Key Takeaways
Managed WordPress hosting is a service tailored specifically for WordPress websites. The term ‘managed’ means that the hosting provider handles all the backend and administrative tasks, such as:
- WordPress installation
- Software updates
- Security measures
- Backups
- Performance optimisation
This allows website owners to focus on their content and business without worrying about the technical aspects.
Managed WordPress hosting primarily aims to provide top-notch speed, security, and support. This service is particularly beneficial for those who want a hassle-free hosting experience, ensuring that their WordPress site remains fast, secure, and always available to visitors. For more information, you can refer to our WordPress hosting FAQ.
What is Managed WordPress Hosting?
Managed WordPress hosting is a service that takes the responsibility of all technicalities involved in running a WordPress site off your shoulders. This includes updating WordPress software, plugins, extensions, and PHP versions, which helps in optimising the site’s performance and reliability. One of the core features of managed WordPress hosting is its ease of use, making it an ideal choice for users who want the power and simplicity of WordPress without the hassle of managing the technical side.
Enhanced security is another significant feature of managed WordPress hosting. Providers implement advanced security measures to protect WordPress sites from potential threats. Additionally, managed WordPress hosting offers improved performance through various optimisation techniques, ensuring that your site loads quickly and runs smoothly.
SmartHost’s best managed WordPress hosting comes with support from WordPress experts, ensuring that you have assistance whenever you need it. This support system is crucial for resolving any issues promptly and maintaining the seamless operation of your WordPress website.
Advantages of Managed WordPress Hosting
One of the major benefits of managed WordPress hosting is its ease of use. This makes it easy even for non-technical users to manage their websites efficiently. The platform handles all updates, backups, and security measures automatically, allowing users to focus on their content and business operations.
Enhanced security is another critical benefit. Managed WordPress hosting provides a more secure environment compared to cheaper shared hosting options. This includes features like automated malware scanning, advanced firewalls, and free SSL certificates, all designed to protect your website from potential threats.
Significant performance enhancements also count as a major benefit of managed WordPress hosting. With SmartHost’s managed WordPress hosting plans, users can experience:
- Up to a 40% increase in page speed
- Reliable uptime during traffic spikes
- Database caching that speeds up data retrieval and increases application throughput
Who Should Use Managed WordPress Hosting?
Managed WordPress hosting is a perfect fit for those without much technical knowledge as it offers simplicity in website management through automatic updates, backups, and professional support. This makes it a perfect solution for bloggers and content creators who can benefit from improved site performance and reliability, allowing them to focus on creating content rather than site maintenance.
Small to medium-sized businesses find managed WordPress hosting advantageous because it provides robust security and performance features without the need for a dedicated IT team. Additionally, e-commerce websites benefit significantly from managed WordPress hosting due to enhanced security features, faster loading times, and reliable uptime, which are crucial for maintaining customer trust and driving sales.
Offering a suite of premium WordPress hosting packages, SmartHost, a managed WordPress hosting company, caters to a diverse range of needs, from small personal blogs to large business sites, all underpinned by Amazon AWS technology. This infrastructure ensures high performance and reliability, making SmartHost a top choice for managed WordPress hosting on their managed hosting platform.
These hosting plans accommodate a wide range of requirements and budgets, guaranteeing a suitable option for every user. In the following subsections, we’ll explore the features and pricing of SmartHost’s Basic, Advanced, and Premium plans.
Basic Plan
The Basic plan is priced at €2.99 per month when billed annually, a significant discount from the regular price of €15.99 per month. This plan supports hosting up to 10 addon domain names, making it ideal for users with multiple websites.
In addition to affordable pricing, the Basic plan includes features like unlimited email addresses and weekly full backups, ensuring that your data is always protected and easily accessible.
Advanced Plan
The Advanced plan is priced at €5.49 per month when billed annually, down from the regular price of €27.99 per month. This plan supports hosting up to 15 addon domains, making it a great choice for users with multiple websites or growing businesses.
Additionally, the Advanced plan includes daily backups with free restores, providing added security and peace of mind for users who need reliable data protection and quick recovery options.
Premium Plan
The Premium Plan includes:
- All features of the WordPress Pro plan
- Comprehensive solution for demanding users
- Advanced features
- Robust performance
The plan is priced at €29.99 per month and can be billed monthly or annually.
With the Premium Plan, users can enjoy the benefits of enhanced security, performance optimisation, and comprehensive support, ensuring that their WordPress site runs smoothly and efficiently.
Caching plays an essential role in optimising the performance of any website. By storing frequently accessed data, caching significantly improves page load times, making site visitors and Google happy. Fast page load times are essential because conversions drop by 12% for every additional second of website loading. This underscores the importance of optimising website speed for better user experience and business success.
SmartHost includes caching solutions in their managed WordPress hosting plans to enhance site performance. These solutions store data for future use, allowing quicker data retrieval on subsequent requests and ensuring a smooth user experience.
How Caching Works
Caching in WordPress works by storing copies of web pages so future requests can be served more quickly without reprocessing. This process involves different types of caching, including site cache (page cache), browser cache, and server cache, each playing a role in improving performance.
When a user visits a site, caching plugins generate a cache of the page to serve upon revisits. This reduces the time and resources required to load the page, enhancing speed and user experience.
Benefits of Caching
By serving static copies of web pages and reducing server load, caching substantially improves page load times and reduces bounce rates. This is particularly beneficial during traffic spikes, as it ensures that the site remains responsive and accessible.
By minimising server processing time, caching enhances the Time to First Byte (TTFB), relieving pressure on the server by up to 80%. Additionally, effective caching enhances user experience by storing crucial data such as login information, ensuring seamless session management and quicker access.
Caching Solutions at SmartHost
SmartHost offers robust caching solutions to enhance site performance. Server-side caching stores content on the site’s server to deliver it immediately upon user request, reducing load times and improving user experience.
SmartHost also integrates LiteSpeed Cache, which offers advanced server-level caching and optimisation, most effective with LiteSpeed server hosting. Additionally, WP Rocket provides user-friendly caching and is compatible with most WordPress themes and plugins.
For SmartHost, security is paramount; hence, their managed WordPress hosting incorporates advanced security features to safeguard your site. These features include automated malware scanning, advanced firewalls, and free SSL certificates, ensuring that your site remains secure from various threats.
In the following subsections, we will explore these security features in more detail, highlighting how they contribute to the overall safety and reliability of your WordPress site.
Automatic Malware Scanning
Automated malware scanning conducts regular checks on website files for malicious code and vulnerabilities, bolstering the security of your site. These scanners identify malicious code by scanning files and directories on a server, looking for known malware patterns.
Periodic scans help in continual monitoring and can detect malware before it causes significant damage. Upon detecting malicious code, scanners can quarantine the infected file or notify the admin for manual removal, offering comprehensive protection for WordPress sites.
Web Application Firewall (WAF)
A Web Application Firewall (WAF) filters and monitors HTTP traffic to and from a web application, blocking malicious traffic such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. By creating a barrier between the website and the internet, WAFs prevent unauthorised access and protect your site from various threats.
WAFs are an essential component of SmartHost’s security measures, ensuring that your WordPress site remains secure and protected from potential cyber attacks.
Free SSL Certificates
SmartHost provides the following benefits for its managed WordPress hosting users:
- Free SSL certificates to ensure secure connections
- Encryption of data transmitted between the WordPress site and its users
- Protection of sensitive information
- Enhanced security
All WordPress hosting plans from SmartHost include a free SSL certificate, making it easy for users to secure their websites without additional costs. Integrated SSL is a permanent part of the hosting account, ensuring consistent and reliable security for your site.
The right tools can make managing a WordPress site a walk in the park. SmartHost’s best managed WordPress hosting includes the following features, making it a top managed WordPress host:
- Automated updates
- Daily backups
- One-click staging
- Premium themes
These tools ensure that even non-technical users can manage their sites effectively and efficiently.
In the following subsections, we will delve into the intuitive control panel, one-click installations, and automated backups offered by SmartHost, highlighting how these features simplify website management.
Intuitive Control Panel
SmartHost’s user-friendly interface allows website owners to manage their site’s settings, install plugins and themes, and make modifications easily. The control panel, powered by cPanel, is known for its intuitive design, making it accessible for users with varying levels of technical expertise.
With cPanel, users can manage and upload files, create and edit MySQL databases, and monitor web statistics effortlessly. Additionally, SmartHost’s control panel integrates AI assistance to monitor and manage site performance efficiently, further simplifying website management.
One-Click Installations
Installing WordPress has never been easier with SmartHost’s one-click installer. cPanel in SmartHost includes a one-click installer to streamline WordPress installations, making the setup process quick and straightforward.
This feature includes setting up basic settings like site name and admin account during the WordPress installation process. The instant setup wizard with pre-installed themes and plugins ensures that users can get their site up and running with just a few clicks.
Automated Backups
Automated backups are crucial for data protection and recovery. SmartHost offers automated backup services that ensure secure and scheduled site backups without manual intervention. These backups are included in all managed WordPress hosting plans, providing peace of mind for users.
SmartHost provides daily backups with free restores as part of their WordPress hosting plans. This feature ensures quick site recovery in case of data loss or site issues, making automated backups an essential component of SmartHost’s managed WordPress hosting.
Expert support and active community involvement are hallmarks of SmartHost’s managed WordPress hosting. SmartHost offers support by WordPress experts, ensuring help is available whenever you need it. This level of support is crucial for maintaining the seamless operation of your website.
In addition to expert support, SmartHost offers the following benefits to users:
- Participates in the WordPress community by sponsoring events and contributing to development
- Showcases its commitment to the community
- Provides access to a wealth of knowledge and resources
Expert Customer Support
SmartHost provides round-the-clock support to help manage and troubleshoot WordPress websites. WP Support Specialists offers expert emergency support with a 2-hour response time for issues like malware removal or site crashes, ensuring that your site remains operational.
The expert support teams aim to respond to all requests within 24 hours, providing timely assistance and maintaining high customer satisfaction.
Active WordPress Community Participation
SmartHost’s involvement in the WordPress community extends beyond providing hosting services. WP Support Specialists focus entirely on WordPress, contributing to the community by providing comprehensive services and support. This active participation helps users stay informed and engaged with the latest developments in WordPress.
By sponsoring events and contributing to WordPress development, SmartHost demonstrates its commitment to the community, fostering a collaborative environment that benefits all WordPress users.
Moving your website to a new hosting provider can be a daunting task, but SmartHost makes it seamless and hassle-free. SmartHost prioritises keeping your website live to avoid losing customers, conversions, and search engine rankings by ensuring minimal downtime during the migration process.
In the following subsections, we will explore the free migration service and provide a step-by-step guide to ensure a smooth transition.
Free Migration Service
SmartHost’s free migration service involves taking care of the entire migration from start to finish, ensuring ease for the user. Eligibility for the free migration service is limited to the primary domain of a hosting account, making the process straightforward and efficient.
The migration process at SmartHost includes running diagnostics beforehand to avoid technical issues, ensuring a smooth and successful transfer.
Step-by-Step Migration Guide
To ensure a seamless website migration, SmartHost provides a comprehensive step-by-step guide. Customers are required to provide access credentials, including control panel and website admin access, for a smooth migration.
This guide covers all aspects of the migration process, from initial diagnostics to final setup, ensuring that users can transition their site to SmartHost with minimal hassle.
SmartHost provides an array of supplementary tools and features aimed at enriching user experience and streamlining website management. These tools include WP-CLI, SSH access, and staging environments, providing advanced options for managing your WordPress site.
In the following subsections, we will explore WP-CLI and SSH access, Content Delivery Network (CDN) services, and professional email services provided by SmartHost.
WP-CLI and SSH Access
WP-CLI empowers advanced users to manage WordPress sites from the command line for tasks such as plugin management. SmartHost’s managed WordPress hosting includes SSH access, which can be used with clients like PuTTY on Windows, offering secure and efficient management options.
These features make it easier for users to perform advanced management tasks and customise their WordPress site to meet specific needs.
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) helps reduce latency by serving content from servers closest to the user, significantly improving website speed scores by up to 40%. SmartHost’s CDN integrates seamlessly with their WordPress hosting plans, ensuring faster load times and improved user experience.
By serving cached files from the nearest server to the user, SmartHost’s CDN solutions reduce load times, making your website more responsive and efficient.
Professional Email Services
SmartHost provides professional email services in all their managed WordPress hosting plans, allowing users to set up custom domain emails and enhance their professional image. The email services include advanced spam protection to keep unwanted emails out of your inbox, ensuring a seamless communication experience.
Email management is handled through cPanel, which allows you to create email accounts, set up forwarders, and configure autoresponders, making it easy to manage your professional communications.
The managed WordPress hosting plans by SmartHost offer remarkable cost-effectiveness and value. One managed WordPress hosting plan, in particular, justifies the higher price point compared to basic hosting options through benefits like:
- Superior speed
- Reliability
- Security
- Expert support
In the following subsections, we will explore the competitive pricing and money-back guarantee offered by SmartHost, highlighting their value proposition.
Competitive Pricing
With a WordPress hosting plan priced at €1.99 per month, SmartHost, a reliable web hosting provider, offers an economical option for users. This plan includes features like hosting up to 5 addon domains and provides weekly offsite backups, ensuring data protection and value for money.
The competitive pricing and feature set emphasise cost-efficiency for users, delivering high value at an attractive price point.
Money-Back Guarantee
Offering a straightforward 30-day money-back guarantee, SmartHost assures peace of mind to users who are unsure about committing to a hosting plan. This guarantee applies to their website hosting and reseller hosting services, ensuring that users can try SmartHost’s services risk-free.
With this money-back guarantee, users can confidently explore SmartHost’s managed WordPress hosting plans, knowing that they have the option to receive a full refund if they are not satisfied.
Frequently Asked Questions
Our team can help
Have further questions, or need some advice about hosting solutions for you and your business?
Our team are on hand to assist you and get your business online. Why not give us a call on (01) 901 9700 or send us an email at support@smarthost.ie. We will get back to you as soon as possible.