If you’re doing business on the internet, or want to, you need a website. Whether it’s an online presence for a brick-and-mortar business or you’re a digital solopreneur (a content creator or affiliate marketer) a real website with your own domain name is essential.
As you begin your search for the perfect web hosting service, you’ll find that hosting comes in a few different flavors (like shared web hosting, VPS, dedicated hosting, cloud hosting, and others.) That usually leads to the first question about choosing web hosting… What type do I need? Let’s break down those flavors and answer the question.
TL;DR
If you’re setting up website as a solopreneur or small business, go with shared hosting and pick a plan that includes one-click installation of WordPress. Pay for as many months or years as you possibly can up-front (you’ll get the best deal when you are signing-up, not when you renew.)
I recommend Hostinger.
What is Web Hosting?
If you want your website to be accessible to the world, it needs to live on a server on the internet. That’s where a web host comes in. You rent space on their server, similar to how you would rent space at the mall for a physical business. The mall isn’t going to provide you with the furnishings, display racks, paint, or carpet. You get the space, the utilities are connected, and they might provide some other things like security and maintenance of the basic structure like the roof. Likewise, a webhost provides space for your site on their server and they maintain the basic function of the server, and perhaps additional services.
Why Choosing the Right Type of Web Hosting is Important
Choosing the right web hosting is crucial for many reasons. The speed, reliability, and security of your website largely depend on the type of hosting you choose. A slow-loading website can result in a poor user experience and lower search engine rankings. The wrong type of hosting may not offer the necessary security features, leaving your site vulnerable to attacks. Nobody wants that.
Types of Web Hosting
Shared Hosting
What is Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is the most common and affordable type of web hosting. As the name suggests, with shared hosting, your website shares a server and its resources with other websites. This means that the server’s CPU, memory, and storage space are divided amongst all the websites hosted on that server.
Most shared hosting providers offer intuitive control panels and one-click installations for popular software like WordPress, simplifying the process of managing and updating your website. This makes shared hosting an ideal starting point for those who are new to running a website or have limited technical knowledge. If you’re considering a web host that does not have a well-known or highly acclaimed control panel or doesn’t have one-click installation of WordPress, move on to another host that does offer those features.
Pros and Cons of Shared Hosting
Unless you own a site like eBay or YouTube, shared hosting is a great option due to its affordability and simplicity. The hosting company provides space on the server and maintains the server, including hardware and software updates and fundamental security of the space. Of course, you’ll need to mind the security of your site – which is the case with every type of hosting.
The potential downside to shared hosting is that your website’s performance can be affected by other websites on the same server. If one website experiences a surge in traffic, it might slow down other sites. Hosts have become very nimble at adjusting dynamically to reduce or eliminate this potential issue.
Additionally, sharing a server can pose security risks if another site on the server is compromised. Again, web hosts have come a long way in reducing and preventing these types of risks, and they are seldom responsible for any serious impact.
Ideal Websites for Shared Hosting
Freelancers, solopreneurs, creators, internet marketers, affiliate marketers, and small businesses will do just fine with shared hosting and enjoy the benefits of affordability and efficiency without having to develop a deep technical skillset for server maintenance.
Websites that see up to a few thousand visits a day, so long as those visitors aren’t all streaming 4K videos or other such intensive activities, are generally well-suited for shared hosting.
Check out this article where I explain how to choose the perfect web hosting for your website.
VPS Hosting
What is VPS Hosting
VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. With VPS hosting, while you still share a server with other websites, you have your own dedicated portion of the server’s resources. This type of hosting gives you more control over your website and generally offers better performance and security compared to shared hosting. With that control, you’ll need the technical skills to use it and manage your VPS – which will require more involvement on your part compared to shared hosting.
Pros and Cons of VPS Hosting
VPS hosting offers more flexibility and control, allowing you to customize the server environment to suit your needs. It also provides a higher level of security as each virtual server is isolated from others. However, VPS hosting is more expensive than shared hosting and requires much more technical knowledge to manage the server compared to shared hosting. We’re talking about the technical skills just to keep the server operational and up to date. Regardless of the hosting type you choose, you’ll need to do some technical things to build and manage your website. Fortunately, many of those things have been simplified to the point that non-technical folks can accomplish them quite easily. However, the server maintenance skills required for maintaining a VPS, dedicated server, and so on would be in addition to what’s required to build and manage the website. Save yourself the trouble.
Ideal Websites for VPS Hosting
Websites that see tens of thousands of visitors each day or those that have many resource-intensive visits, like video streaming sites, might benefit from VPS hosting rather than shared. Additionally, website owners that require more control over their server environment would also be better suited for VPS than shared hosting.
Dedicated Server Hosting
What is Dedicated Server Hosting
Dedicated server hosting means that you have the entire server to yourself. You don’t share resources with anyone else, which translates into superior performance, security, and control. However, this type of hosting comes with a higher price tag and requires technical expertise to manage the server – the technical skills beyond managing the website, as discussed above when we talked about VPS hosting. Additionally, since you will be entirely on the hook for maintaining the server, the benefits of your big expansive space, speed, and security can all be vaporized if you don’t properly maintain the techy things of the server such as security, software updates, and regular maintenance. Again, this is techy stuff above and beyond what you’ll need to do to manage your website with any hosting type.
Pros and Cons of Dedicated Server Hosting
Dedicated hosting provides the highest level of control and performance. You have access to all the server’s resources, making it ideal for large websites with high traffic volumes. The downside is that dedicated servers are the most expensive type of hosting and require a high level of technical expertise to manage.
Ideal Websites for Dedicated Server Hosting
Dedicated hosting is best suited to large corporations or websites with hundreds of thousands’ or millions of visitors or, perhaps not that many visitors but very high resource usage like streaming services, major e-commerce platforms, etc. It’s also a good choice for websites that handle sensitive information due to the enhanced security features.
Cloud Hosting
What is Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting is a more modern type of hosting where your website is hosted on a network of servers instead of a single server. This allows for unlimited expansion and is incredibly reliable, as your website isn’t reliant on a single server.
Pros and Cons of Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting offers high flexibility and scalability. It’s easy to add more resources when needed, making it a great option for growing websites. It also provides excellent reliability, as your site is not dependent on one server. However, pricing can be a downside as it’s often based on usage, making it harder to predict costs.
Ideal Websites for Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting is ideal for websites that have unpredictable traffic. If your site will experience spikes in traffic, you can easily scale up resources to handle it. It’s also a good choice for businesses with rapidly growing traffic or fluctuating needs.
