Your web hosting needs will rise and become more involved with time as your online business grows. While free and inexpensive web hosting plans may work well for startup businesses, with time, their websites start to feel sluggish as they receive more traffic. You may need to start looking for server updates or completely update your web hosting plan. Think of web hosting plans as the progression of services a growing online business can consider. With thousands of web hosting companies competing for your business with many other different web hosting plans, understanding the different types of web hosting can get pretty confusing quickly. As the hosting industry is the fastest-growing tech service, there were more than >338,561 web hosting providers around the world, as of May 2019. Additionally, many technical terms such as GB, bandwidth, and DNS can easily discourage someone who just wants to move their business brand online.
Recognizing the right web hosting plan for your business is not that easy. There are lots of different types of web hosting types that can confuse business owners. To help you with it, we will guide you on the types of web hosting available, and who they are best suited for.
In this article, we’re going to go through five different types of web hosting services available, and even give discuss few pointers so you can more easily figure out which hosting type will best serve the needs of your business; whether you are just starting an online business or looking to enhance your online venture.
Ready? Then let’s get started.
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting implies that you need to share the server with others, which means your website is hosted on a server shared by other sites. If it provides you all the tools and resources required to create and manage your website. Shared hosting is highly affordable; hence to minimize costs, most people start an online business with a Shared hosting plan. This hosting type is specially made for users managing a single website that is not most likely to get a ton of traffic initially. But in case the traffic on your site increases, you will need to switch to another hosting service as the shared server won’t be able to handle the load and will also affect the performance of the other websites on the same server.
Who should opt for it:
- If you want to host a website that runs like a personal blog or is a new business just starting out, then shared hosting is a good option until your website starts getting a constant stream of steady traffic.
- Likewise, shared hosting also works if your website is under a development phase, and you need a base to test it.
- As shared hosting is cheaper, so it’s best suitable for any person who is on a shoestring budget.
- Small to medium enterprises with low traffic can use shared hosting if at an affordable cost if they do not have a high demand for resources to expand their business and client base on a global level.
Dedicated Hosting
Having a dedicated hosting server means renting out one physical server from a hosting company. With dedicated servers, the clients get full control (termed as “root” permissions in Linux), which allows them to configure it to meet their own unique needs. With a dedicated server, you don’t have to worry about other people’s sites hogging up your resources and slowing your website down, unlike a shared hosting server. Generally, the highest level of server you would need for a growing business with a lot of website traffic is a dedicated hosting server. While the costs of it are significantly higher than shared and VPS hosting, the pricing is influenced by the number of resources; you need, such as RAM, bandwidth, storage space, amongst other things. Hence your business shall be at a point where it can easily afford the necessary costs of having a dedicated server.
Who should opt for it:
- Use a dedicated server if you’re expecting a massive amount of traffic into your website.
- While a dedicated server is better than the traditional VPS server, it still lacks in its scalability. But a dedicated server will be extremely necessary if your website has specialized hardware requirements.
- The dedicated server will also be necessary if you want to meet the high customization needs of your business.
- The dedicated server is unbeatable from a security point of view, so if your business demands a massive amount of control over data privacy, then it is recommended to use a dedicated server since it keeps you are separate from everyone else.
Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting
Virtual private servers act like multiple separate servers but share one physical server. A VPS hosting server is a stepping stone between getting your dedicated machine and shared hosting. A VPS server avoids the cost of a dedicated server while also preventing the problem of having your hosting neighbors slow down your website. Virtual Private Server hosting is the next step up from shared hosting because even though each VPS instance shares hardware resources, it allocates a dedicated slice of the computing resources. VPS hosting is a popular option for website owners looking for an upgrade from traditional shared hosting because it offers a balance of all points, including services and cost.
Who should opt for it:
- Some low-end VPS packages are not too expensive when compared to shared hosting, so it is suitable for businesses on a limited budget.
- If you need a limited number of resources to be allocated to your website, with limited space and computing power, VPS hosting will likely keep your site running smoothly.
- VPS hosting is ideal for growing websites even on the other end of the scale; for example, choosing a high-end VPS plan will be a better choice than a low-end dedicated server.
- If you have a budget that allows you to spend $13 or more per month on hosting, then it is advised for you to choose a VPS-based plan over traditional shared hosting.
Managed WordPress Hosting
Managed WordPress hosting is a type of hosting package that is more of a combination of hosting types with additional services. In essence, it is not a typical hosting type, but the WordPress platform has become so widely used that it’s worth mentioning. Managed WordPress hosting is especially for those who aren’t all that technically proficient but want to manage and run their WordPress site smoothly. It is a service where the hosting company operates all the techy stuff related to keeping your WordPress site up. This includes handling things such as updates, speed improvement, scalability, security, and daily backups. The idea is to allow you to focus on your business, rather than tinkering with WordPress every other hour. While it is not as inexpensive as shared web hosting, it is an excellent option for both established businesses and start-up businesses that use the WordPress platform.
Who should opt for it:
- Managed WordPress hosting is suitable for you if you are running a small personal blog website though you can also opt for free hosting or a small Shared hosting plan.
- Especially if you own a small business or are a freelancer and your website gets quite a bit of traffic, then Managed WordPress hosting is an excellent option for you.
- This hosting type is beneficial for people who aren’t technically savvy or simply would not wanna fiddle with the behind-the-scenes stuff.
- With Managed WordPress hosting, you don’t have to worry about updates or deal with security issues, uptime issues, and speed problems.
- It is ideal for you if you’re looking for a hassle-free experience limited flexibility of resources but great support.
Reseller Hosting
Reseller hosting makes it is possible for you to start your own hosting business and generate clients under your brand. In Reseller hosting, you employ the services of another parent web hosting company and utilize their resources to sell it as your own. It is an option that involves one hosting provider company that rents bandwidth and hard drive space, another mid-size business company, which then rents the space to third parties entrepreneurs and small businesses. In reseller hosting, you get a shared environment where you create multiple shared accounts under one master account.
Who should opt for it:
- If you are looking for scalable web hosting that goes beyond traditional hosting services, then reseller hosting is an excellent option for you.
- If you are planning to set up your own web hosting brand, then reseller hosting is the best to get started
- It eliminates the high investment cost for a start-up web hosting business as well as manages the task of server maintenance.
- Additionally, development firms, web designers, or any individual or company that needs to host multiple website accounts can choose reseller hosting.
Conclusion
Deciding on a hosting plan can be complicated, especially when you start looking at all of the additional services offered. The initial step is determining the hosting type you need, namely the ones we’ve covered in this article above, which we hope helps you make a better decision. You can contact our experts for a free consultation if you need furthermore help with it. Once you have settled on the hosting type you need to use, you can start looking into the additional services you may need. There are many options available, but it’s unlikely you’ll need most of it, especially at the start.
For beginners, we advise starting with a shared hosting plan. It is the most cost-effective choice, provides you all the resources you need at the start of your journey, and looks more professional than a free web host. When you’ve decided on the services you need, research around the various web hosting types and plans to find the one best suited for you, don’t just get stuck on the price, additionally check out the resources they offer. Another way you can determine which hosting type is reliable is by using each with a bit of a trial run. This may demand a small investment of time and money, but it’s the better way to check whether a hosting plan is a good fit for your business needs.
