Automattic (the company behind WordPress) announced a few days ago that it now offers a WordPress Enterprise service.

What is Enterprise? A step in between WordPress.com and WordPress VIP. Enterprise is a wholly managed hosting option for businesses seeking something more than WordPress.com but 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 will 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 getting a completely managed hosting plan with other companies is hard, 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 you would get with WordPress.com, plus some features from WordPress VIP, Chartbeat, and Flipboard integration. In short, WordPress offers the best in one excellent package – well, one expensive and excellent 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 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 doing. No idea? Don’t go without managed hosting!

WordPress must break into the managed hosting space since the company deals with a lot of pressure from other hosting companies (and sites like Tumblr). But it will be interesting to see if companies want to pay $500 monthly for what WordPress offers. Would you pay this much for a managed hosting plan that’s as simple to use as any other WordPress plan and has 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 offers sounds like what you’ve been looking for, you can justify that $500 monthly price. If not, it’s probably out of your budget for now, and you can find cheaper packages.

Compare what Automattic offers regarding managed hosting 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 WordPress hosting refers to hosting services offered by your web hosting provider, whereby your web host takes care of your website’s maintenance needs. With Managed WordPress hosting services, you do not need to worry about maintaining your WordPress website, as your web host does this for you. Managed WordPress hosting services are for you, especially if you are running an online business and do not have much time. It may not be urgent for a personal blog to use managed WordPress hosting services, though it is necessary for businesses. Your managed WordPress host will keep your WordPress site updated, update your WordPress plug-ins and keep your site working quickly. Several benefits accrue from a client using managed Word Press hosting services for their websites; they include:

The fact that maintenance of your WordPress hosting site will be adequately catered for is one of the significant benefits of managed WordPress hosting. Your WordPress host will look into all upgrade and compatibility issues and test plug-ins before updating them while you deal with the critical issues in running our WordPress site.

Another benefit of using Managed WordPress hosting for your WordPress site is that most of the staff they employ are experts in WordPress. This way, clients do not have to worry about looking for technical experts to maintain their WordPress site.

Clients using managed WordPress hosting services also benefit from scalability as their businesses grow.

The performance that managed WordPress hosting offers its clients ensures that clients do not have to worry about caching their WordPress and any other issues.

Security is another great benefit of using managed WordPress hosting. By putting up firewalls, you never have to worry about hackers, malware, and any other security threats.

You do not have to worry about WordPress data backups and updates with a managed WordPress web host. This makes your work very easy as you must run your WordPress site while your managed web host does all the maintenance.

You don’t need to worry about WordPress updates with managed WordPress hosting services from your web host, as your managed WordPress host gives you all the required updates.

Word Press plug incompatibility is crucial and can be a real headache if it does not work right with your site. Your managed WordPress hosting services provider ensures that all your lug ins function while you deal with all the other aspects of running your WordPress site.

With optimized speed, your WordPress hosting site will load faster. No one wants to work with a slow WordPress site, thus needing excellent loading speed. Your managed WordPress hosting provider will ensure that your website works with optimized speed.