Types of Web Hosting

When someone looks for hosting providers to host their website, they may get various hosting plans. A hosting user should be clear about what type of hosting requirement will be most appropriate for him. In this tutorial, you will learn about various types of web hosting and their importance.

What Are the Different Types of Web Hosting?

Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated Hosting is a hosting option where a physical server is dedicated to a client, and the resources of this type of server machine are not shared with other clients. The customer can control it entirely as per his specific requirement, so it is usually more expensive.

Shared Hosting

Shared Hosting is a type of hosting where a hosting provider hosts multiple websites in different client accounts on a physical server and shares server resources. In Shared Hosting, customers can configure their website settings separately without knowing which websites they share server resources with.

The main advantage of Shared Hosting is the cost. Shared Hosting is comparatively the cheapest. Whereas having a dedicated server is expensive. But the drawback of Shared Hosting is performance and security. Since one server's resources are being shared with other clients, any impact on the other client's websites could cause problems with the availability or security of all websites hosted on the entire server.

VPS Hosting

Virtual Private Servers are also a type of dedicated servers available at a lower cost and work similarly to a dedicated server. It is a large server that is partitioned into a smaller server where the user has to install an operating system. Unlike Shared Hosting, Virtual Private Hosting does not participate in the time-sharing of system memory or processors. Instead, it pre-allocates a specific amount of memory and CPU for usage. It means that any complications or problems on a partition of the Virtual Private Server will not affect the clients of other Virtual Private Servers.

Managed Hosting

Managed Hosting is also a dedicated server where the website hosting provider configures, manages, and controls its clients' servers. In this type of hosting, the hosting provider is responsible for configuring the hardware, operating system (OS), security protection (anti-malware), patch management, etc. At the same time, the customer also has complete control over the dedicated machine.

Managed Hosting also comes with a drawback. Managed Hosting is more expensive than a dedicated server because a third-party organization manages the entire web application.

Grid Hosting

Grid Hosting is a hosting service that uses a grid computing architecture. In this type of hosting, resources are placed on multiple servers instead of being hosted on a single server. This system is relatively stable and flexible and helps in greater reliability and availability of servers. In this system, the hosting provider can add or remove servers from the grid without disturbing the entire system.

Cloud Hosting

Cloud hosting is the trending method of hosting that allows access to resources through cloud services. Unlike traditional hosting, website resources are not stored on the server. Instead, it consists of virtual and physical servers interconnected in the network that hosts the app or website, ensuring greater flexibility, availability, and scalability.

How to Find out Which Hosting Type Is Best?

When it comes to choosing a Web host type, no one solution is appropriate for everyone. Choosing between different Web hosting services and their types depends on price, time, effort, and lack of convenience.

Consider the following conditions before choosing one of the different types of web hosting:

• The type of web server you choose affects elements such as your website's performance, security, scalability, and management level.
• Your decision should also depend on how much traffic your website has and how much traffic you expect in the long term, as some web hosts place limits on resources such as data, bandwidth, and memory. Some hosts offer pay-as-you-go packages that are great for scalability, and others charge flat rates for unlimited resource usage.
  For example, a small personal blog with 10000 monthly visitors has different hosting requirements than a large eCommerce site with 500000 visitors per month.
• Usually, hosting providers offer different plans with various features, including a control panel, website builder, eCommerce platform, analytical tools, and many more.
• The rent for a web host ranges from a few dollars to hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month. Most beginners start with cheap hosting plans with fewer features and later upgrade to premium plans as the website grows.

Once you find a web host that meets your specific needs, you will be one step closer to hosting your website.