Shared hosting is a cheaper option, so many online retailers tend to start their business with this type of hosting. But as their business grows, they are likely to run into resource constraints, and that negatively impacts their store performance.
It is at this juncture; the online retailer needs to decide whether to continue with the shared hosting or switch over to the cloud hosting.
Unmanaged hosting is not beneficial for the long run, so you need to consider a managed hosting that offers you significant benefits. It also enables you to focus more on your business and make efforts to grow it.
Why is Unmanaged Magento Hosting Troublesome?
Despite the shared hosting being the most economical option available, it is, however, only for the ones who can manage all the technicalities related to their online store. Or else, it becomes an expensive affair due to a slew of factors popping up. It is not advantageous in the long run.
You also need to manage the server. If you are not tech-savvy, you need to invest in hiring a system administrator for the job. Also, it is your responsibility to add Apache, NGINX, PHP stack, cache, database management, etc.
Unmanaged hosting is not a very good option for online retail stores due to:
- Security Concerns: As the support for Magento1 will end by the end of this year, it will meet the end of life (EOL). As such, the online retail owners will have to migrate to Magento2. And due to which, they need secured and managed hosting over and above the unmanaged shared hosting.
- Time Consumption: Managing shared hosting is not at all an easy task. It is instead a time-consuming affair as it needs some extra time during the day to keep all the server processes running and aligned correctly. Server management is not an easy affair. It is for the ones who know every nook and corner of the server.
- No Backup: You cannot ignore the role of a backup when you run an online store. There is no certainty that the server will run smoothly forever. There will be times when the server might come under an attack, and you will lose everything. So, backup is essential as it is the only method to get back your lost data. With unmanaged shared hosting, you need to take care of this as well, and that will call for time and extra efforts.
How Managed Magento Hosting Can Help?
You can get rid of all these problems by switching over to the managed Magento hosting. It enables you to free yourself from managing the server, and so you will get ample time to focus on your online store and grow your business.
Managed Magento hosting gives you the following advantages:
Scalability
Magento is a complex eCommerce platform that is developed on a sophisticated architecture. It calls for a complex mixture of components in the running server, like managed cloud hosting, among others. With managed cloud hosting, you get the flexibility to upgrade as well as downgrade the size of the server anytime. And for online retailers, this feature becomes extremely useful, especially in the holiday period when there is an abrupt rise in the traffic. We recommend you to start your Magento store with a 4GB plan, which is the best option for starters.
High Security
Managed Magento hosting is endowed with high security. It provides maximum protection due to the deployment of multiple layers of Intrusion Detection System (IDS), which gives protection against any malicious activity, DDoS attacks, policy violations, etc. And in the event of any security issues, the technical support team springs into action in very little time.
Highest Uptime & Performance
A managed Magento hosting has the latest technology that consists of the latest web server software along with a powerful caching system. As such, it entails faster page loading time as compared to shared hosting. And it is a crucial aspect for all online merchants as their growth in revenues depends upon it. At the same time, a managed Magento hosting provides maximum uptime, and that is a critical component in search engine results pages (SERP) as it gives faith to search engines.
Round-the-Clock Technical Support
You can get the technical support you need quite often when you opt for managed Magento hosting. The support team gives you round the clock support to fix any issue that might pop up anytime. An expert system administrator is the core member of the support team. He and his team manage all the technical issues of the server to offer you technical support. He manages things, such as domain registration, server launch and website migration.
Staging Feature
You cannot put your website off-line when you want to test new changes. So you need to test all updates, plugins or new changes on a development mode rather than the live website.
But with unmanaged hosting testing website changes is a time-consuming process. Managed hosting enables you to do away with the cumbersome process by providing single-click staging features that are developed for testing the changes without putting the website off-line.
Staging allows you to get a clone of your website with a click on a button. You can access the cloned website through a test URL using FTP, SSH or phpMyAdmin.
Saving Time
Single-click installation is a crucial feature of managed magento hosting that is an important time saving and server management feature. It provides you with j-toggle, and the platform itself takes care of everything. Single-click features include Magento-app installation, enabling/disabling services, migration, domain mapping, backup, SSL certificates, among others.
Automatic Backups
With managed Magento hosting, you can get backups of your website whenever you want. You can schedule automatic backup by clicking on the buttons for the purpose.
Conclusion
You now have an understanding of the difference between managed and unmanaged hosting. At the same time, you also came to know why you should choose the managed Magento hosting. Therefore, if you are starting an online store, you should choose the managed Magento hosting for the reasons outlined above.
Last Updated on November 24, 2021.
