Seeing how we have been living with internet for some time now, it is no surprise that computer literacy and different content management systems and What You See is What You Get (WYIWYG) editors progressed to the point when just about anyone can easily create a website.
However, laymen who want to do this for the first time have a much more serious consideration to make when creating their blog or company website, and that is the choice of the right kind of hosting. Since this is a fairly complex issue, we will focus on the most popular hosting types, and try to summarize their advantages and drawbacks.
Shared Hosting
Due to the fact that it’s pretty much the cheapest kind of hosting out there, shared hosting has been a very popular choice of webmasters that managed less demanding websites, however, it may soon become dethroned by VPS hosting (which we will come to later).
As you have probably guessed, its low price means that you’ll be forced to compromise on some of the other aspects of hosting services. Shared hosting means that you are sharing a server and its resources with other websites hosted by the
provider.
Now, the tricky part is that you do have a cap on the amount of resources that you can get (bandwidth and storage, mainly), but there is no lower limit, which is to say, if other sites on the server experience hugely increased activity, you may be left without resources that you should have a right to, and your site might become completely inoperable.
Apart from that issue, you also share the stigma of your neighbors on the server, as you are sharing the same IP. This means that if one of the websites on your server has been blacklisted for spamming activities, you might be labeled as a spammer as well, regardless of your innocence in the matter.
Finally, since you are sharing the server with other websites, you are not really given any control over server settings, which might be quite inconvenient if your site has any special requirements.
Dedicated Hosting
By far the most expensive type, but one that also provides you with amazing amounts of resources, server settings control, and generally, peace of mind. Using services of a dedicated hosting provider means that you’ll have the resources of an entire server at your disposal (you can choose to buy the server or only rent it).
Seeing how pricy this service is, you can be sure that the provider will go head over heels to keep you happy and your site working flawlessly. Naturally, this kind of hosting is usually reserved for websites that are somehow profitable and need the resources to run properly, which means that it will rarely be used for personal blogs or something equally casual.
Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting
VPS seems to encapsulate the best aspects of both of the previously mentioned types of hosting. So, while you are sharing the resources of a physical server (actually, more often a number of physical servers), your site exists in an isolated virtual environment, so you are in no way influenced by their behavior.
You have a decent amount of control over server settings (although this will depend on the provider) and are getting a fixed amount of allocated resources, so you don’t have to worry about downtime.
VPS hosting is easily adapted to your increasing needs for resources or new solutions, so you don’t have to worry about going through too much of a hassle when you outgrow your current plan, as upgrading is easy and fast.
The exact price will depend on your requirements, but VPS is usually quite affordable, and can save you quite a bit of money in time, even when compared to cheaper, but less reliable, shared hosting.
