Do You Know the Various Types of Web Hosting and What They Entail?

Hosting is the platform upon which all online activities are based. Talk of blogs and sites, they cannot exist without hosting. That being said, hosting happens to be one of the concepts with lots of variables that get people confused and lost. To break down this further, below is a look at the web hosting as a whole and the common types of hosting that exist today.

Understanding Web Hosting

Hosting takes place on a server which is simply a computer holding lots of files and capable of manipulating them. The server has a CPU, memory, hard drive, as well as other components including an operating system. The company that offers the server space where your content is based is known as the host. These hosts also give a number of services such as malware scanning, server management, support, backups, and so forth.

Types of Web hosting

Many hosts offer a number of packages which are different from one host to the other. The best way is to figure out the type of hosting that you need and thereafter look at the companies and what they offer to see if it suits your needs.

There are three main ways through which you can differentiate hosting packages. One of the ways is to look at the technology that is being used for the server. Under this, there are four categories; dedicated, VPS, shared, and cloud.

The second way is to analyze the level of management offered. A majority of hosts manage their servers which mean less work for you. However, it could also mean less flexibility.

The third way to assess hosting packages is to look at the additional services offered. Some of the extra services include SSL certificates, backups, malware scanning and cleaning, and the level of support given.

Shared Hosting

This is by far the cheapest hosting package best suited for beginners. In shared hosting, a number of users are put on a single server. The disadvantage with this kind of set up is that all the websites share the same server resources and in the event a single website experiences massive traffic, it uses a higher percentage of the server’s memory leaving the remaining websites to share in the little space available.

This is why you at times experience websites loading slowly or going down altogether. The bad neighbor effect is the main reason why shared hosting doesn’t deliver the best results online.

VPS Hosting

This is the most popular hosting service. Inasmuch as it is a shared server space, the number of users per server is usually limited to about 10 to 20. Every user has ample space to ensure their site perform well.

Dedicated Hosting

This is appropriate for websites experiencing traffic exceeding 1,000 visits per month. Instead of sharing server space, dedicated hosting puts you on a server alone. The disadvantage with dedicated hosting is that it requires you to know lots of computer and server management because it is usually an unmanaged service.

The last hosting solution is cloud hosting. This solution is more or less the same as VPS. However, cloud-based hosting gives you access to multiple server resources in a network. If your need for server space increases, you can scale up without interruptions and cloud hosting also gives you additional security benefits.