Choosing the type of website hosting can be a little confusing for beginners. There are over four types of website hosting services on the internet right now. However, you must choose the type of web hosting that will help you meet your needs.
Website hosting providers offer server space and the technology to allow users to access your website online. The server is the hardware that stores web data, including text files, videos, and images.
Web hosting companies provide different types of hosting services, including:
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- Shared hosting
- VPS hosting
- Dedicated hosting
- Cloud hosting
This article will explain the differences between the types of web hosting and the uses of each.
Shared hosting
A lot of websites on the internet use shared hosting. It is the ideal type of web hosting for small businesses and beginners. For instance, shared hosting is an excellent choice for bloggers with limited monthly visitors.
All the websites using shared hosting have allocated server spaces, respectively. It is a brilliant option for small businesses or bloggers who are on a budget. Websites with less than 10,000 monthly visitors can opt for shared hosting without hiccups. Shared hosting is also easy to configure.
However, you will be sharing resources with other websites. It could affect your website quality and performance. When a website on the same server as yours experiences a surge in traffic, it could negatively affect your site’s performance.
Shared hosting is the cheapest type of web hosting on the internet. It allows little customization over the server settings and potentially lower uptime rates.
VPS hosting
VPS hosting stands for a virtual private server. It is similar to shared hosting, but you share the resources with fewer websites. Web hosting providers divide a single server into virtual servers, which resemble dedicated server spaces.
VPS hosting allows access to dedicated resources when using a shared server. It is an ideal upgrade from the shared hosting plan, significantly so if your business is scaling. Website owners who use many videos and images can opt for VPS hosting as opposed to shared hosting.
However, you need the technical knowledge to set up your VPS server. You can customize your server to achieve faster loading times and longer uptime rates.
It is easy to think of VPS hosting as the cheaper version of a dedicated hosting service.
Dedicated hosting
Dedicated website hosting offers the best web performance among all the other types of web hosting services. Simultaneously, it is also the most expensive hosting service since you own and manage an entire server.
Enterprises and large businesses use dedicated hosting for maximum performance output. The hosting service provides high security, which makes it an excellent choice for e-commerce establishments.
Unfortunately, if you only have a handful of monthly traffic, a dedicated server is too expensive unless you can afford it. It can cost up to AU$3500 per month.
When using a dedicated hosting service, other sites’ performance will not affect your traffic. Dedicated hosting allows complete control over the server. You will need the technical knowledge to manage your server and website.
For instance, you must handle the server updates and backups. You will also be responsible for monitoring your server for errors and fixing them. However, you can always opt for a web hosting provider to manage your server.
Dedicated website hosting is an ideal choice for website owners with over 100,000 monthly visitors. It will also deliver high uptime rates and fast loading websites.
Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting provides multiple virtual servers and is similar to VPS hosting. VPS gives you access to a single server with dedicated resources. Cloud hosting allows you to access different servers to maximize your website uptime rates.
With cloud hosting, there will not be too many downtimes. This is because when one server is down, another one takes over immediately.
Cloud hosting is also an excellent choice because you only pay for the resources you need. It makes it more cost-effective than a dedicated server. Besides, you can always opt for extra features on the admin dashboard.
Cloud hosting is the best type of hosting for businesses experiencing rapid growth. It allows you to scale your hosting plan to meet your needs. And besides, it offers a high level of security and faster loading speed.
Unfortunately, cloud hosting lacks fixed pricing. It is not an ideal option for website owners on a tight budget. For instance, if you get more visitors coming to your site, you will pay more money. It can be very inconvenient for small businesses. Cloud hosting is also not flexible in terms of customization.
Other services
Besides the four types of website hosting outlined above, you might hear about WordPress and Reseller hosting services.
WordPress Hosting
WordPress hosting allows extra security for WordPress-based websites. WordPress hosting has additional features which are managed by the hosting provider. These can include:
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- WordPress installation
- Automatic core (WordPress) update
- Automatic security updates
- Secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) access
- PHP updates
- Content delivery network (CDN) management
- Technical support
- Website migration tools
WordPress hosting limits the customization of and access to servers or ‘behind the scenes’ dashboards to prevent damage to the website.
Reseller hosting
Reseller hosting is for entrepreneurs who want to add hosting services to their offering. It works similarly to a retailer’s relationship to a wholesaler of goods. The reseller service will offer hosting across the range of types described above. In most cases, digital agencies and web developers use reseller hosting to support a ‘one stop shop’ style service which provides greater consistency across the client’s experience.