Thread: Managed Hosting vs. Unmanaged Hosting

Specifically what management services are generally included in managed hosting that is not part of unmanaged hosting?

What usage cases are examples of who would benefit from managed hosting? What are the primary benefits of going with managed?

And how much of a price differential should one be expected to pay additional for managed hosting?

Managed hosting takes care of the entire stack, its uptime, its over all health and security. So that you do not have to worry about keeping the server hosting the application updated/, secure and optimized. It takes way lot of headaches from a server owner. Its good especially when you do not have time and are not technically sound to administer the server. In such cases, managed hosting would be better.

How much more should you expect to pay for managed hosting over a similar packaged unmanaged hosting?

There's no one-word answer to this, it depends, on quite a few factors that can take place.

Originally Posted by gozen

There's no one-word answer to this, it depends, on quite a few factors that can take place.

Can you share a few examples of differences between managed and unmanaged?

Originally Posted by josephf1

Can you share a few examples of differences between managed and unmanaged?

Admin time costs money. In most cases can cost more than the other operating costs that are needed to run such a business.

A good example of this can be found at

https://www.ukservers.com/enterprise...er-management/

They offer different levels of management. Their servers are unmanaged by default and you can add management to them. Or you can choose a provider where all services are Fully Managed by default.

The cost depends on the type of management you need.

There are a few terms like semi-managed, managed, fully managed. Fully managed hosting is the top rung of the managed hosting services ladder.

With fully managed hosting, you can run your business with little to no involvement in hosting operations, the host handles everything on your behalf.

Often includes 24/7support, network security, virus, spam and malware protection, server monitoring, application management, software update, auto backup etc.

Offers may vary by provider.

Originally Posted by Joseph1

Specifically what management services are generally included in managed hosting that is not part of unmanaged hosting?

What usage cases are examples of who would benefit from managed hosting? What are the primary benefits of going with managed?

And how much of a price differential should one be expected to pay additional for managed hosting?

Managed hosting includes server management, application support, 24/7 monitoring, and scalability. This benefits users with limited technical expertise, critical applications, and scalability needs. I'm paying $27 monthly for the service

You have to ask a lot of questions of the provider regarding what support is provided as part of management.

There is also a difference between reactive and proactive management.

Originally Posted by Joseph1

What are the primary benefits of going with managed?

Managed hosting is more expensive but takes care of server issues, ensuring security and stability. It's ideal for those who don't want to handle the technical side. Before choosing, confirm which services are included.

Originally Posted by Joseph1

Specifically what management services are generally included in managed hosting that is not part of unmanaged hosting?

What usage cases are examples of who would benefit from managed hosting? What are the primary benefits of going with managed?

And how much of a price differential should one be expected to pay additional for managed hosting?

Managed hosting typically includes services like server monitoring, automatic backups, security updates, and dedicated technical support, which are often absent in unmanaged hosting.

Managed Hosting
- Updates to your OS and panel
- Support and knowledge of the configuration
- Monitoring of the server (is online and serving traffic, disk space, all services are online, load is normal)
- Security: If the server comes under attack, a staff member will sign on and start blocking IP's.
- Backups
- Provider may not even give you root access.

Unmanaged
- Provider takes care of the underlying infrastructure only
- No or limited support for what is installed. You may need to pay $xxx/hr for them to start troubleshooting or find your own support
- No updates
- Provider likely does not know your sign on credentials
- Often no backups
- Huge expectation you are the server administrator and know what you are doing.

In the context of web hosting, often our 'Fully Managed' clients are resellers with limited server administration knowledge who want a reliable hosting service. This extra support is priced accordingly. 'Self Managed' clients are often web-developers who like our platform or service but want more control.
Many providers will still sell 'addons' with their self managed products like server monitoring or backups.

You absolutely do need to check with each provider as it may vary. Never fully trust backups and have your own solution as a last resort.