Web hosting is a very important task when it comes to starting a new pursuit and expanding it through a website. It basically is a storage space for your website both the background logic and also the website’s appearance. Web hosting maintains the information of your website in a form of a physical or a virtual server. Once your website is hosted, anyone can open it by typing the domain name in their browser. A domain name is an identifying tool that can lead others toward your website.
Together with web hosting, your website becomes complete. You get a functional website and a uniquely identifying domain name. But choosing the best hosting type may be a challenge especially if you are a complete beginner in the world of hosting.
In this article, we will give you a simple explanation for each hosting type. Once have read this article you will gain a basic understanding of the differences between all these hosting solutions, hence you can make a decision on the right type for you.
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is when your website is placed on a server that hosts numerous other websites. It can be good for personal websites and startups. The price is low which comes as a benefit, but the cons of this type of hosting are the shared resources of the server. If you or another website has more traffic on that server, it will pull the other website’s functionality, and make their performance slower. A good hosting provider for this solution is HostGator, if you want to know why you should read this HostGator review.
VPS Hosting
VPS hosting or a virtual private server is a physical server split into various parts. It’s where you still share the server with other websites, but you have more resources, security, and performance compared to shared hosting. VPS is a good upgrade from shared hosting, the cost is still low and the control and speed of your website are better. But it can also have similar disadvantages as shared hosting when it comes to managing traffic.
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting is having your own server just for your website. It’s best for big and high-traffic websites. It is one of the most expensive types of web hosting, but it gives you full control, good speed, the managing of resources, and stability for your website. The downsides are the costs and the need for very good technical skills in order to be able to solve all the technical problems in your server when they occur.
Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting would be a more expensive version of VPS hosting. It has multiple servers that have the ability to step up if one of the servers is not working. It’s a very advanced type of web hosting that gives you a high-performing website. The most important downside is the price. It can vary from cheap to expensive depending on your website, but if your website is a personal site, a site for a startup, or a static website this type of hosting is not recommended.
Managed Hosting
Managed Hosting is a service that takes care of your websites with day-to-day assignments. Managed hosting can consist of different types of shared hosting, VPS hosting even dedicated hosting. Therefore its definitions can vary depending on the source. Manage hosting takes care of your website’s performance, but it tends to be more expensive because it involves a dedicated team that handles all the technical issues.
Reseller Hosting
Reseller hosting is a type of hosting that gives you a way to make a profit. You can buy storage space and use part of it for your own website needs, the rest you can rent out to other website owners. It can have similar characteristics to shared hosting.
Colocation
Colocation hosting it’s more of a data center that can provide storage space for website owners to use. It’s equipped with servers, storage, and bandwidth. Colocation can be a better option for bigger websites as it’s more low cost and gives them more control over their website. But it does require more technical skills and it could be more expensive if you are a small business owner or a startup.
