Choosing The Right Web Site Hosting - Managed vs. Unmanaged Hosting

There are some significant differences between managed hosting and unmanaged hosting, and it depends on your particular needs which one is best.

Managed hosting can have a number of advantages, the biggest of which is that it provides "end-to-end" server management. With managed hosting, all server-related troubleshooting needs are taken care of for you. If your business doesn't have a full-time server administrator or network technician, this can save you from a lot of grief if there's ever a problem with your server.

You also won't need to worry about hardware and software requirements such as the operating system, network connection or administration. These services are all part of what is being managed for you by the hosting company.

Your only responsibility is to manage the content on the website. This can be done from anywhere in the world, so you don't necessarily have to be local to where your server is being hosted.

Many companies providing managed hosting even offer simple "control panels" that let inexperienced and non-technical people set up and maintain their websites. These control panels offer one-click shortcuts to what would normally be complex commands. They can also fix some problems that can pop up under day-to-day operation of a website.

Another factor that is handled for you with managed hosting is the bandwidth. Your hosting company will monitor your site and adjust the bandwidth to meet any increases in traffic coming to the website.

If your website is particularly busy, a managed hosting plan can also include load balancing, which spreads your traffic out over multiple servers to avoid overloading any particular one.

What About Unmanaged Hosting?

With unmanaged hosting, you'll get remote administration access to your server. It's then up to you to ensure all necessary maintenance is taken care of. The catch is, you'll need to be familiar with the technical side of server maintenance (or hire someone to do it for you).

Unfortunately, if you don't have the necessary skills yourself, server administrators don't come cheap. There's also always the concern that they might quit and move on, leaving you with having to train a new person and get them up to speed on the particulars of your website.

The bottom line is that, unless you either have the skills yourself or already have staff in place to handle the administration, it usually makes more sense to opt for managed hosting.

The additional cost of managed hosting over unmanaged is less than you'll need to pay someone to handle the administration duties for you, and having it done for you lets you focus on the most important aspect of your website - the content.

John Lenaghan writes about Linux web hosting and other website hosting topics on the Hosting Report website. Find out more at http://www.hostingreport.org.

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