Managed hosting or self-managed – which one do you prefer and why?

[Support.MainVPS]

Do you prefer the ease of managed hosting or the control of self-managed solutions for your website? Where do you find the balance between convenience and autonomy in managing your online presence?

 

[hostkoala]

Partially managed for us, but it differs on the customer.

If a customer has no IT background, self managing is not an option.

If a customers main INCOME is from the website he runs ( Eg. let's say its a review site, or an online store etc ), that generates several thousands or more per month, it would make sense paying a few hundred or more for a fully managed service that mantains his server and ensures that its up for as much as possible so he can earn more money.

Furthermore, self managed -> an issue causing downtime -> Need to fix it asap, doesn't matter if you're asleep, on holidays or busy with family etc.

Managed solutions -> downtime -> open ticket -> continue sleeping/holiday/family time ( and periodically check the status of the site )

 

[Artashes]

As a customer, I cannot manage anything myself, so I always look for managed services.

So it's not even a question of convenience for me, but a necessity.

 

[CanSpace]

It really helps knowing your customer. A significant percentage of our clients are folks that aren't tech savvy, so we simply turned 'managed service' into a feature across all our services, including VPS and dedicated categories, even though those clients are traditionally more savvy and are able to handle things on their own.