What Is Managed Website Hosting?

Managed website hosting is a popular solution for businesses that want to strengthen their online presence without hassle.

A website is the backbone for any company big or small. To do its job properly, it needs to be secure, fast, and always available.

If you’re thinking that maintaining your website sounds like a full-time job, you’re correct.

Let’s face it, not all businesses have time to focus on a website. From business expansion to day-to-day tasks, do you really have time to manage your website constantly?

That’s where managed website hosting comes in.

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Managed website hosting is when a provider (or agency like Canny) takes care of all the heavy lifting for you. They will perform the security updates, speed up and streamline online operations, and basically, take care of everything for you.

If you’re a business without an IT team, this kind of outsourcing can work wonders.

Without managed hosting, a business might face security issues and general technical issues that affect the amount of traffic entering a website.

In this blog, we’re exploring all things managed website hosting. From the different types of hosting, to the benefits of going with a managed service provider, we’ve got you covered.

What is managed website hosting? And do you need it for your business?

Let’s find out.

Types of Managed Website Hosting

As we said before, managed website hosting is a service in which a hosting provider takes care of technical operations, like updates and security measures, while making sure everything is running smoothly.

In the meantime, you can focus on other aspects of your business.

Not all types of managed website hosting are the same though. There are a variety of different types to choose from, and the best option for your business will depend on its size and requirements.

These include:

Shared Managed Hosting

Shared managed hosting is a common option for small businesses or startups. This is because it’s a cost-friendly choice as it involves your website being hosted alongside other websites on a shared server.

With this type of hosting, the provider manages your website’s backend operations, but performance may suffer during peak traffic periods if other websites on the same server experience high demand.

If another website on the same server experiences a surge in traffic, your site’s performance might slow down because resources (such as bandwidth and processing power) are shared.

Managed Cloud Hosting

If your business requires high scalability, you need a website that stays online and functional, even if a server fails. Managed cloud hosting makes sure of this by hosting your website on a network of cloud servers instead of a single physical server.

This setup enhances scalability during high traffic periods and reduces the risk of downtime, since multiple servers share the load.

Managed WordPress Hosting

This type of hosting is specifically optimised for WordPress websites, offering faster loading times, enhanced security, automatic updates, and dedicated support.

The downside of this kind of hosting is that, of course, it’s specific to WordPress and reduces your flexibility.

Managed Dedicated Hosting

If your business requires constant uptime, security, and control, this is a good shout. With managed dedicated hosting, an entire physical server is reserved exclusively for your website, ensuring maximum performance and security.

No other websites will be there to compete for resources, so you’ll experience constant uptime and consistent high speed and security.

Due to the exclusive resources and high-level management, this is one of the most expensive managed hosting options, but it provides unmatched performance and security.

Managed VPS Hosting

Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting provides a middle ground between shared and dedicated hosting. By using virtualisation technology, it divides a physical server into multiple isolated virtual environments.

Unlike shared hosting, VPS makes sure that your website has its own dedicated resources, which improves performance, security, and reliability.

The Differences Between Managed and Unmanaged Hosting

You might now be familiar with managed hosting, but what about unmanaged hosting? A lot of businesses struggle with the best option to go for, but to make it easier, the main difference is the level of control and responsibility of the provider.

The best way to understand the differences is to think about it in terms of a 5-star hotel and an Airbnb. In this context, the hotel is managed website hosting and Airbnb is unmanaged.

A 5-star hotel makes sure you have everything you need with 24/7 monitoring and support.

With Airbnb, you’re a lot more independent. But with that, comes the need for more planning and responsibility.

Let’s break down some more differences:

Level of Control

The main difference between managed and unmanaged hosting is the level of control the provider has. You might prefer to have a more involved role in your website maintenance, or you might want to give full control to the hosting provider.

Managed hosting: With managed hosting, the provider takes charge. They use their expertise to handle everything from server setup to performance optimisation.

Unmanaged hosting: In this instance, you are responsible for configuring and managing the website. You take full responsibility for security updates, performance tuning, and all the details yourself.

Features and Services

A managed website hosting service offers particular features that an unmanaged website hosting service doesn’t.

Managed hosting: This service offers added features, like automated updates, data management, backups, and scalability options. Managed hosting aims to take care of everything, so that there’s no need for interventions from the business.

Unmanaged hosting: With this service you’ll receive a basic hosting plan, but that’s essentially it. You’re then responsible for installing any software you might need and taking care of any necessary tools yourself.

Security Responsibility

One of the main reasons why people opt for managed hosting is the peace of mind you get from the security measures. Experts are left to handle the updates and backups, as well as keep an eye on how secure the website is as a whole.

Managed hosting: With experts taking care of the backend of the website, they’re responsible for any updates and actively monitoring security threats.

By applying patches and implementing firewalls, the provider keeps the website safe from cyber attacks. A company might not know how to set up security features themselves, like SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), web application firewalls, https enforcement, and blocking specific IP addresses.

Unmanaged hosting: The user is in charge of looking after its own security and implementing safety measures themselves. They’ll need to install any software themselves and keep on top of monitoring it.

Technical Expertise Needed

Depending on the circumstances of a business, you may lack the key expertise needed for website hosting.

Managed hosting allows you to take a back step and leave the hard work to people with the correct skillset.

Managed hosting: If your organisation doesn’t have the expertise in house, managed hosting is a good option. The provider handles everything down to the smallest details.

Unmanaged hosting: If you’re a company with in-house expertise, you can probably afford to take responsibility for your own web hosting. If your team has IT developers or staff with skills to manage the servers, they can take care of certain elements themselves.

Customisation

An important difference between managed and unmanaged hosting is the customisation options.

Managed hosting: This service offers a pre-configured environment that’s optimised for security and performance, limiting customisation options.

Unmanaged hosting: You have complete control over the server settings, meaning you can essentially customise everything to your liking. However, this can bring about a layer of complexity if you’re not sure how to do it.

What’s Included In Managed Website Hosting?

When you sign up for a managed website hosting service, you’re essentially signing up for a whole range of benefits and a comprehensive service. By passing over the responsibility to an expert, you can focus on different aspects of your business instead.

So what actually is included in managed website hosting?

Here are some examples of what you’d typically expect:

Server Setup

Setting up a server can be a very time-consuming task, especially if you don’t have experience doing it. If you opt for a managed hosting provider, it’s their job to set everything up to make sure it runs smoothly from day one.

Part of the service includes setting up and configuring the right software, as well as the content management system. Like WordPress, for example.

Within each server there will be certain settings that’ll help to optimise operations. The provider will manage these settings and make sure they’re set up correctly and in a way that’ll help with speed and security.

Security Management

One of the most appealing aspects of managed hosting is the security management that goes along with it.

Security management is highly important and often includes:

• SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate setup to encrypt data and prevent any passwords or sensitive information from being intercepted
• HTTPS enforcement for online security and to help boost SEO
• DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) protection to detect and prevent malicious traffic overload
• IP and country-based blocking to restrict access from high-risk regions, preventing cyber attacks
• Malware scanning and removal to detect and eliminate any potential threats
• Regular security patches and updates to prevent vulnerabilities

Without these security features in place you’re putting your website at risk. Without managed web hosting you’re responsible for setting everything up yourself, and this can be quite overwhelming if you’re new to it.

Performance Monitoring

If you want your website to attract a lot of visitors, you need to know what’s working and what isn’t.

The hosting provider will track the server’s health, keeping an eye on slow loading times or any downtime on the website. If they notice any issues they’ll take action and put it right.

Some things they’ll typically do are:

• 24/7 performance monitoring to check for any issues or slow loading times
• Implement a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to speed up your website. This works by storing your content in different locations, making it available worldwide
• Server-side caching to make sure static versions of your website, like images, don’t need to be reloaded every time they load, improving page speed
• Set up automatic alters for traffic spikes and drops to make sure everything is running as it should. The provider will investigate any causes or reasons why either occur.
• Image and file compression (while maintaining quality) to make your website load faster
• 24/7 Technical Support

Managed hosting typically comes with the benefit of technical support that you can access 24/7. If your website isn’t operating as it should or you think you’ve been hacked, there’s normally a number you can call or someone you can email.

The managed hosting provider will then troubleshoot the site, taking the stress off you as they deal with the problem.

Scalability

If everything works as it should, your website should grow over time. This is great, and it’s essentially the whole point of investing in a site as a business. Because of this, scalability is super important so that your site can grow as the traffic does.

A managed hosting provider will auto-scale servers, to help the site keep up if there’s a spike in traffic.

Regular Backups

Generally, most hosting providers offer daily backups as a standard service. But you can pay more for hourly backups if you have high traffic. There is also an option for a “one-click restore”. You guessed it, this restores your website with just one click.

These backups are very important and extra storage is usually needed as a result. If you don’t have the storage space or the expertise, backups can be a challenging task.

Software Plugins and Updates

Updates are essential for your website’s functionality and security.

CMS platforms and plugins are updated regularly by a managed provider, making sure any vulnerabilities are prevented.

Without the provider doing all of this for you, you’d need to take matters into your own hands.

The Benefits of Choosing Managed Website Hosting

Choosing managed website hosting can provide a lot of benefits to your business. If you don’t have inhouse web expertise on your side, this service is a very useful option, allowing you to pay attention to the other parts of your business and let the technical elements work like clockwork in the background.

Here are some more benefits:

Better Performance

Everyone loves a website that’s fast and easy to use. Managed website hosting services take care of things for you and help boost user experience and SEO. Slow load times are extremely off-putting and it’s too tempting to click off an entire website and go to another.

However, if the cogs are turning and experts are watching over the backend of the website, they can make sure the performance stays strong.

Better Security

Managed website hosting providers offer peace of mind with the security measures they put in place. Cyber security is always a worry and situations like data breaches and hacking attempts can be detrimental.

Security measures like firewalls, IP blocking, and malware scanning and removal, can help to monitor and protect your website. Instead of checking everything yourself, you can leave it to the IT experts.

Reliable Uptime

Downtime can cause a lot of damage to your website. One of the main reasons being that no one can actually access it, leading to lost revenue and a bad reputation. A managed hosting service makes sure your website gets the monitoring and revival (if necessary) it requires.

A lot of these service providers also use premium hardware and high-speed network connections, maximising uptime.

Cost-Efficiency

If you decide to use an unmanaged hosting provider, you’ll need to hire a dedicated in-house IT team. Or you’ll need to learn server management skills yourself. You’ll need to download and install software, as well as invest in security tools. All of this can be very expensive and the costs quickly add up.

Alternatively, you can pay a monthly fee to entrust the responsibility to a reliable expert. This would fall under the scope of a website retainer. This approach helps you save money on hiring in-house administrators and minimises the risk of significant losses from downtime or errors. Instead of facing unexpected IT costs, you’ll typically pay a fixed monthly fee that you can depend on.

Time-Saving

If you don’t know how to maintain your website, install security features, or conduct performance monitoring, it will probably take you a while to figure it all out.

This is fine if you have the time.

However, if you’re running a business there are likely more things you can focus on. Using the skills of a managed hosting service can save you a lot of time, freeing up your availability to focus on something else.

Scalability Options

Depending on the provider and your current plan, managed hosting services can make sure you have the right amount of server resources to grow. This is beneficial for a business as it takes the stress out of scaling up. A provider will help with load balancing and increase storage capacity if the website needs it.

How Much Does Managed Website Hosting Cost?

The cost of managed website hosting varies depending on the type of hosting you opt for, the size of your website, and the service you require.

Some factors that can affect the price are:

• Type of hosting: Shared hosting is the most affordable, while dedicated hosting is the most expensive. Cloud and VPS hosting fall somewhere in between.
• Scalability needs: If your website requires more storage or computing power, you’ll pay more for additional resources.
• Security features: Extra security measures like malware scanning, DDoS protection, and automatic backups might increase the price.
• Level of support required: Some providers offer 24/7 expert support, while others have limited assistance based on your plan.
• Performance optimisation: Features like CDNs, caching, and database optimisation can impact pricing.

At Canny, we offer a pro-hosting and a pro-plus hosting service. For our Pro Hosting service, we charge £550 annually for a 12-month term, with 1 month fee. This service is designed for established companies with website traffic up to 50,000 visitors per month.

Alternatively, Pro-Plus Hosting is for companies with the same amount of traffic and a need for higher levels of data storage. For this service, we charge £1,100.

So, depending on the needs of your specific business, the price will vary.

Choosing a Managed Website Hosting Provider: What to Look Out For

When choosing a managed website hosting provider, you’ll need to consider a few things.

This decision will ultimately determine how secure and reliable your website is, and with plenty of providers in the market, you need to make your decision wisely.

Some things to consider are:

Pricing and Value

Are you going to be getting what you pay for? There’s no point going for a managed website hosting provider that’s insanely cheap and doesn’t do much. But going for someone overly expensive might also be the wrong choice.

The best way to go about this is to explore pricing plans and options. Does the provider offer transparent fees? Or are there hidden fees that’ll give you a not-so-pleasant surprise down the line?

Another element to look for is whether the provider offers tiered pricing that you can use as your business grows. Scalability is a great benefit that a lot of managed website providers offer.

Check whether they offer 24/7 support and consider if this is a priority for you.

Do they have a percentage guarantee of uptime on their service? This is one of the main elements you need, so making sure it’s there at a reasonable price will give you peace of mind.

Compatibility

Not every hosting provider will be compatible with the server or CMS you use. The best thing to do is to go for a managed website hosting service that specialises in the platform you use.

This just means that they’ll know the ins and outs of the platform, as well as the proper measures to take. For example, you might run an e-commerce website and require the WooCommerce WordPress plugin. Make sure your chosen hosting provider can do this and has experience running it.

Support and Customer Service

The amount of support you need may depend on your existing expertise. If you’re a layman who’s set up your own business with no existing skills, it might be helpful to find a managed website hosting provider who offers 24/7 support.

Not only does this give you peace of mind, but it means you can avoid downtime or any malfunctions or security threats from disturbing your website.

Alternatively, you might have pre-existing knowledge and expertise, not necessarily needing as much support. Look around for some options and see what options work best for you.

The Security Measures in Place

Security measures are absolutely vital when it comes to a website. Cyber security is non-negotiable and robust measures need to be taken.

Key elements to look out for include:

• SSL certificates
• DDoS protection
• Web Application Firewall (WAF)
• Automated malware scanning & removal
• Secure backups
• Two-factor authentication (2FA)

Performance and Scalability

As website traffic increases over time, the hosting will need to grow too. Many managed website hosting services offer scalable solutions that adapt to your business. If you’re looking to expand, which you definitely should be, this is important to look out for.

Does the provider offer CDN (Content Delivery Network) to speed up the website for global users? Do they offer load balancing to allow traffic to be distributed evenly? The best thing to do in this instance is to find a provider that offers seamless upgrades as your business grows.

How Has Canny’s Managed Web Hosting Helped?

At Canny, we offer a comprehensive website experience that’s helped many businesses in the past. Take Aspire, for example, a company that offers managed IT services and cybersecurity solutions.

As a managed website hosting company themselves, they know first-hand the importance of this service.They needed a trusted company to take care of their server requirements whilst they focused on delivering IT services to their own clients.

For a business like theirs, security, speed, and uptime are essential.

What does this show? Even the most tech-savvy businesses trust experts to manage their hosting.

Aspire’s decision to partner with Canny highlights the value of outsourcing website hosting to specialists who can provide optimal security, performance, and scalability.

Would This Service Work For You?

Are you wondering whether this service would work for you? Managed website hosting isn’t just for large, established businesses.

Companies of all sizes can benefit from hassle-free, high-performing hosting, saving time and effort by leaving it to the experts.

If you’re on the fence, some reasons why this service would be great for you are:

• You lack in-house expertise in server management and don’t want to spend money expanding your team
• Website performance is a top priority for you and the speed and performance of your site can significantly impact your revenue
• You want to focus on business growth, rather than focusing on server maintenance
• You’re seeking reliable, predictable hosting
• You’re looking to expand your business, with your website growing alongside you

Essentially, if you’re looking for a hassle-free and high-performing website managed website hosting is a great option for you.

Managed Website Hosting: FAQs

What Is Managed Website Hosting?

Managed website hosting is an excellent investment that aids your business’s long-term growth, improving its security, and performance. Outsourcing to a hosting provider you trust who offers a reasonable plan, can make sure your website is secure and operating as it should.

Websites are the backbone of businesses, and getting it right is important. By utilising the benefits that the providers offer, like enhanced security, reliable uptime, and 24/7 technical support, you’re free to focus on other aspects of your business.

If your business relies on your website’s performance, putting your trust in a team of experts who can take the stress away for you is a great step.

At Canny, we offer a comprehensive managed website hosting service. Our on-demand service provides you with speed and performance checks, plugin updates, excellent security features, and more.

If you’re ready to upgrade to a hassle-free hosting experience, get in touch and discuss your project today.

Tony Hardy

Founder & Director

Tony specialises in B2B brand strategy, high-performing websites, and SEO-led content. He works with marketing teams to identify what’s holding their marketing back, and turn it into clear, commercially focused action. With over a decade of experience across branding, web, and content, he leads on strategy, ensuring every project is built to drive measurable results, not just look good.