers a 24/7 support system. You can ask for assistance through live chat, phone, and ticketing.

    If you’re a newbie, you can use their pre-recorded webinars to learn how to use the platform’s additional features.

  • SiteGround Stress Test Results

    Siteround performs well even with high traffic coming to your site. Regardless of your site’s traffic, SiteGround is relatively stable, as the maximum response time is less than two seconds.

  • Fast and reliable

  • Various support options

  • Easy to use

  • Unlimited traffic to your site with no additional cost

  • Daily backups

  • Higher renewal prices

  • The startup plan offers limited storage

SiteGround offers various pricing plans, with its cheapest StartUp starting at $3.99. 

GrowBig and GoGeek go for $6.69 and $10.69, respectively. It’s worth noting that you can take advantage of the provider’s occasional discounts.

For each plan, you get the following features:

  • Email accounts
  • Free SSL certificates
  • Daily backups
  • Managed WordPress
  • Free CDN
  • Built-in caching

WordPress VIP

WordPress VIP

WordPress VIP is a top-rated managed WordPress hosting service that’s perfect for large-scale sites and enterprises. This provider is the number one choice for some of the biggest brands online, such as Facebook, Salesforce, and Spotify.

Just as you might have guessed, WordPress VIP is owned by the guys behind WordPress.com. Keep in mind that WordPress.com is different from WordPress.org.

WordPress VIP hosting service is robust, faster, more secure, and quite advanced. This provider works best for large enterprises with high traffic to their pages. 

Here are the features for WordPress VIP to check out.

  • Performance

    WordPress VIP is a premium hosting service that goes beyond just hosting your managed site. Other managed services include:

    • Automatic software updates
    • Automatic backups
    • Performance and uptime monitoring
    • Automatic scaling

    With most of the technical services managed for you, you can focus more on other aspects of your business.

    The provider also has over 20 data centers to guarantee your visitors benefit from your site’s loading speeds and robust security.

    Besides, its plans come with a free SSL certificate, 24/7 support, built-in asset optimization, and anti-spam features.

  • Interface

    WordPress VIP comes with a friendly interface, and it should be easy to navigate their platform. You can request a demo of your website right from the home page.

  • Loading Speeds

    WordPress VIP ranks among the best managed hosting companies when performance, speed, and uptime count are in question.

  • Uptime

    It doesn’t come as a surprise that this hosting provider offers perfect uptime.

  • Customer Support

    WordPress VIP support is always available. The provider’s engineers are always working 24/7 to monitor your site and ensure problems are quickly fixed. In case of any technical problem, issues are solved, and reports are sent to you detailing the reasons for the glitch.

  • WordPress VIP Stress Test Results

    WordPress VIP has the fastest speeds even with high traffic.

  • Demo website available

  • 24/7 customer support

  • Advanced coding standards

  • It might be complex for beginners

Details about WordPress VIP pricing aren’t revealed on their platform. One should contact the support team to get their quote.

Is Managed WordPress Hosting Right for You?

Running a successful online business is more demanding than ever before. You must juggle several aspects of the business to ensure everything runs smoothly. But the reality is that things can quickly get overwhelming, and managing your company becomes a nightmare.

A managed WordPress hosting platform can take away the stress from you and help you with the technical aspects of your online business.

If you’re still in doubt, here are the top reasons why managed WordPress hosting suits you.

You Get Premium Support

It doesn’t make sense to rely on managed WordPress services, and yet you can’t contact the support team when you need them. Luckily, the hosting providers featured in this post understand the hassle of an unsupportive customer care team. Every time you need help to improve your website or solve any issues, the support team is always ready to help you 24/7.

Optimize Your Site for High Performance

Competition over the internet gets more challenging every day as website owners strive to optimize their pages to load faster, provide better security, and appear unique.

Working with a hosting provider helps to fine-tune your site for increased performance. You’ve seen that most providers have additional performance tools meant to boost performance in every way.

Larger Infrastructure for Global Reach

You want to reach a wider audience, and the best way to do this is by relying on a hosting provider with data centers across the world. A provider with data centers across areas like Canada, the USA, Europe, and Asia, ensures your site is closer to your everyday visitors.

Never Lose Your Data

Losing everything you’ve worked for weeks, months, or years is the worst thing that could happen to you. Anything can happen with the internet, as systems can fail. This means you should be prepared for the worst that could happen.

Hosting providers with regular backups ensure you’re well prepared for unfortunate events. The best hosting providers allow you to restore your site in a single click.

Security Is a Top Concern

Internet users are always skeptical when browsing the internet. For that reason, your visitors want to be sure your site is safe.

What’s more, from a business perspective, you must secure your business to ensure you’re not hacked. You could lose everything if you don’t secure your online business.

This is where managed WordPress plans come in. top-notch hosting providers use robust systems to guarantee your site is secure and free from malware attacks.

You Can Scale Your Website

Industry-leading hosting providers will also help you to scale up your business when you grow. You can upgrade to higher-tier plans as your business grows.

Of course, when starting out, you’ll have less traffic. But once your business picks up, you might have to expand and use advanced features to support increased traffic.

Scaling your online business with shared hosting is stressful and time-consuming. However, it’s quite simple with managed WordPress hosting offers since the provider does all the hard work for you.

FAQs

Still not sure which way to go? These managed WordPress hosting FAQs can help you make your decision.

Is managed WordPress hosting worth it?

Managed WordPress hosting is worth it, especially if you want the convenience that comes with having the technical aspects of your online business managed by your provider.

It takes a lot of time to handle mundane tasks like installing plugins and setting up your site. You can save yourself from all the hassle of managing your website on your own by working with a reliable managed WordPress hosting provider. 

What is the difference between regular WordPress hosting and managed WordPress hosting?

Regular WordPress hosting refers to any random WordPress hosting with limited services. Conversely, a managed WordPress hosting service is a simplified solution that hosts your website and offers additional services like managing the technical operations of your page.

How much does managed WordPress hosting cost?

The cost of a managed WordPress service varies considerably. It all depends on the service provider you choose to work with and the specific package plants you want for your business.

Some hosting plans are cheaper with limited features and functionalities, while others are expensive and come with robust features that guarantee increased performance.

How do you choose the best managed WordPress hosting?

To pick the best managed WordPress service provider, you should focus on your website’s hosting needs and what a provider is ready to offer.

Factors to consider when choosing a hosting provider include their brand reputation, reliability, customer support, and additional features that come with each managed WordPress hosting plan.

Which is the best managed WordPress hosting provider?

There are plenty of options to choose from when you’re looking for a well managed WordPress hosting company. Usually, it’s confusing when you don’t know where to turn to. As a rule of thumb, always choose a hosting provider that will help you meet your website’s goals.

This means the provider should help you improve your site’s performance, offer easy free site migration tools, perform updates and backups regularly, have a responsive support team, and allow you to scale up when the time comes.

Conclusion

You now have a list of the best managed WordPress hosting companies you can work with. Evaluate your business needs and settle for a provider to help you take your online business to the next level.

Sure, managed hosting will cost you more, but it means a lot to you and your business as you’ll save more time and energy handling specific technical tasks.