Do you want to know how many types of Web Hosting are there?
Most people knows they need a web hosting to set up their website. But when they goes to buy it, they find there are several types of web hosting available.
Now which one to get?
In this post, you will learn multiple type of hosting so you can go with the best one.
What is Website Hosting?
If Domain name is the “Address” of your website, Web Hosting is the home (land) for your website.
It is always online server to save all the website’s content – page, text, code, images, files etc – connected with a domain name, in order to fetch the resources in a click.
Web hosting services allow us to make our website accessible to users via the Internet.
It is a space on the Internet to build your site on.
A web hosting service provider gives you access to the right resources for the website or webpage be viewed on the Internet.
How Website Hosting Works?
Websites are hosted or stored, on specialized computers called servers.
When Internet users want to view your site, all they need to do is type your website address or domain into their browser.
Their computer will then connect to your server, and your webpages will be delivered to them through the browser.
Learn more about How Internet Works?
Majority of the Web Hosting companies also sell domain name. But you can buy the domain name and web hosting from the separate verndor too.
There are different types of website hosting, depending on the cost and services that they provide.
Let’s first know how many types of hosting are there and how are they different from one another.
Different Types of Web Hosting
- Free Hosting
- Shared Hosting
- Virtual Private Server
- Dedicated Web Hosting
- Cloud Hosting
- Managed Web Hosting
- Reseller Hosting
#0 Free Hosting
As the name suggests, the Free hosting is FREE. But nothing is Free. It means you don’t pay with your money.
Instead the hosting provider will run ads on your website to cover the hosting cost.
The resources are heavily limited. Beside the necessary RAM and space to set up the website. You do not get anything else. No security, no backups and no emails.
The free hosting is given as a bait to new users. Once the website is made, the lack of resources will affect the performance, and you will have to buy a premium plan.
Free hosting is not recommended at all, unless you are just testing the water. Still, a $5 shared hosting is a better option than Free Hosting.
Pros of Free Hosting:
- Free hosting
Cons of Free Hosting:
- No security
- Resource unavailable
- Slow and down website
- No backups
- Migration restrictions as the companies want you to upgrade plan instead of moving out
#1 Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is like living as a paying guest in a house and sharing your room with roommates.
In a nutshell, you have to share the resources and adjust accordingly.
When you go with shared hosting, you share your server with other website owners whose website data will also be stored and fetched from the same server.
Which one is Best: Shared or Dedicated Hosting?
Pros of Shared Hosting:
- Shared hosting is suitable for those who want to run a blog and don’t need high bandwidth or storage
- It is also recommended if you’re tight on budget and seeking a cheaper hosting option
- Shared Hosting is good fro people who are learning web development. It has all features loaded that a web developer need
Cons of Shared Hosting:
- Shared hosting can hamper your website performance, bandwidth, and loading speed
- As you share your data on a shared server, it can lead to security vulnerabilities
- This type of hosting can be cheap, but it can cost you more in the long run
#2 VPS (Virtual Private Server)
A VPS is a virtual server that the user perceives as a dedicated/private server even though it is installed on a physical computer running multiple operating systems.
The concept of a virtual private server can be better explained as a virtual machine that caters to the individual needs of a user. There are separate physical computers that is dedicated to a particular user.
The virtual dedicated server provides the same functionality and privacy as that of a standard physical computer.
Several virtual private servers can be installed on a single physical server with each one running its operating system. It consists of Web server software, a File Transfer Protocol program, a mail server program and different types of application software for blogging and e-commerce.
Pros of VPS Hosting:
- The subscriber has full access to the VPS’s OS, with unrestricted root or administrator permissions
- VPS Hosting allows the subscriber to host multiple websites
Cons of VPS Hosting:
- The server’s performance is compromised while maximizing the number of VPSs that the physical server can accommodate.
- Another possible disadvantage to using a VPS is weak security
#3 Dedicated Web Hosting
If shared hosting is like living as a paying guest and sharing your room, Dedicated hosting is like owning a separate flat that’s spacious and secure.
It is a types of web hosting, with which you can get an entire server to yourself.
Dedicated Web Hosting is much more flexible than conventional shared hosting and VPS hosting.
After all, you can have full control over the entire server, such as the selection of the operating system and hardware, get high-performing vCPU, RAM, and bandwidth.
If you choose to sign up with dedicated hosting, you can enjoy the benefits of a high level of email stability, security, performance, and control.
Dedicated hosting helps your online business to be more generative, and that’s why it is considered an excellent option for growing businesses.
Read the difference between VPS and Dedicated Hosting.
Pros of Dedicated Hosting:
- Exclusive Use Of Dedicated Resources
- Better management and full-control
- Security through data separation
- Improved Reliability and Performance
- Super scalability and flexibility
Cons of Dedicated Hosting:
- The only problem with dedicated servers is their cost
- Management of the Dedicated Server require a skill person
#4 Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting is rapidly gaining popularity due to its advantage of having no downtime.
With cloud hosting, you get a cluster of servers. Your files and applications are replicated on each server.
In case, one of the cloud servers is busy or facing any issues; your traffic is automatically transferred to another server in the cluster.
Shared vs Dedicated vs Cloud Hosting
Pros of Cloud Hosting:
- Negligible downtime
- Your site is saved from many failures
- Designates resources on request
- You have to pay only for what you use
- High scalability
Cons of Cloud Hosting:
- Difficult to evaluate the costs
- You don’t get root access
#5 Managed Web Hosting
Managed hosting services are a kind of web hosting where one individual owns one server that is managed by the web host.
It is similar to dedicated web hosting, but one of the significant differences is that these are governed by the web hosting provider, thereby offers lesser control to the client.
Managed hosting saves your time, and it offers backup and support at unfavorable circumstances.
This is beneficial for those companies who don’t want control over their web server and want their hosting provider to tackle everything.
Pros of Managed Web Hosting:
- Managed hosting offers excellent value for your money.
- Get round-the-clock support to your needs.
- Get a staging environment, backups, and uptime guarantee.
Cons of Managed Web Hosting:
- Managed web hosting can be quite expensive as everything is taken care of by the experts.
- Not enough control, and limited scope of customization.
#6 Reseller Hosting
Not only hosting is to set up a website. Some hosting companies sell hosting to hosting companies and web development agencies.
Reseller hosting is a wholesale hosting package offered by large enterprises and data centers to small hosting companies.
Let’s say a web development company has many clients. They would like to partner with a hosting company to serve their clients better. The next step is to give the hosting to the customer themselves. They will take reseller hosting.
Quick Summary
- Shared Hosting is best for beginner bloggers and web developers who are learning.
- VPS is best for the sites that are getting traffic and web owners like to scale it.
- Dedicated Hosting is for the users who want complete access to the hosting.
- Cloud Hosting is best for sites that have unpredictable traffic.
- Manages Hosting is for the web owners who want to focus on the frontend business
Features of Best Hosting Providers
Choosing the right website hosting provider is critical to have a fast and secure site. People make common mistakes while buying server hosting.
Web Hosting is most important part of site setup. Whether the hosting provider is a new business or an experienced one, there are few important features you must look for.
Feature of Best Web Hosting:
- 24*7*365 customer support
- Automated backups
- Smooth migration
- Uptime Guarantee
- Security and Speed
ServerGuy offers different types of web hosting services, along with all the benefits mentioned above. Packed with latest technologies as IPv6 and SDD Server, and dedicated IP Address, ServerGuy offers all hosting solutions.
Quick Questions:
Is WordPress a web host?
WordPress is not a web host. It is a CMS to build a site. You have to buy hosting to install WordPress.
Why do we need web hosting?
We need Web Hosting to have space on the Internet to build a site. There are lots of data and content that you need to upload on the internet, and web hosting provides that space.
Can I host my own website?
Yes, you can host your website. It is not difficult to build hosting by using a computer and the Internet. The difficulties are in maintaining the uptime.
Wrapping Up
Hope this article helps you to understand the different types of Web Hosting, and how web hosting works.
If there is a doubt anywhere, leave it in comments.
4 thoughts on “7 Different Types of Web Hosting with Pros and Cons”
Thanks, for sharing this post it is very useful
Kavya, You have given a pretty much detailed overview of different types of hosting.
I myself using Cloudways cloud hosting for managing DigitalOcean and Linode servers. It supports not only WordPress but also Joomla, Drupal, Larvel, Magento, PHP, and other open-source tools.
Cons you have mentioned about cloud hosting is perfectly alright as it is really difficult to evaluate the costing given for that hosting & most important root access is not availed in this hosting.
VPS & Dedicated are the hosting types in which we can say that ‘what we get for what we pay’. but in cloud hosting client never feels like this.
Web hosting is important nowadays. Because everyone has a website today. All need a server space to host their website. Even a common man runs his own website. Hence the web hosting industry plays a very crucial and vital role.
So, choosing the right web hosting service is an important decision. Placing your trust in the wrong web host can cause loss of time and money, of frustration and reflect poorly on your website’s reputation.