Website hosting simplified

Introduction

 

You don’t have a website!?!? Are you kidding? But this is one of the greatest tools to declare your online presence!  If you have a business it can be considered as something equivalent to a social security number. The good news is you don’t have to be a computer geek to be able to create an Internet presence for yourself. Creating a website is as easy as working on the word processor like MS word. Once the website is created it needs to be published on the World Wide Web. To get this job done we require the services of website hosts.

 

The goal here is to make you aware of hosting, web hosts, and the features that you have to look for when you have to choose one for your own website. A web host makes it possible for others to see you online by renting you the virtual space and providing services necessary for maintaining it. They make it possible for others to see you 24 hours, 7 days a week online. The various services that are offered by hosting companies can confuse you if you are new to this. Therefore, you must have some basic idea about what to look for before you hire a web hosting company to launch your website.

 

Types of web hosting

 

Free website hosting

 

These website hosting companies will give you services absolutely free of cost. You may consider this when you are starting off new. Free web hosts offer limited service and earn money from the advertisements they place on your website. You also have no control over what they are and the volume of the ads. They also place restriction on what kind of content you can have on your site. For instance, some web hosts will not allow you to use your site for business purpose. They will also limit your space. They may not allow you to put videos or music on your site. Finally, if by chance the website company goes out of business then your website too disappears overnight.

 

Shared website hosting

 

Shared web hosting is not free but the amount of money paid is not much. Here you will have to share the server and its resource with number of other website owners. You are allowed to have unlimited domain on a single account as compared to free web hosting. You may also be allowed to place advertisements on your site to earn some revenue. The problem with shared hosting is that the web hosting company may sell too many accounts with too little server space. The result is overcrowding and slow performance.

 

 

Dedicated web hosting

 

Here the entire server is dedicated to you for your own use. There will be no other user taking away from your server resources or software restrictions put on you on what to install on your website server. It is a paid account that is more expensive than a shared account. In fact it could be pretty expensive. It is better suited for customers who have a big and busy website and who can generate the revenue to be able to pay for the cost of a dedicated service.

 

Virtual private server

 

Virtual private server is quite similar to shared server. The main difference is that there are fewer accounts on each serving machine as compared to free or shared server. Also, they cost more than a shared server. The services are faster and you have the freedom to use your website in any manner you like. There are no restrictions. Some hosting company will even allow the website owner to upgrade from shared to VPS if the owner needs it. This saves a lot of time for the website owner.

 

Reseller website hosting

 

This gives the website owner complete freedom than any of the others. Resellers are used mainly for running your own web hosting company or web designers to offer their services to the client including web hosting or if your website is going to have more than ten domains. The size of a resellers’ could vary.

 

Managed hosting service

 

In this the users gets the web server but does not have control on the server. The website owners can manage their data on their own but has no control over the server. Web hosting service provider controls the server to maintain the quality of service by not allowing the user to modify the server. The server is leased out to the client. You may face problems if you do not have a reliable web hosting company.

 

Collocation web hosting service

 

Simply put, in this service the client owns the collocation server. The hosting company provides only the space for the server. Mostly the client is responsible for all changes or maintenance. This is the most expensive service.

 

Clustered hosting

 

For better utilization of resources, multiple servers host the same content. Clustered hosting is developed on the basis of sophisticated server architecture solution. In this your website (as a matter of fact all the other websites in the group) are supported by interlinked operating servers linked that can globally maintain safety, security, and reliability of the data. If one fails, the other server comes to provide the support. Sites supported by cluster hosting are always up and running.

 

Grid hosting

 

In this multiple servers act as grid. It is the futuristic web hosting services that has come up from on-demand computing concepts evolved jointly with the inputs from the giants like Google, 3Tera, Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft.

 

Choosing the web hosting plan

 

• While choosing a plan you must take into account your current traffic rather than what is your goal. If you have less traffic and more resources on your site you should go for free or shared plan rather than dedicated web hosting, whereas, websites which are more media intensive or upload stream audio video feeds would require more resources and a web hosting server with more freedom.
• If you are going to have multiple domain names you must know if there are any restrictions.
• If your website is going to provide E-commerce solutions as online shop you must find out what are the shopping cart options are provided by the host and if it will give you shared SSL certificate for secure online payment.
• Calculate the size of your website and choose a web hosting plan that has enough disk place limit for your site. You may require a little extra if you want to upload more files or pictures.
• Choose a web hosting plan with easy switch plan where your web hosting can be upgraded if your site becomes popular or it could be downgraded if you are not getting enough traffic.

 

Cost

 

If you need a reliable web hosting service you have to consider the cost factor. It has been notes that the free services are not reliable and they have many restrictions. If you are starting with a non business site you may start with free service. If you have a small business you can go in for shared service where you need to pay some amount and you can get reasonable service with few restriction. If you have an online business you would rather go for dedicated service or virtual private server.

 

There are companies which charge as little as $5 a month compared to ones charging $25 a month. With more money you get more resources, more storage space, tools, and other services to help your website.

 

These are a few simple information you need to have before you decide to hire a web hosting company to put your website on the internet. You first give a thought to exactly what you expect from your website. There are many web hosts who will offer great deal of space at a very low price but their support or infrastructure or their ability to upgrade your website may not be there. So, do research well before you decide.

Tags: Website Hosting Simplified