Managed Web Hosting

Managed web hosting services take the stress of managing your web hosting account away and allow you to focus on more important tasks, such as running your website whilst the maintenance of your web hosting server and the installation of any applications that you require can be taken care of by your web hosting provider. Managing a web hosting account can be hard for many people, either because they don’t have the time or the knowledge to be able to use their web hosting package to its full extent; although you will still be responsible for managing the more confidential parts of your web hosting account such as the email accounts, if for example you need to have an application setup within your web space but are unable to do it then your web hosting provider should be able to do this for you, granted that you have a managed web hosting package.

Although managed web hosting services may be slightly more expensive than unmanaged web hosting services, the benefits that you will receive are likely to make it good value for money for a majority of users. If you feel that you are experienced enough to be able to manage all the tasks that a web hosting account will provide you with, then it isn’t a good idea to choose managed web hosting services as unmanaged web hosting should be able to offer you what you need at a much lower cost. Managed web hosting services are ideal for businesses who aren’t able to afford their own IT support team for example; your web hosting provider should be more than willing to assist you with the setup of your website which will allow you to focus on the running of your business – you can then hire a proper IT support team at a later date when you can afford to do so.

What are the advantages of managed web hosting?

There are several advantages to using managed web hosting services, although you are more likely to benefit from the benefits that managed web hosting if you are a smaller business or an inexperienced individual starting out with web hosting services. The main advantage of managed web hosting services is full support; although this doesn’t mean that you can rely on your web hosting provider for every last thing which you may need doing on your web hosting account, your web hosting provider should be able to offer you guidance for a majority of tasks and should be willing to take on board some of the more complicated tasks which you will face when setting up a web hosting account. A managed web hosting account is also likely to offer you higher uptime levels because your web hosting provider is likely to be maintain the hosting server to a high level, meaning that any downtime is unlikely; if you are wanting to host a business website then this is also an important factor to consider since in some cases downtime can mean lost money. Managed web hosting can also offer you many advantages when it comes to features; your web hosting provider wants to make it as easy as possible for you to manage your web hosting account, and they do this by offering feature rich web hosting services. In summary, the main advantages of managed web hosting include:

  • Full support – managed web hosting services can be of benefit to inexperienced individuals and businesses who don’t have the time to spend setting up a web hosting account, and with managed web hosting services your website hosting provider should be able to offer you support for the setup of the basics of your web hosting account although you are expected to setup certain aspects of your web hosting account such as email accounts and FTP accounts – the support of your web hosting provider is more likely to come into use in situations such as where you need to install a dynamic application on your website but may not be able to do so for reasons
  • Uptime and reliability - for business users, uptime is an essential with any web hosting package and with managed web hosting services you are likely to get slightly better uptime than you would with a standard shared web hosting package, the main reason for this being that your web hosting provider is going to be taking more care and consideration over the management of the server that your website is hosted on – the best way to find out how reliable a web hosting provider is is to read the web hosting reviews that are available for your chosen web hosting providers
  • Feature-rich web hosting – in order to allow businesses to make the most of their managed web hosting packages, web hosting providers offer a number of different features with their managed web hosting packages to not only tempt customers in but to also ensure a high level of customer satisfaction – web hosting providers will also strive to offer feature-rich web hosting services to offer good value for money, and in the current economic climate it is important for both individuals and business to have web hosting services that are good value for money.

Managed web hosting services offers many advantages to both businesses and individuals who require reliable web hosting services that may be cheap but don’t compromise on quality in any way. It is recommended that you compare web hosting providers so that you can choose a web hosting provider which will be able to offer you what you need in terms of customer service as well as what you need from your web hosting package.

What are the disadvantages of managed web hosting?

There can be disadvantages to using managed web hosting services since managed web hosting isn’t always for everyone because different people will have different experiences with managing servers and so managed web hosting may be more suitable for some people than it is for others. The main disadvantage of managed web hosting is the price for most people; managed web hosting services tend to be more expensive than unmanaged web hosting services because your web hosting provider has to cover the cost of support, and fully managed web hosting services are gong to be more expensive than semi-managed web hosting services. Managed web hosting services can also be restrictive in what you can do with your web hosting account; in some cases you may find that your web hosting provider will restrict your access to your web hosting account, although this only really happens with professional managed hosting services where large businesses are the customers. Making the most of managed web hosting can also be hard, and in some cases can mean that you won’t get good value for money; although managed web hosting services are likely to come with the resource assignments that you require, your web hosting provider may not always be able to offer you everything they originally promised in terms of support. In summary, the main disadvantages of managed web hosting services include:

  • Price – you have to expect to pay for more managed web hosting services because unlike unmanaged web hosting services, your web hosting provider will have to cover the cost of the support team that you will be able to contact when you need assistance – for those with a lower budget there are semi-managed web hosting services available, although for these to be of any use you will need to have previous experience with your chosen form of web hosting so that you are able to do some things yourself without having to rely entirely on your web hosting provider for every last thing
  • Restrictive – depending on who you choose as your web hosting provider, you may find managed web hosting services to be too restrictive as larger managed web hosting providers often tend to restrict the access that customers can have to their web hosting services to allow them to offer the best level of support possible – however, for smaller businesses and individuals this may be of some inconvenience and is designed to benefit larger businesses more than it is to benefit small and medium sized businesses
  • Value for money – depending on your chosen web hosting service, managed web hosting packages may not always be able to offer good value for money – for example, if you are an experienced user then you are unlikely to benefit from managed web hosting solutions because you are probably more than capable of managing your own web hosting account, thus meaning that it isn’t worth paying extra for support that you won’t need when unmanaged web hosting services are more than suitable for your needs.

Managed web hosting isn’t for everyone – if you are an experienced user then you are likely to find that it isn’t worth paying the extra money for managed web hosting when unmanaged web hosting services will suit your needs. If you find managed web hosting services restrictive then it is only because you are perfectly capable of managing your own web hosting account and don’t really require any extra support.

In conclusion, managed web hosting services can offer inexperienced users the platform they need on which they can get their first website running without the need for any prior technical knowledge. Managed web hosting services are mainly ideal for small businesses who don’t have their own IT team yet require support when it comes to setting up their website – in some cases it can also be suitable for larger businesses who have large IT infrastructures. If you feel that managed web hosting services aren’t for you then you can always consider unmanaged web hosting services, and save yourself some money by doing so.