There are multiple web hosting services available for hosting your website. But before exploring any one of them, it is important to know what service your website needs, your budget, business needs and, of course, the type of services your web hosting server offers.
The particulars of every web hosting solution vary with different types. For instance, some operating systems have multiple hardware setups. Moreover, various web hosting solutions will provide the range of plans from which each is finely tuned to meet the needs of the specific kind of client. Nailing all types of web hosting solutions could be a really tough job if you don’t have a guide.
Here, we will look at the top three types of web hosting services available. We will also tell you about the positives and negatives of hosting servers and which hosting solutions best fit your needs.
When we visit a website in a browser, it is because browser downloads multiple files with converted markup and code into something which a visitor can understand and see.
So, technically hosting services allow individuals or businesses to post a web page or website onto the internet. Any web host or service provider dispenses the services and technologies required for the website to be displayed on the internet. These websites are stored, or hosted, on special servers. When a user wants to view a web page, they simply type the domain into their browser. What happens at the back is that the computer automatically gets connected to your hosted server, and your web pages will be delivered to them through the browser.
In this article we will further discuss the types of web hosting along with the pointers so that it becomes easy for you to choose what’s best for you.
The name shared hosting itself explains everything. A shared hosting server is the one where your site is placed on the same server along with numerous other websites. Being surrounded by hundreds or even thousands of websites is not a new thing and is a very common phenomenon for a website. Shared hosting server is the most cost-effective pick where you get your own domain. It is best suited for small websites that do not have much traffic.
It is the most cost-effective pick among all the servers. Moreover, their setup is completely taken care of. Shared hosting server’s configuration remains minimal so you can concentrate completely on building your website. Shared hosting providers handle all the technical aspects of the infrastructure of a website, manage security of infrastructure, updates and other maintenance.
Sharing a server can bring benefits as well as some pitfalls. A server is a computer which is dependent on resources like CPU speed, hard drive space and RAM and do not assure infinity. If you run too many programs simultaneously, it begins to slow down. The same happens with these machines if they are loaded with so much at the same time. Since all the websites that are there on the server rely heavily on server’s resources, it can make you run into problem, if any of them is dominating the whole processing power via increased traffic or faulty code. Also, it has limited security features due to shared server.
Dedicated server means you have a server all for yourself. And just like any other hosting server provides the user with a host of benefits along with quite a few downsides. With the dedicated hosting server, very few providers are more than happy to let you customize the server to a certain degree. Since you have a server all by yourself, you can choose how much and what type of RAM to equip the server with. You can also decide on which operating system the server will run on. Being very specific, you can make any changes you want/need, which brings a lot of convenience if you plan on running any special software on the server.
The best thing about this server is that it negates all bad neighbor issues simply because there are no such things as neighbors. No other website can pose a security risk, steal your resources or cause other issues. This makes it different from other web hosting servers. It is more secure and difficult to hack, making this ideal for companies with lots of customer. It provides faster speed, better connectivity and upload time.
Firstly, renting a dedicated server is quite expensive. Moreover, if you own a server, you actually need to know a lot about computers and server technology. In addition, with the dedicated server hosting, any faulty coding or problematic websites are your own fault as you are completely alone and dominant on the server.
In dedicated hosting server, diagnostics and problem resolution are more problematic. And you need an expert individual to manage environment.
VPS is the most balanced web hosting server among all the different types of servers. VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. This server is also a shared environment but the way it has been set up is quite different from shared server. Although all sites on VPS share a single physical server, they all have separate virtual machines. This characteristic makes it a middle ground between shared hosting server and dedicated server. It is the go-to option for website owners who are looking for an upgrade from shared hosting mainly because of its balanced nature from all points of view, including cost.
VPS is considered the most reliable and stable shared hosting server. Due to the limitation of 10-20 websites per server decreases the rush hence resulting in less demand on the server in itself. Another major benefit of VPS server is that it is scalable, renders more flexibility and gives you access to customize your environment.
VPS Hosting helps improve privacy and security. That is because you don’t share the Operating System with any other websites. Thus, nobody can access the files.
There’s not too much to talk about downsides of VPS hosting. The biggest downside is that it is more expensive than your lower-tier solutions.
Secondly, with more configuration power also comes great responsibility. You should actually know what you are doing. And if you really want to take benefit from it, you need to get properly educated about it. Also, it requires better upkeep and maintenance.