Managed vs Unmanaged Dedicated Servers: Which is Right for You?

When it’s time to bring your website online, you’re going to need a web host in order to make that happen. But as you shop around the web hosting market, you’ve almost certainly noticed that nearly every company offers both managed and unmanaged dedicated options. Each of these options provide numerous benefits and drawbacks that you should carefully consider based upon your budget and web administration experience level.

In general terms, managed and unmanaged servers are like two sides of the same coin when it comes to functionality, support, and freedom. While managed servers excel in providing up-to-date firmware and a knowledgeable customer support team, only unmanaged servers are able to provide knowledgeable power users the degree of freedom and customization they demand from their web sites.

Neither managed nor unmanaged dedicated servers are definitively the “best” option to meet the needs of every personal and business website. In light of this, you should consider several of the following factors as you evaluate which option is right for you:

Benefits of Unmanaged Dedicated Servers

Pound for pound, unmanaged servers, such as those offered by ServerPronto, are cheaper than their managed counterparts. Unmanaged servers include few (if any) forms of support and maintenance on the part of the web host. As a result, users of this option are not required to pay extra in order keep these extra services active. This can be particularly advantageous for businesses and individuals looking to digitally prosper without breaking the bank.

Unmanaged servers are also the best option for web administrators with a wealth of prior website management experience. These power users are free to pull the strings to meet their needs, rather than being boxed in by the pre-set standards provided by managed server options. To the same extent, web admins looking for top-level customization will only find it in an unmanaged server solution.

Drawbacks of Unmanaged Dedicated Servers

Because much of the upkeep work is placed in the hands of an unmanaged server administrator, this option carries a greater risk for prolonged downtime. Unmanaged servers often lack build-in back up and disaster recovery protocols, meaning that even a slight server hiccup could bring down your website while you are asleep or away from your computer.

In terms of lacking features, unmanaged servers also don’t always include basic structural interface options such as a control panel or dashboard, either. You may have to install these functions from scratch, which can take extra time to accomplish if you have never completed such a task previously.

As their name suggests, unmanaged server options come with very little extra support from the web host’s in-house support team. While some power users might believe that they don’t need this level of assistance, such support can really come in handy when a server needs to be restarted or when you need to scale up your website to meet an unexpectedly heavy volume of traffic.

Benefits of Managed Dedicated Servers

Managed servers are one of the most popular web hosting options today, not least because they handle nearly every kind of update and adjustment your server could need behind the scenes. Most notably, this includes keeping your security certificates up to date in order to prevent your website from being flagged by search engines.

To this same extent, managed servers are a significantly safer option when compared to unmanaged options. This can be seen in the fact that many managed hosts, such as those from ServerPronto, persistently run background monitoring to check for malicious activity surrounding your website. Common security features in this vein include DDoS protections and anti-virus programs.

24/7 access to a knowledgeable customer support team is another major boon that comes with managed server solutions. Like the team at ServerPronto, these IT professionals often carry specialized certifications that empower them to interpret your unique web hosting situation and provide you with customized feedback to fix your existing problems and prevent future problems from cropping up.

Drawbacks of Managed Dedicated Servers

With all of the extra support that managed servers provide, there are some clear tradeoffs. One such tradeoff is an overall decrease in freedom to shape the parameters of your website to meet your individual needs. Most managed options are connected to a package or suite of features, many of which you are stuck with unless you upgrade or jump to an unmanaged option.

No matter how you slice it, managed servers nearly always come out as the more expensive option when compared to unmanaged servers. Simply put, these added costs can be chalked up to paying for all of the extra work that the web host does on your behalf, including firmware updates and security checks. These options can be cost prohibitive to some individuals, though most business are able to afford these slight price increases.

The Bottom Line

At the end of the day, both managed and unmanaged server options come with their own fair share of benefits and drawbacks. Many of these drawbacks are connected to matters of functionality, support, and cost. As a result, you should carefully evaluate your current web hosting situation and personal skill level based upon these criteria before making a jump between these two options.

Price, in particular, can become a sticking point for many web administrators as they work to wrangle the budgets set by their administrators. Luckily, some service providers like ServerPronto provide specials for both managed and unmanaged servers in order to cut down on the introductory and long-term costs of managing a viable web site.

Whether you’ve chosen to implement a managed or unmanaged solution, you can bet that ServerPronto will provide you options for both that are packaged with industry-leading features and compatibilities. ServerPronto provides all of its servers as unmanaged by default and only charges $100 more to jump to a fully managed option that is rich in support and built-in security.

Now that you know about the benefits and drawbacks of these primary server options, take some time to evaluate your personal or business-wide needs and begin the process of selecting a server solution to meet your needs.

Chief Tech writer at ServerPronto. Helping businesses grow with useful tech information.

Originally published at https://www.serverpronto.com on June 16, 2019.