By: Julia Aidan
Submitted: 2009-08-17 12:38:45 | Word Count: 587
Types of Web Hosting
There are four basic categories of Web hosting. We register them according to price and discuss what every type is all about:
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Free Hosting
Believe it or not you can get free hosting on for your Web site or blog. While free hosting has improved over the years it is yet generally untrustworthy and very poor in terms of performance. If you really don't bother about reliability and speed, then you are free to look for various free web alternatives available online.
Shared Hosting / Virtual Hosting
Shared or Virtual Web hosting is the most primary type of Web hosting service you can purchase and includes several accounts sharing resources on one Web server. Here you are able to access the web server with control panel but with limited storage capacity and bandwidth where you just need to pay the monthly or yearly charges, moreover you can also attach extra domains.
Shared hosting is great for a medium business or personal which plans on hosting one or a few small Web sites which don't require a number of resources. Depending on the number of other accounts and sites are hosted the presentation might be regular to dull. However, the shared web hosting services prove to be futile if you want to attract a huge amount of traffic or if you are planning to host multimedia, or if you plan to host a huge discussion forum. You can always start with shared hosting and upgrade if your funds is limited to start with. If you make a quarterly payment for the year, you just need to pay a small amount of $5 monthly for shared hosting.
Pros: Cheap, easy to access
Cons: Not great performance wise, no control over server, lacks advanced features
Virtual Private Server Hosting (VPS)
VPS hosting is just like shared hosting but there are lesser accounts and every account has its personal 'virtual' storage on the server with operating system, hence enhancing performance. The presence of the unique partition software helps to optimize the resources and servers for restricted number of accounts. The VPS or virtual private server is an excellent alternative if you have some technological skill and do not mind getting your hands dirty. For people that like to have more control but don't need all of the resources of a dedicated server this is a good choice. Ideal for almost any application and charges run at about $50 monthly for satisfactory service.
Pros: Better performance, some control over server
Cons: Technical knowledge needed, more expensive
Dedicated Hosting
With dedicated hosting you are the only customer on the server so the performance boost is a given. If you decide on hosting a lot of smaller sites or have a few which are going to be resource hogs, like media sharing, virtual communities, large message boards you will wish to look at selecting a dedicated server as your hosting alternative. Though it may cost you much, but you get the worth of money you pay. Expect to pay $150 and up for a dedicated hosting package, and more if you need help managing it.
Pros: Best performance and reliability
Cons: Expensive, need technical knowledge if not using fully managed solution
Conclusion
So before you can compare web hosting you need to know what your needs are and what type of site you plan on running. If you set up a great business outline and plan for the future you ll be more liable to succeed with your Web business.
