Starting an online business has never been easier thanks to ecommerce platforms like WooCommerce. With just a great idea and WooCommerce, anyone can set up a full-fledged online store in no time. But one crucial decision that can make or break your entrepreneurial aspirations is choosing the right managed WooCommerce hosting provider.
As a budding online seller, you want to focus your energy on crafting amazing products, building your brand, and acquiring customers. You don‘t want to worry about the headaches of servers, security, caching, and technical complexities. This is where managed WooCommerce hosting comes in to take all that off your plate!
In this comprehensive guide as a WooCommerce expert and WordPress geek, I‘ll share my insights into the top 11 managed WooCommerce hosting providers. I‘ve been building, reviewing, and analyzing WordPress sites for over 8 years. I‘ll draw on my extensive experience to help you find the perfect managed hosting fit for your online store.
What is Managed WooCommerce Hosting?
Managed WooCommerce hosting provides specialized servers optimized for WooCommerce built and managed by hosting experts. The provider handles everything related to the servers and technical infrastructure, including:
- Installation, management, and updates for the WooCommerce platform
- Server configuration, scaling, and optimization
- Caching and content delivery networks to accelerate site speed
- Advanced security protections like firewalls and malware scanning
- Daily automated backups of your site data
- Obtaining and renewing SSL certificates for security and SEO
- 24/7 expert support for any issues that crop up
This enables you as the business owner to solely focus on your products, content, marketing, and customers. Managed hosting alleviates the headache of handling the backend technical work associated with running an online store.
According to Kinsta‘s annual survey, over 70% of site owners say optimized servers and expert management are the biggest benefits of managed WordPress hosting. I concur as properly configured servers and expert oversight result in much higher performance, security, and reliability compared to basic shared hosting plans.
Now let‘s examine the top managed WooCommerce hosting providers.
1. Kinsta
Kinsta has become my go-to recommendation for managed WooCommerce hosting. I‘ve tested them extensively and been thoroughly impressed by their Google Cloud-powered infrastructure, proprietary caching technologies, and 24/7 support.
Every aspect of their service is designed specifically for WordPress and WooCommerce sites. Key advantages include:
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Lightning fast speeds powered by Google Cloud, LiteSpeed Cache, Nginx, HTTP/2 and other optimizations. This enables your store to easily handle traffic surges.
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Air-tight security with their firewall, DDoS protection, SSL, automated malware scans and software updates. As an online seller, security is paramount.
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Smooth scalability to grow your store resources like storage, bandwidth, and compute power in line with demand. No need to switch hosts as you expand.
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Seamless migrations to move your existing WooCommerce site to Kinsta free of charge. This includes free migrations from any other host.
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Worry-free expertise with their specialized WordPress infrastructure managed completely by their engineers. No need for you to spend time on technical work.
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Fanatical 24/7 support via live chat, phone, and tickets for any issues big or small. As a customer, this gives tremendous peace of mind.
Kinsta powers over 500,000 sites and is my top choice for a truly managed, high-performance WooCommerce hosting solution. Prices start at $30/month.
2. WP Engine
WP Engine is another leading managed WordPress host I recommend for high-traffic WooCommerce stores. They are the experts when it comes to enterprise-level WordPress infrastructure and management.
WP Engine powers over 500,000 sites with their optimized WordPress servers and over 400 employees dedicated just to WordPress.
For WooCommerce, they deliver:
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A highly optimized server stack including PHP-FPM, Nginx, Memcached, and EverCache for screaming fast performance.
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Reliable scalability from their enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure able to easily absorb traffic spikes.
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Robust security with automatic core and plugin updates, malware detection, two-factor authentication and other layers.
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Top-notch support from WordPress experts available 24/7 to provide guidance and resolve issues quickly.
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Easy staging to test changes on a copy of your site without affecting production.
I‘ve tested WP Engine extensively and been impressed by their infrastructure and expertise catering specifically to WordPress sites. Their advanced technology and support does come at a price, with plans starting at $35/month. But for high-traffic stores, they‘re a superb choice.
3. Cloudways
Cloudways has become my go-to for a flexible, scalable managed WooCommerce hosting solution. They provide blazing fast performance by hosting your store on major cloud platforms like DigitalOcean, Linode, AWS, and Google Cloud.
Here are some of the advantages Cloudways brings:
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Lightning fast speeds powered by top cloud infrastructure, CDN, and optimized LEMP stack.
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Easy scalability to grow or shrink resources based on live traffic and orders. You pay only for what you use.
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Enhanced security from dedicated firewalls, malware scanning, DDoS protection and free SSL certificates.
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24/7 expert support via live chat for a smooth managed hosting experience.
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Complete transparency into the performance and uptime of your server using their intuitive dashboard.
Cloudways makes it super easy to get started. You can launch a new store or migrate an existing one with no downtime. Their unique payment model based on hourly usage is perfect for ecommerce stores with fluctuating traffic. Plans start at $15/month but scale down based on actual usage.
For an affordable and flexible managed hosting solution, Cloudways is my top recommendation.
4. Nexcess
Nexcess is quickly becoming my preferred managed hosting provider for small- to medium-sized WooCommerce stores. Their optimized infrastructure and generous free extensions make launching an online store very easy.
Nexcess caters to the needs of WooCommerce stores with:
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Optimized servers powered by their custom LEMP technology stack for maximum speeds.
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Seamless migration for moving existing WooCommerce sites to Nexcess free of charge.
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Intelligent integrations with 100+ platforms like payment gateways, analytics, marketing and more.
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Premium extensions like Jetpack, Amazon S3 backups, security plugin, and image optimizer provided for free.
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Stellar 24/7 support via live chat, phone, and tickets to resolve any issues.
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Affordable pricing starting at $29/month for their Starter plan perfect for new sites.
Nexcess has the right balance of performance, features, and budget-friendly pricing. For small ecommerce stores, they are my first recommendation for hassle-free managed WooCommerce hosting.
5. Liquid Web
Liquid Web is a premium managed hosting provider catering to mid-sized and enterprise-level WooCommerce stores. Their optimized servers and support provide excellent performance and reliability.
Liquid Web delivers:
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Optimized servers powered by a custom Varnish cache backend, Opcache, Memcached, PHP 7.4 and more.
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Proactive monitoring to identify and fix issues before they snowball.
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Priority support with average ticket response under 59 seconds according to historical data!
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Enhanced security from their WAF, bot protection, malware scanning and automatic remediation.
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Free migrations for moving existing WooCommerce sites over to their managed solution.
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High-performance infrastructure including DB servers, storage, and cloud networks built for speed.
Liquid Web is on the pricier side with plans starting at $59/month. But you get premium managed hosting with proactive support, security, and optimizations perfect for mid-range online stores.
6. A2 Hosting
If you‘re looking for a budget-friendly managed hosting provider, A2 Hosting is a great choice. Their entry-level plans start at just $12.99/month but still provide excellent speeds and reliability.
Some key advantages of A2‘s managed solution:
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Turbo speed from SSD storage, HTTP/2, PHP 7.4, and caching plugins like LiteSpeed Cache.
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Reliability with anytime resource scaling, free Cloudflare CDN and guaranteed uptime.
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Top security including hack detection via machine learning, malware scanning, and firewall.
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24/7 support via ticket, chat and phone for any issues.
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Easy migrations from other hosts to transfer your existing WooCommerce site.
A2 Hosting is perfect for new online stores on a tight budget. You still get great performance, security protections, and support for highly affordable pricing.
Key Factors for Choosing Managed WooCommerce Hosting
As you evaluate managed WooCommerce hosting providers, keep these key criteria in mind:
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Performance – Seek options with SSD storage, PHP 7.4+, HTTP/2, optimized servers, and multi-layer caching technology. These accelerate site and page speeds.
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Reliability – Look for at minimum 99.9% uptime guarantees plus CDN, automated updates, backups, and 24/7 support access. This keeps your store always accessible.
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Security – Must-have protections include firewalls, malware scanning/removal, DDoS mitigation, dedicated IP, SSL certificates and more. Security is paramount with an online business.
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Scalability – As your business grows, you should be able to vertically scale resources like storage, bandwidth, and computing power on demand.
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Affordability – Evaluate the overall value and features you get access to compared to the monthly hosting costs. But don‘t sacrifice key criteria to save money either.
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Support – Managed hosting is ineffective without expert support. Ensure 24/7 access to a knowledgeable support team via live chat, phone, ticketing for any issues.
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Reviews – Check sites like TrustPilot along with social media and forums to gauge real customer experiences with the managed WooCommerce host. Don‘t just rely on claims from their own website.
Key Statistics and Data on WooCommerce Hosting
Let‘s look at some revealing statistics and data around WordPress and WooCommerce hosting:
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WooCommerce powers over 5 million online stores amounting to a 28% global ecommerce market share. (BuiltWith)
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66% of online stores suffer from inadequate hosting leading to poor performance. (Kinsta)
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Optimized WordPress hosting increases site speed by 328% on average. (Kinsta)
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78% of buyers will abandon a slow-loading online store. (Akamai)
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HTTPS-enabled websites see an average 7.7% lift in transactions. (WooCommerce)
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70% of site owners say optimized servers and expert management are the biggest benefits of managed WordPress hosting. (Kinsta)
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The global managed hosting market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 11% through 2026. (ResearchAndMarkets)
These statistics highlight why performance-focused managed hosting is so vital for WooCommerce stores. The combination of optimized servers, caching, CDNs, security layers and expert management results in much faster, safer, and reliable online stores.
Conclusion – Finding the Best Managed WooCommerce Hosting
The hosting provider you choose has an outsized impact on the performance, security, and success of your online business. After reviewing the top options, a fewManaged WooCommerce hosting alleviates the stresses of handling servers and infrastructure as an online seller. Instead, you can devote energy to crafting an amazing brand and store.
In this detailed guide, I‘ve compared the top managed hosting providers for WooCommerce stores based on extensive testing and experience with WordPress. Kinsta and WP Engine stand out for premium enterprise-level hosting. Cloudways excels at flexible cloud hosting. Nexcess and A2 Hosting fit the needs of early-stage ecommerce sites beautifully.
Evaluate your specific criteria like budget, expected traffic, desire for support, and scalability needs. This will help you select a managed host to provide the ideal foundation as you grow your online business and empower more customers through exceptional shopping experiences.
Wishing you tremendous success!
