Here’s our guide for picking out a great managed WordPress hosting option in 2026.
What is “Managed WordPress”?
“Managed WordPress” hosting means that the hosting company will provide many performance and security maintenance services for your WordPress site. This can include things like regular backups, handling updates, speed and scalability optimizations, and providing a firewall or malware removal if you get hacked. Managed WordPress hosting also typically comes with excellent support if you ever need additional help. With managed WordPress hosting, the technical side of running a website is taken care of by the host.
However, there are also a few downsides. Managed WordPress hosting is more expensive than other hosting options, so you’ll want to make sure it fits into your budget. It also has more technical limitations, so if you’re going to want to get “under the hood” of your website to manage all the technical details, managed hosting may not be right for you.
Who should get Managed WordPress?
If you’re just getting started with a blog or small website, then you probably don’t need to pay for the additional services that managed WordPress hosting provides. Shared hosting will likely be all you need, and if budget is your biggest concern then you won’t like the prices of a managed plan. Check out our list of best budget WordPress hosting providers.
If your business will rely on your website, you have medium-to-high levels of traffic, or your biggest concerns are security or up-time, then managed WordPress hosting is a great option for you.
Recommended Managed WordPress Hosting
Here are the managed WordPress hosting options that we recommend. Keep in mind that each provider has multiple tiers, so after you choose a provider make sure you take a look at the tier options they offer so you can pick the best plan for your website.
| Starting Price* | # of Sites | Speed | Support | CDN | Free Site Migration | Daily Backups | Staging | Security | Email Hosting | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kinsta | $35/mo | 1 | Fast | Excellent | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | DDoS Protection, SSL | No |
| WP Engine | $23/mo | 1 | Average | Good | Yes | Plugin | Yes | Yes | SSL, Paid add-on options | No |
| WPX Hosting | $21/mo | 5 | Fast | Excellent | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | DDoS Protection, SSL | Yes |
| Siteground | $14.99/mo | 1 | Slow | Average | Yes | Plugin | Yes | No | WAF, SSL | Yes |
| Cloudways | $12/mo | Unlimited | Average | Average | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | WAF, SSL, Auto-healing | No |
| Flywheel | $13/mo | 1 | Average | Good | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | SSL, Auto-healing | No |
| Nexcess | $19/mo | 1 | Average | Average | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | SSL | Yes |
*Pricing is subject to change
Kinsta
Best Managed Hosting | Starts at $35/mo
Kinsta provides the best managed WordPress hosting experience. Their dashboard is easy to navigate, they walk you through the setup of your WordPress site, sites they host have blazing fast load times, and their support team is fast and friendly. If you want a host who will take care of just about everything for you, Kinsta is it.
Built on the Google Cloud servers so it provides excellent performance, Kinsta does up-time checks on your website every two minutes to make sure you’re up-and-running. They also provide malware cleanup if you’re ever hacked and fully automatic (daily) backups.
The downside to Kinsta is their pricing. Their plans start at $35 a month, and go up from there based on how many websites and how much disk space you need. If the price doesn’t scare you off though, it’s tough to find a better WordPress hosting provider than Kinsta.
WP Engine
Best for Businesses | Starts at $23/mo
WP Engine has definitely made a name for themselves as one of the best managed WordPress hosting providers. They are up there with Kinsta in providing a truly VIP hosting experience; you’ll have a whole team of experts helping you with your site since they offer great customer support. They have a slightly higher pricepoint than some of the other options on this list, but that’s because they take care of everything for you.
With WP Engine you’ll get multiple environments for your site– that means staging, development, and production– so if you ever need to test updates or content changes you can do so safely and without ever taking your site offline. You’ll also get a CDN (which is a “content-delivery network,” it speeds up your site’s loading times), a free SSL, automatic daily backups, automatic site updates, customized user roles, threat blocking and security, and over 35 free StudioPress themes along with the Genesis framework.
Features
- 24/7 chat support, phone for certain plans
- 1-click WordPress installation
- Includes SSL & CDN
- Free site migration
- Daily site backups & automatic updates
- Multiple environments for each site
- Hack protection
- Free Genesis framework & 35+ StudioPress themes
- 60-day money-back guarantee
WP Engine is best for…
- Small to large business who want the most hassle-free hosting
WPX Hosting
Best Support | Starts at $21/mo
WPX is a managed WordPress hosting option that offers very good performance, and will provide one free round of site speed optimization. They offer excellent support, with some of the quickest and most knowledgeable support staff in the business. Beginners will find them easy-to-use with a user-intuitive dashboard, plus WPX will help you set up or migrate your site, and offer multiple ways to contact their support team if you need extra assistance.
Pricing is based on bandwidth instead of user-traffic, which means you’re only paying for the resources you use. That makes WPX more affordable while still providing excellent managed services.
The downside to WPX is that they use shared servers and they do limit your resources based on which plan tier you’re on, so they don’t win out on best performance overall– but if you’re mostly focused on support and ease-of-use without any complications, WPX is a great option.
Features
- 24/7 chat & phone support + email & ticket support
- Easy WordPress installation
- Includes SSL & CDN
- Automatic site backups
- Free site migration
- Free site optimization
- Staging environment
- Malware removal
- 30-day money-back guarantee
WPX is best for…
- Users looking for solid performance & great support without any complications
Siteground
Most Reliable | Starts at $14.99/mo
Siteground is an official WordPress-recommended host, and a really solid WordPress hosting option if you’re on a budget. While they do use shared hosting and are not as fast as some of the other providers, they do have great up-time, good premium support, good security optimizations, and daily backups. They also provide one-click installation, email services, and version control. Plus Siteground has been around since 2004! They’re one of the longest-operating and most reliable hosting providers in the business.
It should be noted that Siteground doesn’t “manage” their managed hosting plans nearly as much as some of the VIP providers on this list, so if you want to go totally hands-off on setting up & maintaining your hosting then you should look elsewhere. However, they regularly offer discounted prices and offer bigger discounts if you pay upfront for longer periods. So if you’re looking for the best budget option to get started with while still getting good performance then you should check Siteground out.
Cloudways
Best Scalability | Starts at $12/mo
Cloudways is a managed hosting provider that prioritizes performance, speed, and security. With Cloudways you can build unlimited websites and they will charge you based on the resources you use. Their pay-as-you-go pricing model makes them one of the most affordable managed hosting options and you’re not locked in to any contract. It also makes it very easy to scale as your website grows.
One thing to be aware of is that Cloudways is not as beginner-friendly as some of these other options. You’ll need to make some decisions about which cloud-server you want to host on and have some basic technical knowledge. Because of this, Cloudways is more customizable, but less simple to use.
Another benefit of Cloudways is that they have auto-healing, cloud-based servers that give you great performance and up-time. So if you’re comfortable with a slightly more hands-on hosting situation, Cloudways can be a great option with their affordability & scalability.
Features
- 24/7 chat support + premium support options
- Cloud-based servers
- Includes SSL
- Free site migration
- Dedicated firewall & 24/7 monitoring
- Automatic updates
- Staging environment
- 1-click scaling
- Unlimited websites, pay-as-you-go
- 3-day free-trial
Cloudways is best for…
- Those with some technical know-how who want good, scalable performance at an affordable price
Flywheel
Best Collaboration | Starts at $13/mo
Flywheel is another managed WordPress hosting option that has optimized their (cloud-based) servers specifically for WordPress sites. Where Flywheel really stands out is with their collaboration tools and user interface; they have a very visually pleasing, intuitive, simple-to-use dashboard that makes dealing with hosting issues that much easier.
With Flywheel it’s easy to build and share demo websites, which is an excellent feature if you’re collaborating with others or building a site for someone else. Flywheel also lets you create and save WordPress configurations for reuse if you’ll have multiple installations. To extend the collaboration tools, you can add multiple users to the account with control over their access & admin capabilities.
Performance with Flywheel is also good. While their load times tend to be middle-range they do guarantee 100% up-time. They also provide automatic daily backups and updates, malware cleanup, a CDN and SSL, and free site migration. However, while their lowest plan tier is good for getting started it will likely need to be increased relatively quickly as it doesn’t allow for much traffic or bandwidth.
Features
- 24/7 chat, email, & phone support
- 1-click WordPress installation
- Cloud-based servers
- Includes SSL & CDN
- Free site migration
- Daily site backups
- Automatic updates
- Free malware cleanup
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Flywheel is best for…
- Those who need to collaborate on a website and those who prioritize having an intuitive, easy-to-use user interface
Nexcess
Best Monitoring | Starts at $19/mo
Nexcess has been around for over 20 years and has proven to be a reliable and respected hosting provider; in 2019 they joined with LiquidWeb to focus primarily on managed WordPress hosting. One unique thing that Nexcess offers is allowing you to visually test plugin and theme updates before you make those updates live on your site, along with plugin performance monitoring. These tools can both save you some major headaches and prevent your site from looking ‘broken’ because of plugins and update issues.
With auto-scaling your site is protected from surges of traffic, and while their plan tiers do have bandwidth limits there are no visitor limitations. Nexcess provides a staging environment, SSL, CDN, daily backups, free site migration, the iThemes Security Pro plugin, and free email. If you’re focused on ecommerce and will use WooCommerce for your store Nexcess has optimized WooCommerce hosting plans.
The Nexcess dashboard prioritizes flexibility and user-control with some more advanced development and configuration options rather than being geared towards beginners, so definitely keep that in mind.
Features
- 24/7 chat, email & phone support
- Includes SSL & CDN
- Free site migration
- Automatic daily backups
- WooCommerce-specific hosting plans
- Visually test theme & plugin updates
- Email from the 2nd-tiered plan & up
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Nexcess is best for…
- Those who have some tech-savviness and want more control over their managed WordPress hosting
So what’s next?
Now that you’ve picked out the right managed WordPress hosting for your site, it’s time to build a website or start a blog!









