A Hosting service is essential for any website that you own. It provides the necessary resources to ensure that the site is available on the internet. Choosing the best hosting service has become an important task for many SMEs to take their business online and create an online presence. Once your website is hosted by the service provider, users can access it via the internet. Whenever a user types your domain name, the computer connects to the server on which your website is hosted and displays the webpages through a web browser.
Hosting service providers may also offer technical support from their end to ensure that your website is running 24*7. Irrespective of the plan and service provider you select, you will definitely need technical assistance at some point in time. Sound technical customer support without much waiting time will be beneficial in the long run.
So, when it comes to hosting, there are basically four major types of hosting that you can use.
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is the basic type of hosting in which all the websites from different website owners are hosted on one single server. Each website owner will usually have limited access to the resources they utilize on this server depending on their hosting package. It is the cheapest hosting option as compared to other hosting services. This comes with a disadvantage too as a single server is shared by the websites, it can be overburdened by other sites and can, in turn, affect the performance of your website. If you are just starting your business or blogging journey, this is the ideal hosting solution.
Dedicated Hosting
As the name implies, with dedicated hosting, the website owner has full access to the resources provided by a dedicated server. Unlike shared hosting, no other websites are hosted on the server which is hosting your website. You can select your own operating system, applications, etc. Depending on various plans, you can also select the hardware components that you need. You should opt for the dedicated hosting if you have a website that gets a substantial amount of traffic.
Virtual Private Server Hosting (VPS)
VPS is somewhere a mix of both shared hosting and dedicated hosting but with a different set of pros and cons. The VPS hosting uses a single server that is shared by different users, but the server is divided into a virtual private server. These ensure that you get all the benefits of a private server with your own dedicated resources. It uses virtualization technology to provide dedicated resources with multiple users. VPS hosting is stable and flexible, and the cost is generally low, but not as low as shared hosting.
Cloud Hosting
It is the advanced hosting service and can be considered as the future of hosting. Cloud hosting allows users to host their website on multiple connected servers rather than a single server. The resources required to maintain your website are spread among these servers. So, this ensures that your website will be online even if any of the servers were to fail. Cloud hosting is ideal for websites that get huge traffic and may have a period of a spike in traffic. Cloud hosting is scalable and will allow you scale-up or down the resources based on your needs.
Selecting the right hosting can go a long way in making or breaking your business. Some of the top factors that you need to consider are your specific requirements, expected traffics, schedule of marketing activities, and budget. Here is a quick guide to help you figure out the best hosting service that suits your business requirements.
- Shared hosting can be the best for individuals who own a personal site or test sites where occasional downtime is not a significant issue and you have a tight budget.
- Dedicated hosting can be used by individuals who have a really good budget and have specialized needs and wants to manage their own data privacy.
- VPS hosting is, in a way, a combination of shared and dedicated hosting. VPS hosting offers more uptime and higher stability than shared hosting. It offers you an isolated virtual environment resulting in better performance.
- Cloud Hosting can be used by anyone who wants to scale your resources in the near future. If you are anticipating higher traffics or planning to host a lot of data on your website, cloud hosting is the best option for you.
Apart from choosing the best hosting service, it is also important to choose a good service provider to host your website who allots the required resources needed to maintain your website and is available to resolve your queries. Alternatively, you can also purchase web hosting from your website developers who will suggest you the best solution as per your need and will be available for any problems that may surface in the future.