What Is Managed Hosting, and How Do You Choose the Right Plan?
The difference between shared hosting and a managed VPS — and how to tell which one your business actually needs.
Shared hosting vs. VPS
Shared hosting puts your site on a server with hundreds of other sites, splitting resources. It's cheap, but one noisy neighbor can slow everyone down, and options for customization are limited.
A VPS (Virtual Private Server) gives your site dedicated resources on its own virtual machine — faster, more secure, and configurable, at a higher price point. A managed VPS means a team (not you) handles setup, security patches, backups and monitoring.
What to check before you buy
- Who owns the domain and hosting account? Make sure it's registered in your name, not your agency's or developer's.
- Are backups automatic and tested? A backup nobody has ever restored isn't a real backup.
- Is monitoring included? You want to find out your site is down before your customers do.
- What's the migration process if you switch? If moving away sounds painful, that's a red flag.
Business email
A professional inbox on your own domain ([email protected]) is table stakes for credibility. Make sure your hosting includes reliable email with spam filtering — not just website hosting.
When shared hosting is enough
A simple brochure site or landing page with low traffic can run fine on good shared hosting. Once you depend on your site for revenue, or run WordPress with real traffic, a managed VPS pays for itself in uptime and speed.
Not sure what you need?
We'll review what you have today and tell you honestly whether it's enough.