Web hosting providers spoil you with different web hosting options. But what type of web hosting do you need? You will often find free web hosting, WordPress hosting, shared hosting, dedicated hosting, VPS hosting, cloud hosting (and the list goes on and on) on the plans and pricing pages of web hosting providers. These hosting options all serve the same purpose: to host your web content for people to find and view on the Internet.
What are the differences between these web hosting options? Why should you know or care about them? What advantages does each of these options offer? Let’s talk about it.
WordPress hosting
WordPress is the name of a content management system (CMS). A content management system is a software used to manage the creation and modification of digital content. WordPress is the most popular CMS and powers about 43% of all websites on the Internet. Because of its popularity, web hosting providers have created a plan to host websites using the content management system.
Most WordPress hosting plans are cheap compared to their alternatives and the WordPress platform is very easy to use, even for a tech novice. If you want to focus on running your business and want a business website that you can easily manage, then by all means go for WordPress hosting. Here is a review of 15 web hosting providers with some of the best cheap WordPress hosting plans.
Free web hosting
Who doesn’t love a free lunch? Free web hosting plans are popular among new website builders and bloggers in their infancy. Should Your Business Get a Free Web Hosting Plan? If you want to create a personal website, and just want to feel like you have a website to share with your family and friends, free web hosting can work, but not if you are a serious business that has a reputation to protect.
Free web hosting plans lack many of the features and security you would expect from a paid web hosting plan. There is also a lack of customer service. Most of the free web hosting platforms allow you to create content on their platform. In return, they make money from you by showing ads on your free website.
So should your business go for free web hosting? The answer is no. If you want to establish a powerful web presence with your online business, you need serious web hosting. Only a paid web hosting service will provide you with the control, reliability and security you need in that regard.
Shared hosting
Shared web hosting plans are the most affordable web hosting you can get. It is even cheaper than WordPress hosting. And you can get shared WordPress hosting from some web hosting providers.
Shared web hosting plans allow your website to share the same space on a web server with other people’s websites. This is like saying, 5 businesses pay rent for one particular store, and all of them use the store together.
The problem with this hosting plan is that you are at the mercy of the other websites (businesses) that share the space with you, and their activities have a direct impact on your own business. If a particular site on your web server begins to attract more traffic, they begin to use up a lot of the web space allocated to all of you on the server. And it slows down all the other websites. Think about how your noisy neighbors make your sleep uncomfortable.
A particular website experiencing a spike in traffic can also cause all the other servers to experience downtime and cause your website to be offline for hours or even days. Although this type of hosting is affordable, it is only recommended for setting up a personal website, small businesses that do not need a lot of web traffic or a small informational website. You should not use shared hosting if you want to build a news website or host a website that needs high traffic.
Dedicated host
If you are in the big leagues of businesses that need traffic to make money, you should start considering dedicated hosting. With shared hosting, it’s like living in a face-me-me-face-you. Dedicated hosting is like moving to a GRA and renting a bungalow. You are alone in a world.
Dedicated hosting plans offer you the same server resources as in shared hosting. But this time, instead of sharing with 9 other sites, you use it alone. This means you have the entire server space to yourself.
However, there is a caveat. If you don’t know anything about server administration, please go for managed hosting. You will find it difficult to manage a server yourself on a dedicated hosting plan. With managed hosting, the web hosting provider handles all the management tasks required for your website, freeing you to focus on other areas of your business. WP Engine has one of the best managed hosting plans in the industry.
VPS Hosting
VPS hosting is like shared hosting. But in this case your business website shares the web server with less websites. Put another way, VPS hosting is shared hosting on steroids. It is a little more expensive than normal shared hosting and can be a good upgrade from shared hosting, especially if your website starts to experience an increase in traffic.
Cloud host
Cloud hosting combines the power of multiple web servers to power one website. Here, your website buys up more server space to hold more of your files (content) and to take care of your traffic.
Businesses that use cloud hosting are very high traffic websites such as Facebook, Google, Amazon, and so on. These companies end up building their web servers and hiring server engineers to administer their web servers. It’s certainly out of your league if your business isn’t that big.
What is the best offer for your business?
The best web hosting for your business will depend a lot on your business needs. You can use free web hosting to get online fast if you are building a personal website or a small business website that needs less traffic. If your business has larger hosting needs, consider dedicated server or managed hosting plans.
Apart from the hosting plan, there are others things to consider before choosing a web host, however, knowing what your business requires will help you narrow down your search to a few web hosting providers, and ultimately choose the best web hosting plan for your business.
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