Do you need managed WordPress hosting?

Today, let’s talk hosting. After all, we’ve been talking about your site speed this week, and hosting is right there at the top of your priority list.

I run my whole business off of WordPress. If you’re doing what I do, then you likely are, too. This doesn’t mean you don’t use other systems, but WordPress is the core of it.

So, when it comes to hosting for WordPress, you’re most definitely going to see regular hosting vs managed WordPress hosting. Generally, it costs more and for that reason many people don’t use it.

In fact, this is a huge reason why I recommend Siteground as my host of choice for my students and readers even though I personally host The Academy with WPEngine. WPE is a managed WordPress host and it costs more, so I know many of my readers won’t want to use it. Siteground has more acceptable pricing and they offer killer service and support (I use them, too). Plus, they also offer managed WordPress hosting if you ever want it.

But, why bother?

Certainly, you do NOT need managed WordPress hosting in order to use WordPress well.

Well, managed services like WPEngine specialize in hosting WordPress. They can help with speed and security issues that are specific to WordPress. They can get in there and get dirty with WordPress because that’s what they do all day. A lot of the tweaks people recommend for site speed are taken care of for me automatically by WPEngine.

For instance, when I was dealing with a speed issue last week, the guy at WPEngine was in there helping me with some of their own in-house debugging and speed profiling they could run in-house, at the server level, specifically built for WordPress.

A managed WordPress host will also take care of updates for you, take care of security (so you don’t want to run a bunch of fancy plugins like WordFence), backups, staging, etc. It is just insanely convenient.

The downside is, of course, price. Plus, a WordPress host will limit you (usually) to WordPress. They also take more control. For instance, WPEngine blocks certain plug-ins from being used for security reasons. It’s never been an issue for me, but for some it might be.

So… do you need managed WordPress hosting?

Nope.

But, it’s pretty nice.

If you’re just starting out, then it isn’t worth it. Don’t pay the extra money. Just go with a standard, high-quality web host like Siteground.

Oh, and as an aside, if you’re curious why I don’t recommend Bluehost like so many other bloggers seem to, check this out. I most definitely have my reasons for why I don’t recommend Bluehost anymore. Or Hostgator.

– David