The number of web hosting choices available to someone looking to get a website up and running can be overwhelming. It is possible to get web hosting for just a couple of dollars per month, and in some cases, you might even be able to get free hosting.
For the uninitiated, it can seem like all hosting plans are the same — in fact, it can sometimes look as if the cheap plans are the best since they come with more promises: unlimited bandwidth, storage, email inboxes, and so on.
If that’s the case, why do more expensive options exist? Why doesn’t Amazon get in on that action and host its website on a plan that costs just a couple o’ bucks a month? For those with mission-critical websites, how do you ensure that you’re getting a reliable web hosting provider?
As always, there’s more to a given web hosting plan than meets the eye, so in this article, we try to explain the differences between your options so that you can make an informed choice as to what’s best for you and your website.
Types of Web Hosting
Generally speaking, you can categorize a majority of the web host solutions available into five different categories:
- Shared hosting
- VPS Hosting (Virtual Private Hosting)
- Cloud hosting
- Dedicated hosting
- Reseller hosting
Let’s take a closer look at each option.
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is the cheapest & most popular web hosting option.
With a shared hosting plan, you are renting space on a server that you share with other website owners. This also means you’re sharing resources like bandwidth, memory, and processing power. This can be a problem, because a web host company typically supports hundreds, even thousands, of websites on a single server. Most of these websites will get very little traffic, allowing those who do see higher levels of traffic to use the resources they need. Nevertheless, there are no guarantees that you will get the resources necessary to support your website.
Shared hosting plans offer sufficient firepower for many small business and personal websites at affordable prices. Furthermore, you are not responsible for any type of web server management — you have all the functionality of a professionally managed web hosting, but you only shoulder a small portion of the server’s cost or hassle.
It’s important to note, however, that not all shared hosting is created equal. Different companies use different servers, each configured with different amounts of resources, and with different features. Furthermore, some companies host more websites on a single server than its peers. As such, that $10 per month shared hosting plan probably has many benefits over one costing $0.99 per month.
VPS
If your website exceeds the resources of a shared hosting plan (perhaps you’ve seen higher levels of traffic), the natural next step is a virtual private server (VPS) hosting plan. A VPS hosting plan will get you increased performance and larger resource allocations without saddling you with the full cost of your own server.
VPS plans are similar to shared plans in that both feature multiple websites hosted on a single server. However, VPS plans maintain a strict separation between clients and websites when it comes to resource allocations. Your site gets its share, and no one else may use your resources (conversely, you may not cannibalize the resources allocated to others’ websites either).
In addition to providing you with greater performance and larger resource allocations, VPS hosting gets you full control of your server environment. Though a VPS is not a physical server, you can control it as if it were. If you have special needs for your server, you have the control to address them. With that said, you’ll need to have some degree of comfort with technology to manage a VPS. This is typically done using the command line, though you can opt to purchase a GUI-based control panel, like cPanel or WHM, for ease of use.
Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting is similar to VPS hosting in that the server isn’t actually a physical machine. Rather, your hosting is distributed across multiple servers, all of which are connected (by the web host provider) to form a network of sorts.
Due to its infrastructure, cloud hosting is extremely stable and scalable. Your website has access to multiple servers, which allows for redundancy and fallback. Furthermore, if you outgrow your allocation of the cloud network, you can easily ask your hosting provider to increase your allocation. Unlike VPS hosting, which is limited by the physical server on which your website is hosted, cloud hosting allows you to use resources offered by multiple machines. For example, if you find that your website is lagging because of lack of bandwidth, you can increase the amount available to you. Often, you can make this change yourself via the host’s control panel.
If industry-leading uptime and rapid-scalability are your two biggest concerns, cloud hosting might be just what you’re looking for. Cloud hosting will get you access to a cluster of servers from which you can quickly provision resources when you need them. Along with having enough separation from unruly neighbors, your application should be kept safe. VPS and Cloud services are sometimes combined into a hybrid service called Cloud VPS or Scalable VPS.
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated servers are exactly what they sound like: an entire server dedicated to hosting only your website. The web hosting provider has a physical server, and everything with which it has been configured is used only for your website. If you’re done sharing web server resources with other clients and websites, this is the option for you.
Dedicated servers are used to power complex applications and high-traffic websites. You might also opt for one if you serve a large quantity of media, such as high-resolution images, audio files, and streaming video clips, or you see very high levels of traffic (or perhaps both are applicable). Dedicated hosting also provides the highest level of security and server customization possible.
Reseller Hosting
Reseller hosting options are a special type of hosting plan. Essentially, if you want to start a business and sell web hosting while someone else maintains the server, reseller hosting is the way to go. With a reseller plan, you buy access to server resources in bulk, and then resell it under your own brand.
There are multiple types of reseller plans: shared, VPS, cloud, dedicated, each popular with web designers & web agencies.
Reseller plans aren’t for those who are new to web hosting. You’ll have to provide your customers with customer and technical support.
For any questions, please leave a comment below!