Depending on what website you want to create, it is imperative that you are choosing the right kind of hosting for the maintenance and upkeep of your website. Therefore, when you are at the very beginning stage, you must know about the different types of Webhosting along with their advantages, disadvantages and whether they are ideal for your website.
We suggest that you do not rush the process as it may have very unfavorable circumstances. Likewise, if you have already chosen a web hosting service that you are facing trouble with initializing the idea of switching, you will find this article helpful.
What is Web Hosting?
The websites that we visit daily are hosted on various servers. The servers are powerful pieces of hardware that house the websites along with the data related to them. If you own a website and if you are hosting it through a third party, then all of the components of your site is stored on a server. You are accessing the website through a web host, be that video, texts, images, or anything that is on your website. Read here, 5 Best Hostgator Alternatives For Web Hosting (2022)
The web hosting companies manage and run data centers where the servers are physically located in. The servers are the reason your website can operate every day. Additionally, Web hosts give you the technology that allows your server the required space to be accessed through the internet. Users can search up your website, access it, and so on.
Web Hosting Types
Different websites require different resources to operate at their peak performance, so different hosting types are preferable for different websites.
There are mainly four types of hosting. These are:
- Shared Hosting
- Virtual Private Server Hosting / VPS
- Dedicated Hosting
- Cloud Hosting
Finding the Ideal Hosting option for your website
Depending on what type of server hosting you choose, it will impact different elements of your website. Namely: the performance, stability, scalability, and management module of your website. The amount of traffic you get and the type of website you own will mainly determine the type of hosting you will opt for.
For example, if you have a personal blog with a few thousand visitors monthly, you will not need the hosting power required to host a large e-commerce website that gets more than a hundred thousand visitors per month.
Price is another important consideration that will guide you towards the hosting service and the type of hosting service you will opt for.
Shared Hosting
It is one of the most basic forms of web hosting. It is cost-effective and is a great choice for small websites. In this type of hosting, you will be sharing resources with other websites that are hosted on the same server. Usually, this works quite well for small companies that do not have a website that gets a huge number of visits. It is cheap, and most small websites can typically opt for this option with the goal of moving to a dedicated hosting solution in the future.
Shared hosting is cheap because it splits resources, and each user hosting a website gets a limited amount of resources. In essence, there is a resource cap, and the threshold depends on the company that provides the hosting and the plans they provide. One top recommendation for shared hosting is Bluehost.
VPS Hosting
VPS hosting is one tier above shared hosting, and it is for small to medium-sized businesses who require a better solution than shared hosting at an affordable price. Businesses that cannot have unexpected downtime on their site. VPS is also known as “Virtual Private Server.” Once the website outgrows its shared plan, the owners usually upgrade to a VPS.
There are commonalities between Shared servers and VPS as you will still be sharing the resources. A single server will be shared with a couple of other websites; however, the number of websites with which you will have to share the server is significantly lower.
VPS’s main server is first split into multiple virtual servers, which can be customized by individual websites that are being hosted in them. Moreover, you can get optional root access with VPS hosting plan, which allows you to run custom configurations to the server making it more suitable for the website you are running in it.
The main advantages are that you get more resources as you share less, faster loading times, and higher uptime rates. Moreover, another website hosted on the same server won’t cause your website to crash. VPS gives you some of the benefits that come with using a dedicated server which is the ideal type of hosting people want. However, dedicated server hosting is pricy, and most websites operate well enough on VPS servers. Top recommendations for VPS server hosting are Hostkey and InMotion.
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting is typically used for enterprise-level websites. Usually, websites get more than a hundred thousand monthly visitors and plenty of revenue to afford a server like this. That said, dedicated servers are considered to be the best hosting solution if you can afford it. In this type of hosting, the whole server belongs to you, and you get insane customizability options. More uptime, faster speed, and extra smoothness are all added benefits of dedicated hosting.
Since you are not sharing resources with any other websites, the price of dedicated hosting solutions can be extremely high; it remains one of the most expensive hosting solutions. Although, it allows you to operate your website at peak performance. Our top recommendations for dedicated hosting are Hostkey and HostGator.
Cloud Hosting
If you have a website growing at a rapid rate and your business size is medium to large, then this is the hosting solution you should consider. Websites with unpredictable traffic that require scaling at a consistent, steady rate do well with this type of hosting. It is a hybrid version of a VPS solution but cheaper.
With cloud hosting, there are multiple removed servers, and each of the servers has different responsibilities; when one server faces an issue, the other servers within the network will take precedence and handle the duties of the prior one.
Cloud hosting has become an appealing alternative to traditional hosting solutions for the above-mentioned reasons. You can expect reasonable uptime rates and fewer downtimes. Websites housed under Cloud Hosting usually tend to be fluid and high-performing. SiteGround is a good hosting provider if you are opting for Cloud Hosting.
Conclusion
Shared hosting is like renting an apartment with friends. You will have flatmates and share resources like the kitchen. In that sense, VPS hosting can be compared to renting an apartment alone. You are not sharing resources like the kitchen, living room, bathroom, or common spaces with any roommates. It provides more freedom and flexibility. Dedicated hosting, in comparison, is like owning a house. When you need fences, you can build them; if you need to plant trees in the yard or build a patio, renovate the kitchen? You can do what you wish without any restriction.