A decent website is key to digital presence and visibility, as it showcases the brand, establishes the business’s image, and provides communication with potential customers.
Every website is created by a team of designers and developers, who provide a perfectly-working combination of visible elements (front end) powered by well-written code (back end).
However, creating the website is just part of the deal, as it should be introduced to the online world, simply put, find its address on the world wide web.
Such a placement is called web hosting, and it defines the quality of the website’s performance.
When checking the information online, it is easy to get overwhelmed with all the options, as there are various packages and pricing policies to consider.
Let’s clarify the checkpoints together and help you make the choice.
What Is Web Hosting?
Web hosting is a service that provides seamless cooperation of a particular website with its clients in the Internet space. All the information that Internet users are willing to find is processed through the web host.
The web host is a system of servers and data centers that allocates HTML pages, graphics, multimedia files, documents, etc. of their clients.
A typical interaction on the internet follows the same pattern:
A user types in the name of the website and its domain → The user’s computer sends the request to the server where the website is located → The server allows users to review the requested pages through the browser.
Although the interaction is always the same procedure, the results can be different.
You have probably noticed that some websites are quick to respond to all the ‘clicking’, yet some are slow, which makes the users irritated.
This characteristic depends on the quality of the web host, which is supposed to provide a high-speed connection and accessibility to their ‘tenants’.
What Are The Types Of Web Hosting?
Let’s imagine that web hosting is a form of ‘data accommodation’. Financial affordability and size of data ‘belongings’ will define the form of accommodation – individual, or dedicated hosting, and co-living, a shared hosting.
Shared hosting is about a co-usage of a single server, including the memory capabilities, CPU, hosting plugins, etc. One server can be hosting thousands of other websites.
- Low financial costs – as long the server capacities are distributed among all the users, the individual payment is driven down for every client. Such affordability is a good choice for the companies-starters, who are limited by the budget. However, all the add-ons regarding the website upgrade will require better financial investments. Pro Tip: Use a coupon from Increditools or VPS.coupons to save even more money.
- No need for technical maintenance – the shared option is a valuable asset for everyone who is not tech-savvy. All the updates are provided by a web host.
- Suitable for low-traffic websites – the new business with a low level of website outreach can start with the shared option, as it is the best fit for a limited budget.
- Security issues – all the hosts are concerned about the privacy of their customers, implementing cutting-edge SSL encryption. Yet, when someone on the server is sending spam, the whole server can be blacklisted, which puts every participant at risk.
- Shared resources – with a high number of users of the same server, the bandwidth gets lowers, which influences the overall performance.
Shared hosting is a business-friendly option, as it allows a seamless functioning of the website right from its beginning.
Considering the affordability, it is a good option for small and medium-sized businesses and projects.
In case the traffic gets higher, the businesses can be offered to change the subscription plan, improving the user’s experience, and allowing better traffic.
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting provides ‘single website-single server’ cooperation and enables its ‘tenants’ with full control. Obviously, all the characteristics are non-shareable.
Advantages Of Dedicated Hosting
- Customization – as long as the whole server is dedicated to one web resource, the owner can implement any kind of changes to the website’s performance.
- Control – everything is under the control of the owner, or a person who is hired to do all the development and maintenance work.
- Security – as there are no neighbors nearby, the security protocols work perfectly to protect all the data, and there is no risk of being co-banned because of the malfunctioning of other users.
- Enhanced speed – as the whole server is dedicated to one user, there will be no limits regarding the speed of performance and traffic, regardless of the time of the day.
The Disadvantages Of Dedicated Space
- High cost – the rent of an individual placement can reach more than $300, however, the websites with high traffic can afford it.
- Decent technical knowledge – all the maintenance and updates are provided by the website owner.
Dedicated hosting is the choice for businesses whose success depends on high traffic, as it offers really high bandwidth, and big companies, for whom privacy is the number one priority.
The Bottom Line
The choice of web hosting will provide the right performance for the website. Depending on the initial requirements, there are two options – shared and dedicated space.
- If there is no need for high bandwidth, and the budget is rather limited, it is better to start with a sharing option.
- If the business requires resources for high traffic, and there is a need to customize all the solutions, dedicated hosting will be the right choice.
Numerous businesses started with a shared space and grew into corporations with individual and dedicated servers. It is always easy to change to the improved plan, as the transition will go unnoticed by the users.