The Hidden Truth About Managed WordPress Hosting: Is It Really Worth Your Investment?
Here’s a short checklist to use when evaluating different hosting providers:
- Security features: What’s included with your hosting cost? What’s considered an “add-on?”
- Performance improvements: Optimized hardware and software are a given, but what about a CDN and other optimizations?
- Redundancy: Are there additional data centers in case one fails to guarantee the uptime of your website?
- Support quality: A good way to judge support quality is to run a test. Contact support with a question and see how well they can help you. Look at their other support resources too.
- Metered/unmetered traffic: Many managed hosting providers have bandwidth or traffic restrictions; ensure you understand these limits so you don’t end up paying more than expected.
- Developer features: Check for access to plugins, themes, staging sites, the ability to use custom code, SSH, and WP-CLI if you need them.
- Pricing: Are there extra costs or hidden fees? Check renewal rates, plan upgrades, and money-back guarantees.
Our recommendation for a managed WordPress host
There are many managed hosting providers out there, but we think WordPress.com is your best choice for a few reasons: