In the world of web hosting, there are many options that will all get your site on the web. However, each of them cater directly to website owners needs – whether those needs be big or small.
Without hosting or server, your website will not be visible on the internet. Due to this your website will not be able to rank on Google. Apart from this, people will not get information about your website. Therefore, first of all you need to know the answers to countless questions like what is web hosting.
While they all act as a storage place for your website, where they differ is the amount of storage capacity, control, technical knowledge requirement, server speed and reliability. These are the six types of web hosting you will most often come across:
What is Web Hosting
We can say that web hosting is an online platform which provides you the following features for your website-
- It is helpful in uploading your website on the internet.
- Without any hosting your website cannot be uploaded on the internet.
- Stores all the content related to your website like articles, audio, videos, images, etc. in one place.
- Provides users with easy data access to the content of your website.
- Hosting helps in making your website accessible to people in Google search.
- Web hosting keeps users connected to your website through the internet for 24 hours.
Most of the web hosting servers are very costly, which is quite difficult to maintain. To avoid this, you have to take the help of web hosting companies to post your website.
Most of the companies providing web hosting services buy the entire hosting server and provide you hosting service and maintenance service along with the entire staff, they have their own technology and technical staff.
If a user purchases hosting service from them, they are provided space on their server and are helped in posting their website.
Types of Web Hosting
In the next sequence of what is web hosting, we will learn about the types of web hosting. There are 4 types of web hosting. Users can buy hosting as per the need of their website. The types of web hosting are as follows-
- Shared Hosting
- Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting
- Dedicated Hosting
- Cloud Hosting
1. Shared Hosting
- Hosting thousands of websites simultaneously from a single web hosting server.
- Thousands of websites use this single web hosting server by sharing all the components like space, RAM, CPU, etc.
Features of shared hosting
Shared Hosting has the following features-
- Available in the market at low monthly cost.
- Useful for websites with traffic up to 10000.
- Thousands of websites can be hosted on a single server.
Disadvantages of Shared Hosting
Shared Hosting has the following disadvantages-
- It is a useful server for the initial stages of the website, but when the traffic suddenly increases, the speed of the website automatically slows down.
- If the number of users increases, technical errors may also occur.
Shared Hosting is best for you?
The following users should use Shared Hosting-
- All small business users should use shared web hosting.
- Those website owners whose website is new.
- Such users whose number of visitors to their websites is less or limited to 10000.
2. Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting
- Dividing a dedicated hosting or server into multiple virtual servers.
- Having combined features of Shared Hosting and Dedicated Hosting.
- Hosting a single website on a VPS Server.
- All VPS Servers use all the physical components of the server on the basis of their share.
Features of VPS Hosting
VPS web hosting has the following features-
- RAM and CPU are fully utilized.
- Monthly cost is reduced by using less space by Virtual Server.
- Facility to shift website data to the hardware of another virtual server if the hardware of the virtual server fails.
- Complete control of server access is achieved.
- Webpage loading time is faster in VPS hosting.
- Disaster recovery facility in case of server hardware failure.
- If there is a security problem on any server of VPS hosting, all other virtual servers remain safe.
- Facility to access root label services.
- Dedicated web hosting is cheaper than Server, in this you can pay according to your required features.
Disadvantages of VPS Hosting
VPS web hosting has the following disadvantages-
- If the same server is used by some users, in such a situation you have to pay more than shared hosting.
- Although a technical expert is required to control a dedicated hosting server, but to control VPS hosting also you need to have less technical knowledge.
- In comparison to dedicated hosting, you do not get complete control as compared to VPS server.
VPS Hosting is best for you?
In the next sequence of what is web hosting, we will see which users should use VPS hosting, let us know-
- Such users who need to install third party applications.
- When excessive traffic suddenly increases on a website connected to shared hosting.
- VPS hosting is required to provide root access to your server.
When to Switch VPS Hosting?
Normally all business start-ups use share hosting while starting. In the beginning, there is no need for VPS or Dedicated server. Switch on to VPS server only when-
- When your business starts growing.
- The number of users on your websites starts increasing.
3. Dedicated Hosting
- Monopoly of a single user on a single hosting server.
- Monopoly of a single user on all the components of this hosting server.
- Control of the entire server should be in the hands of the user.
- User should have access to operating system and other settings.
- Getting good download and upload speed.
Features of Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated web hosting has the following features-
- Single Server is dedicated to your single website.
- It is more expensive than all other web hosting servers like shared hosting, VPS hosting.
- All the components of Dedicated Hosting Server are used by the user’s website only.
- The complete control of this hosting server rests with the user only.
- Increasing traffic on a user’s website does not make any significant difference to its performance/speed.
Advantages of Dedicated Hosting
In the next step of what is web hosting, we will know about the advantages of Dedicated Hosting, let us know-
- You get complete privacy in dedicated server.
- You can use maximum resources on this server.
- In dedicated hosting you get adequate storage space.
- In comparison to shared and VPS hosting, you do not have to share your resources on a dedicated server.
- This server provides you a unique IP address.
- This server is capable of handling thousands of visitors in a day.
- Because it is not shared with countless customers, a dedicated server is very secure.
Disadvantages of Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated Hosting has the following disadvantages-
- Dedicated server is highly costlier than shared hosting or VPS hosting.
- It is very important for the user using this web hosting server to have technical knowledge.
Dedicated Hosting is best for you?
What is Dedicated Web Hosting? The following users should use it-
- Such users whose websites have high traffic.
- Those websites which use high e-traffic web applications.
- Websites that deal in confidential data.
- All websites related to money transaction which require strict security.
- People who require large amounts of backup & storage.
- Apart from this, all online video streaming platforms should use Dedicated Hosting.
When to Switch Dedicated Hosting
Let us know when to switch on to Dedicated Hosting-
- When more than 1000 unique visitors start coming to your website daily.
- If there is a possibility of huge traffic increase on your website in the nearest future.
- If suddenly the page loading speed on your website starts exceeding 3 seconds or the bounce rate starts increasing excessively.
- When the amount of articles, videos, web forms, extensive blogs, etc. on your website starts increasing, you will need a lot of space for their storage, in such a situation you should switch to a dedicated server.
4. Cloud Hosting
What is Cloud Web Hosting? Let us know the meaning of cloud hosting – The three hosting given above provide you the facility as per your need, but it often happens that any content on your website can go viral at any time. This makes it difficult to handle the traffic coming to your website.
To avoid such situations, you have to take the help of cloud hosting. In fact, cloud hosting is not a single server but a group of many servers, which hosts your website.
Such commercial websites on which any product suddenly goes viral and traffic suddenly increases, such people use cloud hosting only.
By using multiple servers, high volume traffic does not cause any harm to your website. In this hosting, you do not get the facility to control the server.
Advantages of Cloud Hosting
Cloud web hosting has the following advantages-
- Cloud Hosting transfers huge amounts of data at high speed, this server provides quick response in seconds.
- Once the data is stored in Cloud Hosting, you can easily backup & recovery the data in minimum time.
- Disaster recovery can be done easily in Cloud Hosting, because here you use multiple servers.
Disadvantages of Cloud Hosting
Let us know what is Cloud web hosting server. Regarding the disadvantages of cloud hosting, the disadvantages of cloud hosting are as follows-
- Cloud hosting users’ data remains online, due to which the risk of security breach remains. Although even after using high security, the risk of data theft remains.
- Since cloud computing is completely dependent on the internet, cloud hosting users need consistent internet service.
- Sometimes you have to face the problem of loss of power, weekly internet connectivity on cloud web hosting, due to which your website may have to face downfall in case of data centers being out of service during server maintenance.
Cloud Hosting for is best for you?
Cloud Hosting should be used by the following users-
- Cloud Hosting is mainly useful for an organization, in which the concerned user gets the facility to increase disk space & memory.
- Website owners struggling with traffic spikes can also use it.
