What is enterprise level hosting for WordPress?

In order to understand enterprise-level hosting, you first need to have the idea for what a web hosting is. If you are among the lot who knows, you can proceed and jump to the WordPress hosting options available at your disposal.

For those of you who need explaining, here goes;

Website hosting is a process whereby companies and businesses (simply put) buys internet space for making their websites accessible over the World Wide Web. That’s how websites are stored on servers or on specially designed computers and in turn, becomes accessible to us.

With the help of a hosting service, we as netizens are able to view the webpages and visit our favorite websites with ease.

Congratulations, you now stand awake from the slumber!

WordPress is the most bankable option when it comes to catering millions of traffic in website data which is why when looking for an enterprise-level hosting for WordPress, following key factors ought to be taken into account:

1. The quality of the server infrastructure
2. Is it possible that the hosting service can be scaled or expanded (if need be, in future)?
3. The load which a server can withstand (very important)
4. Developer tools to go with – are they first-rate when it comes to their quality?
5. Customer support of the hosting company

All of these elements make up for an enterprise-level hosting (yes, you guessed it correct) for the company relying on WordPress for its online business needs.

Best managed WordPress hosting for enterprises

Managed WordPress hosting provides you with core administrative services such as help with installation of WordPress itself, speed, WordPress updates and routine backups etc.

Let’s see each in turn:

1. Kinsta

Kinsta is a newcomer in the market for enterprise-level hosting. However, Kinsta was quick to register its presence after first surfacing in 2013. It is a WordPress exclusive platform and does the heavy lifting as it is powered by none other than Google Cloud Platform, and entails a free content delivery network (CDN) for each of its plans.

You can expect support for Let’s Encrypt, WP-CPI, SSH and Git etc. Moreover, Kinsta can be counted on for its features such as ability to automatically scale among other things.

Pricing structure varies from $30 a month and up to $900 per month, but that will largely depend on your business size and needs. $30 to some can prove to be a bit pricey but for a company which had their cheapest plan priced at $100 initially, that’s a major improvement. SSD storage is merely 5GB which is obviously quite low.

2. WP Engine

A notable enterprise-level hosting company that basically serves as a benchmark for the companies that later followed in the hosting niche. WP Engine has something for everyone; beginner-friendly as well as developer-friendly hosting solutions.

WP Engine stands firm due to its variety of offerings such as the inclusion of CDN in each of its plans. For a business that is growing at a rapid pace, WP Engine offers the chance to scale at an equally rapid rate. With the said hosting service, you get automated migration at no additional cost!

Plus, the customer support is available 24/7, access to Genesis Framework and more than 35 StudioPress WordPress themes are at your disposal – all that and more with a WP Engine subscription. SSL certificates comes built-in.

WP Engine is often criticized for heavy alterations to the original WordPress code which is why transferring to another host for the customer becomes nearly impossible. As if this wasn’t enough, addons such as geotargeting and WordPress Multisite too become a costly affair.

3. Cloudways

Cloudways hosting isn’t far behind either. If your business is a growing one, you might want to take a peek at Cloudways for all your enterprise-level hosting needs. No matter, if it is the traffic witnessing a sudden peak, that particular website will continue to function, seamlessly without any downtime.

The service is made up of Google-powered Kubernetes (read: cluster of nodes), meaning if for a reason any cluster node goes down, another one takes its place and keeps the website up and running. As stated, Cloudways hosting can accommodate sudden traffic hikes due to its ability to scale with ease.

With Cloudways Advanced Support Addon your website hosting gets support on priority at no extra charge. Oh, and did we mention that a single Cloudways subscription with its Cloud Load Balancing and Cloud SQL can facilitate five active websites? Well, now you know.

4. Flywheel

Flywheel is a renowned hosting company in the world of enterprise-level. Their flagship hosting service goes by the name of ‘Flywheel Blue’ and is one of the highly sought-after plans. It is to Flywheel’s credit that its customers are provided with seamless to use development tools unlike other hosting companies.

Flywheel boasts an impressive clientele under its label such as the likes of Lenovo, Forbes, The Washington Post and University of Michigan. These names speaks volumes of credibility and trust that the hosting company has earned in the industry because a portfolio this BIG, certainly doesn’t come easy.

With a Flywheel subscription, you can expect a traffic of over 1 million, 5GB storage and a bandwidth usage of 5TB. Not coming slow, eh? Well, naturally the pricing is of the premium tier i.e. $2500/month. However, you get support for just one WordPress site. Not a bad thing per se.

Some other notable pros comprise of support for both hosting setups; GCP and AWS. With Flywheel’s customized account/dashboard, website management is a piece of cake! Furthermore, potential for scaling to encompass sudden surge in website traffic can be found with Flywheel.

5. Media Temple

Media Temple is easily the most recognizable hosting platform providers out there. A relatively new player in the market with respect to enterprise-level hosting for WordPress, their plans consists of classic hosting service along with a virtual private server (VPS).

At a price of $2500 a month, you will be provided with the ability to build hosting for up to five websites and a cloud storage of 1TB. Additionally, you get 1.5TB of bandwidth. Seriously, what more could you ask?

Option to expand the hosting setup as per the business needs is also available such as 10 Amazon EC2 instances.  

Similar to Pressable above, here you get a dedicated account manager to help you with setting up Media Temple. The account manager is also there to troubleshoot any issues that you might run into down the road.

6. WordPress

AKA WordPress VIP is yet another enterprise-level hosting solution primarily for WordPress.com but you must be thinking, “wait, isn’t WordPress.com free!?” You are correct but little do we realize that even the free version is made up of intricate hosting setup, behind.

While NOT free, WordPress VIP cater websites which are high profile/traffic extensive and which otherwise might not be available to a casual user. What sets WP VIP apart from its competition is its ability to provide clients with an impeccable customer support. After all, don’t we all want to be heard?

WordPress VIP has an impressive portfolio of websites in its arsenal such as Facebook, Spotify and UPS. As much as it is capable of handling any sort of load, before translating it onto WordPress VIP, your website code requires reviewing after which the company expert will have it deployed.

The whole process takes about 15 business days which can prove to be tiresome. But on the plus side, your code is scanned for any bugs and is optimized before being deployed. The initial setup fee can cost you about $15000 which makes it perhaps the priciest option in our list.

Remember, how you hated the message “Powered by WordPress.com” in the footer when using WordPress.com? Well, here you get the same message. The only difference this time around would be “WordPress.com VIP”. Yeah, its sucks.

7. Pressable

Pressable has been around for quite some time. The hosting platform was established in the year 2010 and specializes in sporting security and greater performance for any company running WordPress driven website.

Pressable plans come with customization of all sorts and the company even caters to startups and not merely enterprises. So that’s a plus. Any Pressable customer can comfortably design a hosting solution suited to their needs.

With a monthly subscription of $750/month, you can expect a traffic of up to 5 million on your website. That’s saying something! Additionally, you also qualify for an unlimited amount of disk space and bandwidth usage. Launch as many as 100 WordPress installs with its single subscription.

How do you like them apples?

Furthermore, as a customer, you are assigned an account manager who will assist you in building that perfect setup for your business and will aim to advise you on getting the most out of your Pressable account.  Just that for a small company size, it boasts an expensive pricing structure.

Difference between ‘Shared’ and ‘Managed’ hosting

While we have covered some of the best WordPress managed hosting options above, in detail – there is always this debate about, “what if I were to opt for a shared hosting instead of a managed one”? To clear the air, it is imperative that distinctions must be made between the two.

Managed Hosting:

• Regular updates are provided just like the Windows OS and are applied automatically
• Backups are created automatically (daily or weekly, whichever method you choose)
• Optimization for speeds through CDN is available as well as for database  
• Security measures are high and rock solid
• Packs the ability to cater traffic hikes AKA scalability optimization
• Servers are specifically optimized for WordPress

Shared Hosting:

Shared hosting is referred to a manner whereby hosting companies hosts a large number of users on any given server rather than assigning them individually. Of course, it’s cheaper that way but talk about the load – it becomes difficult address sudden hikes in website traffic and there is no fall back plan either (in the case, if it were to happen). Basically, you get stuck.

Some notable distinctions as opposed to Managed hosting include,

• Manual updating of service
• Backups are possible only via third-party plugins
• Security aspects are relatively low and poor
• Speed optimization is also available through third-party plugins but packs zero optimization for database
• Not just WordPress exclusive. Works with a variety of platforms and web scripts
• Cap on the number of visits you can get on a particular website

To wrap it up

You cannot simply expect for anyone to just say it outright that ‘X’ platform is better than ‘Y’. Each of the enterprise-level hosting services have its pros and their respective cons. But that being said, these companies are flexible and can go an extra mile when it comes to suiting your business needs.

Therefore, you cannot put a label on either of them as the ‘best’ of them all. However, what this list can help you with is for you to do your homework or in other words, the list enables you take an informed decision. It all boils down to a comparative study between servers, customer service, pricing and developer tools being offered by the hosting company.