Whether you are a business owner, web developer or marketer, you will want people to visit your website. This means that you will need to have it hosted on the internet and choosing the right web hosting provider is extremely important.
Let us start with understanding what a Web Hosting Provider does. Then we can discuss the different features they can provide to find a suitable hosting plan that benefits your needs.
What is a Web Hosting Provider?
When a Web Hosting Provider hosts a website, they are allocating space on a web server for a website to store its files. Web hosting allows for the files that compromise a website (code, images, etc.) to be displayed online allowing people to view them. Every website that you have visited is hosted on a server.
The type of hosting that is provided by a Web Hosting Provider is based on the amount of space that is allocated on a server to a website. The main types of hosting are shared, dedicated, VPS and reseller. The kind of technology used for the server, level of management provided and additional services on offer differentiate the different types of hosting.
What kind of hosting do you need?
There are different types of web hosting servers that you could get, Shared Server, Virtual Private Server (VSP) and Dedicated Hosting. You first need to identify the one that suits your needs we have listed some of the differences between the two below.
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is the cheapest hosting option as your website will be on the same server as other websites. This is a great option if your website is just starting off and it does not receive that many visitors.
In most cases Shared Hosting provides you with all the necessities that your website may need, email clients, web builders, CMS hosting (WordPress, etc.). With multiple sites being hosted on the same server there is a cap for the number of resources that one user can use ensuring there is enough for everyone.
We recommend going for this option if you have a website that is dedicated to blogs, is your own personal website or is an e-commerce website. Also, if your website is just starting off as you will need a lot of disk space or bandwidth that high-traffic sites need.
Virtual Private Server Hosting
This type of hosting is like having your own property that you need to maintain as all your resources are not shared. This means that there is an increase in cost compared to shared hosting, but you get more power allowing your website to handle more traffic and process more requests.
One of the biggest misconceptions with VPS Hosting is that it is expensive, but this is no longer the case. It may be slightly more expensive than Shared Hosting, but you receive more resources and there is less of a security concern.
If you have a website that contains sensitive information, you plan on expanding your business at a rapid rate, looking to host numerous websites, or your site has a traffic which means you need more bandwidth allocation, then VPS Hosting is the way to go
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated Hosting provides you with your very own server that is entirely for yourself, meaning you do not share it with anyone else. This type of hosting is more flexible as you have full control of the server. With full control of the server, you do not need to worry about having a lack of resources which is great if your business is constantly growing.
Dedicated Hosting is the most expensive option however the amount of control, flexibility, performance, and security should make up for the costs. You get greater control as you are the sole tenant of the server. Increased flexibility as you can easily change server configurations, add new software, and adjust the resources to meet your websites needs. You can optimise a dedicated server to support the most demanding applications allowing for greater performance. Finally, your business can customise the server to help meet your security and compliance needs.
How can Portal help you?
Portal Creative partners with Nimbus Hosting to create tailor made hosting and maintenance packages which provide guaranteed up time with fail safe procedures to ensure your site is always online and available for your customers to view.
Our Basic Hosting package contains:
- Domain Name Management
- Website Hosting
- Telephone Support
- Email Support
- Let’s Encrypt SSL included
- Daily file and database backups
Our Hosting + Maintenance package contains:
- All the Basic Hosting options
- 1 Hour of support per month
- A dedicated account manager
- Priority Response times
- Plug in updates
- Bug Fixes
- Server uptime monitoring
We hope that this blog has gave you a better understanding of what type of hosting is best for you. We understand that this can be a complex topic so if you are looking for any further advice please get in touch, or if you would like to find out more about our hosting and maintenance packages you can click here.
