The verdict in three sentences
Managed hosting for a mission-critical site costs between 150 and 600 EUR/month in 2026 depending on the service level, with a 99.9 % SLA, 24/7 monitoring and automated backups. This budget is justified as soon as downtime has a cost: for many B2B companies, one hour offline means several thousand euros of lost leads and credibility. The real trade-off is not the monthly price but the RTO/RPO your business can tolerate.
What managed hosting covers
Managed hosting is not just a server: it is a service that offloads operations from your team.
| 2026 service | Basic | Standard | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | 150 - 250 EUR | 250 - 400 EUR | 400 - 600 EUR |
| Guaranteed SLA | 99.5 % | 99.9 % | 99.95 % |
| Monitoring | business hours | 24/7 | 24/7 proactive |
| Backups | daily | 2x/day | continuous |
| Security patches | monthly | weekly | within 48 h |
| Incident response time | 8 h | 2 h | 30 min |
| Recovery time (RTO) | 24 h | 4 h | 1 h |
The higher the SLA, the more redundant and monitored the infrastructure: that explains the price gap between basic and premium.
The cost of one hour of downtime
Before choosing an SLA, quantify what an outage actually costs you. The SLA only pays off relative to that risk.
| 2026 company type | Cost / hour of downtime | Recommended SLA |
|---|---|---|
| Local showcase SME | 200 - 800 EUR | 99.5 % |
| B2B SME with leads | 800 - 3,000 EUR | 99.9 % |
| Active e-commerce | 2,000 - 8,000 EUR | 99.95 % |
| SaaS platform | 5,000 - 20,000 EUR | 99.99 % |
A 99.9 % SLA allows around 8.7 hours of downtime per year; a 99.95 % SLA cuts it to 4.4 hours. A few hundred euros more per month can protect tens of thousands of euros in revenue.
Shared versus dedicated
The choice between shared and dedicated infrastructure depends on your load and compliance constraints. Shared is enough for the vast majority of showcase sites.
| Criterion | Shared | Dedicated |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | 150 - 350 EUR | 400 - 900 EUR |
| Performance | good | guaranteed |
| Security isolation | shared | full |
| GDPR/health compliance | possible | facilitated |
| Ideal for | showcase, corporate | e-commerce, sensitive |
Mini case study
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Marc, IT director of a 120-person consulting firm in Singapore, suffered 3 to 4 outages a year on a self-hosted site, each tying up an internal developer for half a day. He switched to Standard managed hosting at 340 EUR/month (4,080 EUR/year) with a 99.9 % SLA. Result: zero major outage over 12 months, and above all 6 person-days per year freed up for his team, worth about 3,000 EUR. Net of savings, managed hosting really costs him a few hundred euros for total peace of mind.
FAQ
What does a 99.9 % SLA really guarantee?
It guarantees the site is available 99.9 % of the time, i.e. a maximum of about 8.7 hours of cumulative downtime per year. Beyond that, the provider owes contractual penalties, often as service credits.
What is the difference between RTO and RPO?
RTO (Recovery Time Objective) is the maximum time to bring the site back online after an outage; RPO (Recovery Point Objective) is the maximum amount of data you accept losing. The lower they are, the more expensive managed hosting becomes.
Does managed hosting include security updates?
Yes, that is a major benefit: depending on the level, patches are applied monthly, weekly or within 48 h of a critical vulnerability disclosure, without tying up your team.
Can I start shared and move to dedicated later?
Yes, most providers allow a gradual upgrade. Start on standard shared hosting, then migrate to dedicated if your load or compliance requirements grow.
Is 24/7 monitoring really useful for a showcase site?
If your site generates B2B leads, yes: an undetected nighttime outage can last hours and cost you inbound requests. Proactive monitoring alerts and intervenes before you even notice the problem.
Let's scope your project. Tell us your criticality, the cost of one hour of downtime and your compliance constraints: we recommend the right SLA level and its budget. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
