There’s so much more to WordPress websites than meets the eye: security, updates, speed, scalability, and more. Do you have the expertise for all the necessary technical gimmicks? Are you a seasoned pro, but lack the time? Either way, you probably want a turnkey website tailored to your needs. In this case, managed WordPress hosting is the right choice.
Benefits of managed WordPress hosting
Managed WordPress hosting is a particularly popular choice among small to medium-size companies. Example, those managing high-traffic blogs, or organisations looking for specialized enterprise WordPress hosting. Then, Managed WordPress hosting is a good investment because it:
- Reduces labour costs and time.
- Ensures a finer-tuned CMS.
- Guarantees round-the-clock site maintenance.
- Updates WordPress installations and plugins.
- Runs daily backups and security scans.
Plesk offers providers a Managed WordPress Hosting solution
The Plesk WP Toolkit has key features for managed WordPress hosting. Plesk hosting providers can offer customers a turnkey WordPress environment. One where you can preinstall WordPress on your customers’ newly created domains with selected plugins and themes, tailored to customers.
Extremely useful because customers receive WordPress websites with a personalized look and functionality. And ready-to-use WordPress instances immediately available after your first login. So let’s cover the basic steps you need to follow to set up managed WordPress hosting. And get your website up and running in minutes.
How to set up Managed WordPress Hosting – The Tutorial
Here’s a brief overview of WP Toolkit features for managed WordPress hosting. With detailed step-by-step instructions. Have a look, give it a like, and keep reading below for more details.
Managed WordPress Hosting in Plesk is simple and we can divide it into two steps: First, creating and uploading a set of plugins and themes. And second, configuring a hosting plan.
1a. Create a new custom set of plugins and themes
First, we need to prepare a selection of themes and plugins to pre-install on your customers’ instances together with WordPress.With the WP Toolkit, you can do this with ‘sets’ – which are kind of like empty boxes that you stuff with the themes/plugins you want your customers to have.
- Go to WordPress > Sets Tab
- Create Set
- Name your set (which is now empty)
- Navigate under ‘Add Plugins’
- Select your plugins and themes
- Click ‘Create’
Pick plugins that can enhance customers’ WordPress experience. For example, choose any WordPress caching plugin. This can significantly improve website’s performance.
To save time, you can use the two sets we pre-installed by default. The “WordPress Essentials” and “E-Commerce pack” sets speak for themselves. They can suit any website and E-Commerce website respectively. You can also use these without creating a new set.
1B. Uploading Custom Plugins and Themes
How else can you pre-configure WordPress instances of your customers? You can upload custom plugins and themes. Useful if you can’t find a suitable plugin or theme in the wordpress.org repository, or you need to install your own.
Plugins and themes you upload become available for customers to install in the ‘Plugins’ tab and they can’t remove them. Uploaded plugins and themes are marked with the ↓ icon. While uploading a plugin or a theme, you can choose if you want to add it to an existing set or not.
You add themes in a similar way you would plugins. But using the ‘Add Theme’ function instead. Additionally, any uploaded themes will also become available to install. The plugin and theme set’s now almost ready. So let’s look at the second stage – how to configure a hosting plan.
2. Configuring a hosting plan
You do it to automatically install WordPress together with your set every time there’s a new subscription created.
- Leave WP Toolkit (!).
- Go to Service Plans
- Stay on the “Hosting Plans” tab
- Click the hosting plan under which you want to have subscriptions with pre-installed WordPress.
- Then go to the “Additional Services” tab.
- Under WP Toolkit, select “Install WordPress with the … set” (your choice)
- When you have selected your option, click Update & Sync.
Congratulations! Now each new subscription created under this hosting plan will have pre-installed WordPress with your selected plugins and themes. Existing WordPress instances will not be affected by this process.
Why managed WordPress hosting is a top choice
There are multiple benefits to choosing to set up managed WordPress hosting over other options, like shared hosting or VPS hosting. Because the peace of mind associated with maintenance and data integrity far outweigh the costs to set up managed WordPress hosting.
As you can see, the setup process is very straightforward. Choose to install your sets when you create a WordPress instance using custom WordPress installation. Because this makes it all the more flexible and can be tailored to the needs of your own website.