When you start a website, the first thing you need to do is find web hosting.
This sounds easy; after all, it’s just somewhere to put your website, right? Well, not exactly.
The market for web hosting is extremely fragmented and confusing.
There are many different types of web hosting available and each has pros and cons.
The variety of options can be bewildering for anyone new to the world of websites and blog sites.
If you’re brand new to this world, it may be hard to know where to begin.
But don’t worry; we have compiled everything you need to know about picking a web host here so that you can get started on your site as soon as possible.
What Is Web Hosting?
Web hosting is the place where your website files are stored.
When someone visits your website, their browser downloads those files from your web host.
This is why you need to find a good web host when you start a website.
Web hosting is not the same as domain hosting. Domain hosting is where you store your domain name.
Your domain name is your website address like www.example.com.
Web hosting is where the files for your website (like the contents of your website and images) are stored.
Websites often use a Content Management System (CMS) to write and edit the website.
The CMS links to the website files that are stored on the web host.
When you edit your website, you’re actually editing those files on your web host.
Shared Hosting
If you’re just starting out and don’t think you’ll get many visitors to your site, shared hosting is a good choice.
It’s cheap, easy to set up, and generally reliable.
In a shared environment, your website files are on a server that is shared with many other websites.
If you think that your site may get a lot of visitors, or if you’re planning to create a large and complex website, shared hosting probably isn’t the best choice for you.
Hosting companies often bill shared hosting as “unlimited” because they expect that only a small percentage of websites on the server will use a lot of server resources.
However, if several websites on the same server are using excessive server resources, the server administrator may slow down or even shut off those sites.
VPS Hosting
VPS hosting is a bit more expensive than shared hosting because the hosting company has to invest more in technology to manage the system.
However, you’ll get more control over your server, as you’ll be sharing it with fewer websites.
If you want to run a website that is very resource-intensive, VPS hosting is probably your best choice.
You can find hosts that let you run almost any kind of server software, including Windows, Linux, and even some varieties of Unix.
VPS hosting is an excellent choice for anyone running a website that’s expected to get heavy traffic but doesn’t want to deal with the responsibility of managing a dedicated server.
Dedicated Server Hosting
Dedicated server hosting is designed for high-traffic sites that need a lot of server resources.
For example, you might use dedicated server hosting if you run a large ecommerce site that needs to be able to handle thousands of orders every day.
Dedicated server hosting is more expensive than VPS hosting.
The hosting company will generally charge you based on how many resources you use each month.
This can make it tricky to estimate your hosting costs in advance.
However, if you are running a large website that requires a lot of server power, you may need to invest in dedicated server hosting.
Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting is becoming more and more popular as time goes on.
It’s a good solution if you need a lot of server power but you don’t want to deal with managing it.
Cloud hosting is a service where you pay a company to host your website on servers that they manage.
You don’t get access to the physical hardware of the server, but you do have control over what software is running on the server and how it’s configured.
Cloud hosting can be a great choice for growing businesses that need more server power as their business grows but don’t want to deal with the hassle of managing it themselves.
Conclusion
If you want to run a website that is very resource-intensive, VPS hosting is probably your best choice.
You should choose cloud hosting if you want to avoid having to manage server software and hardware.
If you’re just starting out and don’t think you’ll get many visitors to your site, shared hosting is a good choice.
It’s cheap, easy to set up, and generally reliable.