A website is not merely the focal point of your online presence. It is an opportunity to make a brand statement and allow people to experience the brand values that you have embedded in your business. Right from the design and layout of the site to the hosting service, everything comes together to create an image that can make or break a business. Today, we are going to talk about web hosting plans and discuss the three most popular hosting types – Shared Hosting, VPS or Virtual Server Hosting, and Dedicated Server Hosting.
Web Hosting and its types
When you want to launch your website on the internet, you need to store it on a web server. You can host your website in-house by purchasing a server or renting space from a web hosting company. Based on different hosting requirements and budget, hosting companies offer a range of hosting services, including:
- Shared Hosting: Your website resides on a shared server. Multiple users share the resources and computing power of the server.
- Dedicated Hosting: You are the sole user of the webserver. Hence, there is no sharing of resources and computing power of the server.
- VPS Hosting: Your site resides on a virtual server with dedicated resources, account isolation and complete root access. It works as a dedicated server with fewer resources.
How to choose the best one for your business?
Before you start looking for a hosting service, it is crucial to understand the hosting requirements of your site. Remember, no service can be called the ‘best’ for all sites. Every website has a unique requirement and needs a specific combination of features from the hosting plan. Here are some aspects that you need to think about:
- Budget, considering the type of website and user expectation from the site
- Number and kind of web applications that you plan to run from the site
- Heavy video files
- eCommerce requirements, if any
- Growth projections for the near future
The answers to these questions can help you get an idea about the type of hosting service you need.
Ideal use for each hosting type
Here is a quick look at the kind of sites that can work best with each hosting type:
- Shared Hosting – This is great for new and small websites that have minimal resource and computing requirements. It is the least expensive hosting service and offers basic functionalities for such sites.
- Dedicated Server Hosting – This is the costliest and most efficient type of web hosting since the entire server caters to only one user. Hence, it is preferred by big companies and those who want complete control over the server resources. It is important to remember that having a Dedicated Server means taking care of various server management tasks yourself. While you can opt for Managed Dedicated Server Hosting plans, they are costlier than their unmanaged counterparts.
- VPS Hosting – This is a notch above Shared Hosting and a step below Dedicated Server Hosting. It is a cost-efficient manner of getting a Dedicated-Server-like hosting environment with exclusive resources, complete root access, and account isolation. VPS Hosting is ideal for websites that have outgrown a Shared Hosting service but are not large enough for a Dedicated Server. It is the perfect median between Shared Hosting and Dedicated Hosting plans.
Summing Up
As you can see, Shared, VPS, and Dedicated Hosting services are ideal for certain types of websites. The plans are priced based on various factors. Hence, you must ensure that you choose the one best suited to your site’s needs. Good Luck!
