Given the huge number of options available, choosing which type of web hosting you need for your new online venture can be challenging. If you’re new to web hosting, it can be easy to get confused with the different types of web hosting, various hosting providers, their features, or why their prices can vary so much. We’ve put together this handy guide to help you get to grips with what’s on offer. Unless you are using a platform such as WordPress to manage your site, you’ll need to host it so that it appears live on the internet. So, what kind of hosting do you need?
Unmanaged Hosting:
This is a hosting plan that offers very limited services. You’ll receive server space to store your website’s data on, and that’s about it. Because of this, it’s not a great choice for anybody with limited experience. You will need to know how to install all necessary software and web applications on your server without any help from the hosting provider. If your server goes down, it’s up to you to fix it.
Managed Hosting:
Alternatively, managed hosting is the best option for anybody who wants to avoid the extra pressure of having sole responsibility for their server. With this option, the hosting company (e.g. Hosting Foundry) will help you manage the server that your site’s data is stored on. They will take care of any updates, maintenance, and repairs that may be required, in addition to ensuring that any necessary software or web programs are already installed for you.
Shared Hosting:
Shared hosting is available either managed or unmanaged. It tends to be the cheapest option but bear in mind that it’s also the most basic. It’s a great choice for anybody with limited tech knowledge, or if you have a low traffic website with minimum content. Your site’s data will be stored on a server with that of hundreds or thousands of others. However, this also means that the available resources such as RAM, CPU speed, and hard drive space will be shared amongst you all, which can be very limiting should you wish to expand in the future.
VPS Hosting:
VPS or virtual private server hosting is the next step up from shared hosting. However, whilst you will still be sharing server space, there’s a lot more room to grow thanks to an increased ability to scale and added flexibility.
Dedicated Hosting:
Dedicated web hosting is where you rent the entire server that your site’s data is stored on, meaning that you have the entire server to yourself. This means that nobody else is sharing your resources or is able to negatively affect your website in any way. You will usually have the option to customize how much server space you want, increase the amount of RAM and choose a specific operating system to work with. Although it’s usually the most expensive of hosting options, it’s ideal for large websites with plans to expand in the future.
We hope that this guide helped you get a better understanding of web hosting basics! Which one is best for you?