Managed vs Unmanaged Hosting – Explained!
When you’re browsing the internet for a new hosting plan for your next website, you’ll often come across two prominent terms: Managed and Unmanaged hosting.
These terms can be rather general, and as such, many people can become confused about what exactly managed and unmanaged hosting entail, as well as how the two types of hosting differ. Understanding the most suitable type of hosting plan for your business is crucial to your website’s success. Choosing the right type of hosting can impact your site’s performance, security, and ease of management, so it’s important to have a clear idea of the differences.
In this blog post, we aim to explain exactly what both Managed and Unmanaged hosting are, how they differ, and some of the biggest pros and cons of each. By the end of this article, you should have a better understanding of which hosting solution is best suited for your needs, whether you prioritize control and customization or convenience and support.
What is Managed Hosting?
In a hosting provider environment, there are typically multiple shared servers housing many individual hosting accounts. These hosting accounts have access to the server’s resources, such as memory, processing power, and storage. Every account needs these resources to serve websites over the internet efficiently.
Many hosting providers also offer additional optional services on top of these essential functions, including (but not limited to) automated backups, malware detection and removal, and uptime monitoring. Extra features like these can loosely be classified as components of a typical Managed hosting plan.
The main selling point of any Managed hosting plan is that your hosting provider will take care of some of the administrative, maintenance, or management tasks that are typically required for a hosting plan. This can include tasks such as software updates, security patches, and server monitoring. In many cases, there exists software that hosting providers use to automate or simplify these tasks, ensuring that your website runs smoothly and securely with minimal effort on your part.
What is Unmanaged Hosting?
Now that we understand what Managed hosting is, we can more easily picture how Unmanaged hosting works.
Typically, with an Unmanaged hosting plan, you’ll be provided with, at a bare minimum, the rack space in the data center, the physical server hardware, and the networking infrastructure required to access the server over the internet. These aspects are essential if you want to host anything accessible on the web.
Additional features beyond this ‘bare-bones’ setup are not usually provided with an Unmanaged hosting plan. You’ll be given the basic tools to do what you require, but you’ll also have to handle all of your server administration, maintenance, and management. Your hosting provider will take a very hands-off role with an Unmanaged hosting plan, as you are essentially paying for only the server.
With Unmanaged hosting, the responsibility for installing and updating software, managing security, performing backups, and troubleshooting issues falls entirely on you. This type of hosting is often favored by developers and system administrators who have the expertise to manage the server environment themselves and want full control over their server’s configuration and operation.
How do Managed and Unmanaged Hosting Differ?
It should already be apparent to you how these two types of hosting differ. But in case you’re still confused, let’s explain how Managed and Unmanaged hosting plans differ in some of the main aspects of hosting.
Support
From time to time, you may require some technical help. Perhaps something has gone wrong with your website, or your server isn’t functioning as it should. This is one of the most apparent aspects of hosting that differ between Managed and Unmanaged hosting.
With Managed hosting, you typically have access to free technical support provided by your hosting provider as part of your hosting agreement. This support may be limited to a certain scope, but you’ll usually receive at least some level of assistance.
With Unmanaged hosting, however, technical support is often not provided at all unless you pay an additional fee for this service. The price you pay for the hosting is for the server itself and doesn’t include any free technical support.
Automated Updates
Keeping your website and software up-to-date is crucial in today’s world where account compromises and hacking are commonplace. Let’s look at how this is covered in Managed vs. Unmanaged hosting.
Managed hosting usually includes automatic server updates for your system, applied by your hosting provider to keep everything updated to the latest version. Often, this will happen behind the scenes without you even knowing!
Unmanaged hosting, however, typically doesn’t include any automated updates for your server. Your hosting provider won’t carry this out for you, and you’ll need to handle any updates in-house on your own time.
Security Services
Keeping your website and server secure is absolutely paramount nowadays – you don’t want to risk losing your data! Security services covered by your hosting plan will differ greatly, but we can explain roughly what is covered by each type of hosting.
A Managed hosting plan will typically include free security services to protect both your website and your account. Your hosting provider will usually provide malware scanners, brute force protection, DDoS protection, and access control.
An Unmanaged hosting plan will usually include little-to-no security features in the base price. Your hosting provider may have some security measures on the data center side, but on the server, it’s up to you to ensure that everything is locked down and secured.
Pros & Cons
Now that we have an idea of exactly what both Managed and Unmanaged hosting are and how they differ, let’s look at some of the most important pros and cons of each.
Managed Hosting Pros:
- Free Technical Support: Perhaps the most important pro of Managed hosting is the free technical support included with your plan. This can be extremely valuable and help you out of difficult situations.
- No Technical Knowledge Required: Managed hosting doesn’t require any technical server knowledge. You can focus on building your website while your hosting provider takes care of the technical aspects.
- Security and Updates: You don’t need to worry about security or updates with Managed hosting. Your hosting provider handles this for you behind the scenes.
Managed Hosting Cons:
- Limited Control: With Managed hosting, you won’t have the same level of control over which software and hardware you use. You’ll be restricted to specific software, control panels, and server technology, which might not work for some situations.
- Higher Cost: Managed hosting typically costs more than Unmanaged hosting. Since you are paying for the hosting provider to manage your hosting for you, this is reflected in the price you pay.
- No Full Root Access: Normally, you won’t have full root access with a Managed hosting plan, meaning many customizations aren’t possible.
Unmanaged Hosting Pros:
- Greater Control: The most obvious pro with Unmanaged hosting is the level of control you have over your hosting experience. You control every aspect of your setup, from the hardware components down to the software level.
- Lower Cost: Unmanaged hosting often costs significantly less than a Managed solution. Since the hosting provider doesn’t manage the service for you, you can expect to pay less for your hosting plan.
- Full Root Access: You’ll have full root access with a typical Unmanaged hosting plan. This means you can make any customization you want, at any time, to any aspect of your server.
Unmanaged Hosting Cons:
- Technical Expertise Required: The biggest con with Unmanaged hosting is the technical expertise required to manage the server. You’ll need to know how to properly manage the server; otherwise, things can go wrong.
- Additional Costs: Additional features included with Managed hosting plans, like automated backups or malware detection and removal, will usually cost extra with an Unmanaged plan.
- Time-Consuming: You can expect to spend much more time managing and maintaining your server than you would with a Managed hosting plan. This can lead to lost productivity in more important areas of your business.
Which Plan is Better for You?
If you haven’t yet decided which type of hosting is better for you, we can explain in simple terms how to determine that for yourself.
If you are looking to host a website with the least hassle and have no prior technical knowledge, then a Managed hosting plan is the best choice for you. With Managed hosting, your provider ensures everything runs smoothly behind the scenes, allowing you to focus solely on your website.
However, if you need to host a website or application in a specific environment that requires a high level of control, and you already have some technical knowledge and the time to spare, then Unmanaged hosting might be a good option for you. This plan allows you to customize and manage your server according to your unique needs.
Conclusion
Here at UKHost4u, we offer both fully Managed web hosting plans and Unmanaged hosting plans. We have a wide range of solutions suitable for any kind of website.
We’re on hand to help with any issue or question, no matter how small. Contact our team via our ticket system to see if we can help you. Explore our Managed Hosting Plans and Unmanaged Hosting Plans to find the best solution for your needs.
