Web Hosting Types You Should Know

Website Development Estimated Reading Time 5 mins
Updated December 13, 2023Published September 03, 2016
Blog>web-hosting-types-you-should-know
Author: Visibee

If you want your business to sell online, you must invest in it. At some point, web hosting has much to contribute to the success of your online business. It is even deemed the crucial part of initiation. Such is an investment you will have to make if you want to, if not thrive, survive online.

Yet, before choosing the best web hosting type comes to mind, you have to understand first what web hosting really is.

What is Web Hosting?

It is an Internet hosting service that helps virtual people and organizations make their website accessible through the World Wide Web. Web Hosting comes in after a domain name is being provided to you. Your Web Host will host that domain with opting server space on the web. This process is likened to how your files are stored in your personal computer or laptop.  If your file storage on your laptop is your hard drive, your website also has stored your files on your server. The only difference is that all your files will be accessed by anyone online once your default setting is public.

To set the record straight, a website is a set of data shared online while a web hosting provider is a company that controls your files, making it accessible to anyone online. If you want your site to be always visible anytime, you need to get a web server that is available 24/7.

Now that you already have an idea about Web Hosting, it’s high time to get to know closely these Web Hosting types:

Free Web Hosting

Why pay when you can have it for free? But, you might be wondering why on earth this is possible. Well, you read it right – advertisements! If you choose to get a free web hosting service, you will get ads in the sidebars of your site. These ads have already been paid and appear in your site anytime. Whether you like it or not, they will be embedded in your webpage and you cannot edit, much less, remove them.

And since this hosting is free, you are given a sub-domain. Instead of having a domain name as in yourdomainname.com, you will be given yourdomainname.freehostingsiteprovider.com. For example, your blog’s name isn’t www.reversatility.com but www.reversatility.wordpress.com. A site with only a sub-domain may look less professional, and seems not following a certain structure. Having a sub-domain website only works well with personal blogs where you share your photos and other personal stuff. However, if your goal is to earn through your website, naming it using an exclusive domain name is essential. Yes, getting a domain name should also be part of your investment.

Shared Hosting

The name itself suggests that once you grab a shared hosting plan, you will share a server with other websites. This is cheaper as you don’t own your server exclusively. Since you share with hundreds of other websites, you can minimize the cost. You may only pay for as low as four dollars to five dollars per month depending on the amount of storage you requested.

Yet, there are drawbacks that come along with shared hosting. If there are many of you sharing in one single server, your website performance is at stake. Your website and that of others will suffer slow loading times and when worst comes to worst, you could even get offline for very long intervals or period of time.

Dedicated Hosting

This is a private hosting service allowing one to have his own purchased server. Most of the people who prefer such server are a sole property owner. He can have a complete access to one server without having to share it with other websites. You can even install the best Operating System of your choice.

Privacy is a luxury. So, dedicated hosting is definitely expensive. But, since large businesses opt to have a higher level of security and privacy, making such an investment is a better choice.

Virtual Private Server - (VPS)

VPS comes in between a shared hosting and a dedicated server. It takes a larger server and divides it into smaller servers. VPS sort of offers a smaller dedicated server but it doesn’t give you the physical disk space the way a dedicated server does. Also, with VPS, you will have more access, more security, and storage space than what shared hosting provides. So, if, in any case, your site with shared hosting plan starts getting high traffic, and you still cannot afford getting a dedicated server, you can readily upgrade it to VPS.

So, which among these web hosting types suits you? Find out now and let us know.

Photo: Pixabay

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