Getting a website online is relatively easy to do these days. There are plenty of packages dedicated to helping you get your page up and running, but how do you know you’re doing the right thing?
Well, firstly if you’re going for a “website builder” type package, you won’t have much to worry about as these tend to include everything you need – from hosting to email addresses.
But what happens if you’re going down a more do it yourself route? This handy guide will help you get to grips with one of the more complicated sides of getting online – hosting.
Hosting, for anyone who is completely new to building websites, is the way in which your pages are stored, ready to be accessed when people visit your domain. You can read more here to know what is web hosting?
With that in mind, here are the different kinds of web hosting out there and the advantages and disadvantages they offer. This is important to know what kind of web hosting right for your before buying a hosting plan for your website.
Shared hosting
Shared hosting is the most basic of the packages you’ll encounter. Under this set up, you share a web server – essentially a powerful computer designed especially to host websites – with a number of other people.
Each site has its own partition on the server, which keeps it separate from the others. This tends to be the cheapest hosting option because the cost of running the server is spread across many users. However, because system administration services are shared across several people they have to be coordinated by the hosting provider.
This is good news for basic users who don’t need to worry about that side of things, but for those looking to do something a bit more complicated this can be problematic. However, if you’re launching a basic blog or website and don’t expect a lot of traffic then this is the option for you. I also run my blog in shared hosting. If you are also intending to start your blog in WordPress, then you can also choose the hatchling shared hosting plan of Hostgator, which is really cheap and the customer support is outstanding with less downtime. Because of the wonderful after sales service, one click WordPress installation, less downtime of the server – I am using Hostgator hosting service for the last 4 years without any trouble! I specially recommend this hosting company to the new bloggers, new small business owners who wants to start a website for their business.
Virtual Private Servers
Virtual private servers (VPS) are a step up from shared hosting, although they do operate in a similar way.
As with shared hosting, a VPS is located on a partitioned server with the difference being that a VPS uses virtualisation software which means it behaves as if it was a dedicated server.
This means that it doesn’t have the same limitations as a shared hosting partition and even though the actual physical server may hold several VPS, each VPS is an independent entity allowing the owner complete control over sys admin matters.
Usually, hosting providers will offer less technical customers a package which reduces the technical knowhow needed to run a VPS.
A VPS also offers great bandwidth, storage space and memory than shared hosting. For the non-experts this means that you will be able to host a bigger website and cope with more traffic without a drop in performance.
This is a great option if you’re expecting high levels of traffic, but remember it will cost significantly more than a shared hosting package.
Dedicated Servers
The daddy of the hosting world. As the name suggests, with a dedicated server you get everything to yourself with all the advantages that brings.
These are the most powerful server option around and if you have one you can run an extremely complex website with ease.
Managed hosting options are available for those who don’t want to handle the technical side of things, while those who need full configuration for their server will be able to select a self-managed product giving them complete control.
Be warned though – running a self-managed dedicated server needs a lot of knowledge as you’ll be responsible for every setting and piece of software so don’t bite off more than you can chew.
Also, bear in mind that the high price of these servers means there is no point in getting one “just in case” if you need one of these, you’ll know it.
