Nowadays, it is crucial to have a website even if you have an offline business. As for online business, it is impossible to imagine a good company without a good website. You have to go through many challenges while launching it, like creating the content and design, taking care of navigation, and so on. Still, everything starts with choosing web hosting.
You may choose free and paid once, small and large, dedicated and cloud-based. Each of them has many pros and cons. Thus, you have to decide which hosting types are the best for your business. In this article, we are going to explain the most popular web hosting services and their variations.
Web Hosting Definition And Purposes
Firstly, you have to understand what a web hosting service is and how it works (at least a basic definition).
Each website should be located on the server to function properly. Servers are hardware to store the data and accessibility of the website. Videos, music, contact forms, different pages of websites – all that kind of stuff is located on the server. The bigger server, the more data you can save and the better page load speed you can get.
Servers, in turn, are located in data centers worldwide. Each data center is run by a web hosting company. It assures its security and functionality, as well as smooth operating.
Thus, the purpose of a web hosting is to ensure users with data space and high-quality servers to run the websites. With the help of web hosting, you can be online and become accessible for your customers.
Types of Web Hostings
There are many different types of web hostings since they satisfy different website needs. The chosen type may affect the loading speed, website appearance, scalability, and other elements. Also, it affects the traffic you can process. That is why it is very crucial to choose the correct web hosting.
1. Shared Web Hosting
Here is the basic variant that is used by most simple websites. Such webhosting services are the best choice for low-budget companies and small amounts of traffic.
For example, an MVP or portfolio website can be hosted on shared web hosting.
How does it work? There are several websites with their own servers. So, when you choose such hosting options, your website will be located on the server shared by other sites.
The pros of such a type of web hosting are cost-effectiveness and easy accessibility. The cons are that you depend on other websites, so it has worse security and loading speed. Also, such a service is bad for scalability.
2. Reseller Web Hosting
The next type is something similar to the 1st variant. Reseller web hosting services allow you to share the hosting options with other companies. So you become a kind of shared web hosting, but you set the rules and the price.
The benefits of such a type are that you have more options for managing the hosting and more server space. Also, you can upgrade your existing servers and get income, especially from your clients, for hosting.
Still, the disadvantages are the same. Firstly, it has low security. Secondly, you need many clients to get good revenue. Thirdly, if you have problems with a server, all the clients will turn on you.
3. Cloud-Based Web Hosting
Cloud-based types are very popular nowadays. They allow many individual servers located in different places to work as one enormous server. Thus, if one of the servers has some issues, the others will work for it, so the server problem will not cause any issues for a website.
With such hosting, you can get large amounts of traffic. Moreover, you won’t have any problems with salability since you can just add one more server to plan each time it is necessary. Such websites have good security and page load speed as well.
Nonetheless, there are some cons. Firstly, it is a very expensive hosting option. Secondly, it could be much-uncontrolled traffic that also affects the price. Finally, you won’t have many options to customize the hosting.
4. Virtual Private Server (VPS)
VPS is the next step after shared plans. In this case, you still need to share the server with other websites, but their number is lower. How does it work? There is a main server that divides into several VPS. Each VPS serves as hosting for every single website.
In this case, you will have better security than on shared web hosting and can increase the page load speed. Thus, you can process more traffic. Nonetheless, it is more difficult to install this server, and you can’t customize it to the fullest.
5. Dedicated Web Server
This one is for those with big plans. A dedicated web server means that you have your own server for a certain website. With this type of web hosting, you can process big amounts of traffic and ensure amazing performance. At the same time, it has almost no problems with scalability.
Nonetheless, using a dedicated web server is an expensive thing. Also, you have to configure it individually, so you need to have a lot of knowledge. Finally, all the server problems are on you.
6. Colocation Web Hosting
Colocation web hosting is a bit similar to cloud-based. If you choose this option, you will still need to use the space of data centers that ensure a high-security level. Nonetheless, in colocation type, you can get your own server.
Still, it differs from a dedicated web server since you have support and don’t need to manage all the processes individually. Yet this type of web hosting is quite expensive as well and needs a lot of knowledge for maintenance. Thus, it won’t be a good idea for small businesses.
7. Self Service Web Hosting
This type is for real geeks. Nobody can point you to anything since you even buy and install the servers individually. Thus, the benefits are that you can get as much space as you need and take care of security. On the other hand, all the issues are on you only. If you make a mistake, the whole website can run down.
8. Managed WordPress Hosting
Since WordPress became a very popular CMS, the company started to provide web-hosting services. In this case, you pay a provider who manages your website hosting on WordPress servers. This type of web hosting is quite cost-effective and ensures high security. Also, you have good scalability options.
Nonetheless, you are fully dependent on the provider and a certain platform – WordPress. If you want to customize the website or configure the hosting, you won’t have many options.
Final Thought
As you can see, there are many types of web hostings, and each of them is good for certain websites. Thus, before choosing a hosting option, you have to analyze your needs and budget. Choose wisely.
