If you’re a first-time website owner or are planning to upgrade your current hosting plan, deciding the best type of web hosting can be one of the most challenging tasks. It’s hard to decide between the several types of hosting available.
It can be tough to understand and compare the differences, costs, and features across different hosting types. You’ll easily get lost in all the technical and jargon details.
Nonetheless, once you break down the various web hosting options, it should quickly become clear which one is perfect for your website needs. You can then find a reliable hosting provider and get your website up and running in no time.
In this post, we’ll take you through what web hosting is and explore the main types of web hosting available.
- Shared Hosting
- Dedicated Hosting
- VPS Hosting
- Cloud Hosting
Let’s begin with understanding what is web hosting.
Web hosting is a service that allows individuals and businesses to launch websites onto the internet. This is offered by a web host or a web hosting provider, which provides the services, technologies, and other resources a website needs to be viewed online.
Websites are hosted on special computers called servers, which a web host manages. When internet users want to visit your website, they just need to type your domain or website address into their browser. Then, their computer will connect to your server and the website or webpages will be delivered to them through the web browser.
Typically, a hosting provider offers a variety of plans, also called hosting packages from which you can choose. Each package comes with a different set of features and prices.
READ: Top Tips to Choose the Best Web Hosting Services
What types of web hosting can you choose from?
Below, we’ve briefly explained the common types of web hosting available:
1. Shared Hosting – Good for new and small websites
Shared Hosting is exactly what it seems to be – your website shares a web server with other users. The most significant advantage of this hosting type is that it is the least expensive option as it supplies fewer resources and a lesser amount of storage space compared to other web hosting plans.
Your hosting provider manages the server for you on a shared plan, so you do not have to worry about any technical aspects of hosting your website. This is especially important if you’re inexperienced with managing a site yet. Not having to worry about server management and maintenance is another helpful pro of shared hosting.
2. Dedicated Hosting – Good for high-traffic professional websites
Dedicated Hosting is the opposite of Shared Hosting. With a Dedicated Hosting plan, you will have an entire server and its resources reserved for your website. You wouldn’t have to worry about other websites impacting your security, disk space, and performance.
Of course, good things come at an additional price. Dedicated Hosting plans tend to be expensive, with some of them running up to hundreds of dollars per month. So, if you have a small website, purchasing a dedicated server might be an unnecessary expense for now.
3. VPS Hosting – Good for growing websites
If you are concerned about Shared Hosting’s drawbacks but also do not need an entire server for yourself, a Virtual Private Server (VPS) solution can provide you with a middle ground. While you’ll still share the server with other websites, every website will be allotted a virtually partitioned space.
This prevents one or a few websites from eating up the resources of a shared server. It can even keep a single user from overloading your server or hurting your website’s performance. However, as it is still a shared server, plans run at a much cheaper price than Dedicated Hosting.
4. Cloud Hosting – Good for e-commerce stores and high-traffic projects
Unlike traditional hosting, Cloud Hosting solutions aren’t deployed on a single server. Instead, a network of connected physical and virtual cloud servers hosts the website or application, ensuring greater scalability and flexibility. Due to its interconnected cloud structure, Cloud Hosting is also called cluster server hosting. Even when one server fails, the rest will cover up for it and keep your website running.
The major benefits of Cloud Hosting include high availability, scalability, greater security, and traffic load balancing.
READ: A Beginners Guide to Hosting a Website
Tips to find the right web host for your website
When it comes to choosing the best hosting provider, you need to consider several factors:
1. Bandwidth
Bandwidth is one of the vital factors to keep in mind while looking for a web host. Essentially, this measures the amount of traffic your website can accommodate. An ample bandwidth allows you to keep your website at optimal performance during traffic spikes.
2. Available storage
Depending on the size and purpose of your website, you might require a little or a lot of storage space for your website files.
If you need a lot of space, choose a hosting plan with a generous storage capacity so you can stay up and running even when you expand later. In contrast, if you need a little space, you can opt for cheaper plans and save money on the space your website wouldn’t need.
Nonetheless, if your chosen hosting service has unlimited disk space, you can stay relaxed.
3. Uptime
While searching for a web host, ensure that they offer a 99.99% uptime guarantee. This will ensure your website’s available 24/7. Otherwise, if your website faces frequent downtimes, you’ll lose visitors which eventually leads to a decline in revenue.
4. Customer service
Do look for exceptional customer service when choosing a web host. Any technical problems that arise should be dealt with instantly and swiftly to prevent any potential damage to your website.
5. Data security
You cannot trust every hosting provider with hosting your website. Make sure your chosen hosting provider protects its customers’ data completely, offering robust security features, constant backups, and an information redundancy system.
That way, even with any unforeseen or natural problems, your website will always be fully operational and online.
6. Cost
Just like any other service or product, hosting comes in various price ranges. Herein, the key is to strike a perfect balance between its cost and features.
Though it is crucial to find the right fit for your budget, don’t go for an ultra-cheap offering that lacks features you really need just to save a few bucks.
Choose the right hosting company for your website
Depending on the factors listed above, consider your website traffic, site, and size, when choosing the best hosting provider. This prevents any future difficulties that may arise by compromising your present needs.
BigRock, a leading provider of web-presence solutions for individuals, professionals, and small businesses, offers various web hosting plans at different prices. We promise 99.99% uptime with 24/7 dedicated customer support, unmetered space, unmetered transfer, unlimited emails, and more. Moreover, our hosting is fully equipped with cPanel (demo) / Plesk (demo) control.
You can choose the most suitable hosting plan for your website and enjoy exceptional features and benefits at an affordable price.
