Managing a WordPress site manually is tricky, especially after few years in blogging when you are receiving real traffic. A blogger has to perform many tasks simultaneously like being a webmaster, digital marketer, content marketer, and writer all at once. Some of us may not be able to perform the tasks of a webmaster especially when it requires integration of cache, CDN and other complex WordPress plugins and scripts. Adding more plugins to your blog has a disadvantage. These plugins work in the background and use more CPU resources. If you are using a shared hosting then your hosting provider may frown at it. Usually a shared hosting provider allows only the of use 25% of the CPU.
Also, if you want to concentrate only on the content side and forget about the webmaster stuffs, then, you require a managed WordPress host. In this post I have made some points which are useful to decide if you need a managed hosting for your WordPress blog.
1) Integration of complex plugins and scripts: There are many complex plugins and scripts in WordPress. One of them is the cache plugin. There are many cache plugins for WordPress. First, you need to decide which cache plugin to use. Many bloggers have a different point of view for picking up the best cache plugin for WordPress. For Example, you can read this post where I have compared WP Super cache and W3 Total cache plugins depending on the type of hosting because some of the cache plugins overuse CPU resources and if you are using a shared hosting then you will not get optimum performance.
After you have decided on the cache plugin, you have to install the plugin and change settings in the cache plugin. Here is a post where I have added steps to change settings of WP Super cache plugin.
Then, if your blog receives a significant amount of traffic, you may have to integrate CDN. For Example, in this post I have included steps to integrate Max CDN with WP Super cache.
After you have done all this, you to change CDN settings. In this post, I have added points to change settings in Max CDN.
Even after you have done all the above, the job is not finished yet. You have to keep an eye on the performance of the cache plugin and you might have to tweak the settings from time to time. If you want to skip all this, then the simple way is to use a managed hosting for your WordPress blog. A managed hosting comes with in-built cache and you don’t need any other third-party cache plugin.
2) Manual WordPress backups: As a webmaster every month or so you have to take a manual cPanel backup for your WordPress blog. You can use an automatic backup plugin, however, the question remains.
i) Can we rely on the backup plugins?
ii) How easy is to restore the WordPress blog by using backup plugins?
iii) Does the backup plugin uses more CPU resources? (If you are using a shared hosting, then you have to consider this point)
Instead of installing extra backup plugins, you can use a managed hosting for your WordPress blog. They provide in-built daily backup functionality where you can create and restore backups easily from your account. Also, they provide automatic daily backups for your blogs.
3) WordPress security: You might be using Captcha and other similar plugins to stop the brute force attacks on your blog. However, these plugins do not provide iron clad security to your blog. In managed WordPress hosting, they provide Firewall and create logs for the activities performed in your blog. It is more secure as compared to a regular hosting provider.
4) Specifically for WordPress: Other hosting providers have all types of websites in their servers. They never claim that the hosting is specifically for WordPress blogs. However, managed WordPress hosting providers set up their servers specifically for WordPress blogs. Hence, you can expect better performance for your blogs.
5) Technical Support for your WordPress blogs: If you need help in installing a plugin or you want tips on which plugin or theme to use or if you need any assistance related to WordPress, you can contact managed WordPress hosting providers. However, if you are using a regular web host, they might say that this is not a web hosting issue and they can’t help you with that.
You can try WP engine for the managed WordPress hosting for free for 2 months and see how it works for you. They cover all the above points which I have mentioned and they provide competitive pricing.