WEBSITE HOSTING: Everything you need to know
You won’t be reading this article if not for a web host. That’s how important website hosting is.
In this guide, we will discuss everything you need to know about website hosting and what to consider when choosing a specific website host.
What is Website Hosting?
Of course, we have to discuss the basics before going on to discuss the pros and cons of web hosting right?
Web Hosts basically provide servers on which websites are hosted. These servers are data centers that house every data (including files, videos, images as well as texts) and other components one can find on any website. The interesting thing about these servers is that they are physically located at different locations and their locations influence how expensive it is to host your website on them.
Without these web hosts, no one would be able to search and find your website on the internet.
The significance of these servers and website hosting companies is why there are different website hosts as well as different web hosting options.
As a result of these, anyone looking to host their website has to consider what exactly they want their website to be. This is why there are lots of websites on the internet that share a single server as well as several websites that own a server of their own.
List of recommended top hosting options
How do decide the best web hosting option for your website?
Before going on to talk about the different types of web hosting, it is imperative to talk about the factors you need to consider before making your decision on which hosting option is best for your blog or website.
The main reason for this is because the different types of web hosting options offer different types of servers. And as earlier stated, the performance, stability, and security of your website or blog is majorly influenced by the server it is hosted on.
In other words, before deciding which web hosting option you want to choose, you need to consider the type of traffic you expect your website to generate.
Another thing to consider is the varying cost of hosting your website or blog on the different web hosting options. Regardless of how many features a hosting option offers, if you do not have a budget to consistently maintain your website, it is best not to consider it.
That said, we will not talk about the different main web hosting options so you can figure out which is best for the type of website you want to run.
Different types of Web Hosting
Top 5 most used web Hosting:
- Shared Hosting
- Dedicated Hosting
- Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting
- Cloud Hosting
- WordPress hosting
Shared Hosting
Shared Hosting is often the go-to for small websites or blogs as it is the most cost-effective web hosting option.
It is also the easiest to use web hosting option on this guide. As you would probably have figured out by the name, a website using shared hosting would have to share server resources with other websites using the same web host. This is why Shared hosting is very cheap.
The biggest disadvantage of using shared hosting is that each website can only use a certain percentage of the server’s resources.
Another drawback of sharing a server with multiple websites is that you cannot control the performance of your website. As such, should any website draw more resources from the server due to traffic spikes, for instance, your website performance is greatly reduced.
Pros of using Shared web hosting:
- Cost-effective (cheap)and easy to use
- The best option for small websites and new blog owners
Cons of using Shared web hosting:
- The server resources are not completely available on your website. This leads to slower loading times for your website. This also influences your website’s uptime rates.
- You have no control over your website’s performance
RECOMMENDED SHARED WEB HOSTING COMPANY: Visit Bluehost
Dedicated Hosting
This is considered the best web hosting for websites and blogs. The reason for this is because your website or blog is guaranteed a dedicated server. There is no such thing as sharing server resources with this web hosting option.
There are lots of benefits of having a dedicated server for your website. The biggest and most important of them all is your website is guaranteed of running at peak performance at all times.
The biggest drawback of using Dedicated hosting is that it is expensive. The benefit though is quite fulfilling as it gives you complete control over the technical settings of your server.
Dedicated Hosting guarantees super-fast uptime rates, extremely fast loading speeds, literally no downtimes, and many more benefits.
This type of hosting is suitable for websites that generate a large amount of monthly traffic. It is always used by large commercial websites and enterprise-level websites. It is not suitable for small websites or blogs as the cost required to maintain this type of hosting is way high.
Pros of Using Dedicated Hosting:
- Fast Loading time
- Extremely high uptime rates and guaranteed website peak performance at all time
- Maximum site security
- Complete server control
- Best web hosting one can get for a website.
Cons of Using Dedicated Hosting:
- Very Expensive
- Technical Knowledge is required with this type of web hosting. Complete control over your server means you have to install security updates for the website by yourself as well as monitor glitches and errors on your website.
RECOMMENDED SHARED WEB HOSTING COMPANY: Visit HostGator
Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting
Virtual Private Server hosting or VPS hosting is a specialized type of shared web hosting. It the easiest to use after shared hosting and is often the go-to web hosting small websites upgrade to.
Although this hosting option is not as cheap as shared hosting, the advantage it offers over shared hosting makes it worth the cost.
Essentially VPS hosting is a type of web hosting in which a small number of websites share the same server. However, unlike shared web hosting, a server is split into multiple “virtual” servers for the different websites trying to use it.
It is best for medium-sized websites as well as interactive websites. In other words, it is best for people who do not want to experience slow loading times and unexpected downtimes on their website or blog. This is because VPS hosting offers each website its dedicated server resources.
Pros of VPS hosting:
- Less chance of downtime or crashing compared to Shared hosting
- Dedicated server resources
- Higher uptime rates
- Best for websites that cannot afford a dedicated server of their own.
Cons of VPS hosting:
- The server is still being shared with other websites. This means, your website’s performance is not completely in your control.
- A bit of technical expertise is needed to set up your website on this type of web host
RECOMMENDED VPS Hosting company:
Visit Inmotion Hosting
Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting is similar to VPS hosting but provides improved features over VPS hosting. This web hosting option provides your website with multiple remote servers so that you do not have to worry about having any server downtime.
It ensures your website remains fluid with high uptime rates and without unnecessary downtimes.
Cloud Hosting also provides scalability which is very important if you do not have a big budget. With cloud hosting, you only have to scale and pay for the resources you believe your website at any point in time to accommodate website traffic.
Pros of Cloud Hosting:
- Best for medium and large business websites
- Improved security
- Reduced possibility of server errors/downtime
- Cost-effective
Cons of Cloud Hosting:
- The scaling of resources Cloud Hosting offers means there is no fixed cost or budget. Hence, you might have to deal with increased costs in case of traffic spikes.
- The server is not as customizable as a dedicated server.
RECOMMENDED Cloud Hosting company:
Visit Liquid Web
WordPress Hosting
As the name implies, this type of web hosting only works if you are looking to host a WordPress website or blog,
WordPress hosting is the best type of hosting for WordPress websites as it helps optimize your website. WordPress hosting is divided into two types depending on the type of WordPress website you have:
- Shared WordPress Hosting: This type of hosting only works for pre-installed WordPress websites. It does not offer much security or loading speed and is only suitable for small personal blogs.
- Managed WordPress Hosting: This is the best type of WordPress web hosting you can purchase for your website. It ensures improved security for your WordPress site especially since WordPress websites are more susceptible to cyber-crime.
Other benefits of using Managed WordPress hosting includes faster loading speeds, server caching, lower downtimes, etc.
Pros of using WordPress Hosting:
- The premium plan ensures enhanced security.
- Easy to use as this type of hosting are often pre-installed or involves one-click installations.
- Faster loading WordPress websites with Managed WordPress Hosting.s
Cons of using WordPress hosting:
- Not easy to customize your website’s performance.
- WordPress websites all share resources with other WordPress sites.
RECOMMENDED WordPress Hosting company:
Kinsta
CONCLUSION
The aforementioned web hosts are the best options you can consider for your website or blog. Provided you have a clear idea of how much traffic your website will generate, the budget required to host your website on a specific web host, the bandwidth allowance each host allows, you can be sure you are selecting the best web hosting for your website.
