14 Jul Web Hosting Solutions
It can be rather difficult to make a choice about something you know absolutely nothing about. Many people who have scarcely used the Internet are forced to make a website for their company, since these days, if you are not on the web, it’s like you don’t exist. If we take into consideration all the different choices and the constant changes that occur in the hosting industry, it is really no wonder people get confused. We will attempt to list and classify the most popular hosting solutions and talk about their general capabilities and most common uses. But, first of all, we are going to try and give some general advice for people who are choosing their first hosting provider. Even before you start searching for a trustworthy hosting provider, you should really think about what you need. Try to assess your situation. You will have to have a general idea of the amount of traffic your site will experience. This will enable you to choose a package that you can use to its fullest. Be sure to do a thorough evaluation, since you can end up in a lot of trouble if you get it wrong. If you get a weaker package than you need, your site can be overwhelmed and can become unresponsive or even crash. On the other hand, getting a package that can handle a lot more than you need is just a simple waste of your funds. If you wish to post videos and photos on your website, you need to make sure that you have enough disk space to do this, especially if you are planning to do this on a regular basis. You would be amazed how fast disk space can get used up if you are not careful. The same goes for everything else. Having more RAM and CPU speed can never be a bad thing. So the best thing to do is to determine what you need before you go out and see what you can get. When you have done this, you will need to decide what type of hosting service is best suited for you. Here are the most popular and most commonly used hosting solutions.
Shared Hosting
When you get shared hosting, your data is actually located on a server machine along with a lot of users. It is free or very cheap to get, but the fact that you are sharing a machine with so many other users can cause trouble, indeed. First of all, the security that shared hosting provides is very low due to the number of users involved. Secondly, there are a lot of limitations in terms of software, since the software needs to be adjusted to the needs of all the users on the server. The biggest problem with shared hosting is probably the fact that, if one of the users on a given server experiences high traffic, your website and the websites of other users can suffer, since he will be taking all the resources. This is why shared hosting is not recommended for any serious endeavors.
VPS Hosting
VPS or Virtual private server hosting is similar to shared hosting in the sense that you are sharing a server with a number of other users. This is where the similarities end though. With VPS you get your own private space and your own private resources that are reserved just for your benefit. This means that no matter how much traffic some other guy on the server is getting, your resources are reserved just for you and you won’t experience any trouble due to their success. VPS also allows you to control the software more effectively, because you function independently. This gives you the freedom to install any operating system you want and upgrade the software whenever you choose. The security on VPS is far better than with shared hosting, since it is not influenced by the existence of other users. VPS stands somewhere in the middle ground in terms of cost and reliability and is most commonly used by small to medium traffic websites.
Dedicated Hosting
This hosting solution is currently considered the most reliable and therefore the price is set accordingly. With dedicated hosting, you get a server machine that is located at a data center and is yours to manage as you please. In some cases, you can even choose what capabilities the server will have. You can ask for more RAM or disk space to suit your individual needs. This is a very reliable solution since you personally control every bit of software and data that goes through the server. The price may be a bit high, but because of this, you will get 24/7 support from the provider. There are other benefits that you get when you go for dedicated hosting, but they vary from provider to provider. Some providers even offer to update and maintain your server for you if you can’t do it yourself (or choose not to).
Cloud Hosting
You can say that cloud hosting is a type of VPS, but instead of multiple users sharing one server, there is a cloud of server machines that work together and support each other when needed. This gives a lot of flexibility when it comes to resources. When you are using cloud hosting, you can just access your control panel and add more resources when needed. Cloud hosting also has a unique paying method. You only pay for the resources that you used very much like with your electricity bill. Cloud hosting is a very good solution for people that can’t properly assess their needs, since you can add or remove resources at any given time.
The last piece of advice we are going to give you is:”Do research on your provider of choice before you agree to anything!” Regardless of what they promise, there are many providers out there who are unreliable and can’t fulfill all the things they say in their ads. The smart thing to do is ask around, read a few forum posts and, in the best case scenario, talk to one of the long term users of their services. This way you will know what you are getting into.
