What is managed server hosting?

Managed server hosting, usually just called managed hosting, is hosting where the provider looks after the server as well as supplying it. They install and update the software, apply security patches, take and test backups, watch for faults and renew the things that expire, such as SSL certificates and domains. With unmanaged hosting you get the server and a login, and all of that work is yours. The difference is less about the hardware and more about who is responsible when something goes wrong.

Every website lives on a server, a computer kept running in a data centre and connected to the internet. Hosting is renting space on one. The question managed hosting answers is what happens after the rental starts. Somebody has to keep the operating system patched, the web server and database up to date, the certificate valid, the backups running and the disk from filling up. On an unmanaged plan that somebody is you or your developer. On a managed plan it is the hosting provider.

The terms used for it vary. Managed server hosting usually means a whole server, physical or virtual, run on your behalf. Managed web hosting usually means the same care applied to a website rather than a server you think of as your own. Managed hosting services is the umbrella phrase providers use for both. In each case the test is the same: does the provider do the work, or only provide the machine?

The same idea applies to a server that is not in a data centre at all. Plenty of small businesses still have one in the office, holding shared files, an accounts package or a line-of-business database. Managed server support for those means the same work done remotely: patching, monitoring, checking the backups restore, and being told when a disk is about to fail rather than finding out when it has. We price that at £60 to £100 per server per month depending on what the server does, separately from per-user support.

Managed WordPress hosting is the most common version for small businesses, because WordPress needs more looking after than most platforms. The core software, the theme and every plugin release updates regularly, some of them security fixes, and a WordPress site left a year behind is a well-known target. A managed WordPress host applies those updates on a schedule, checks the site still works afterwards, hardens the login, and keeps backups away from the server so a compromised site can be restored.

It helps to compare it with the two alternatives. Shared hosting puts many websites on one server, managed in bulk by the provider. It is cheap, often a few pounds a month, and the provider does patch the server, but your own site, its software, its plugins and its backups are usually left to you, and a busy neighbour on the same server can slow you down. Unmanaged hosting, often a virtual private server, gives you a whole machine and complete control, which is excellent for a developer who wants it and risky for a business that does not have one.

Managed hosting sits above both. You get a server that is properly resourced for your site, with a person responsible for keeping it healthy, and usually somebody to ring who knows how it is set up. As market guidance, UK website hosting bought on its own runs from about £5 to £40 a month, with fuller care plans covering updates, backups and small content changes commonly £20 to £100 a month. Shops and business applications sit higher because there is more to keep working.

What should a managed plan include? At minimum: security patching for the server and the site software, daily backups held somewhere other than the server, restores that are actually tested, uptime monitoring that alerts a person, SSL certificates renewed automatically, and domains and DNS records documented and renewed. Many also cover email records such as SPF, DKIM and DMARC, which decide whether your messages reach an inbox. Ask whether backups are tested and when the last restore was. A provider who cannot answer is offering storage rather than management.

Who needs it? Any business whose website brings in enquiries or sales and has nobody in-house whose job is to maintain a server. That is most small businesses. The cost of a lapsed certificate, a hacked plugin or a backup that never worked is nearly always larger than the monthly difference between managed and unmanaged hosting.

Who does not? A developer comfortable running their own server, or a very simple site on a platform that handles its own updates, may reasonably choose unmanaged or shared hosting and do the rest themselves. That is a fair choice as long as somebody genuinely does it.

Our own hosting is managed in this sense: UK infrastructure, daily backups with tested restores, monitoring, patching, SSL, domains and DNS handled by the same team that supports business IT. WordPress sites are hosted on the same managed servers, and a website care plan adds the updates and small content changes, so nobody has to log in and press update.

• Hosting, Managed UK hosting for websites, email and applications, with backups, SSL, domains and DNS handled.
• Servers & Backups, Windows and Linux servers, physical and virtual, backed up to two places with restores tested rather than assumed.
• WordPress Hosting, WordPress sites hosted on managed UK servers, with the updates, backups and monitoring done for you.