One of the biggest problems for newcomers looking for the right website host is the simple fact that many people don’t fully understand what website hosting is.
Definitions offered on websites like Wikipedia, or whatis.com tend to be written like a dictionary entry, which while well written, reveal nothing about how to enter into a business relationship with a web host.
Using a dictionary definition like these to help you make a purchase decision is a bit like using a dictionary to buy a car. You’ll know it has four wheels, runs on petrol or diesel, but have no idea that you have a choice about size, efficiency, comfort, or style.
I’d like to suggest a more practical description.
“If you create a website and want it to be seen by visitors on the web, you have to upload it to a server. A server is a powerful computer, that is connected to the Internet 24/7 365 days a year. You either buy or rent a small section of the server to store your web pages. The business who supply the server to you, is your web host. How well they are able to do this, – how fast, how efficiently, how securely – will determine your purchase decision.”Having understood clearly what a web host is, the next step is to understand the difference between the four main types of website hosting.
1) Shared Website Hosting
Shared Hosting refers to a paid website hosting service where many websites reside on one server which is connected to the Internet. Each site has its own section on the server to keep it separate from other sites.
I would recommend Shared Hosting as it is by far the most relevant type of hosting for the majority of users, especially small businesses or non profit organizations.
It’s generally the most economical way of paying for website hosting, and better than free web hosting because it allows you to have your own domain name (compila.com, google.co.uk, bbc.co.uk etc). Shared Hosting also provides you access to a multitude of other services, such as receiving and sending of email, software installation, databases, e-commerce solutions and hopefully quality technical support.
2) Free Web Hosting
Another popular form of website hosting is Free Web Hosting, which as the name suggests means that you will not pay a monthly subscription fee for it.
I would point out however, that nothing in life is truly free, and Free Web Hosting services will generally require you to allow the hosting company to provide adverts on your website. This is how they generate their revenue and will always limit the freedom you have to present your website as you want to. Moreover, the risk will be that having arrived at your website a potential visitor will leave it immediately by clicking on one of the ads through to another site.
In addition, the resilience of the servers and software used to support them is not always good. There can be limitations relating to software support, database functionality and more importantly technical support. Free web hosts will usually provide a subdomain (yoursite.freehost.com) or a directory (www.freehost.com/~yourname) as your web address, which in most cases looks unprofessional from a business point of view.
I would only recommend Free Web Hosting for small personal sites that do not have a lot of traffic and definitely not for someone serious about promoting their business on the web.
3) Virtual Private/Dedicated Servers
By contrast, recent advancements in both hardware and software technology, particularly in the areas of virtualization, have resulted in a far more reliable form of website hosting. Virtual Private/Dedicated Servers or (VPS or VDS), refers to one physical server computer being partitioned into multiple virtual servers.
Each virtual server has the appearance and capabilities of running as a dedicated machine, can run its own operating system, be independently rebooted and run its own combination of software. I would definitely recommend VPS hosting for customers requiring more advanced requirements, but without the cost of a fully dedicated server solution.
4) Dedicated Servers
Finally, Dedicated Hosting offers, as the name suggests, one server dedicated solely to your web site. You do not have to share any server resources, processing power, memory, or hard drive space, with any other website. I would only recommend this type of website hosting for site owners who anticipate especially high amounts of traffic, or if you need increased reliability, speed, security or specific software for your site. It’s also the most expensive and can often require high degrees of technical knowledge.
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