InMotion Hosting provides a valuable infographic comparing three types of web hosting. The infographic makes an easy to understand comparison between hosting and housing, and gives the benefits of each type of hosting at the bottom. The infographic can be viewed on your computer, or you can print it to reference as needed.
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is like living in an apartment. Like an apartment, shared hosting is more affordable hosting and usually contains everything you need to get started. Since you share the space with other sites, when one site has a sudden surge of traffic, your site may run slowly.
The majority of sites use shared hosting because it is the cheapest type of hosting. It is a great option for sites with low traffic and that do not need to customize server settings.
VPS Hosting
VPS hosting can be compared to living in a townhouse. Your account is bigger than with shared hosting, and you can control variables for your site. You do still share outside resources with other sites. You can add things to your site and install software on your partition of the server.
VPS hosting gives you the freedom of being able to customize your own space like a dedicated server, but with a more affordable price. You can customize your server space somewhat, but not as much as you can with a dedicated plan.
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting can be compared to having your own house. The space is yours to do with as you please, and you aren’t bothered by others around you. High traffic levels won’t bother other sites, but you will have bandwidth and hard disk space limitations. You can, however, upgrade your bandwidth and hard drive if you need more space.
Dedicated hosting is the most expensive option, but it gives you the most flexibility. You can upgrade the software, RAM and hard drive as much as the server will allow. Traffic surges from other sites will not affect your site speed or performance, and your traffic won’t bother other sites.
