Managed WordPress Hosting Compared

For those of you who are looking for a reliable WordPress hosting solution, WP Mayor recommends SiteGround for shared hosting.

However, if you are looking for something more secure/powerful/managed and WordPress-specific, I would look elsewhere. Managed WordPress hosting offers distinct advantages over traditional shared web hosts.

These companies have in-house WordPress experts and have built their hosting system tailored to a WordPress site’s specific needs.

Let’s take a look at what the top-managed WordPress hosts offer:

WP Engine

WP Engine is often described as the WordPress-managed hosting company everyone else wants to beat. They have a great following and an army of happy customers who sing their praises daily.

Here at WP Mayor, we currently host with Servebolt but have hosted many of our important sites with WP Engine and always worked well with them. Read our WP Engine review to learn more about our experience with WP Engine.

WPEngine is one of the earliest pioneers in WordPress-focused/specialized/optimized hosting and is still the largest in that category.

They offer features specifically for your basic WordPress needs. These include:

• Access to the Genesis Framework and Premium StudioPress themes.
• 24/7 chat support on the basic plan (24/7 phone support for more advanced plans).
• Automated SSL certificates & Global CDN.
• Automated backups, one-click restores, and staging areas.

WPEngine also has a lot to offer on the enterprise tier. Run your website on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Amazon Web Service (AWS), as well as a dedicated clustered environment with redundant data centers, multi-zone availability, and load-balancing.

Brands like SoundCloud and WPBeginner rely on WPEngine for their hosting needs.

Prices for signing up with WP Engine start at $35/month (for 1 site and up to 25,000 visits per month), which is a great deal when you consider all the goodies that deal packs. The Growth plan (previously known as the Professional plan) is an even better value at $115 (which includes hosting for 5 sites and maximum 100,000 visits per month), bringing down the cost per site drastically. WP Engine also offers a fantastic 60 day money back guarantee, which is the longest guarantee of its type that you can get from any managed WordPress host at the moment.

Get started with WP Engine

Kinsta

Some of our sites are hosted by Kinsta and the experience with them so far has been excellent, both in terms of hosting and support.

Although Kinsta is a relative newcomer in the market (started in 2013), it has quickly made a name for itself thanks to its affordable pricing and great overall performance. These features successfully attracted top clients such as Buffer, Ubisoft, and TripAdvisor.

Kinsta is well-suited for just about any type of hosting need because of basic must-haves that include free migrations, daily backups, state-of-the-art security, and a dashboard where you can view important website information at-a-glance, manage users, and access analytics.

All plans come with 24/7 expert support and staging environments where you can test out plugins and themes.

Kinsta offers enterprise hosting with the most affordable plans for this tier. Their most affordable enterprise hosting plan starts at $675/month, which includes 60 WordPress installs, 1 million visits, 100GB disk space, and unlimited bandwidth. Of course, you don’t have to be an enterprise business to benefit from all of the features that Kinsta has to offer.

When using Kinsta as your web host, you’ll also have access to a range of add-ons that include Cloudflare Railgun, Elasticsearch, Redis, extra backups, and Nginx reverse proxy, among others. Note that Kinsta charges overage fees for when you exceed a certain number of website visits, or hit your CDN limits.

Get started with Kinsta

BionicWP

BionicWP is more than just a comprehensive managed WordPress hosting service; it’s a dedicated partner and an integral part of your team. This fully managed WordPress hosting platform is designed to cater to the needs of agency owners, freelancers, and businesses, providing a comprehensive suite of services that go beyond traditional hosting.

BionicWP’s mission is to take the burden of technical site management off your shoulders, allowing you to focus on your core business operations while they handle the rest.

One of the standout add-on features of BionicWP is the provision of unlimited edits. This unique service transforms BionicWP from a simple hosting provider into a bona fide team member. With unlimited edits, BionicWP takes on the role of a dedicated webmaster, handling everything from updating blog posts to swapping out images.

This means you can focus on creating great content and growing your business, while BionicWP takes care of the technical aspects of site maintenance. Speaking of technical aspects, take a look at the features below, it is obvious that BionicWP has you covered.

• Site Management: BionicWP keeps your site’s core, theme, and plugins up-to-date through a manual process with verification, ensuring optimal performance and security.
• Speed Optimization: The platform monitors site speed three times a week. If the site speed drops below its threshold, the BionicWP team jumps in and fixes it.
• Security: BionicWP uses two different malware scanning software to keep your site safe. If your site ever gets hacked, they fix it for free.
• 1-Click Login: You can always log in via their platform, eliminating the need to remember client passwords.
• On-Demand Resources: BionicWP offers scalable RAM & PHP Workers, ensuring your site is never restricted, even during peak traffic times.
• Backups: The platform provides hourly and daily backups kept in the cloud on two different solutions, ensuring your data is always safe.
• Unlimited Edits: BionicWP offers unlimited site edits for a flat fee, taking care of everything from blog updates to image swapping.

BionicWP offers a range of pricing options to cater to different needs and budgets. Here’s a summary of their pricing plans:

1. Lite Plan: Priced at $11.90 per month, the Lite Plan includes:
   • One Site per container
   • Daily Backups
   • Free SSL
   • Managed Updates
   • Daily Malware Scan
   • Bionic Speed
   • Speed Monitoring / Management
2. Speed & Secure Plan: Priced at $25.90 per month, the Speed & Secure Plan includes everything in the Lite Plan, providing enhanced speed and security features.
3. Secure Plan: Priced at $18.90 per month, the Secure Plan also includes all the features of the Lite Plan, with a focus on security.

All plans come with unlimited free hosting migrations and absolutely no hidden charges. They also provide 24/7 round-the-clock support, ensuring that you are never stuck with an issue that you cannot immediately work to resolve.

BionicWP’s pricing structure is designed to be flexible and affordable, allowing you to choose a plan that best fits your needs and budget. Whether you’re growing your business or just have one site, BionicWP has a plan for you.

In essence, BionicWP is more than just a hosting provider. It’s a partner that works alongside you, helping you manage and grow your online presence. With BionicWP, you’re not just getting a place to host your website; you’re getting a dedicated team member committed to your success.

Get started with BionicWP

Liquid Web

Since it was founded in 1997, Liquid Web has been a leader in managed VPS hosting, managed cloud hosting, and dedicated server hosting.

Liquid Web positions itself as a premium service in that it takes care of everything WordPress-related for you, down to the little details you may miss. From automatically issuing you SSL certificates and compressing your images to keep your site efficient, to automatic daily backups that can be stored off-site for safety and speed, Liquid Web has got you covered.

Not only that, Liquid Web supports both Linux and Windows servers, allowing you to oversee multiple sites at once. Liquid Web also includes WordPress site staging and quick 24/7 support (called “Heroic Support”).

On the downside, Liquid Web does not offer unlimited storage and monthly data transfers. Liquid Web does not offer any shared hosting plans because they target SMBs with sites, stores and applications, as well as websites for designers and developers. It’s no wonder that Liquid Web is used by top brands such as Home Depot, National Geographic, FILA, and Motorola.

Pricing plans for Managed WordPress hosting start at $19/month.

If you’re running an e-commerce website, don’t forget to check out their WooCommerce hosting!

Get started with Liquid Web

Pantheon

Like Kinsta, Pantheon is a relative newcomer on the scene. It started in 2010, and has built up an impressive list of clients including MIT, SendGrid, and Patagonia. According to their website, Pantheon is both your WordPress host and sysadmin all rolled into one — anything you need to build a WordPress site, they have and will take care of, for you.

Their enterprise-level solution claims to be the fastest and most scalable in the market due to its container-based infrastructure. Add to the fact that Pantheon is a “multi-tenant platform-as-a-service” where all client sites run on the same platform infrastructure via the Google Cloud Platform. They used to only offer hosting for Drupal websites but now offer Managed WordPress hosting, as well.

Pantheon’s strengths lie in their ‘dev’, ‘test’ and ‘live’ environments, and how they’re set up. These allow for direct development and version control, which allows you to perform accurate tests and ensures that the code you’re releasing performs consistently across all three stages. You can even manage security by controlling who on your team can push the website ‘live’, one of the tools on their Pro Dev Tools for Teams.

All of Pantheon’s plans include:

• Managed HTTPS.
• Global CDN.
• Automated backups.
• 24/7 chat support.
• Managed site migrations.
• Version control and workflow.

Pantheon’s hosting plans start at $29/month but prices can go as steep as $10,000 per year, depending on your needs. You can use their price calculator to determine your needs and related costs.

Get started with Pantheon

My WordPress Managed Hosting Recommendations

After thoroughly reviewing the offerings of all these WordPress managed hosting companies, I find at the most basic level, both WP Engine and BionicWP come highly recommended. However, if you’re seeking a hosting provider that goes beyond the basics and acts as a true team player or a reliable right hand, BionicWP stands out as the top choice.

WP Engine undoubtedly offers a great deal and is a well-known, tried and trusted option. On the other hand, BionicWP surpasses traditional hosting by offering a comprehensive suite of services tailored to agency owners, freelancers, and businesses. With BionicWP, you don’t just get a hosting provider; you gain a dedicated partner fully invested in your success.

The other companies also offer very good packages, so I recommend contacting each of the hosts above and asking any questions you may have to make an informed decision.

Their responses will give you a good idea of the level of support you can expect when you sign up. Each of these hosting options offers a different mix of features, providing you with a variety of choices.

What are your experiences with the hosts mentioned in this review?