Managed WordPress hosting is definitely the way to go when it comes to running a WordPress site. Shared hosts may be cheaper, but they are plagued by performance issues, vulnerable server infrastructures and websites that you are responsible for securing yourself, as well as a general lack of quality support.
These are the problems that managed WordPress hosters want to solve, and Raidboxes is no different. They have created a wonderful platform that is simple enough for the average user to use and flexible enough to satisfy developers and advanced users.
Let’s take a look at everything they have to offer.
Raidboxes Hosting Overview
Raidboxes is a Managed WordPress host based in Germany, which makes it a good choice for companies targeting mainly European customers. RAIDBOXES offers standard hosting and two specialized versions: one for agencies and freelancers and one for enterprise sites. We will not cover the latter two in this review.
Each site hosted with the Standard Managed WordPress service exists as a single instance and has its own resources. These resources start at 2GB of RAM, one virtual CPU core, and 5GB of SSD storage. The most expensive plan gives you 32GB of RAM, 12 vCPU cores and 40GB of SSD storage.
Now let’s get to the core of what this hoster has to offer, starting with the user interface.
The RAIDBOXES Dashboard
The RAIDBOXES dashboard has a clean design, making it intuitive and easy to navigate. Here you manage your account as a whole. You can create new “boxes” here, which are WordPress sites, as well as transfer sites.
There are also tabs for domains and emails, where you can register new domains or transfer yours to RAIDBOXES and use the company’s email service.
There is also a tab for templates that you can create from existing boxes.
Creating a box is easy. The fully managed WordPress site we created was up and running in less than five minutes. All you have to do is enter a name for the box, as well as your desired admin username and password for WordPress.
You also have to choose which plan you want to subscribe to, but you don’t get paid for it right away. You’ll get a temporary domain that will keep your site offline, as well as a 14-day or four-day trial period to test it out. The limit depends on your chosen plan. Once you’ve paid for your plan and connected your domain, you’re ready to go.
Security
Raidboxes protects your site in several ways. First, they offer a free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt to ensure that all personal data passing through your site remains private through encryption.
The WordPress host configuration also restricts write access and makes your site read-only to reduce the likelihood of a malware injection should a hacker slip through the security measures. Login protection is also included, and you can even configure settings for this tool.
Speaking of which, RAIDBOXES offers hack and malware detection and notifies you immediately if they find anything. Unfortunately, malware removal is charged as an additional service on most plans at prices ranging from €80/hour to €100/hour. This service is only free with the Fully Managed plan. This is in comparison to hosters like Kinsta and Flywheel, which offer malware removal for free across the board.
Fortunately, the security features of RAIDBOXES do not end here. While automatic updates for the WordPress core, themes and plugins have now become native features of WordPress itself, they are still available as part of the RAIDBOXES interface for now. You can even disable them from your host’s dashboard, as explained earlier.
You can also create a staging environment for your site to test updates and other changes. You can make the changes live when you’re ready, but make sure you delete the staging version afterwards, as it exists on the same server as the live version of your site and shares resources with it.
For added security, RAIDBOXES provides automatic daily backups and stores them for between seven and 30 days, depending on your plan. Manual backups are also included.
Use the hoster’s one-click restore feature to restore your site with a previous backup in case something goes wrong.
Pricing
Let’s take a look at RAIDBOXES pricing structure. Prices for plans that host a WordPress site start at €15/month. There are seven plans in total, and you can even work with sales if you need a custom plan for an enterprise-level site that doesn’t qualify for any of the basic plans.
RAIDBOXES is very open about what each plan can do. For example, your site won’t be optimized for WooCommerce until you upgrade to the third tier for $50/month. Similarly, optimization for high traffic and BuddyPress won’t be available to you until the fifth tier for 150€/month.
Domain registrations are available for 18 €/year for .com domains and 12 €/year for .de domains. Other endings are available at different prices. The hoster’s e-mail service starts at €1.50/month for one mailbox, 10 aliases and 1 GB of storage space.
Again, you can get started with RAIDBOXES for free and without a credit card for four or 14 days, depending on the plan you choose.
Final thoughts about RAIDBOXES hosting
All in all, RAIDBOXES is an impressive hoster with a powerful server infrastructure, great performance and affordable prices. Best of all, they have managed to create a sophisticated behind-the-scenes platform that is incredibly easy to use by creating a clean interface that makes managing your own site as simple as possible.
