So the common language or parlance is to refer to entry level hosting as “Shared” and premium or advanced offerings as “Managed”. This in itself is a massive source of confusion as in essence, hosting can be both “Managed” and “Shared” at the same time!
Expect more like this from this short guide on WordPress hosting for non-developers.
Shared or Managed Hosting…Or Both?!
Shared hosting is common regardless of whether the hosting is entry level or for advanced level businesses. The truth is, this makes hosting more affordable and scalable. If you needed dedicated infrastructure every time you wanted to build a website, costs of implementation, and then management would start to mount up, whilst in reality the infrastructure would probably be severely under-utilised (wasted).
The reference to “Managed” or “Management” however does provide more of a clue on what the difference may be between an entry level hosting package and a premium or optimised one. Ultimately, the management refers to things like:
- Speed optimisation of the server and caching at the server end
- Automatic Core WordPress updates (although, I have to be honest, everyone seems to offer this unless you’re on a stingy hosting package)
- Automatic Plugin updates (not all, but some offer this)
- Configured to work with a CDN (they tell you “comes with CDN” but Cloudflare is free anyway, so don’t get sucked in)
- Offer easy creation of staging sites (otherwise you need a bit of technical know-how)
- Automatic Website Backups
- Security optimisation of the server (and also potentially features like PCI Compliant Servers)
Useful Resources For Learning About WordPress Hosting Options
https://www.wpbeginner.com/managed-wordpress-hosting/
Shared vs Managed WordPress Hosting: The Key Differences and How to Make Your Decision