Pros and Cons of Managed Web Hosting

Managed web hosting is a service provided by many web hosts that takes over the management and maintenance of your website, leaving you free to do whatever else it is that you need to get done. You can then enjoy all the benefits of having a website, without doing any of the work. But, just like all forms of web hosting, managed also has its own pros and cons.

The biggest advantage is of course, that you can virtually “set it and forget it.” Once you’ve decided on the web hosting features you want, you can leave it all up to your web host to control. If there are upgrades that need to be installed, or software you want on your site, the web host will take care of everything. This frees you up to take care of your own business, instead of spending all that time taking care of your site. It simply allows you to do your business better.

The other major benefit of managed web hosting is that your website will be constantly monitored. Downtime, or the amount of time that your website is not up and running, can be disastrous to a website. And if you’re the one managing it, you will need to be constantly monitoring it, making sure that it’s online, and that it’s functional. But if you choose managed web hosting, your web host will take care of that monitoring for you. Not only will they be able to see as soon as your website shuts down, they’ll be able to immediately correct it and get your site back up – sometimes before you were even aware there was a problem!

Of course nothing’s perfect, and managed web hosting also has its own disadvantages. The biggest one of these is the cost. Managed web hosting does cost more than unmanaged hosting, as it requires more time and care on the part of the web host. But, consider the cost of employing your own IT team to do the monitoring for you, or the amount of time it would take you to monitor it, and you can see that it’s still well worth the cost.

The other biggest disadvantage with managed web hosting is its very nature. When you choose managed web hosting, you’re choosing to give you the maintenance – and therefore, the control – of your website to someone else. While this is the very essence of managed web hosting and why so many choose it, it can also be one of the biggest disadvantages for people who aren’t comfortable giving up that control. When that’s the case, choosing unmanaged web hosting and either managing it yourself or hiring an IT team, can be better options.

Managed web hosting is best suited to those who want to have a website, but don’t want to be too involved in the day-to-day maintenance of it. For those, managed hosting is usually more than worth the small cost that’s attached to it, because they don’t mind giving up the control that goes along with it.