Recently, two web professionals were chit-chatting about website hosting. And as it turned out, one of those good-looking web nerds was also looking for a new place to live.
And that’s when it hit us: Web hosting is a lot like the rental market.
When you want a place for your website to live, you can only lease what you need—servers, hardware and even the domain name.
You know what else a rental agreement includes? All the stuff the various human parties take care of.
(Except in this case, we’re not talking about appliance repair and the water bill.)
So, when it comes to your website’s rental, who takes care of what? ⬇️
Managed hosting vs. Managed service
In a previous post, we talked all about “managed service” when it comes to hosting your website.
- The gist is that when your site’s software gets updated every month, humans (us!) are there every step of the way.
- This helps ensure that your website remains happy and healthy and just the way you want it.
The same humans-are-there feature is also true of managed hosting.
- A service provider leases dedicated servers and hardware to a single customer (that’s you!).
- Once a “leasing agreement” is signed, that service provider manages all those systems on your behalf.
Managed hosting vs. Hosting solution
When it comes to hosting options, there are two main approaches: managed hosting or a simple “hosting solution.”
The main difference is who is actively managing all those systems so that your website’s home remains intact.
If you have managed hosting, that means a dedicated partner (like WP Engine) is overseeing:
- server maintenance and monitoring
- website security and mitigation
- backups and disaster recovery
- application and technical support
- In many cases, managed hosting also includes platform updates, like WordPress or PHP.*
*However, without the managed service that the Geeks provide, there may not be a human element to make sure those updates play nicely with plugins.
If you have a “hosting solution”:
- You do it all. 😳
- While there are some advantages to opting for a hosting solution, most companies don’t have the time, $ or know-how to do all the work themselves.
Guess what? Your hosting to-dos could be done! 🙌
Going back to the rental agreement analogy, the main question to ask when deciding on a hosting option is:
What do you want to be responsible for?
If you host your website with us (and WP Engine), you can throw away your to-do list because we’re taking care of everything through our managed hosting services.
✅ The experts at WP Engine are on top of your server and all that goes into keeping your web home safe and sound.
✅ The Geeks are making sure updates are run and taking care of any necessary troubleshooting.
✅ You’re freed up to take care of business.
Managed service providers are not just well prepared for problems, but also implement measures to prevent such issues from happening.
Alex Jordan, Host Review
Image credits: Kermit the Frog, Cool cats, Kitten engineer, To-do list
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