Table of contents
The advantages of managed hosting
Today, anyone with a minimum familiarity with hosting platforms (such as Plesk or cPanel) can purchase a do it yourself hosting (also referred to as “DIY”) and manage every aspect of their site’s life: the underlying programming language (version, extensions, configuration parameters), decide whether to activate caching and what type, as well as manually handle any updates, buying or renewing licenses for necessary software on a case-by-case basis.
Nulla di male, ma l’alternativa per chi vuole sia risparmiare fondi che avere meno pensieri, delegando il più possibile questi aspetti per concentrarsi sulla propria attività, esiste eccome: si chiama managed hosting (anche detto “gestito”).
In brief, with this formula we mean that a customer is not “left to their own devices” and can have access to a whole range of benefits. Let’s see which ones!
Consultation on infrastructure
The interlocutors are technicians who not only know the needs of their clients but also the software for which they offer hosting services. This means being able to advise on the best solutions for the stability, performance, and usability of websites and applications.
Customizable Backup Policy
For example, it could be agreed to have the database backup more than once a day.
Targeted updates and guaranteed
On this point, some clarification is needed: when talking about “managed hosting” and “updates,” different companies provide different definitions. Take Aruba as an example: the automatic updates of their managed hosting involve update processes that “trigger” automatically at pre-established days. Then, if something goes wrong, the customer will have to notice it and in case perform a “rollback” (load a backup).
In our case, when we talk about updates, we refer to a more “artisanal” activity: first of all, a filtering between mandatory upgrades (that is, those that fix security flaws or serious performance issues) and optional ones (that add some minor features of which we might not even need, with the risk however of introducing incompatibilities).
Then, once what to update and what not has been chosen, we believe that a managed hosting should provide the guarantee of manual checks by a technician after the update. This means having a site or application check plan to ensure that essential features (specific – such as the product purchase process – or generic, like email sending) have not been compromised in any way after the upgrade.
Licenses
Finally, we come to one of the most extraordinary advantages of managed hosting: the savings on software costs, namely the licenses that are included in the purchased package.
For clarity, let’s consider a very typical case: an e-commerce on WordPress that meets these characteristics:
- Performance, through application caching
- Ensure stock consistency between the warehouse and website (through an import software)
- Multilingual
- Contact forms that, in compliance with privacy regulations, collect aggregated data on our visitors.
On WordPress, for our fortune, there exist professional software that manage each of these aspects. Below, we cite their most essential features and costs, taking as reference the versions with the fullest functionality (there also exist “base” versions, usually called “for blogs” and with lower costs, but we orient ourselves here on those truly professional ones, which we recommend to those who care about the quality of their site).
WPML
From now for about ten years it has been the reference point for creating multi-language websites with WordPress. Thanks to WPML (WordPress Multilingual Plugin) it is possible to offer visitors multilingual contents that concern every part of the site, namely:
- Menu navigation
- Articles, pages, and other custom content
- Taxonomies
- SEO information, such as slug and meta
- Media and related metadata
- Text strings associated with features offered by other plugins or graphical themes
For discover all the features of WPML read our dedicated article.
Let’s see the costs of this plugin:
- WPML – Cost for 3 production sites (and 9 development sites): $99/year
- WPML – Cost for unlimited sites: $199 / year
- WPML – Cost for unlimited sites with Hosting4Agency: $0 / year
For further information on costs visit the site www.wpml.org
Gravity Forms
Gravity Forms is the professional solution for creating forms, whether simple contact forms or even (as done in some of our projects) patient medical records. Some of the features include:
- Compliance with accessibility standards (WCAG), security (PCI) and privacy (GDPR)
- Builder drag and drop, with responsive design
- Multiple different field formats supported, with validation
- Conditional logic
- Pagination
- Possibilities of saving and continuing later
- Export and import between different sites
- API extended and well-documented, which together with webhooks enables any custom development
- Data Routing to CRM like Zoho, Zapier etc
- Digital signature
Here are the costs of Gravity Forms:
- Gravity Forms – Costo per 3 siti: $159 per anno
- Gravity Forms – Costo per siti illimitati: $259 per anno
- Gravity Forms – Cost per unlimited sites with Hosting4Agency: $0 / year
For further information on costs visit the site: www.gravityforms.com
WP All Import
WP All Import is the connection between WordPress and the exchange formats (CSV, XML, Excel) in which we might have or want our data: indeed, despite its official name only speaking of “import”, it actually serves both as an importer and an exporter, with a simple interface that allows mapping the source fields to the destination ones.
Ideal for those who have a database of data they would like to bring into their own website (whether it be records or real estate properties), or for those who have another e-commerce platform and want to switch to WooCommerce… or vice versa!
The most comprehensive package, in fact, guarantees compatibility with other among the most renowned and reliable WordPress plugins such as Advanced Custom Fields, WooCommerce, Gravity Forms, Types. Here are the costs of this service:
- Costo per siti illimitati (Import + Export Pro Package): 299 dollars one time
- Costo per siti illimitati con Hosting 4 Agency: 0 dollars forever
For further information on costs visit the site: www.wpallimport.com
WP Rocket
WP Rocket is the professional solution for static resource caching, meaning:
- Browser caching: ensures that your users save a copy of the static resources (CSS, JS, images) on their devices and do not have to redownload them every time
- Cache Preloading: as soon as we modify some contents, the new optimized version (“cachata”) will be generated instantly
- Compatibility with multilingual sites and with dozens of the most common plugins
In brief, faster and web modern standards compatible sites. Following are the courses of this indispensable plugin:
- WP Rocket – Costo per 3 siti: 79 USD / anno
- WP Rocket – Cost for unlimited sites: 199 USD / year
- WP Rocket – Cost for unlimited sites with Hosting4Agency: $0 / year
For further information on costs visit the site: www.wp-rocket.me
Conclusion: let’s do some math…
Now, let’s exclude the import plugin that has a one-time cost (keeping in mind that nearly 300 euros of license would still be savable!) and consider the most favorable case, namely: we have a maximum of 3 websites
The accounts are soon settled: according to the current euro-dollar exchange rate (we are writing in April 2022), we are talking about 315 euros per year.
If instead we consider the “worst case”, i.e., in which we have more than 3 sites, the figure almost doubles and reaches 614 euros per year… Assuming that prices will not increase (which happens regularly!), we are talking about thousands and thousands of euros over just a few years!
The reasons why we recommend the managed hosting formula are clear: hundreds of euros saved annually on licenses, competent personnel taking care of updates and consultancy, and a hosting built to meet one’s own needs.
Contact us! We will be happy to meet you and build the most suitable solution for you!
