Managed WordPress Hosting: Liquid Web’s Top Pick
Managed WordPress Hosting is, in a nutshell, what it says on the tin. You hand over the maintenance and security of your WordPress installation to a professional team of web developers and sysadmins. You may then focus on the more creative aspects of your content.
Many businesses, non-profits, and blog owners have found success with managed WordPress hosting, with the service having seen significant growth in popularityover the past few years.
In this article, we’re going to run down the key differences between traditional and managed WordPress hosting, along with outlining the pros and cons of each. We’ll then narrow the field to a top pick, which brings us to Liquid Web, a brand new WordPress hosting company founded in 2011 that was built with security and performance in mind.
What Is Managed WordPress Hosting?
Managed WordPress hosting is a type of internet hosting where you don’t need to manage the technical aspects of your site. You hand over the keys to a team of experts and occasionally poke your head in to check up on things.
Traditional web hosts, such as DreamHost, hand over the technical maintenance and security of your website to a third party. You may then apply any available FTP tools to upload your content to the server, but once your site is up and running, you’re on your own. If you need help, you’re encouraged to contact the support team for an amateurish hour, which is usually solved with a smile.
Managed WordPress hosting was developed with the explicit goal of simplifying web development and protecting your privacy. Many traditional web hosts use “shared hosting”, where multiple sites share the same server and bandwidth. This approach limits your privacy and security because all the sites on the server are vulnerable to malware and privacy violations.
Managed WordPress hosting is designed to give you more control over your content, while also isolating you from the technical stuff.
The Pros And Cons Of Hosting With Managed WordPress
There are a number of benefits to hosting with managed WordPress, including:
- Security: The experts at Liquid Web handle everything from malware scanning and password cracking to keeping your site up to date with the latest WordPress security patches. This means your site is protected from common hacks and vulnerable to fewer attacks. In the event you do lose control of your site to unwanted parties, Liquid Web stands by to provide assistance.
- Scalability: Since managed WordPress hosting is equipped with advanced load balancing and scaling technologies, your content can be streamed to more users simultaneously compared to a traditional web host. This is important for content-driven websites that attract a lot of traffic, such as news websites and blogs. When your site goes live, you’ll also be able to tweak settings to further optimize your results. For instance, you could change the default search engine to “YOUR_SEARCH_ENGINE”, which will place your site ahead of Google and other popular search engines when potential users search for your product or service.
- Reliability: Since your content is kept separate from the underlying server, you don’t have to worry about hardware failures reducing your site’s performance. Also, since your content is stored on a separate server, you don’t need to worry about daily backups losing all your data in a catastrophic event. In the event of a crash, Liquid Web can restore your site quickly without the need for any datadisks.
- Privacy: The experts at Liquid Web isolate your content from the underlying server, which means your personal information is more secure when using their services. In addition, you are not required to share your personal information when you register with the company, which means you can maintain more privacy.
- Cost Effective: Since you are not required to hire a team of in-house developers to maintain your site, you can save money. In addition, you don’t need to buy additional servers to host multiple sites because their load balancing and scaling features allow you to efficiently use the same server for multiple sites. This means you can save money on server costs too.
- Constant Updates: Due to the isolated nature of the content on a managed WordPress server, you don’t need to worry about updates. The experts at Liquid Web will keep your site up to date with the latest WordPress security patches as well as other critical updates. This means you don’t have to worry about missing out on critical functionality because you haven’t updated for a while.
On the other hand, there are a number of drawbacks to hosting with managed WordPress:
- Less Control: Since you don’t have full control of the underlying server, you don’t get to tune all the settings on the device to further improve its performance. For instance, you could optimize the settings for more concurrent connections or enable faster transfers by changing the queue length on your FTP client. You can also choose to deploy a more traditional web host, which gives you the flexibility of customizing all the settings yourself.
- Fewer Features: Since you don’t have full control of the underlying server, you don’t get access to many handy features that make managing a website easier. For instance, you don’t get to choose the dedicated IP associated with your account, which can make setting up and administering a proper backup plan difficult.
- Fewer Customizations: Since you don’t have full control of the underlying server, you don’t get to customize the device with the tools of your trade. You also don’t get to choose the location of your data center, which can limit your options for finding a proper data center with the right features for your needs. In addition, if you do lose control of your site for any reason, you are dependent on the technical support team at Liquid Web to restore it.
- Potential For Disaster: Since you don’t have full control of the underlying server, you can’t ensure that everything is constantly monitored and backed up. This means your content and the device could become inaccessible in the event of a hardware or software malfunction.
Why Liquid Web?
Let’s now take a look at the rising star of the WordPress hosting world, Liquid Web. Not only do they offer some fantastic value for the money, but they were also built with security and performance in mind.
Liquid Web was founded in 2011 by a team of cybersecurity and performance enthusiasts who were tired of all the headaches that came with running a traditional web host. They wanted a simple, no-nonsense solution that empowered them to focus on growing their business rather than struggling with low-quality web hosts that were built with less-than-sustainable business models in mind.
Since its inception, Liquid Web has been committed to offering some of the best values in the industry for content creators and owners who want to keep their websites up and running without worrying about performance or uptime. Let’s now find out more about them.