Web developers use the LAMP/WAMP stack to create feature-rich applications using programming languages and database storage to serve files through XHTML & DHTML. Web scripts like content management systems (CMS), blogging platforms, eCommerce stores, forums, wikis, and social networks all run on web servers through custom stack development. Web publishers have the option to program new websites using proprietary database frameworks, HTML authoring tools, or open source scripts based in shared development platforms. Web development requirements are one of the most determining factors in the choice of a web hosting platform. You may select windows and Linux web server to host your website.
Different Types of Web Hosting
Web hosting accounts can be subdivided into different categories based on the way that server resources are allocated and shared on the hardware that is used in a data center. Other ways to classify web hosting depend on the way the accounts are billed or the market sector to which the services are targeted. Accordingly, the most common forms of web hosting available are:
- Free Web Hosting
- Shared Web Hosting
- VPS Web Hosting
- Dedicated Web Hosting
- Cloud Web Hosting
Each type of hosting has value for a certain segment of the web development community, as well as unique advantages and disadvantages which make it most suitable for a particular domain application. Understanding the differences between the types of web hosting available is important for site owners and businesses to make the right purchasing decision to support the development requirements of various scripts under a wide variety of user traffic conditions.
Free Web Hosting
Free web hosting is offered by various companies primarily in order to up-sell other domain services or to publish advertising on pages that are hosted under the account. Free web hosts usually offer only subdomain support for user web pages, for example: user.geocities.com. Many popular CMS platforms like
WordPress and
Joomla offer free web hosting for web publishers to get started blogging or building a website. Free web hosting is not considered a viable solution for business owners or websites that require custom content development, eCommerce facilities, and domain name support. Free web hosting is mostly popular with bloggers and can be viewed as another form of social networking, i.e. Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, MySpace, Blogger, Ning, WordPress, and other brand name sites.
Shared Web Hosting
Shared web hosting provides for the management of a large number of domain names on a single server using IP addressing, where all of the registered websites will simultaneously use the same CPU, RAM, hard drive, and bandwidth resources to serve files or run scripts according to temporary commands. With shared web hosting, there may be thousands of different businesses, individuals, and organizations all serving their website files to the public from the same computer. A single data center is able to host millions of domains on this model, allowing web hosting companies to scale at volume and offer the lowest pricing to consumers for web file management and database storage tools.
How Does Shared Web Hosting Work?
With shared web hosting, each user account is provided with a unique login to the server which is registered to a root domain name and identified through a public IP address. Additional domain names are added to the account through the use of a control panel by administrators. The web hosting company employs systems administrators to manage the server software installation and security updates. The hosting clients use file transfer management tools to host web pages in HTML or other programming languages which serve the files to the public through the browser. The hard disk space on the remote server can be used for other purposes than web hosting, for example remote file storage, email accounts, sandbox web development, mobile app support, or running software scripts online.
Advantages of Shared Web Hosting
The number one benefit of shared web hosting traditionally is that it is an extremely cheap way to publish information online. Shared web hosting accounts can cost as little as $1 – $3 dollars per month and rarely cost more than $20. It is estimated that over 90% of the websites on the internet use shared web hosting to keep their information online 24 hours a day. Shared web hosts never turn off their services and offer seamless hardware upgrades in the data center that can keep a website online for years. Most of the available web development tools will integrate easily with a shared hosting account.
These services allow the internet to function as a vast library of self-published information in a non-hierarchical, distributed network system. Because web hosting companies hire experts to manage the data centers and typically keep up-to-date with the latest security releases on server software installs, the end users receive a simple to use platform to manage file transfers, databases, email accounts, and web publishing that is generally secure. There is a huge amount of flexibility in what can be done creatively with the remote data processing and storage facilities on a shared web hosting account.
Disadvantages of Shared Web Hosting
The main disadvantage of shared web hosting is that it is not able to scale effectively to support the traffic of large websites and usually includes strict limitations on the use of CPU processing power because of the pooled resources.
There is still no opportunity for advanced systems administration and custom server configurations on most shared hosting plans. Security on shared web hosting frameworks is not considered robust enough for sensitive corporate information and government accounts. There can also be performance issues.
Who is Shared Web Hosting Best For?
Shared web hosting is recommended for self-published websites and small business networks. Web designers can host unlimited domains on a shared account for development, and then transfer them to cloud or dedicated servers if the traffic develops more than the web hosting company will permit. One of the most popular uses for shared web hosting is single and multi-user blog sites built on WordPress.
VPS Web Hosting
Virtual Private Servers (VPS) are a web hosting solution designed to give more power and flexibility to website owners for custom developed software requirements and complex applications. Technically, a VPS will operate in the same manner as a dedicated server while operating on a partitioned hardware framework that allows for the use of only a fraction of the resources of the host machine. VPS accounts are based on the amount of RAM, hard drive storage, and CPU processing power allocated to the virtual machine.
Dedicated Web Hosting
Dedicated web hosting is the most expensive and flexible of all of the service plans offered by companies in the industry, as site owners are able to directly rent or lease a complete rack-mount server in a data center. The advantage of dedicated hosting is that the client has complete control over the software configuration of the server, which can be used to harness the full processing power of the CPU, all of the allocated hard drive space, and available RAM memory. Dedicated servers are required to host the largest sites by traffic on the web, as well as by mobile apps which require elite performance.
Cloud Web Hosting
Cloud web hosting provides solutions for websites that need more processing power and require more than a single server instance because the amount of online traffic, including the number of queries to the database and resource files, is too high in volume for a single machine to effectively manage for all simultaneous users. Website users now frequently require access to remote processing power from data centers (
cloud computing) in order to do complex work in the browser rather than on the desktop with software downloads.
Which Features Should You Look For in a Web Hosting Plan?
After understanding the different types of web hosting accounts available from data center companies, it is important to closely review the total package of features that each plan offers in order to determine which provide the best value for the money invested. Some of the main features to look for in any web hosting account are:
- Server Architecture
- Operating System Version
- Domain Management Tools
- Systems Administration Tools
- Bandwidth & CPU Limitations
- Free Offers & Promotions
- Data Security
- Technical Support
These factors can be found across all web hosting accounts including shared, VPS, dedicated, managed, and cloud hosting. Because most web hosting companies offer the lowest pricing on long-term plans, it is easy to get “locked in” to an account on sign-up, only to find out later that it is lacking in major required aspects or underperforms other services in significant ways. To avoid this problem, which can lead to having to transfer a website repeatedly between web servers, confirm the account under review for these factors in advance of any long-term commitment to the company platform.
