If you are starting a new web site or already have an existing web site, picking the right web hosting is crucial to the success of your web site. If you choose the wrong hosting type for your web site you could lose valuable web traffic/orders due to downtimes, suspensions for resource abuse, etc. In this article I will go over the different types of web hosting out there and which is best for you.
Free Web Hosting
Free Web Hosting is great for the obvious reason. If you are just getting started and need practice building web sites then you will want to find a good free web hosting provider. Theres no sense in wasting money on a paid service if all you want to do is practice your skills. After you have learned how to manage a web site then you might want to think about going to a paid host. If your web site is a small site and don’t mind the adverts the host will place on your site than by all means go with the free web hosting providers. For the most part a free web host won’t provide support for their services(some do), might not be as reliable, and won’t have as many bells and whistles added to the service as a paid hosting provider will
Paid hosting: Shared, virtual, multi user plans
Shared/virtual web hosting is great for most of the web sites out there. If you have a small to medium size web site and traffic you will want to go with a paid shared web hosting provider. Paid providers will usually be able to host multiple domain names on a single account and will provide more than enough resources for most sites out there. With a paid host your will receive better support and a more reliable service. You will want to go with a paid host if you plan to make money on your web site. Remember that downtime costs you money – lost sales, lost ad revenue. So make sure you find a host with an uptime guarantee.
Paid Hosting: Reseller Plans
A reseller hosting plan is great for web designers or smaller size companies who wish to make money by selling off part of their resources to their customers. Reseller hosting companies generally provide two types of control panels. One panel for your customers, one panel for you. Your panel will allow you to manage the accounts under your plan, suspend, modify user info, change resources, etc. Reseller plans are great for start ups because they are cheaper and you don’t need to know anything that technical in order to sell your space.
Paid Hosting: VPS Hosting ( Virtual Private Server)
VPS hosting is when a hosting provider will divide up a server amongst a small amount of clients and allow each client root access to his/her part of the server. This is different than shared hosting because each clients’ account will act as a separate server within the REAL server. So in a sense there are 5-7 different servers all running independently of each other operating out of one machine. VPS plans are good for a site that is medium in size and gets a decent amount of traffic. The hosting provider will a lot CPU and RAM usage as well as disk space and transfer to the client so that his/her site is guaranteed these resources. If all the clients on that server are running at the max limit set, you will still have access to your xxMhz and GB of RAM.
Paid: Dedicated Servers
This option should be reserved for high traffic volume or corporate web site. A dedicated server will allow the client complete control over everything on the server. If you don’t know the technical side of things, some providers offer fully managed dedicated servers. They will do everything for you – security, software updates, system administration, etc. This all comes at a cost though. If you want a cheaper solution, an unmanaged dedicated server is what you want. You will need to do all the system administration so don’t go unmanaged dedicated unless you know exactly what you are doing.
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Looking for a reliable shared hosting provider, check us out at monstermegs.com. We run cpanel on all our hosting servers.
