When looking to start hosting a website, there are various options to choose from. This article is going to list a short description of the two main types that should both be taken into consideration when starting up a website. Depending on what you are planning to do with your site should decide which kind of hosting you should choose. Below we have listed some of the main types of web hosting to consider before you start up your new website.
Shared Hosting
This means that yours and other people’s websites are all shared together on a server together. The benefits of this are that you will not have to face expensive hosting fees and you don’t have to worry about doing your own maintenance. This is usually your best option when looking to start a small website for personal or basic hosting needs. The provider will take all responsibility when hosting, such as configuration and security; it will be their responsibility to make sure all standards are met. For this reason you need to make sure you do your website hosting with a company you can trust, such as 1and1 who guarantee everything you need when you sign up.
Shared hosting is a great choice for someone looking to start-up a blog, or maybe a small information site. It is probably the most inexpensive and affordable option out there and is a great starting point for most people who are only looking to start a website for personal purposes. Buying a personal domain and hosting your own website for CV purposes or to show of your work or interests on a blog is very easy and won’t break into your wallet too much here. This option however, is less suited for sites that are going to rely heavily on traffic, such as business looking to sell their products solely through site, such as an e-commerce business.
Dedicated Hosting
This involves you buying a whole ‘dedicated’ server for your own use, therefore having the server environment to yourself. Dedicated hosting is very useful if you are planning to start a site that you know is going to receive heavy traffic flow or if you are looking to keep a stable site where you will need a secure and stable environment. The security on servers like these is in some cases much safer, as no one else is able to get access to this server except from you. You also get more flexibility with performance as you have full root access and tweak it for whatever purpose you like.
This type of hosting is very popular with very large brands who need 24/7 server accessibility. Sites that experience very high amounts of traffic, such as popular news and broadcasting sites, which experience some of the highest traffic in the world, host on their own servers to gain full-time access for maintenance. If there are ever any issues they can be quickly fixed by a team of dedicated maintenance crew. Smaller scale businesses also prefer to use this type of hosting, such as sites that actively change data and add items to their websites, as direct access allows for new data to be placed on the systems easily.
New hardware can also be installed without issues also, making it a versatile platform. The downside, however, is that dedicated servers can be very expensive and can only really be considered if you have a big budget. This option is more suitable for hosting sites that will be receiving high volumes of traffic and need very reliable and secure systems for users, such as e-commerce or news websites.
Cloud Hosting
There is a new type of hosting plan that is fast gaining traction. First popularized by Amazon, cloud hosting offers the benefit of scale; cloud scale or in other words, near infinite scale. This flexibility is extremely useful. Think about it this way. You can start out with a very small cloud setup, but as you grow, you can add more instances to meet demand. And cloud servers can scale up and down very quickly, allowing you to maintain uptime when traffic is spiking and then scale down to a cheaper option when traffic is low.
This works well with websites that are specifically targeted during annual or sparse events, such as the upcoming Tour De France event this month, which sees greater traffic during pre-season times than it does throughout the year. This type of hosting can come in very handy if you are looking to host a website selling seasonal gifts such as Christmas products or children’s school holiday organizations. If you are dealing with various traffic loads, this type of hosting will save you a lot of money in the long-run.
Should you be looking to start hosting a site for any particular reason, the types listed above should give you a clear sign of which direction to start concentrating on. There are many services out there that can offer different types of hosting which will match your particular needs. Not every start-up or blog should go with the same type of hosting, initial set-up may see you with some low-level traffic but months down the line you may have to drastically alter the way you choose to host.
This is a problem you don’t want to run into later, as changing server and swapping providers will mean long waits and will inevitably see your site going ‘down’ and becoming inaccessible, in turn loosing you revenue and custom.
It’s always a good idea to plan your thoughts and ideas and what your projections are going to be; it’s a necessity to get the right type of hosting before you start your website. If you are unsure about the direction you feel is right for you, you should ask with someone about the different hosting types to meet your needs – reference the information on here to help give you a clearer picture of the services you need.