Automattic (the company behind WordPress) announced a few days ago that the company is now offering a service called WordPress Enterprise.
What is Enterprise? A step in-between WordPress.com and WordPress VIP. Enterprise is a completely managed hosting option for businesses seeking something more than WordPress.com, but something that's far less expensive than WordPress VIP.
Pricing and Details
WordPress Enterprise doesn't come cheap at $500 per month, but Automattic reps say that the level of managed hosting is going to be so high that the price is justified. Is it? It all depends on what you want in a hosting company. For sure, $500 is far more than most other hosting companies charge for managed options, but it's hard to get a completely managed hosting plan with other companies too.
So, is WordPress Enterprise not a contender in the managed hosting scene? It might be. If you sign up for WordPress Enterprise, you'll get everything that you would get with WordPress.com plus some features from WordPress VIP plus Chartbeat and Flipboard integration. In short, it's the best that WordPress has to offer in one nice package – well, one expensive and nice package.
Managed Hosting Is Worth It
Whether or not you decide that the $500 Enterprise plan is right for you, there's no debating that fact that managed hosting is where it's at, and it's what you want when choosing a dedicated hosting option. Without managed hosting, you'll be left to your own devices, and that's never a good idea unless you know exactly what you are going. No idea? Don't go without managed hosting!
WordPress needs to break into the managed hosting space since the company deals with a lot of pressure from other hosting companies (and from sites like Tumblr). But, it will be interesting to see if companies want to pay $500 per month for what WordPress is offering. Would you pay this much for a managed hosting plan that's as simple to use as any other WordPress plan – and comes with some VIP advantages?
How to Choose
The best way to select a dedicated hosting plan is to find one that offers everything you want for the right price. If what Automattic is offering sounds like the exact thing you've been looking for, you can justify that $500 per month price. If not, it's probably out of your budget for now, and you can certainly find cheaper packages.
Compare what Automattic is offering as far as managed hosting goes with what you find elsewhere, and you'll soon see whether or not that price is crazy or just right. Would you sign up for the new WordPress Enterprise managed to host for your small business? Or, do you feel better about paying less? It will be interesting to see which one this one goes!
What is Managed Word Press Hosting?
Managed Word Press hosting refers to Word Press hosting services that are offered by your web hosting provider whereby your web host takes care of the maintenance needs of your website. With Managed Word Press hosting services, you do not need to worry about maintaining your Word Press website as your web host does this for you. Managed Word press hosting services are for you especially you are running an online business and you do not have a lot of time on our hands. For a personal blog, it may not be urgent to use managed Word Press hosting services though it is a must for businesses. Your managed Word Press host will keep your Word press site updated, update your Word press plug-ins and keep your site working quite fast. There are several benefits that accrue from a client using managed Word Press hosting services for their websites, they include:
The fact that maintenance of your Word Press hosting site will be adequately catered for is one of the major benefits of managed Word Press hosting. Your Word Press host will look into all upgrade and compatibility issues along with testing plug-ins before updating them while you deal with the important issues in running our Word Press site.
Another benefit of using Managed Word press hosting for your Word press site is the fact that most of the staff they employ are experts when it comes to Word Press. This way, clients do not have to worry about looking for technical experts to do the maintenance of your word press site.
Clients using managed Word Press hosting services also get the benefit of scalability as their businesses grow.
The performance that managed Word Press hosting offers their clients ensures that clients do not have to worry about caching your Word Press and any other issues.
Security is another great benefit that you get from using managed Word Press hosting. By putting up firewalls, you never have to worry about hackers and malware along with any other security threats.
With a managed Word press web host, you do not have to worry about Word press data backups and updates. This makes your work very easy as all you have to do is run your Word press site while your managed web host does all the maintenance for you.
With managed Word press hosting services from your web host, you don’t need to worry about Word press updates as your managed word press host gives you all the required updates.
Word Press plug incompatibility is very crucial and can be a real headache if they do not work right, with your site. Your managed Word Press hosting services provider ensures that all your lug ins function right while you deal with all the other aspects of running your Word Press site.
With optimized speed, your word press hosting site will load faster. No one wants to work with a slow Word Press site thus the need for excellent loading speed. Your managed Word press hosting provider will ensure that your website works with optimized speed.