Managed vs. Unmanaged Hosting – Explained

A few factors you should consider when you’re choosing a hosting solution for your website are security, uptime rates and reliability, bandwidth and data transfer, and storage and RAM.

Another key thing to consider is the management of your site. If you want to assign the management of your website to a third party, you might want to consider managed hosting.

Managed hosting providers will manage backups, software, and other important tasks.

Web hosting companies specialize in serving and storing sites. They offer different kinds of hosting plans to their customers.

Web hosting makes the files that constitute a site (images, code, etc.) available for viewing online. Web hosting is essentially buying or renting a space for a website on the Internet.

Unmanaged hosting is a hosting plan with very few or no additional services. For instance, with unmanaged hosting, you might simply get a server with an installed operating system.

The hosting company doesn’t execute any management tasks or services on your server.

With managed servers, your web host sets up the server and installs the required software. The provider also carries out regular maintenance work, like keeping the server up and running and ensuring that the latest security patches are applied.

Make sure you read more about managed hosting on our blog!

Managed and unmanaged hosting plans both have their own perks. It is important to compare them and sum up their key differences in order for you to determine which one better suits your needs.

1. Server Management

With unmanaged hosting, all of the server management is left for you. You’ll have to coordinate and schedule backups and update plugins when needed.

2. Installations of Popular Software

If you’re running a WordPress site, you should consider using managed hosting. This way, you won’t have to deal with generic support with limited knowledge of WordPress.

3. cPanel

Managed hosting, unlike unmanaged hosting, provides you with a pre-built control panel where you can set up specific things like viewing performance statistics, accessing logs, DNS records, and so on.

4. Security

Managed websites are more secure since the managed hosting provider regularly takes care of security patches, vulnerability scans, and any potential threats.

5. Hardware Maintenance

With unmanaged hosting, you set up the tools on your own, install the control panel and OS and maintain the tools as well as the network. If there are server loads on dedicated plans, we can analyze for scripts.

6. Support

With managed hosting, you will have 24/7 support. The quality of customer support you’ll receive with a managed hosting doesn’t compare to the one you’ll get from an unmanaged host.

7. Level of Control

Like we mentioned, with unmanaged hosting, the maintenance of the website is on you. While this provides you with more control over your website, it also gives you more responsibility.

8. Price

Managed hosting is more expensive since it comes with a lot more resources. With unmanaged hosting, the host is doing less work, so it makes sense that it’s cheaper.

Hopefully, the differences between unmanaged and managed to host are clear by now. To determine which type of hosting plan is for you, you have to assess the needs of your site. To decide between managed and unmanaged hosting, consider the following things:

Understanding the differences between managed and unmanaged hosting will provide you with the needed knowledge for you to pick the best solution for your website. Both of the hosting plans have their own perks and setbacks, so it’s important to expand your knowledge on this subject.

Managed hosting may be more expensive than unmanaged hosting, but it’s a great investment since it adds value through automated backups, better support, and stronger security.

If your budget is tight, opt-out for unmanaged hosting. However, be prepared that this type of hosting will require some technical knowledge in order to set up and maintain your website.