At the most basic level, web hosting is all about securing a space on the World Wide Web where your website, files, or documents can be kept. Think of it as renting an apartment on the internet. As you may have probably known by now, setting up a website for your business or any project will require a domain name and a web hosting package among others.
You have probably heard nomenclatures like reseller hosting, VPN, and their kinds and wonder what they really are. Well, you’ll learn about them in this article. But as you now have a general idea of web hosting, we will look at various types of it that are available to you. Some big competitors vying for market share include Kinsta vs Siteground. Depending on the provider, web hosting comes at different packages and prices. But beyond the scope of this article, you need to shop around to figure out your ideal package so that you don’t spend too much money or waste time.
- Shared Hosting Service
This is the most basic and usually the cheapest web hosting service available on the internet. From the name, you’ll figure out that you’re sharing something with others and in this situation, it means that your website files are hosted on the server together with other webmasters files. All resources in this service including storage (RAM and CPU) are shared among multiple domain names that are hosted on the same server. You’ll soon learn how this impacts your website.
While access to this server may not be exclusive to you, it comes with a truckload of advantages. By all standards, it’s by far the cheapest type of hosting available on the internet. It is highly recommended for new website owners, small blogs, niche sites, and start-ups.
Keep in mind, however, that shared hosting is notorious for slow loading and time lags. As you can imagine, this is attributed to the fact that the many websites hosted here are always sending multiple requests to the same server which causes it to get overwhelmed. Now, this leads us to another type of hosting.
- Virtual Private Server Hosting (VPS)
This is the next level of web hosting and it offers a better experience than the basic shared hosting. Some of its popular features include the following:
- It accommodates fewer domain names per server hence allowing even distribution of web resources between the websites it hosts.
- Allows for scalability as users can always upgrade the services.
- And very importantly, the service also affords you the flexibility to customize your website environment.
These benefits come at a higher cost as anyone can easily guess. But it’s worth it nonetheless. So who’s this service best for? Think about start-ups that are growing and need more space and/or control over their hosting. Organizations, mega blogs, big newspapers, and entities in that caliber are advised to choose a VPS.
- Reseller Hosting Service
Reseller hosting is just another level of shared hosting run by companies or people who wish to provide hosting services to end-users with the aim of making some profit. Think of it like affiliate marketing at the web hosting level. Basically, these companies buy huge hosting packages and resell with a couple of added features. Usually, they sell basic shared packages that come with the usual add-on services like website templates, technical support, and even private name servers.
Purchasing a resold hosting space is often budget-friendly. This is recommended for blogs, small niche sites, and start-ups. Just do yourself a favor and choose reliable companies.
- Dedicated Hosting
It’s the ideal web hosting package required for big businesses and companies. And as you may have guessed, it comes with a huge cost even though it’s an impressive collection of premium features that makes it worth it.
Simply put, your business or company website will enjoy a server strictly dedicated to its smooth operations when you choose this option. As there’s no sharing of web resources you enjoy maximum flexibility over your space.
Choose this option if you run a big company, organization, or project where you expect heavy traffic.
- Cloud Hosting
As you may have already noticed by now, there are several types of hosting plans out there and this might be confusing to you if you’re looking at choosing a plan that’s suitable for you. You may find this Forbes article helpful in that regard. Back to the topic, there’s cloud hosting to discuss. It’s the newest among them all.
A cloud-based hosting service offers you numerous benefits of which increased scalability is an instant standout. Here the providers combine a network of computers to create a virtual server for your website. This comes with increased disk space, bandwidth, and uptime. More so, it also provides increased security to cyber-attacks and helps you manage your web setup.
This type of web hosting is particularly recommended for a site that generates a ton of traffic everywhere day.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, choosing a good web hosting service does not have to be as complex as running EXE files on Android without rooting. It’s a case of comparing your needs to your budget. Thankfully, most hosting service providers offer a very wide assortment of options which make it possible for every webmaster to fit in properly irrespective of their budget, project, or technical experience. That said, make sure to shop around before choosing a hosting plan as there are great deals in the industry these days.
