The Six Best Types of Web Hosting To Consider

People tend to confuse the various types of web hosting available in the market today. What you didn’t know is that there exist many options in web hosting that can all get your website on the internet. They, however, all base their capabilities and performances on what your needs are. Every web hosting option acts as your website’s storage place. Each type has its storage capacity, technological knowledge, control, reliability and control speed. Discussed below are common types of web hosting you are more likely to come across.

1. Virtual Private Server hosting 

This is a kind of web hosting plan that is the common ground between a dedicated server and shared server. This is the recommended hosting plan for site owners that want control but not necessarily with a dedicated server.

What makes VPS hosting special is that every website is hosted in a specially designed space in the server, sharing the physical server with a few other users. VPS hosting gives users the chance to do with a lot of customization, bigger storage and relatively faster servers. They are, however, not well equipped to handle higher traffic levels and sudden change in traffic flow. This means that they can be affected by high traffic from other sites in the same server.

Generally, these hosting plans are commonly used by site owners who prefer dedicated hosting but can’t access the technical knowledge required to pull it through. VPS provides several cost benefits that come from shared hosting whilst using the control of dedicated hosting.

2. Shared Hosting

This is a perfect hosting plan for entry-level web hosting. The shared hosting plan entails your site is stored on the same server with a host of other websites. In this hosting plan, all the involved domains share similar server elements like the Random Access Memory (RAM) and Central Processing Unit (CPU). The cost of shared hosting is relatively low given that all resources are shared. This makes it a perfect option for site owners in their early stages.

Mostly, newbies will find this method the simplest to host their site: this makes it attainable for anyone, whether you are a stay at home mom with a desire to blog, a small business or a community organization, you will still have your website accessible on the internet. The shared hosting plan comes with several essential tools including WordPress hosting, website builders and client emailing abilities.

Even though the shared hosting plan equips site owners with a simple approach to the web, its major disadvantage is that your site is sharing a server with a host of other websites. This is very risky because surges in usage will massively affect your site’s performance, user experience and speed.

The shared hosting plan works best for sites that do receive high traffic.

3. Cloud Hosting

This is the trendy hosting plan in the technology industry. In relation to website hosting, cloud hosting means several computers are connected and working together, controlling apps and using combined resources. It is a hosting plan that operates through a network and makes it able for companies to use technological resources as a utility.

It lets users employ many resources without necessarily maintaining and building a computing infrastructure of their own. This is achieved through spreading the resources in use across various servers, limiting the chances of breakdowns due to server malfunction.

Cloud hosting is scalable. This means a site can experience growth over time, putting into use as many resources as it needs while you pay for only what you need!

4. Dedicated Server Hosting

This hosting plan gives a site owner total control over the server a website is stored on. This is because you have exclusively rented out the server and your site is only but stored on it. With this setup, you have full access just like an admin, giving you control over everything including operating system and security. As expected, such kind of total control comes at a price.

This is a type of web hosting is one of the most expensive in the market. Mostly, they are used by site owners that receive a high amount of traffic and need total control over their serves. Additionally, it requires extremely high levels of technical expertise to install and manage the server.

5. Colocation

You may choose to ‘colocate’ your resources by hiring a space in a colocation centre instead of keeping servers at a private data centre or in-house. The colocation centre provides the bandwidth, power, cooling systems and power required by the server. Racks and cabinets are the forms in which space is rented out in colocation hosting plan.

This hosting plan gives a site owner access to better levels of storage and bandwidth compared to a normal office server. It also comes at a much lower cost. It is a hosting plan that leaves with your own devices and you are expected to manage everything including the software, hardware and other services.

6. Managed Hosting

A lot of hosting packages available on the internet are likely to be managed. Website hosting companies give various technological services that include software and hardware configuration and set up, patching, hardware replacement, technical support and site monitoring. With this hosting plan, your website hardware, operating systems and other standardised apps are managed and monitored daily.

Regardless of the many options available to choose from when it comes to website hosting, it narrows down to which plan suits your site the best. Every plan available has its specifications and features specially designed to fit certain websites. It is therefore important to understand what your site needs before choosing a hosting plan.