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Managed vs. Unmanaged Hosting

Managed vs. Unmanaged Hosting

What’s the difference?

Choosing between a managed or an unmanaged hosting provider can make a huge impact on your website’s ability to perform.

What is managed hosting?

Managed hosting is where a hosting provider offers additional support other than just providing a server to host your website.

The amount of support can vary from each provider but the most common types of support are:

  • Server monitoring
  • Security
  • Back-ups
  • Server configuration and Maintenance
  • Support

What is Unmanaged Hosting?

Unmanaged hosting is where a hosting provider offers a server to a customer to host their website on, however, little to no other support is offered.

What are the pros & cons of managed and unmanaged hosting?

Security & Maintenance

 

Most managed hosting packages provide file and database backups that are often carried out automatically every few hours and are stored on a remote, secure server. In addition, if your website becomes compromised on a managed hosting package you can receive help almost immediately. Moreover, if you require security updates, server and application security updates are carried out for you on a per request or a routine basis.

Most unmanaged hosting packages do not provide a backup service and most of the time backups have to be done yourself and often have to be stored on same server, risking security. In addition, if your website becomes compromised on an unmanaged hosting package you are on your own to fix the security breach. Moreover, if you require security updates, you have to carry them out yourself.

Support

Most managed hosting packages offer a support team, be that via over phone, email or both, so that if you should have a problem with your website or are looking for general advice and guidance, you always have a point of contact.

Most unmanaged hosting packages however, do not offer a support team. Therefore if you have an urgent issue with your website or are looking for help, then you are own your own to deal with the issue or are left having to seek technical support from third party companies which can be expensive.

Cost

Most managed hosting packages are fairly expensive. This is because the additional services provided such as the routine maintenance, security updates, backups and the cost of the support team are all factored into the hosting package cost.

Most unmanaged hosting packages however, are cheaper because there are no extra services or management to pay for.

Although this does mean that unmanaged hosting is cheaper than managed hosting to begin with, the consequences of not having the additional services, routine maintenance, security updates or support team can be apparent in the long term when issues start occurring and large amounts of money has to be poured into your website all at once to fix the issues.

Summary

In summary, managed hosting is superior in almost every aspect in terms of the services offered, however the only drawback of managed hosting is the cost, due to the extra services offered.

When deciding which hosting type to choose, your budget is most likely the determining factor. However, it is worth bearing in mind that, just because unmanaged hosting may appear cheaper to begin with, does not mean it is always cheaper in the long run.

We offer High Performance, Fully Managed Dedicated Cloud Servers along with SSL Ceritifcates for YOUR site.

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