Web hosting

Choosing the right web hosting package for you can be a bewildering task. With so many packages, prices, terms, conditions, companies and countries competing for your business, it is important that you understand what you need, so that you can choose a company that can provide what you want.

So here is a list of the main types of web hosting available on the market – what they are and what they are suitable for. And to make it a little easier, we’ll follow the career of Dave *, a budding web entrepreneur making his first forays into the world of web hosting.

Free hosting

Free hosting is exactly that, and while the old adage ‘you get what you pay for’ doesn’t exactly apply as you’re getting something, after all, free hosting is not recommended for anyone with some sort of serious aspirations for their site. . Of course we offer web hosting, so we would say that, right? Well, the main two things to keep in mind when considering free hosting are 1: someone has to pay for it, and 2: what happens if something goes wrong.

Regarding the first point, it often happens that your web hosting is paid for with ads on your site, and since that is what makes web hosting your money, they might be just as interested in advertising on your site as it is. is it so. in getting them to use your service so they can have more ads. This leads to point two: what kind of support do you think you will get from a company that offers you something for free? What kind of guarantees can you have that your web hosting is reliable or safe?

It is also common for Internet service providers (ISPs), among others, to offer free hosting as part of a package with other services (such as broadband or digital television). These are better solutions as they obviously come bundled with a reputable company (well …) and will be able to provide support. However, once again, remember that it is your other service that pays for your hosting – hosting is an attractive extra. Support can also be affected if the company specializes in other products and services.

Some companies, for example Blogger, will offer free online spaces for specific sites (in the case of Blogger, you get a free online blog). However, you are limited to what you can do with the templates they provide you, and you will not be able to expand your site or even have your own domain name. Therefore, only go for free hosting if you are completely satisfied that the company will be able to provide you with what you want. We would not advise choosing free hosting for a company related site under any circumstances!

In Dave’s case, he has been given free hosting as part of a deal with his ISP. Dave has never created a website of his own before, and he has certainly never had a web host. He’s interested, but a bit lost, and he manages to build a basic personal site with little difficulty. You stumble upon WordPress and find that you don’t get any databases with your free hosting. Since hosting is part of your package, and it is free, your ISP has no facility to update your account. Dave decides he wants his blog on the internet, and after talking to one of his friends on Blogger and dreamily thinking about starting an online business, Dave contacts some web hosting companies to see what is available for him. he.

Shared hosting

This is the most common form of web hosting available. A business sets up one or more servers to be used for web hosting, and in turn, its customers pay for a portion of that server and share it with other customers. Therefore, a server can be responsible for several hundred websites at the same time.

Shared hosting has many advantages. It is the cheapest form of commercial hosting, as the cost of the server can be offset by the large number of clients that can use it at the same time. They do not require advanced technical knowledge to use and you only need to manage your account; at no time has anything to do with the server. As it is a paid solution, you will have access to customer support, a contract, uptime guarantees, etc.

The downside is that by sharing a server with other clients, you also share that server’s resources. The server, like a home PC, has a limited amount of memory, CPU and disk space available, and if other clients use it a lot, or if the web server has put too many people on the server, or even if the server it’s not. It’s not particularly fast in the first place! – You may find that your website seems slow.

You’ll also find that shared hosting doesn’t allow for many of the advanced and powerful features that high-end options bring you. There is also a slight increase in security risk, as you can never be sure how safe your ‘neighbors’ are, but keep in mind that the server will be very secure in the first place, and the risk is nothing to be alarmed about. upon.

So our friend Dave starts with a very simple web hosting package, with a small web space and a database. You install WordPress and start blogging in earnest, and then decide that you want to start your online business. With your basic account, you commission a web design company to create an e-commerce site for you, with your blog integrated as one of the functions. As your store grows, you find that you can expand your site quite easily, without having to worry about the limits you had with the ISP.

Shared hosting is the ideal solution for most sites and users. With some exceptions, only people who want their own server and / or control over its content will need something else. So Dave, like many people, is perfectly happy, until he decides to quit his day job and dedicate himself full time to his e-commerce site. At this point Dave, who is now more knowledgeable about web hosting, considers if there is anything he can do to improve his site.

Reseller hosting

Reseller Hosting is a generic term that applies to several different types of web hosting. It is not a definition of the type of web hosting that is offered, as such, as the type of person that offers it.

A hosting reseller purchases a larger web hosting account from a web hosting company and in turn sells parts of their account to their own customers. Basically, they provide the services of a web hosting company, without having to configure and finance expensive hardware and maintenance. This type of web hosting is popular, for example, among web hosting startups, companies with a large portfolio of sites, and web design companies that want to offer hosting to their clients.

A hosting reseller can offer shared, VPS, or dedicated solutions (see part two). Customers tend to benefit from cheaper web hosting, as a reseller often buys their web host at a discount. The only big drawback with Reseller Hosting is that the Reseller is also a customer of the company from which they bought their Hosting in the first place. The more advanced the Hosting they offer, the more assistance the Reseller can provide you directly, but as a Reseller’s customer, you may be in contact with the Reseller about a technical failure, who in turn will have to contact your or your hosting company.

Reseller Hosting is only of use to Dave if he decides to sell Hosting to other people or expand his business with a large portfolio of other sites. If you weren’t looking to do any of these things, you would probably stick with shared hosting as it is the most common form of hosting, it is also the most popular, and you would get the most out of it. For now though Dave thinks he’s happy with just one site, he’d just rather have more control and performance as his site is pretty busy and he has some demanding redesign plans in mind. So in the second part of this article, we’ll look at some of the more advanced web hosting options available to Dave (and to you, of course).

* Dave is not real. It is for illustration purposes only, and any resemblance to any Dave or any event that has happened to any Dave, alive, dead, or otherwise, is purely coincidental.