Are you ready to go with your own website? If so, then it’s time to find a good web host that can put all your effort on the web, give you the tools, bandwidth, and storage you need, and support you when you need help. A web hosting service allows organizations and individuals to make their website accessible via the World Wide Web. There are dozens of Web hosting companies that provide space on their server with countless choices of tools and pricing options starting from $2 to $500 or more per month.
Before you decide which web host to choose and which package to buy, you need to pen down your basic requirements.
- What kind of website are you building?
- Do you need Windows applications or will Linux do?
- Does your website need special software?
- How much web traffic volume do you want?
These are some of the general questions which need to be answered before taking your site on the server.
Today, we will discuss the various types of web hosting and their merits and demerits.
In the table below, you will see that almost all of the companies offer both shared and dedicated web hosting. Running your website with several other websites on the same server is called shared hosting. Websites up-time, downtime, and speed, are an integral part of the experience provided to your visitors. Every visitor has only 10 seconds of attention span, so if your website does not load within the time, you may lose your prospect. A shared hosting account is affordable, easy to maintain, and sufficient for most new sites, but if you want good performance and speed, you need to be looking at dedicated or virtual servers.
Dedicated hosting is also one of the hosting options available. With this service, a user gets his own physical server from the provider. It comes installed with an operating system and storage drives. As resources of the server are dedicated to the user, it resolves the speed problems encountered with shared hosting.
Virtual Private Servers (VPS), also known as Virtual Dedicated Servers (VDS), are part of one big physical server with their own operating system and resources like storage space, memory, and bandwidth allocation.
Both Dedicated and Virtual Private Servers are capable of handling heavy traffic inflow on the server, leaving you worry-free about your site’s performance with more users. If you are looking for an alternative to Dedicated hosting then “Cloud Hosting” is something that might suit your needs.
In the last few years, a shift has been observed from the physical to the virtual world, by way of “cloud hosting”, and it can truly be cited as a revolutionary change for the hosting industry. In a short span of time, cloud hosting has become very popular. That’s due to the many features and limitless flexibility it offers to its users. To list a few, features like “scaling the resources” and “setting server specifications” to match the demands, are some of the capabilities that benefit the user and save money spent on maintaining infrastructure during idle times.
Let’s have a look at some of the popular web hosting companies and compare the web servers they provide:
| Requirements | Shared Hosting | Dedicated Hosting | VPS Hosting | Cloud Hosting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HostGator | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dreamhost | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Arvixe | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| InMotion | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Bluehost | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Go Daddy | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Network Solutions | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| ixwebhosting.com | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Hostway | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Rackspace | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| LiquidWeb | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Blackmesh | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MediaTemple | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| A small orange | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| iweb | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 123-reg | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mochahost | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 1&1 | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Green Geeks | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Atlantic.net | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Hivelocity | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Site Ground | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Vmware | No | No | No | Yes |
| SoftLayer | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Almost all of the web hosting companies offer multiple hosting packages. A user can choose a package that suits his or her requirements. These packages begin at a low cost with a limited set of features, and move up in terms of pricing with added features. At first glance, most packages appear similar, but in actual they are not. Therefore, be careful with what you choose.
Make sure your web host provides the right kind of hosting OS. If you have an SQL server or any application written in .NET, then you require Windows hosting.
In addition to the package, service providers bundle up the offer with tools like a Site Builder application, an Email Marketing tool, and built-in e-Commerce applications.
The offer includes limited or unlimited bandwidth along with various storage space options, along with 24/7 customer support to take care of your needs in any emergency.
And if you want to be really quick in performing fast and easy updates, then look for a provider who is providing the CMS on which your website has been built.
For the last 8 years, KUWARE has been providing and managing web hosting for its clients. We have our own Website Monitoring Tool, which can be accessed here – https://kuware.com/websites/track-your-site/
Please let us know if we can be of any further service to you.
