What Is A Dedicated Server And Why Do I Need One?

 

Our independent research projects and impartial reviews are funded in part by affiliate commissions, at no extra cost to our readers.

  • January 19, 2022
  • 7:04 am
Paul Wheeler
Paul Wheeler
Hi, I’m Paul and I run a web design company that helped me learn the ins and outs of web hosting and design. I’m a fan of anything DIY– from woodworking to building and scaling successful websites.
Paul Wheeler
Latest posts by Paul Wheeler (see all)

Should you consider getting a dedicated server?

So you’ve figured out you want to build a website for yourself. Congratulations!

Whether it’s an individual portfolio, a launching pad for your new company, or a stepping stone for an already established business, a well-built and designed website can do wonders in terms of advancing your goals.

But while many people focus on elements like layout, branding, features, and other public-facing elements of a web presence, the technical components behind the scenes can play a significant role in the success of the window dressing you design. One such component is the hosting option you select, which brings you the question; do you need a dedicated server for it?

Do You Need A Dedicated Server?

What if you’re an established company looking to grow or a fledgling company that has grown faster than expected? Which of these choices makes the most sense? The answer might be none of the above. Instead, you might want to look at using a dedicated hosting service.

A dedicated server is one that you and your web property exclusively use. You won’t need to share bandwidth or storage with any other website, which gives you an optimal level of control as you construct, design, and modify your site.

The primary downside of using a dedicated server is pricing. You can find several shared hosting services for less than $5 a month without additional security features. You can even find a good amount of VPS services for less than $20. However, if you’re opting for a dedicated server, you may be looking at prices that start around $80 a month.

A growing business might balk at the jump in price between using a shared hosting plan or dedicated server hosting. There are many reasons growing companies choose to select a dedicated server.

5 Things You Can Get From A Dedicated Server

1. High-level Security

If your company collects, leverages, or stores any kind of personal or sensitive information from visitors, dedicated hosting can be crucial. Shared hosting-and even VPS-can create significant security gaps.

The problem with shared hosting and even VPS is that the hardware involved is accessible to any other paying user on that plan. This creates vulnerability. Should one website owner fail to secure their site appropriately, all websites using that server may have sensitive data exposed to malevolent actors. This can not only complicate operations for your business but become a PR nightmare.

2. Brand Protection

Another significant concern when using shared hosting is the potential downside for your search engine optimization.

In a perfect world, your organization would provide keyword-rich, high-value content that search engines would gladly point out to potential consumers looking for information.

If, however, one of the websites using the same server as you under a shared hosting plan is engaging in spammy or otherwise concerning behavior, the common IP address could cause search engines to penalize your website, as well-regardless of the value of your brand or content.

With a dedicated server, your IP address is yours alone. This means your brand and standing in the eyes of major search engines is yours to manage.

3. Better Page Rank

Even if you gamble and end up lucky with a shared hosting option that isn’t explicitly associated with a website of ill repute, your choice of host can significantly impact search performance.

Google, in particular, takes into account the provider used to host your website. While selecting a hosting provider with a common name does not automatically send your website to the bottom of the pile in search results, algorithms do take into consideration the technical infrastructure of a site when determining brand authority.

A dedicated server indicates significant financial investment. In the eyes of the computers, determining brand relevance on particular search phrases may indicate a level of gravitas that improves search traffic.

4. Resource Sharing

Maybe your web property isn’t about branding, traffic, or conversions. Perhaps you have built a web property to manage your team and their efforts better. In these cases especially, having a dedicated server makes all the sense in the world.

It’s one thing to share things like Google documents among a handful of people. However, when resources need to be efficiently accessed among dozens of people, you will likely need the organization of an application to ensure easy access.

In these cases, having a dedicated server can ensure that you can implement optimal UX design for ease of access and improved productivity.

5. Excellent Speed

It can be difficult to conceptualize how hosting service selection impacts your website, so let’s use the idea of a drive-through restaurant.

If you’re a standalone restaurant, everyone who comes through the drive-through orders items from your business alone. But imagine if multiple restaurants were using that drive-through window. The person looking to order off your menu might have to wait behind five other customers ordering off different menus to get to you. This can create a less than optimal customer experience.

That’s a crude way of explaining how wait times (or page loading times) can impact your operations and brands. Your potential customers are probably (hopefully) not waiting ten minutes to get to your menu.

The premise, however, is valid. With shared hosting, you run the risk of multiple sites experiencing traffic surges at once, limiting your access to bandwidth. With a dedicated server, your drive-through window-so to speak-is open 24/7 without any other menus in play.

How Do You Get Started With Dedicated Server?

To be frank, the best way to get started with a dedicated server for hosting is to prepare for the transition.

While transferring web properties from shared hosting to a dedicated server is absolutely possible, and many hosting providers offer services to make the transition easier, transitioning at all can create unforeseen complications while requiring you and/or your team to learn an entirely different style of web management.

How To Get A Dedicated Server

Regardless of where you start, though, you’ll need to consider your approach to using a dedicated server. That means deciding whether you will rent, buy, or build a dedicated server.

Renting a server

Renting a dedicated server might seem like the best option for those dipping their toes in the waters of dedicated server hosting. In theory, it allows for experimentation during a short timeframe to determine the ROI of using a dedicated server.

In many cases, this also incorporates active third-party management of your dedicated server. A managed dedicated server means the hardware component is taken off your plate, and you may receive guidance on best practices. Long-term, however, the costs of renting a dedicated server can dwarf the alternatives.

Buying a server

So why not just buy your own dedicated server? Depending on the size of your company, the associated pricing might not be in your budget at the moment. Another concern dovetails with the notion of renting a dedicated server. If the company you rent or buy from encounters choppy waters, the integrity of your web property may be in danger.

Building a server

Of course, it is entirely possible to build your own dedicated server. This is not without risks, though. While it grants the greatest amount of control over the security and performance of your properties, it is also a far more expensive option.

Not only will your organization absorb the hardware costs, but you will be solely responsible for the maintenance of the server, which often requires the hiring of well-qualified (and expensive) staff. There are excellent reasons that (usually) only huge companies or companies with significant security concerns opt for this route.

How Should I Choose the Right Dedicated Server Hosting for Me?

If you’re ready to jump into a dedicated server, then you need to consider a few factors:

Upfront costs

At the very least, it’s important to consider the impact on your company’s budget before selecting a dedicated server hosting option regardless of whether you’re renting, buying, or building your own server. Depending on available cash flow and current needs, a shared hosting option might suffice in the short term.

Technical requirements

You also need to consider the technical requirements associated with a dedicated server. Shared hosting plans, VPS plans, and cloud servers all typically come with technical support from the owners of the physical servers-ranging from systems and processes that make set-up and management easier to real-time interactions with experts.

With a dedicated server you build yourself, you should probably have at least one staff member dedicated to setting up and managing your web properties and applications.

Your potential ROI

Finally (and most importantly) it comes down to potential ROI. Do dedicated servers offer better security, bandwidth, brand authority, and more? That’s undeniable.

However, what makes sense in terms of budgeting relative revenue and projected growth is more complicated. The needs of a business doing a few thousand in sales or managing a team of six are very different than that of a company employing 500 people and processing thousands of orders per day.

It all boils down to the bottom line: where are you, where do you expect to be, and where do you want to be? These are all questions answered with dollar signs. Your best bet in answering them is to research individual providers and speak with individuals at those companies about their services.

Other Server Options For You

If you’re still not convinced of getting a dedicated server for your website, here are other server hosting options that can be more appropriate for your business and budget.

Shared hosting

The most common option is shared hosting. This means the company you opt to work with will host the data associated with your website on a server along with the data of many other websites.

The drawback is that when a site attracts enough traffic, its bandwidth is shared with other websites on the same server. Should enough sites on that server attract enough attention, there may not be enough power in the background to provide sufficient loading time, at a minimum, leading to a poor visitor experience.

In some cases, this might not matter. If the website you’ve built isn’t oriented around creating conversions, generating ad views, or other money-making endeavors, you might not care. However, if the bottom line is your bottom line, the potential hiccups that come with shared hosting could matter quite a bit.

It’s also important to note that conversion can drop from about 31 percent to less than 14 percent after two seconds of loading time on a given page. If this is a big problem for you, the alternative is to actively manage your sharing options.

This means the bandwidth used by sites on a shared server should be monitored, with available resources and computing power shifted to meet demand. While this doesn’t entirely eliminate the risks associated with shared hosting, it may offer some confidence.

Cloud hosting

Another option is using a cloud server. In theory, it operates the same way shared hosting does, but instead of using one piece of hardware to manage multiple sites, multiple pieces of hardware are involved. Think about it like teamwork. The benefit here is that, should your site’s traffic surge at the same time as someone else’s site on the plan, the means of shouldering that traffic will be split accordingly.

Virtual Private Server (VPS)

There’s also an option to use VPS or virtual private servers. In this case, your website is allocated a dedicated amount of space and bandwidth on a given server, regardless of how much you use. This power is not up for grabs for other websites using that specific server, so you can be confident of what you’re able to handle. It is, however, a more expensive choice that can become increasingly expensive should your website grow rapidly in a short time.

Whether or not your need a dedicated server for your business is completely up to you, and your future needs. As early as now, it’s important to consider these factors so you’ll be able to weigh out your options and manage your expectations. If you need help in finding out which hosting is best for you, you can check out our full website hosting reviews.

Web Hosting for E-Commerce: Which is Best for Your Site?

 

Our independent research projects and impartial reviews are funded in part by affiliate commissions, at no extra cost to our readers.

  • 11:40 am

What Does Web Hosting for E-Commerce Mean?

E-commerce, web hosting, and WordPress e-commerce is taking the online world by storm. With all these tools, it can be a lot to determine what’s best for your site. As you build your e-commerce store and your hosted e-commerce platform, there’s a variety of software to help you find your footing.

What is E-Commerce Hosting?

Every business needs a way to reach its customers, and in this increasingly digital world, no company is complete without a website. Beyond that, any business that sells goods should have a way to sell products online, too. Growing into an online business ensures longevity that many brick-and-mortar stores are losing.

E-commerce hosting is a way to sell your products and goods to consumers all over the world. It offers ordering and payment options as well as a basic web hosting service. However, it differs from traditional web hosting in demand for better speeds and higher quality web content.

Does Your E-Commerce Store Need to Be Hosted?

Short answer: yes. Web hosting for e-commerce is essential. Your company and consumers need to know that security, payment processing, SSL, shopping cart software, and the business website are protected.

Building your own hosted site is an option if you have the skills and time to do so, but when thinking about web hosting for e-commerce: what’s best for your site? Hiring an existing platform to do the dirty work saves you a lot of time that you can instead focus directly on your business.

Why Choose A2 Hosting for Your E-Commerce Hosting?

A2 Hosting is one of the best sites available for e-commerce web hosting. With excellent packages, speeds, and customer service, A2 sets itself apart from the competition. A2 uses WordPress, which continues to grow as one of the top web hosting sites around.

What Are the Benefits of A2 Hosting for E-Commerce?

A2 Hosting offers easy solutions for your e-commerce web hosting. You can register your domain, transfer an existing domain, buy a new domain, forward emails, and utilize their software to support your e-commerce site.

A2 Hosting has excellent customer service and offers domain options such as .biz, .com, .io, .net, .org, .ca, .cc, .in, .us, and .co to meet all your business needs.

They offer domain theft protection, ID protection, Free DNS management, and 24/7/365 customer support in the form of their ‘Guru Crew.’

What Features Does A2 Hosting Have for E-Commerce?

A2 uses Linux for its service, with several tiers to choose from for the best fit for you. Their WordPress options come with a shared WordPress option or a Managed WordPress choice. Prices are per month, with discounts available for long-term contracts.

Shared WordPress has four tiers. Startup comes with unlimited data transfers each month, 100GB SSD storage, 25 email addresses, and one website domain. It has A2 Optimized WordPress and site staging. This option can be as low as $2.99 a month.

Drive offers everything that Startup has but includes unlimited emails, domains, and storage. Drive has plans as low as $4.99 a month.

Turbo Boost includes everything in Turbo and Startup but adds in preconfigured site caching and NVMe SSDs on A2’s AMD EPYC servers. Turbo Boost pricing is as low as $6.99 a month.

Finally, Turbo Max includes all of the above, plus increased memory from 2GB to 4GB and the ability to switch from a 2-core server to a 4-core server. Turbo Max starts at $12.99 a month.

Managed WordPress hosting comes with everything mentioned above and adds on WordPress backups, a free personal license for JetPack, and pre-installed WP-CLI. You can choose from one, three, or unlimited sites priced at $12.99 a month, $22.99 a month, and $43.99 a month when signing up with a three-year plan.

All A2 packages come with a money-back guarantee, making your risk easier to manage while they handle all your web hosting needs.

Why Choose SiteGround for Your E-Commerce Hosting?

SiteGround is a WordPress-based hosting site offering technical superiority with in-house solutions. They were among the first to use Linux containers with customization that upholds the security and reliability that any business would love to have as their service.

What Are the Benefits of SiteGround for E-Commerce?

SiteGround uses Let’s Encrypt SSL, customized and available since its inception. They continuously maintain high security standards for clients as they build on to their fully managed service options.

Their customer service is available 24/7/365, making your business their priority no matter where you are in the world or whatever your working hours. They have a myriad of resources available to clients, including ebooks on business and marketing guides, and optimization, security, commerce, and more.

What Features Does SiteGround Have for E-Commerce?

Their StartUp package begins as low as $4.99 a month and comes with one website and 10GB of web storage. With free SSL, daily backup, caching, unlimited databases, and free CDN and email, this package promises around 10,000 visits to your site each month.

The GrowBig package begins at $7.99 a month and has all of the features of the StartUp package with added features such as unlimited websites, 20GB web storage, and around 25,000 site visits per month.

GoGeek is their most extensive package. At $14.99 a month, it offers the same as the GrowBig package but promises around 100,000 site visits each month, making this an incredible deal.

SiteGround also offers managed WordPress hosting with four options: fast, smooth, managed, and unmatched. Each builds on the other for the ultimate performance solution to speed up your website with updated WordPress plugins and security.

Their WordPress services include SSL certificates, daily backups, email services, staging tools, development tools, and collaboration tools.

Who Should Choose SiteGround for E-Commerce?

SiteGround is another excellent choice for small and new businesses. Still, with their variety of options for plans and management from the hosting platform itself, it is an excellent choice for established and tech-savvy companies, too.

Choosing your plan based on your needs offers a way to have a safe and attractive web hosting for your e-commerce website while maintaining professional and exciting web content for your clients is what makes SiteGround an excellent choice.

Why Choose InMotion for Your E-Commerce Hosting?

InMotion is another hosting service provider that uses shared, dedicated, reseller, WordPress, and virtual private servers (VPS) to build your web hosting. With an uptime of 99.99% and continuous security monitoring, you can trust your business needs with InMotion.

InMotion hosting is a top choice because of its commitment to open source development and its award-winning service teams. They continually show their dedication to excellence and put customers first.

They offer hosting and application software via ceph, puppet, ansible, Virtuozzo, docker, WordPress, and OpenStack, making them a versatile e-commerce platform as well as innovative. They also provide an SSL certificate at a dedicated IP address.

What Are the Benefits of InMotion for E-Commerce?

InMotion offers a 90-day money-back guarantee, showing that they have your satisfaction in mind as they move forward with your business needs. They continue to show relevance in the field as they’ve installed over 500,000 WordPress sites to date.

It’s easy to onboard with InMotion, taking your business off the ground quickly. They use flexible billing and allow plan changes whenever you need them, so your plan can change alongside it as your business changes. They also offer server solutions to host your apps, build custom stacks, and choose your operating system.

What Features Does InMotion Have for E-Commerce?

Shared hosting is one of the features available through InMotion. With three tiers, you can choose what fits your business. Launch begins at $5.99 a month with two websites, 50GB SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth, 3x performance, 10 email addresses, marketing tools, a free domain and SSL, and a security suite.

Power is their mid-level tier with all of the above, as well as 50 websites, 100GB SSD storage, 4x performance, 50 email addresses, and advanced caching. As low as $5.99 a month, this is an excellent option for businesses that expect growth in the next few months.

Their higher tier, Pro, begins at $14.99 a month and includes everything that comes with Pro, as well as 100 websites, 200GB SSD storage, 6x performance, unlimited email addresses, and pro support SLA.

Their WordPress services offer similar tiers with WP-1000S at $6.99 a month, offering one website, 50GB storage, 4x performance, free SSL, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited email, marketing tools, advanced caching, and their security suite.

WP-2000S begins at $6.99 a month with everything included in WP-1000S and increases to two websites, 100GB storage, 6x performance, and Jetpack personal.

WP-3000S starts at $12.99 a month and bumps your options to three websites, 150GB storage, 8x performance, and adds a dedicated opcode cache pool.

Their top tier, WP-4000S, starts at $19.99 a month and provides all of the above, expanded to 6 websites, 200GB storage, 12x performance, and a dedicated IP address.

They also offer an ecommerce website builder via WordPress, with a drag-and-drop option making your website design and management more user-friendly. With hundreds of template designs and a full WordPress suite, your website development is easy.

InMotion also offers VPS hosting ranging from 2-8 CPU cores, 2-8GB RAM, 45-140GB storage, three dedicated IPs, and more. Pricing varies from $19.99 to $59.99 a month.

Who Should Choose InMotion for E-Commerce?

InMotion is a fantastic choice for businesses with significant web hosting needs. If you have more than one business or chain attached to your commerce, InMotion is well-equipped to handle the traffic flow you’re seeing.

InMotion is excellent for smaller businesses but shows their power status for larger companies with high web demand. As some tiers become more expensive, smaller businesses won’t need the kind of performance InMotion offers.

Why Choose Bluehost for Your E-Commerce Hosting?

Over 2 million hosted websites worldwide speak for themselves: Bluehost is an excellent e-commerce hosting provider. Their services don’t stop at web hosting, either. If you want to know more about SEO, social media marketing, content creation, graphic design, and more, Bluehost has the tools you need.

Bluehost welcomes all levels of experience and involvement in their web hosting processes and caters to the needs of every type of business. Like most other web hosting services, Bluehost is WordPress-focused and offers 24/7 support.

What Are the Benefits of Bluehost for E-Commerce?

Hosting company Bluehost has been in business for nearly twenty years, making them experts in web hosting. They offer a variety of service packages with competitive pricing and on-demand support. It is one of only three companies explicitly endorsed by WordPress, giving them more credibility.

Bluehost offers fantastic uptime and a clean, intuitive control panel so you can build a complete website for your business. They have a virtual private server (VPS) and dedicated packages like many other services.

What Features Does Bluehost Have for E-Commerce?

Building a site with WordPress is the first feature Bluehost offers. Hosting with WordPress starts at $2.95 a month.

Managed packages begin with their Build package and include WordPress tools, support, and resources available. This plan offers one website, 20GB storage, 200 Global Edge servers, free SSL, a staging environment, and Jetpack Personal.

Grow, a managed WordPress package, starts at $14.95 a month. It builds on the previous package with 40 GB storage, Jetpack Premium, 10 GB video compression, business review, SEO tools, and Blue Sky ticket support assistance with design and functionality 24/7.

Their Scale package begins at $27.95 a month and offers 80 GB storage, Jetpack Professional, unlimited backups and restore, domain privacy and protection, business and SEO tools, PayPal integration, unlimited video compression, and Blue Sky Live Chat support.

These packages also include malware detection and removal, domain privacy protection, and a 30-day free trial of Microsoft email.

Who Should Choose Bluehost for E-Commerce?

Bluehost is a solid hosting provider choice for every business of every size, but their PayPal payment gateway option is a fantastic addition. With a portfolio of more than 2 million websites hosted, Bluehost proves that it can manage any level of business needs, making them ideal all-around.

Why Choose HostGator for Your E-Commerce Hosting?

With a 99.9% uptime guarantee, HostGator is a unique web hosting product for your e-commerce. Their 24/7/365 service and live chat options make them easily accessible for support and maintenance for your business needs.

HostGator caters to new businesses looking to make their mark in the e-commerce world, and their quick and easy customer service options stand out across the platform.

What Are the Benefits of HostGator for E-Commerce?

HostGator offers a free SSL certificate, WordPress installation, dedicated hosting, and a free domain for your first year. Their plans start at $2.75 a month, making them one of the more affordable web hosting solutions.

Their server speed is decent, at 707ms, which means the site can handle the traffic your business sends their way.

What Features Does HostGator Have for E-Commerce?

HostGator has three shared hosting plans, each with unmetered bandwidth, a free SSL certificate, and a free domain.

The Hatchling plan starts at $2.75 a month and offers one website, quick WordPress installation, and free WordPress/cPanel website transfers.

The Baby plan starts at $3.50 a month and offers the same as the Hatchling plan, but unlimited websites. The extra $.75 a month is an excellent deal for unlimited websites, especially as your business continues to expand.

Their most extensive shared hosting plan is the Business plan, which starts at $5.25 a month and includes the same as the Baby and Hatchling plans, but adds on Cloudflare CDN, 2.5x faster load times, free dedicated IP, and free SEO tools. The amount included in this upgrade is a great deal.

HostGator offers three options for website building for your hosted platform with various email campaigns, products for your ecommerce store, appointment booking, and even a plan that waives transaction fees for purchases made on your website.

Their VPS hosting offers anywhere from 2-8 GB RAM, 2-4 core CPU, 120-240 GB SSD, and unmetered bandwidth, which then allows you more control over your website if you’re a more tech-savvy business owner or prefer to keep some of the work in-house.

Who Should Choose HostGator for E-Commerce?

HostGator is best for brand new businesses without a lot of e-commerce experience. The bigger the need, the less HostGator can provide, and their add-ons get pricey pretty quickly. They’re a great way to get into the web hosting game but might not offer a long-term, cost-effective e-commerce solution.

Why Choose WP Engine for Your E-Commerce Hosting?

WP Engine is a great place to start if you’re looking for a focused web hosting provider. One of the top names in WordPress hosting, WP Engine offers unmatched performance. Your high-traffic sites are perfect for WP Engine, and as your business grows, you’ll be glad you’ve chosen this platform.

What Are the Benefits of WP Engine for E-Commerce?

WP Engine offers consistent speed, meaning whether you have one visitor to your site of 100, the site will load just as quickly. Online consumers prefer to see a web page load quickly, and that speed relays the quality of the business, whether or not consumers realize that connection. WP Engine creates mobile-friendly websites also, making your business hand-held and easy to access.

What Features Does WP Engine Have for E-Commerce?

WP Engine is limited in its scope – it only offers managed web hosting. It is the most expensive on our list with four plans, which could mean pricing out some early developing businesses.

Their Startup plan begins at $30 a month. It offers one-click store creation, an optimized theme for your store, WooCommerce templates, automated plugin updates, 24/7 support, 10 premium themes, daily backups, free SSL and SSH, free automated migrations, and one-click staging. It offers one website, 10GB storage, and 50GB bandwidth per month.

For $62 a month, their Professional package offers all of the above and instant store search, three websites, 15 GB storage, and 125 GB bandwidth, with an estimated 75,000 visits per month.

The next tier is $116 a month. The Growth package offers all of the above with 10 websites, 100,000 visits per month, 20 GB storage, and 200 GB bandwidth.

Their premium package, Scale, is $291 a month and includes all of the above with 30 websites, 400,000 visits per month, 50 GB local storage, and 500 GB bandwidth.

Who Should Choose WP Engine for E-Commerce?

WP Engine is best for large, established businesses. Their pricing could easily be too much for small local businesses, but the price is worth it for a web host that will ensure your business growth.

Why Choose IONOS for Your E-Commerce Hosting?

IONOS, formerly known as 1&1 web hosting, offers 99.8% uptime and is one of the more affordable options with outstanding customer support and reliability.

What Are the Benefits of IONOS for E-Commerce?

IONOS offers page loading times faster than many competitors, making it a solid option for fast service for your customers. It has geo-redundant hosting, which means they store your data in two different centers. In other words, your hosting remains uninterrupted during maintenance and power outages.

Their server shield technology and cutting-edge security prevent DDoS attacks, keeping your website and data secure.

What Features Does IONOS Have for E-Commerce?

IONOS has three web hosting plans. Essential is for one website or project and begins at $4 a month. This plan offers 10GB storage, professional email, 10 databases (2GB SSD), your domain for 1 year, and basic CPU and MEM resources.

The Business e-commerce hosting plan has an introductory rate of $0.50 a month, then climbs to $10 a month after the first year. It offers the same as Essential, but with unlimited websites, storage, and databases.

Expert is designed for multiple large web projects and begins at $8 a month. It offers everything in the Business plan and SiteScan malware protection and content delivery network (CDN).

Who Should Choose IONOS for E-Commerce?

IONOS advertises web hosting for agencies like small government settings. It is a basic and no-frills ecommerce host, making it a good option for someone who needs the simplest ecommerce solution.

To learn more about which e-commerce hosting solution is best for your e commerce site, read our web hosting reviews. Our reviews offer in-depth analysis of these web hosting providers and more.

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    • What Type of Server Does Your Website Need?

     

    Our independent research projects and impartial reviews are funded in part by affiliate commissions, at no extra cost to our readers.

    • 7:50 am

    6 Types of Website Hosting: What Are the Best Options for Your Site?

    When you’re launching your website, using a hosting provider is ideal to ensure that people can access your content. This essential element in establishing a website isn’t something to take lightly.

    Since website hosting is much needed, there’s plenty of options available to you. If you’ve never used a website hosting provider before, it can be challenging to know the difference between the types of website servers and which one is the best option for your website.

    Overview of Website Hosting

    If you’ve never used a hosting provider, you may not know what these services are for. Website hosting providers host hardware and help store any data from your website on a server.

    Website hosts provide the proper technology to make sure your website is accessible to people on the internet. This way, people searching for similar content that you have on your website can find it.

    What Are Website Servers for Hosting?

    The servers on a website hosting service provider are where all the data from your website is stored.

    Shared Hosting

    Shared web hosting is one of the most common types of website hosting and the most basic kind. Shared hosting is one of the most popular choices because there are dozens of shared hosting providers available for reasonable prices.

    What is Shared Hosting?

    Shared hosting is when your website’s information is stored on a shared server with other websites. You will have access to all the resources provided by your web hosting provider through a server shared by however many other business owners.

    By uploading resources and data to a shared server, these website hosting providers are able to keep costs down. Depending on the plan you sign up for with your provider, you’ll have access to a certain amount of resources on said server.

    Who Should Use Shared Hosting?

    Anyone can use shared hosting if they choose. While anyone can use shared hosting, this type of web hosting is ideal for small businesses or entry-level businesses. People who are new to web hosting or looking to save money are great candidates for shared hosting.

    Shared hosting is great for small businesses. While you may have a lot of traffic to your website, you probably don’t have as much as nationally or internationally recognized brands. Therefore, other small business owners are likely using the same server as you.

    When other websites on the shared server have a spike in traffic, it can potentially slow down access to your website. While this is great if your website is the one with the traffic, it can be challenging if it’s not.

    Sharing a server with other small business owners can help reduce the technical issues you may experience if you’re a small business sharing a server with larger companies.

    What Are Some Shared Hosting Providers?

    If you’re interested in exploring your options for shared hosting providers, here are some of the most popular:

    2: Virtual Private Seller (VPS) Hosting

    A virtual private seller (VPS) is a step up from using a shared hosting provider. The main difference between the two is that the server is private with a VPS, unlike a shared server.

    What is VPS Hosting?

    With VPS hosting, you’ll still be sharing the server with other website owners like you would with shared hosting. The most significant difference is that with VPS, your website is hosted on its own virtual server.

    The best way to describe VPS hosting is to picture a neighborhood. There are several different houses, and they all belong to someone different, but they’re all in the same neighborhood.

    Essentially, you and other website owners all are on the same server but have your own space.

    Even though you and other websites are sharing a server, you can customize your space more and more storage space since you have your own virtual space.

    Using VPS hosting allows you to have more space and a more secure hosting platform than shared hosting but without having to shell out the money for a dedicated server.

    While VPS is a step up from shared hosting providers, you can still see your website affected by high website traffic levels. Regardless of whether you and other website owners have their own virtual property, everyone affects each other’s websites on the same server.

    Who Should Use VPS Hosting?

    Anyone can use a VPS web host, but this type is the best option for those who want the affordability of shared hosting but the control of dedicated hosting.

    Small to medium-sized businesses tend to benefit the most from VPS hosting. This is because they typically can’t afford to have any downtime. It’s also a good option for those who’ve outgrown their shared hosting plan.

    What Are Some VPS Hosting Providers?

    For those of you looking at VPS hosting, here are some of the most popular options for a hosting company:

    Dedicated Hosting

    Unlike a shared or virtual private server, dedicated hosting gives you the rights over a web server.

    What is Dedicated Hosting?

    With dedicated hosting, you have exclusive rights, well rental rights, over the web server where your website is. All other websites that you may have previously shared a server with are a thing of the past.

    You can do whatever you want when you have a dedicated hosting server because you have all administrative access. Since you’re the only website on your server, you can handle much more website traffic without worrying that your site will slow down.

    Using dedicated hosting requires that you or someone you work with have enough technical knowledge to install and manage the server. Having one person or an IT team handle everything is a good idea with dedicated hosting.

    While all the control over your website and its server are nice, great power comes at a high cost. Dedicated hosting tends to be much more expensive than shared hosting or VPS.

    The price may seem steep, but when you consider all the benefits of dedicated hosting, it’s well worth the money. You won’t need to share any server resources with other website owners, and you don’t need to worry about another company slowing down your website speed.

    When you implement dedicated hosting, how you’ll manage the server is up to you. You can handle everything yourself, hire someone to do it for you, or find a hosting provider that provides management for you.

    While it may seem easier and more cost-effective to manage the server on your own, if glitches or other technical issues arise, you’ll be on the hook for the money to fix it. With a hosting provider who manages it for you, they’ll handle it all.

    Who Should Use Dedicated Hosting?

    First, a dedicated web server isn’t the web hosting to go with if you have zero experience with web hosting or managing a server.

    These types of website hosting providers are better for companies or individuals who have enterprise-level websites. An enterprise-level website is any website that has more than 100,000 monthly hits.

    Besides the monthly hits, these websites tend to have more revenue coming in and therefore can afford the costly monthly fees for dedicated hosting.

    If you’re just starting your business or website, you won’t want to start with dedicated hosting. As your business grows, you can decide if this type of web hosting is the best option for your website.

    Any website with over 100,000 hits per month would benefit from dedicated hosting, but eCommerce sites tend to do very well with this type. You have complete control over the server’s functions, and they have a high level of security when people use credit cards to purchase items.

    What Are Some Dedicated Hosting Providers?

    As with other web hosting sites, there are several dedicated hosting providers available to you. If you think this type of web hosting service is best option for your website, here are some you’ll want to check out:

    4: Reseller Hosting

    Reseller hosting isn’t your typical web hosting. As the name may suggest, you’re reselling a web hosting product to other people.

    What is Reseller Hosting?

    Reseller hosting is when you’re selling your hosting services to clients. You may have heard of this as white label web hosting, but reseller hosting is the more well-known name.

    When you have reseller hosting, you’re selling your hosting services to clients, and you’ll, in turn, make a profit off of this since many people are looking for a web host.

    Reseller hosting works when you buy web hosting from another provider and then rebrand and resell it to different clients.

    One of the best things about reseller hosting is that it’s sustainable. Building websites for people can generate high income, but you’ll only be paid once for that service. With web hosting, you’ll be generating income until they shut down their website.

    Who Should Use Reseller Hosting?

    Reseller hosting isn’t for everyone. Generally, web designers, developers, and agencies would benefit the most from reseller hosting. They’re perfect for reseller hosting because they already have clients that they can upgrade to web hosting.

    If you’re starting out with your agency, you may need to hold off on reseller hosting until you’ve built up a reliable client list. Providing a website host to your clients lets them keep all their business with you rather than looking elsewhere for a web host.

    You’ll want to have a list of clients before reselling hosting services. The ideal amount of clients to have lined up is ten or more. If you have less than this, this type of hosting may not be beneficial for you, at least not yet.

    What Are Some Reseller Hosting?

    If you’re a business looking to use a reseller hosting provider, here are five of the best ones:

    Cloud Hosting

    Even if you haven’t heard of the various types of web hosts on the market, you’ve probably heard of cloud hosting.

    What is Cloud Hosting?

    When you choose cloud hosting, you have unlimited ability to take on high website traffic, whether that’s normal for you or it’s suddenly spiked.

    Instead of one server, cloud hosting uses a team of servers, the cloud, that all work together to host a group of websites. When you’re using cloud hosting, multiple computers can work at the same time to handle high traffic on any website.

    This hosting solution works so that various companies can use server resources as they need without causing another website on the server to slow down.

    Cloud hosting allows businesses and websites to have access to the resources they need without having to maintain the technology on their own. You won’t have root access, meaning you can’t change server settings because an IT team will manage the cloud server.

    The server resources are spread across multiple servers at once. This reduces the chance of downtime, meaning you won’t miss out on any website traffic. The best part of cloud hosting is that you only pay for the resources you need.

    Who Should Use Cloud Hosting?

    Cloud hosting is perfect for medium and large businesses. Especially if those businesses are expanding at a rapid rate, websites that get more than 50,000 hits per month are ideal for a cloud hosting solution.

    When a business is growing rapidly, website traffic can be unpredictable. Using cloud hosting can help you scale the company for years to come.

    Most people who have a cloud hosting plan begin with a shared hosting plan. Once their website starts to grow, switching to a cloud hosting plan is the typical move.

    What Are Some Cloud Hosting Providers?

    Many other host providers also have cloud hosting. Here are some of the best cloud hosting providers:

    6: Green Hosting

    We’ve all heard the term “going green.” Focusing on environmentally friendly ways to perform everyday tasks can help our planet in more ways than one. You may have never heard about green hosting, but there is an environmentally friendly way to host websites.

    What is Green Hosting?

    Green hosting is an environmentally friendly way to host websites. If you’re wondering how website hosting can harm the environment, it has more to do with the hosting provider and their carbon footprint, not the physical server.

    One of the most common ways a web host is a green hosting provider is using renewable power sources to generate energy. This can be solar panels, windmills, or other green methods.

    Sometimes the company won’t generate their renewable energy with solar or wind, but they’re still a green hosting provider. They manage to do this by outsourcing to a certified green energy supplier.

    Green web hosts will purchase what is called Green tags from green energy suppliers. When they purchase these tags, the supplier will add that specific amount to the energy grid on behalf of the green web host.

    Another common way green hosting providers are environmentally friendly is by implementing recycling initiatives. Once a company has these credits, it can cancel out some carbon they’ve contributed to the world.

    Who Should Use Green Hosting?

    Unlike the other website hosts mentioned, there’s not one specific type of website that benefits from a green web host more than the other.

    Using green hosting is excellent for a website owner who cares about the environment at all levels and is looking for more ways to help the planet.

    What Are Some Green Hosting Providers?

    With so many web hosting options, it can be hard to find some that are green. Here are some of the best green web hosts:

    So where do you begin?

    6 Types of Website Hosting: What Are the Best Options for Your Site?

    When you’re launching your website, using a hosting provider is ideal to ensure that people can access your content. This essential element in establishing a website isn’t something to take lightly.

    Since website hosting is much needed, there’s plenty of options available to you. If you’ve never used a website hosting provider before, it can be challenging to know the difference between the types of website servers and which one is the best option for your website.

    Overview of Website Hosting

    If you’ve never used a hosting provider, you may not know what these services are for. Website hosting providers host hardware and help store any data from your website on a server.

    Website hosts provide the proper technology to make sure your website is accessible to people on the internet. This way, people searching for similar content that you have on your website can find it.

    What Are Website Servers for Hosting?

    The servers on a website hosting service provider are where all the data from your website is stored.

    Shared Hosting

    Shared web hosting is one of the most common types of website hosting and the most basic kind. Shared hosting is one of the most popular choices because there are dozens of shared hosting providers available for reasonable prices.

    What is Shared Hosting?

    Shared hosting is when your website’s information is stored on a shared server with other websites. You will have access to all the resources provided by your web hosting provider through a server shared by however many other business owners.

    By uploading resources and data to a shared server, these website hosting providers are able to keep costs down. Depending on the plan you sign up for with your provider, you’ll have access to a certain amount of resources on said server.

    Who Should Use Shared Hosting?

    Anyone can use shared hosting if they choose. While anyone can use shared hosting, this type of web hosting is ideal for small businesses or entry-level businesses. People who are new to web hosting or looking to save money are great candidates for shared hosting.

    Shared hosting is great for small businesses. While you may have a lot of traffic to your website, you probably don’t have as much as nationally or internationally recognized brands. Therefore, other small business owners are likely using the same server as you.

    When other websites on the shared server have a spike in traffic, it can potentially slow down access to your website. While this is great if your website is the one with the traffic, it can be challenging if it’s not.

    Sharing a server with other small business owners can help reduce the technical issues you may experience if you’re a small business sharing a server with larger companies.

    What Are Some Shared Hosting Providers?

    If you’re interested in exploring your options for shared hosting providers, here are some of the most popular:

    2: Virtual Private Seller (VPS) Hosting

    A virtual private seller (VPS) is a step up from using a shared hosting provider. The main difference between the two is that the server is private with a VPS, unlike a shared server.

    What is VPS Hosting?

    With VPS hosting, you’ll still be sharing the server with other website owners like you would with shared hosting. The most significant difference is that with VPS, your website is hosted on its own virtual server.

    The best way to describe VPS hosting is to picture a neighborhood. There are several different houses, and they all belong to someone different, but they’re all in the same neighborhood.

    Essentially, you and other website owners all are on the same server but have your own space.

    Even though you and other websites are sharing a server, you can customize your space more and more storage space since you have your own virtual space.

    Using VPS hosting allows you to have more space and a more secure hosting platform than shared hosting but without having to shell out the money for a dedicated server.

    While VPS is a step up from shared hosting providers, you can still see your website affected by high website traffic levels. Regardless of whether you and other website owners have their own virtual property, everyone affects each other’s websites on the same server.

    Who Should Use VPS Hosting?

    Anyone can use a VPS web host, but this type is the best option for those who want the affordability of shared hosting but the control of dedicated hosting.

    Small to medium-sized businesses tend to benefit the most from VPS hosting. This is because they typically can’t afford to have any downtime. It’s also a good option for those who’ve outgrown their shared hosting plan.

    What Are Some VPS Hosting Providers?

    For those of you looking at VPS hosting, here are some of the most popular options for a hosting company:

    Dedicated Hosting

    Unlike a shared or virtual private server, dedicated hosting gives you the rights over a web server.

    What is Dedicated Hosting?

    With dedicated hosting, you have exclusive rights, well rental rights, over the web server where your website is. All other websites that you may have previously shared a server with are a thing of the past.

    You can do whatever you want when you have a dedicated hosting server because you have all administrative access. Since you’re the only website on your server, you can handle much more website traffic without worrying that your site will slow down.

    Using dedicated hosting requires that you or someone you work with have enough technical knowledge to install and manage the server. Having one person or an IT team handle everything is a good idea with dedicated hosting.

    While all the control over your website and its server are nice, great power comes at a high cost. Dedicated hosting tends to be much more expensive than shared hosting or VPS.

    The price may seem steep, but when you consider all the benefits of dedicated hosting, it’s well worth the money. You won’t need to share any server resources with other website owners, and you don’t need to worry about another company slowing down your website speed.

    When you implement dedicated hosting, how you’ll manage the server is up to you. You can handle everything yourself, hire someone to do it for you, or find a hosting provider that provides management for you.

    While it may seem easier and more cost-effective to manage the server on your own, if glitches or other technical issues arise, you’ll be on the hook for the money to fix it. With a hosting provider who manages it for you, they’ll handle it all.

    Who Should Use Dedicated Hosting?

    First, a dedicated web server isn’t the web hosting to go with if you have zero experience with web hosting or managing a server.

    These types of website hosting providers are better for companies or individuals who have enterprise-level websites. An enterprise-level website is any website that has more than 100,000 monthly hits.

    Besides the monthly hits, these websites tend to have more revenue coming in and therefore can afford the costly monthly fees for dedicated hosting.

    If you’re just starting your business or website, you won’t want to start with dedicated hosting. As your business grows, you can decide if this type of web hosting is the best option for your website.

    Any website with over 100,000 hits per month would benefit from dedicated hosting, but eCommerce sites tend to do very well with this type. You have complete control over the server’s functions, and they have a high level of security when people use credit cards to purchase items.

    What Are Some Dedicated Hosting Providers?

    As with other web hosting sites, there are several dedicated hosting providers available to you. If you think this type of web hosting service is best option for your website, here are some you’ll want to check out:

    4: Reseller Hosting

    Reseller hosting isn’t your typical web hosting. As the name may suggest, you’re reselling a web hosting product to other people.

    What is Reseller Hosting?

    Reseller hosting is when you’re selling your hosting services to clients. You may have heard of this as white label web hosting, but reseller hosting is the more well-known name.

    When you have reseller hosting, you’re selling your hosting services to clients, and you’ll, in turn, make a profit off of this since many people are looking for a web host.

    Reseller hosting works when you buy web hosting from another provider and then rebrand and resell it to different clients.

    One of the best things about reseller hosting is that it’s sustainable. Building websites for people can generate high income, but you’ll only be paid once for that service. With web hosting, you’ll be generating income until they shut down their website.

    Who Should Use Reseller Hosting?

    Reseller hosting isn’t for everyone. Generally, web designers, developers, and agencies would benefit the most from reseller hosting. They’re perfect for reseller hosting because they already have clients that they can upgrade to web hosting.

    If you’re starting out with your agency, you may need to hold off on reseller hosting until you’ve built up a reliable client list. Providing a website host to your clients lets them keep all their business with you rather than looking elsewhere for a web host.

    You’ll want to have a list of clients before reselling hosting services. The ideal amount of clients to have lined up is ten or more. If you have less than this, this type of hosting may not be beneficial for you, at least not yet.

    What Are Some Reseller Hosting?

    If you’re a business looking to use a reseller hosting provider, here are five of the best ones:

    Cloud Hosting

    Even if you haven’t heard of the various types of web hosts on the market, you’ve probably heard of cloud hosting.

    What is Cloud Hosting?

    When you choose cloud hosting, you have unlimited ability to take on high website traffic, whether that’s normal for you or it’s suddenly spiked.

    Instead of one server, cloud hosting uses a team of servers, the cloud, that all work together to host a group of websites. When you’re using cloud hosting, multiple computers can work at the same time to handle high traffic on any website.

    This hosting solution works so that various companies can use server resources as they need without causing another website on the server to slow down.

    Cloud hosting allows businesses and websites to have access to the resources they need without having to maintain the technology on their own. You won’t have root access, meaning you can’t change server settings because an IT team will manage the cloud server.

    The server resources are spread across multiple servers at once. This reduces the chance of downtime, meaning you won’t miss out on any website traffic. The best part of cloud hosting is that you only pay for the resources you need.

    Who Should Use Cloud Hosting?

    Cloud hosting is perfect for medium and large businesses. Especially if those businesses are expanding at a rapid rate, websites that get more than 50,000 hits per month are ideal for a cloud hosting solution.

    When a business is growing rapidly, website traffic can be unpredictable. Using cloud hosting can help you scale the company for years to come.

    Most people who have a cloud hosting plan begin with a shared hosting plan. Once their website starts to grow, switching to a cloud hosting plan is the typical move.

    What Are Some Cloud Hosting Providers?

    Many other host providers also have cloud hosting. Here are some of the best cloud hosting providers:

    6: Green Hosting

    We’ve all heard the term “going green.” Focusing on environmentally friendly ways to perform everyday tasks can help our planet in more ways than one. You may have never heard about green hosting, but there is an environmentally friendly way to host websites.

    What is Green Hosting?

    Green hosting is an environmentally friendly way to host websites. If you’re wondering how website hosting can harm the environment, it has more to do with the hosting provider and their carbon footprint, not the physical server.

    One of the most common ways a web host is a green hosting provider is using renewable power sources to generate energy. This can be solar panels, windmills, or other green methods.

    Sometimes the company won’t generate their renewable energy with solar or wind, but they’re still a green hosting provider. They manage to do this by outsourcing to a certified green energy supplier.

    Green web hosts will purchase what is called Green tags from green energy suppliers. When they purchase these tags, the supplier will add that specific amount to the energy grid on behalf of the green web host.

    Another common way green hosting providers are environmentally friendly is by implementing recycling initiatives. Once a company has these credits, it can cancel out some carbon they’ve contributed to the world.

    Who Should Use Green Hosting?

    Unlike the other website hosts mentioned, there’s not one specific type of website that benefits from a green web host more than the other.

    Using green hosting is excellent for a website owner who cares about the environment at all levels and is looking for more ways to help the planet.

    What Are Some Green Hosting Providers?

    With so many web hosting options, it can be hard to find some that are green. Here are some of the best green web hosts:

    So where do you begin?

    6 Types of Website Hosting: What Are the Best Options for Your Site?

    When you’re launching your website, using a hosting provider is ideal to ensure that people can access your content. This essential element in establishing a website isn’t something to take lightly.

    Since website hosting is much needed, there’s plenty of options available to you. If you’ve never used a website hosting provider before, it can be challenging to know the difference between the types of website servers and which one is the best option for your website.

    Overview of Website Hosting

    If you’ve never used a hosting provider, you may not know what these services are for. Website hosting providers host hardware and help store any data from your website on a server.

    Website hosts provide the proper technology to make sure your website is accessible to people on the internet. This way, people searching for similar content that you have on your website can find it.

    What Are Website Servers for Hosting?

    The servers on a website hosting service provider are where all the data from your website is stored.

    Shared Hosting

    Shared web hosting is one of the most common types of website hosting and the most basic kind. Shared hosting is one of the most popular choices because there are dozens of shared hosting providers available for reasonable prices.

    What is Shared Hosting?

    Shared hosting is when your website’s information is stored on a shared server with other websites. You will have access to all the resources provided by your web hosting provider through a server shared by however many other business owners.

    By uploading resources and data to a shared server, these website hosting providers are able to keep costs down. Depending on the plan you sign up for with your provider, you’ll have access to a certain amount of resources on said server.

    Who Should Use Shared Hosting?

    Anyone can use shared hosting if they choose. While anyone can use shared hosting, this type of web hosting is ideal for small businesses or entry-level businesses. People who are new to web hosting or looking to save money are great candidates for shared hosting.

    Shared hosting is great for small businesses. While you may have a lot of traffic to your website, you probably don’t have as much as nationally or internationally recognized brands. Therefore, other small business owners are likely using the same server as you.

    When other websites on the shared server have a spike in traffic, it can potentially slow down access to your website. While this is great if your website is the one with the traffic, it can be challenging if it’s not.

    Sharing a server with other small business owners can help reduce the technical issues you may experience if you’re a small business sharing a server with larger companies.

    What Are Some Shared Hosting Providers?

    If you’re interested in exploring your options for shared hosting providers, here are some of the most popular:

    2: Virtual Private Seller (VPS) Hosting

    A virtual private seller (VPS) is a step up from using a shared hosting provider. The main difference between the two is that the server is private with a VPS, unlike a shared server.

    What is VPS Hosting?

    With VPS hosting, you’ll still be sharing the server with other website owners like you would with shared hosting. The most significant difference is that with VPS, your website is hosted on its own virtual server.

    The best way to describe VPS hosting is to picture a neighborhood. There are several different houses, and they all belong to someone different, but they’re all in the same neighborhood.

    Essentially, you and other website owners all are on the same server but have your own space.

    Even though you and other websites are sharing a server, you can customize your space more and more storage space since you have your own virtual space.

    Using VPS hosting allows you to have more space and a more secure hosting platform than shared hosting but without having to shell out the money for a dedicated server.

    While VPS is a step up from shared hosting providers, you can still see your website affected by high website traffic levels. Regardless of whether you and other website owners have their own virtual property, everyone affects each other’s websites on the same server.

    Who Should Use VPS Hosting?

    Anyone can use a VPS web host, but this type is the best option for those who want the affordability of shared hosting but the control of dedicated hosting.

    Small to medium-sized businesses tend to benefit the most from VPS hosting. This is because they typically can’t afford to have any downtime. It’s also a good option for those who’ve outgrown their shared hosting plan.

    What Are Some VPS Hosting Providers?

    For those of you looking at VPS hosting, here are some of the most popular options for a hosting company:

    Dedicated Hosting

    Unlike a shared or virtual private server, dedicated hosting gives you the rights over a web server.

    What is Dedicated Hosting?

    With dedicated hosting, you have exclusive rights, well rental rights, over the web server where your website is. All other websites that you may have previously shared a server with are a thing of the past.

    You can do whatever you want when you have a dedicated hosting server because you have all administrative access. Since you’re the only website on your server, you can handle much more website traffic without worrying that your site will slow down.

    Using dedicated hosting requires that you or someone you work with have enough technical knowledge to install and manage the server. Having one person or an IT team handle everything is a good idea with dedicated hosting.

    While all the control over your website and its server are nice, great power comes at a high cost. Dedicated hosting tends to be much more expensive than shared hosting or VPS.

    The price may seem steep, but when you consider all the benefits of dedicated hosting, it’s well worth the money. You won’t need to share any server resources with other website owners, and you don’t need to worry about another company slowing down your website speed.

    When you implement dedicated hosting, how you’ll manage the server is up to you. You can handle everything yourself, hire someone to do it for you, or find a hosting provider that provides management for you.

    While it may seem easier and more cost-effective to manage the server on your own, if glitches or other technical issues arise, you’ll be on the hook for the money to fix it. With a hosting provider who manages it for you, they’ll handle it all.

    Who Should Use Dedicated Hosting?

    First, a dedicated web server isn’t the web hosting to go with if you have zero experience with web hosting or managing a server.

    These types of website hosting providers are better for companies or individuals who have enterprise-level websites. An enterprise-level website is any website that has more than 100,000 monthly hits.

    Besides the monthly hits, these websites tend to have more revenue coming in and therefore can afford the costly monthly fees for dedicated hosting.

    If you’re just starting your business or website, you won’t want to start with dedicated hosting. As your business grows, you can decide if this type of web hosting is the best option for your website.

    Any website with over 100,000 hits per month would benefit from dedicated hosting, but eCommerce sites tend to do very well with this type. You have complete control over the server’s functions, and they have a high level of security when people use credit cards to purchase items.

    What Are Some Dedicated Hosting Providers?

    As with other web hosting sites, there are several dedicated hosting providers available to you. If you think this type of web hosting service is best option for your website, here are some you’ll want to check out:

    4: Reseller Hosting

    Reseller hosting isn’t your typical web hosting. As the name may suggest, you’re reselling a web hosting product to other people.

    What is Reseller Hosting?

    Reseller hosting is when you’re selling your hosting services to clients. You may have heard of this as white label web hosting, but reseller hosting is the more well-known name.

    When you have reseller hosting, you’re selling your hosting services to clients, and you’ll, in turn, make a profit off of this since many people are looking for a web host.

    Reseller hosting works when you buy web hosting from another provider and then rebrand and resell it to different clients.

    One of the best things about reseller hosting is that it’s sustainable. Building websites for people can generate high income, but you’ll only be paid once for that service. With web hosting, you’ll be generating income until they shut down their website.

    Who Should Use Reseller Hosting?

    Reseller hosting isn’t for everyone. Generally, web designers, developers, and agencies would benefit the most from reseller hosting. They’re perfect for reseller hosting because they already have clients that they can upgrade to web hosting.

    If you’re starting out with your agency, you may need to hold off on reseller hosting until you’ve built up a reliable client list. Providing a website host to your clients lets them keep all their business with you rather than looking elsewhere for a web host.

    You’ll want to have a list of clients before reselling hosting services. The ideal amount of clients to have lined up is ten or more. If you have less than this, this type of hosting may not be beneficial for you, at least not yet.

    What Are Some Reseller Hosting?

    If you’re a business looking to use a reseller hosting provider, here are five of the best ones:

    Cloud Hosting

    Even if you haven’t heard of the various types of web hosts on the market, you’ve probably heard of cloud hosting.

    What is Cloud Hosting?

    When you choose cloud hosting, you have unlimited ability to take on high website traffic, whether that’s normal for you or it’s suddenly spiked.

    Instead of one server, cloud hosting uses a team of servers, the cloud, that all work together to host a group of websites. When you’re using cloud hosting, multiple computers can work at the same time to handle high traffic on any website.

    This hosting solution works so that various companies can use server resources as they need without causing another website on the server to slow down.

    Cloud hosting allows businesses and websites to have access to the resources they need without having to maintain the technology on their own. You won’t have root access, meaning you can’t change server settings because an IT team will manage the cloud server.

    The server resources are spread across multiple servers at once. This reduces the chance of downtime, meaning you won’t miss out on any website traffic. The best part of cloud hosting is that you only pay for the resources you need.

    Who Should Use Cloud Hosting?

    Cloud hosting is perfect for medium and large businesses. Especially if those businesses are expanding at a rapid rate, websites that get more than 50,000 hits per month are ideal for a cloud hosting solution.

    When a business is growing rapidly, website traffic can be unpredictable. Using cloud hosting can help you scale the company for years to come.

    Most people who have a cloud hosting plan begin with a shared hosting plan. Once their website starts to grow, switching to a cloud hosting plan is the typical move.

    What Are Some Cloud Hosting Providers?

    Many other host providers also have cloud hosting. Here are some of the best cloud hosting providers:

    6: Green Hosting

    We’ve all heard the term “going green.” Focusing on environmentally friendly ways to perform everyday tasks can help our planet in more ways than one. You may have never heard about green hosting, but there is an environmentally friendly way to host websites.

    What is Green Hosting?

    Green hosting is an environmentally friendly way to host websites. If you’re wondering how website hosting can harm the environment, it has more to do with the hosting provider and their carbon footprint, not the physical server.

    One of the most common ways a web host is a green hosting provider is using renewable power sources to generate energy. This can be solar panels, windmills, or other green methods.

    Sometimes the company won’t generate their renewable energy with solar or wind, but they’re still a green hosting provider. They manage to do this by outsourcing to a certified green energy supplier.

    Green web hosts will purchase what is called Green tags from green energy suppliers. When they purchase these tags, the supplier will add that specific amount to the energy grid on behalf of the green web host.

    Another common way green hosting providers are environmentally friendly is by implementing recycling initiatives. Once a company has these credits, it can cancel out some carbon they’ve contributed to the world.

    Who Should Use Green Hosting?

    Unlike the other website hosts mentioned, there’s not one specific type of website that benefits from a green web host more than the other.

    Using green hosting is excellent for a website owner who cares about the environment at all levels and is looking for more ways to help the planet.

    What Are Some Green Hosting Providers?

    With so many web hosting options, it can be hard to find some that are green. Here are some of the best green web hosts:

    So where do you begin?

    6 Types of Website Hosting: What Are the Best Options for Your Site?

    When you’re launching your website, using a hosting provider is ideal to ensure that people can access your content. This essential element in establishing a website isn’t something to take lightly. 

    Since website hosting is much needed, there’s plenty of options available to you. If you’ve never used a website hosting provider before, it can be challenging to know the difference between the types of website servers and which one is the best option for your website. 

    Overview of Website Hosting

    If you’ve never used a hosting provider, you may not know what these services are for. Website hosting providers host hardware and help store any data from your website on a server. 

    Website hosts provide the proper technology to make sure your website is accessible to people on the internet. This way, people searching for similar content that you have on your website can find it. 

    What Are Website Servers for Hosting?

    The servers on a website hosting service provider are where all the data from your website is stored. 

    Shared Hosting

    Shared web hosting is one of the most common types of website hosting and the most basic kind. Shared hosting is one of the most popular choices because there are dozens of shared hosting providers available for reasonable prices. 

    What is Shared Hosting?

    Shared hosting is when your website’s information is stored on a shared server with other websites. You will have access to all the resources provided by your web hosting provider through a server shared by however many other business owners. 

    By uploading resources and data to a shared server, these website hosting providers are able to keep costs down. Depending on the plan you sign up for with your provider, you’ll have access to a certain amount of resources on said server. 

    Who Should Use Shared Hosting?

    Anyone can use shared hosting if they choose. While anyone can use shared hosting, this type of web hosting is ideal for small businesses or entry-level businesses. People who are new to web hosting or looking to save money are great candidates for shared hosting. 

    Shared hosting is great for small businesses. While you may have a lot of traffic to your website, you probably don’t have as much as nationally or internationally recognized brands. Therefore, other small business owners are likely using the same server as you.

    When other websites on the shared server have a spike in traffic, it can potentially slow down access to your website. While this is great if your website is the one with the traffic, it can be challenging if it’s not. 

    Sharing a server with other small business owners can help reduce the technical issues you may experience if you’re a small business sharing a server with larger companies.

    What Are Some Shared Hosting Providers?

    If you’re interested in exploring your options for shared hosting providers, here are some of the most popular: 

    2: Virtual Private Seller (VPS) Hosting

    A virtual private seller (VPS) is a step up from using a shared hosting provider. The main difference between the two is that the server is private with a VPS, unlike a shared server.  

    What is VPS Hosting?

    With VPS hosting, you’ll still be sharing the server with other website owners like you would with shared hosting. The most significant difference is that with VPS, your website is hosted on its own virtual server. 

    The best way to describe VPS hosting is to picture a neighborhood. There are several different houses, and they all belong to someone different, but they’re all in the same neighborhood. 

    Essentially, you and other website owners all are on the same server but have your own space.

    Even though you and other websites are sharing a server, you can customize your space more and more storage space since you have your own virtual space. 

    Using VPS hosting allows you to have more space and a more secure hosting platform than shared hosting but without having to shell out the money for a dedicated server. 

    While VPS is a step up from shared hosting providers, you can still see your website affected by high website traffic levels. Regardless of whether you and other website owners have their own virtual property, everyone affects each other’s websites on the same server.

    Who Should Use VPS Hosting?

    Anyone can use a VPS web host, but this type is the best option for those who want the affordability of shared hosting but the control of dedicated hosting. 

    Small to medium-sized businesses tend to benefit the most from VPS hosting. This is because they typically can’t afford to have any downtime. It’s also a good option for those who’ve outgrown their shared hosting plan.

    What Are Some VPS Hosting Providers?

    For those of you looking at VPS hosting, here are some of the most popular options for a hosting company:

    Dedicated Hosting

    Unlike a shared or virtual private server, dedicated hosting gives you the rights over a web server. 

    What is Dedicated Hosting?

    With dedicated hosting, you have exclusive rights, well rental rights, over the web server where your website is. All other websites that you may have previously shared a server with are a thing of the past. 

    You can do whatever you want when you have a dedicated hosting server because you have all administrative access. Since you’re the only website on your server, you can handle much more website traffic without worrying that your site will slow down.

    Using dedicated hosting requires that you or someone you work with have enough technical knowledge to install and manage the server. Having one person or an IT team handle everything is a good idea with dedicated hosting. 

    While all the control over your website and its server are nice, great power comes at a high cost. Dedicated hosting tends to be much more expensive than shared hosting or VPS.

    The price may seem steep, but when you consider all the benefits of dedicated hosting, it’s well worth the money. You won’t need to share any server resources with other website owners, and you don’t need to worry about another company slowing down your website speed.  

    When you implement dedicated hosting, how you’ll manage the server is up to you. You can handle everything yourself, hire someone to do it for you, or find a hosting provider that provides management for you. 

    While it may seem easier and more cost-effective to manage the server on your own, if glitches or other technical issues arise, you’ll be on the hook for the money to fix it. With a hosting provider who manages it for you, they’ll handle it all.

    Who Should Use Dedicated Hosting?

    First, a dedicated web server isn’t the web hosting to go with if you have zero experience with web hosting or managing a server. 

    These types of website hosting providers are better for companies or individuals who have enterprise-level websites. An enterprise-level website is any website that has more than 100,000 monthly hits.

    Besides the monthly hits, these websites tend to have more revenue coming in and therefore can afford the costly monthly fees for dedicated hosting. 

    If you’re just starting your business or website, you won’t want to start with dedicated hosting. As your business grows, you can decide if this type of web hosting is the best option for your website. 

    Any website with over 100,000 hits per month would benefit from dedicated hosting, but eCommerce sites tend to do very well with this type. You have complete control over the server’s functions, and they have a high level of security when people use credit cards to purchase items.

    What Are Some Dedicated Hosting Providers?

    As with other web hosting sites, there are several dedicated hosting providers available to you. If you think this type of web hosting service is best option for your website, here are some you’ll want to check out:

    4: Reseller Hosting

    Reseller hosting isn’t your typical web hosting. As the name may suggest, you’re reselling a web hosting product to other people. 

    What is Reseller Hosting?

    Reseller hosting is when you’re selling your hosting services to clients. You may have heard of this as white label web hosting, but reseller hosting is the more well-known name. 

    When you have reseller hosting, you’re selling your hosting services to clients, and you’ll, in turn, make a profit off of this since many people are looking for a web host. 

    Reseller hosting works when you buy web hosting from another provider and then rebrand and resell it to different clients. 

    One of the best things about reseller hosting is that it’s sustainable. Building websites for people can generate high income, but you’ll only be paid once for that service. With web hosting, you’ll be generating income until they shut down their website. 

    Who Should Use Reseller Hosting?

    Reseller hosting isn’t for everyone. Generally, web designers, developers, and agencies would benefit the most from reseller hosting. They’re perfect for reseller hosting because they already have clients that they can upgrade to web hosting. 

    If you’re starting out with your agency, you may need to hold off on reseller hosting until you’ve built up a reliable client list. Providing a website host to your clients lets them keep all their business with you rather than looking elsewhere for a web host. 

    You’ll want to have a list of clients before reselling hosting services. The ideal amount of clients to have lined up is ten or more. If you have less than this, this type of hosting may not be beneficial for you, at least not yet.

    What Are Some Reseller Hosting?

    If you’re a business looking to use a reseller hosting provider, here are five of the best ones: 

    Cloud Hosting

    Even if you haven’t heard of the various types of web hosts on the market, you’ve probably heard of cloud hosting.

    What is Cloud Hosting?

    When you choose cloud hosting, you have unlimited ability to take on high website traffic, whether that’s normal for you or it’s suddenly spiked. 

    Instead of one server, cloud hosting uses a team of servers, the cloud, that all work together to host a group of websites. When you’re using cloud hosting, multiple computers can work at the same time to handle high traffic on any website. 

    This hosting solution works so that various companies can use server resources as they need without causing another website on the server to slow down. 

    Cloud hosting allows businesses and websites to have access to the resources they need without having to maintain the technology on their own. You won’t have root access, meaning you can’t change server settings because an IT team will manage the cloud server. 

    The server resources are spread across multiple servers at once. This reduces the chance of downtime, meaning you won’t miss out on any website traffic. The best part of cloud hosting is that you only pay for the resources you need.

    Who Should Use Cloud Hosting?

    Cloud hosting is perfect for medium and large businesses. Especially if those businesses are expanding at a rapid rate, websites that get more than 50,000 hits per month are ideal for a cloud hosting solution. 

    When a business is growing rapidly, website traffic can be unpredictable. Using cloud hosting can help you scale the company for years to come. 

    Most people who have a cloud hosting plan begin with a shared hosting plan. Once their website starts to grow, switching to a cloud hosting plan is the typical move.

    What Are Some Cloud Hosting Providers?

    Many other host providers also have cloud hosting. Here are some of the best cloud hosting providers: 

    6: Green Hosting

    We’ve all heard the term “going green.” Focusing on environmentally friendly ways to perform everyday tasks can help our planet in more ways than one. You may have never heard about green hosting, but there is an environmentally friendly way to host websites. 

    What is Green Hosting?

    Green hosting is an environmentally friendly way to host websites. If you’re wondering how website hosting can harm the environment, it has more to do with the hosting provider and their carbon footprint, not the physical server. 

    One of the most common ways a web host is a green hosting provider is using renewable power sources to generate energy. This can be solar panels, windmills, or other green methods. 

    Sometimes the company won’t generate their renewable energy with solar or wind, but they’re still a green hosting provider. They manage to do this by outsourcing to a certified green energy supplier. 

    Green web hosts will purchase what is called Green tags from green energy suppliers. When they purchase these tags, the supplier will add that specific amount to the energy grid on behalf of the green web host. 

    Another common way green hosting providers are environmentally friendly is by implementing recycling initiatives. Once a company has these credits, it can cancel out some carbon they’ve contributed to the world. 

    Who Should Use Green Hosting?

    Unlike the other website hosts mentioned, there’s not one specific type of website that benefits from a green web host more than the other. 

    Using green hosting is excellent for a website owner who cares about the environment at all levels and is looking for more ways to help the planet.

    What Are Some Green Hosting Providers?

    With so many web hosting options, it can be hard to find some that are green. Here are some of the best green web hosts: 

    So where do you begin?

    Whether you’re just starting your website or it’s beginning to grow quickly, you need a solid web host. Website hosts ensure that your website is always accessible by internet users, meaning you won’t miss out on purchases or website hits. 

    The best thing about website hosting is that there’s one for everyone. There are web hosts that are ideal for those just starting out and those who are large-scale businesses. Before you sign up for a web host, you’ll need to decide which one is the best for you and your business goals. 

    How about checking out some of our top picks for web hosting? Each of these companies offers affordable shared hosting and the ability to scale up to other types of website servers as it grows.

    Latest posts by Amy Geldean (see all)

    • What Is the Difference Between BBB Rating and Accreditation?

     

    Our independent research projects and impartial reviews are funded in part by affiliate commissions, at no extra cost to our readers.

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    As a champion of both consumers and businesses, the Better Business Bureau’s main mission is to promote marketplace trust. The bureau examines how reliable a business is for its customers. Therefore, many consumers consider a high BBB rating or BBB seal of accreditation to suggest trustworthiness. And, they are not entirely wrong! 

    While both a BBB rating and BBB accreditation have shaped the marketplace for the better, they have done so in different ways. But, how so? In this article, we’ll discuss the difference between BBB rating and accreditation and the unique benefits of each. 

    How Does BBB Rating Work? 

    While a BBB rating does not indicate a company’s overall quality, consumers can tell a lot from the assessment. Companies can receive as high as an A+ and as low as an F, ranging from 100 to 0 points. Businesses do not have to apply for BBB ratings; rather, the bureau will automatically rate companies from available public information. 

    However, it is important to note that consumer reviews do not affect BBB ratings. This is a common misconception. A businesses’ level of morality determines its rating. The following seven elements act as a rubric. 

    • Business’s complaint history with BBB: Complaint volume, unanswered complaints, unresolved complaints, delayed complaint resolution, and failure to address a recurring complaint make up this category. The bureau also considers the company’s size when handling complaints. 

    The BBB measures complaint volume on a scale of 0 to 15, unanswered complaints from 0 to 40, unresolved complaints from 0 to 30, and delay in complaint resolution from 0 to 5. A failure to address a complaint pattern is measured from 0 to -31, meaning a business can only lose points in this category. 

    • Type of business: This rating is scored on a scale from 0 to -41, so businesses can only lose points in this category. Companies lose points if they provide services/operate against the law or act unethically in the marketplace.
    • Time in business: If a business has been successfully operating for an extended time, its rating increases. Therefore, providing the Bureau with your open date is crucial. Companies can receive a maximum of 10 points in this category. 
    • Transparent business practices: Scored on a scale of 0 to -5, businesses can only lose points for this element. Omitting information about products/services provided or supplying a false/absent address lowers the rating. 
    • Failure to fulfill commitments to the BBB: This element only applies to BBB accredited companies. Neglecting BBB mandates such as participation in an arbitration award or mediation settlement lowers a company’s rating. The bureau scores this element on a scale of 0 to -41. 
    • Licensing and actions known to BBB: Businesses lose points if they do not obtain/ maintain competency licensing. Any formal government actions against a company also lower its score. Businesses can lose a total of 75 points; -41 for licensing and -34 for government action. 
    • Advertising issues that are known by the BBB: Advertising misconduct is rated as minor, moderate, or major. Businesses lose points for mistreatment of the BBB name and logo as it relates to their status. For instance, if a BBB A-rated company is not BBB accredited but claims to be, they will lose points. The bureau rates both false advertising and trademark infringement on a scale of 0 to -41. 

    A BBB rating represents the amount of confidence the Bureau has in a company to remain transparent and trustworthy. As mentioned above, how a business addresses complaints play a significant role in the rating. To achieve a high rate or improve your current one, focus closely on resolving customer concerns. Promptly and fully addressing concerns will better your chances at a higher rate. 

    Once you have accomplished a high BBB rating, start taking steps toward accreditation. Accreditation will allow you to display the BBB seal and inevitably attract more customers. 

    What is BBB Accreditation? 

    Even though the BBB is not a government agency, many consumers prefer to use a BBB accredited company. Why is that? The bureau sets strict guidelines for businesses to follow, ensuring they are ethical. A BBB accredited business must closely adhere to the eight BBB accreditation standards listed below. Before applying, be sure to check if your business meets or surpasses each standard. 

    • Build trust by preserving a positive reputation. Businesses should have at least 6 months of experience selling products and providing services. Companies should also complete compliance and trade licensing, have no formal government action taken against them, and keep at least a B rating. 
    • Advertise honestly by complying with both legal and ethical advertising/selling tactics, including the BBB Code of Advertising. Companies must also cease unethical advertising and selling when advised by the BBB. This includes only using the bureau’s trademark and affiliation statement as defined in their policy.  
    • Tell the truth by completely disclosing all information relating to any products or services provided. 
    • Be transparent by providing both the BBB and customers with an address, business owner, and nature of the business. Consumers should be fully aware of a company’s direct contact information, return/refund policy, recurring commitments (automatic renewals or payments), the complete cost of services before provided, delays or product shortages, and be provided an invoice after each transaction. 
    • Honor promises by satisfying every single contract, commitment, and representation the business enters into. 
    • Be responsive by promptly and professionally addressing disputes. Businesses should thoroughly observe every concern stated in a complaint. If the complaint is unresolvable, companies are required to provide an explanation and evidence as to why. Companies must also participate in dispute resolutions and honor any decision reached afterward. Businesses should also work with the BBB to diminish recurring disputes. 
    • Safeguard privacy by communicating how they obtain, share, use, correct, and secure consumer information. Customers should also know how a business communicates policy changes and how to express concerns about information misuse. Companies must reduce concerns by securely and legally collecting/transmitting data. They should also respect consumer preferences in regards to their personal information and means of contact. 
    • Embody integrity by fulfilling commitments, carrying out ethical marketplace transactions, and fostering reliable business relations. Do not participate in any behavior that could discredit the BBB. 

    The BBB standards can appear overwhelming, but maintaining BBB membership is as simple as treating customers the way your favorite provider treats you. Be transparent and reliable! The best way to do so is by quickly and effectively addressing consumer complaints, being extremely thorough in the information provided, and being flexible to change when recurring issues arise. 

    How Does BBB Accreditation Work? 

    Before becoming a BBB accredited business, companies must apply. The application is fairly general and primarily focuses on the validity of a business. Most questions surround the location, contact information, licensing requirements, and amount of time in business. 

    Once complete, the bureau researches the company to ensure they meet all eight BBB Accreditation Standards. If the business meets the standards, their application is approved and they are required to pay an accreditation fee. Each year a business remains BBB accredited, they will pay fees. The price varies by location and business size. Call your local BBB chapter to ask about pricing.

    Once accredited, the BBB regularly evaluates businesses to ensure they continue to uphold the BBB accreditation standards. 

    What Are the Differences Between BBB Rating and Accreditation?

    It should go without saying at this point that there is a difference between BBB rating and accreditation. A highly rated BBB business is not necessarily accredited. Only 400,000 businesses are BBB accredited, but there are 5.4 million companies with a BBB business profile. We get it, it is tricky, so let us break it down for you.  

    A BBB rating is representative of how well the bureau believes a company will interact with consumers. While a high rating may indicate quality customer service, it does not necessarily suggest an ethical or trustworthy business. That should not go without saying that just because a business is not accredited, that it does not mean it is not dependable. Some businesses just have not applied, or have not been in business long enough to be eligible. 

    On the contrary, consumers can rest assured they are using a trustworthy company if they are BBB accredited. The rigid BBB accreditation standards focus solely on trust. Businesses must uphold the standards indefinitely to remain BBB accredited. Therefore, if a business has been BBB accredited for multiple years, they are considered a high-quality organization. 

    With that said, both BBB ratings and accreditation can play a vital role in a company’s success. 

    What Are the Benefits of Each? 

    Both BBB ratings and BBB accreditation prioritize trust, which is perhaps the most sought-after characteristic in today’s marketplace. However, each BBB feature carries unique benefits. Before discussing them, remember that neither a rating nor accreditation determines the quality of products or employees’ skill levels. They simply examine a company’s ability to provide ethical and prompt customer service. 

    A high BBB rating lets consumers know they are interacting with a straightforward company. 

    Plus, consumers often seek tangible proof of a good reputation before using a business. Think about it. What is the first thing you look at before calling a company? Their reviews! BBB ratings do not take customer reviews into account. Rather, the bureau provides an impartial opinion on a businesses’ ability to meet consumer needs. Their impartiality is often more powerful than customer reviews. 

    A high BBB rating is helpful, but accreditation carries far more benefits. The most obvious benefit of BBB accreditation is trust from the public. 62 percent of U.S. consumers are more likely to use a BBB accredited company. In addition to a firm foundation of consumer trust, here are a few upsides to being BBB accredited: 

    • Permission to display the BBB accreditation seal 
    • Improved online visibility
    • Receive quote requests directly from consumers 
    • Invitations to network and learn at BBB accredited business events
    • Receive monthly intelligence reports containing helpful information about industry trends and business progress 
    • Access to educational resources such as webinars
    • Access to dispute resolution guidance and services 

    Why Is Each Important?  

    Now you know the difference between BBB rating and accreditation. A high BBB rating or BBB accreditation does not determine a company’s success alone. However, both a high rating and long-term accreditation are attractive to customers. Because the Better Business Bureau remains impartial, consumers value their opinion. 

    The BBB also helps company’s stay in business by providing an outline of what customers look for in a service provider. Businesses should strive for a high BBB rating and once applicable, accreditation as well. They may be surprised at how much more attention their business receives when represented by a BBB logo. 

    What Type of Server Does Your Website Need?

     

    Our independent research projects and impartial reviews are funded in part by affiliate commissions, at no extra cost to our readers.

    • 7:50 am

    6 Types of Website Hosting: What Are the Best Options for Your Site?

    When you’re launching your website, using a hosting provider is ideal to ensure that people can access your content. This essential element in establishing a website isn’t something to take lightly.

    Since website hosting is much needed, there’s plenty of options available to you. If you’ve never used a website hosting provider before, it can be challenging to know the difference between the types of website servers and which one is the best option for your website.

    Overview of Website Hosting

    If you’ve never used a hosting provider, you may not know what these services are for. Website hosting providers host hardware and help store any data from your website on a server.

    Website hosts provide the proper technology to make sure your website is accessible to people on the internet. This way, people searching for similar content that you have on your website can find it.

    What Are Website Servers for Hosting?

    The servers on a website hosting service provider are where all the data from your website is stored.

    Shared Hosting

    Shared web hosting is one of the most common types of website hosting and the most basic kind. Shared hosting is one of the most popular choices because there are dozens of shared hosting providers available for reasonable prices.

    What is Shared Hosting?

    Shared hosting is when your website’s information is stored on a shared server with other websites. You will have access to all the resources provided by your web hosting provider through a server shared by however many other business owners.

    By uploading resources and data to a shared server, these website hosting providers are able to keep costs down. Depending on the plan you sign up for with your provider, you’ll have access to a certain amount of resources on said server.

    Who Should Use Shared Hosting?

    Anyone can use shared hosting if they choose. While anyone can use shared hosting, this type of web hosting is ideal for small businesses or entry-level businesses. People who are new to web hosting or looking to save money are great candidates for shared hosting.

    Shared hosting is great for small businesses. While you may have a lot of traffic to your website, you probably don’t have as much as nationally or internationally recognized brands. Therefore, other small business owners are likely using the same server as you.

    When other websites on the shared server have a spike in traffic, it can potentially slow down access to your website. While this is great if your website is the one with the traffic, it can be challenging if it’s not.

    Sharing a server with other small business owners can help reduce the technical issues you may experience if you’re a small business sharing a server with larger companies.

    What Are Some Shared Hosting Providers?

    If you’re interested in exploring your options for shared hosting providers, here are some of the most popular:

    2: Virtual Private Seller (VPS) Hosting

    A virtual private seller (VPS) is a step up from using a shared hosting provider. The main difference between the two is that the server is private with a VPS, unlike a shared server.

    What is VPS Hosting?

    With VPS hosting, you’ll still be sharing the server with other website owners like you would with shared hosting. The most significant difference is that with VPS, your website is hosted on its own virtual server.

    The best way to describe VPS hosting is to picture a neighborhood. There are several different houses, and they all belong to someone different, but they’re all in the same neighborhood.

    Essentially, you and other website owners all are on the same server but have your own space.

    Even though you and other websites are sharing a server, you can customize your space more and more storage space since you have your own virtual space.

    Using VPS hosting allows you to have more space and a more secure hosting platform than shared hosting but without having to shell out the money for a dedicated server.

    While VPS is a step up from shared hosting providers, you can still see your website affected by high website traffic levels. Regardless of whether you and other website owners have their own virtual property, everyone affects each other’s websites on the same server.

    Who Should Use VPS Hosting?

    Anyone can use a VPS web host, but this type is the best option for those who want the affordability of shared hosting but the control of dedicated hosting.

    Small to medium-sized businesses tend to benefit the most from VPS hosting. This is because they typically can’t afford to have any downtime. It’s also a good option for those who’ve outgrown their shared hosting plan.

    What Are Some VPS Hosting Providers?

    For those of you looking at VPS hosting, here are some of the most popular options for a hosting company:

    Dedicated Hosting

    Unlike a shared or virtual private server, dedicated hosting gives you the rights over a web server.

    What is Dedicated Hosting?

    With dedicated hosting, you have exclusive rights, well rental rights, over the web server where your website is. All other websites that you may have previously shared a server with are a thing of the past.

    You can do whatever you want when you have a dedicated hosting server because you have all administrative access. Since you’re the only website on your server, you can handle much more website traffic without worrying that your site will slow down.

    Using dedicated hosting requires that you or someone you work with have enough technical knowledge to install and manage the server. Having one person or an IT team handle everything is a good idea with dedicated hosting.

    While all the control over your website and its server are nice, great power comes at a high cost. Dedicated hosting tends to be much more expensive than shared hosting or VPS.

    The price may seem steep, but when you consider all the benefits of dedicated hosting, it’s well worth the money. You won’t need to share any server resources with other website owners, and you don’t need to worry about another company slowing down your website speed.

    When you implement dedicated hosting, how you’ll manage the server is up to you. You can handle everything yourself, hire someone to do it for you, or find a hosting provider that provides management for you.

    While it may seem easier and more cost-effective to manage the server on your own, if glitches or other technical issues arise, you’ll be on the hook for the money to fix it. With a hosting provider who manages it for you, they’ll handle it all.

    Who Should Use Dedicated Hosting?

    First, a dedicated web server isn’t the web hosting to go with if you have zero experience with web hosting or managing a server.

    These types of website hosting providers are better for companies or individuals who have enterprise-level websites. An enterprise-level website is any website that has more than 100,000 monthly hits.

    Besides the monthly hits, these websites tend to have more revenue coming in and therefore can afford the costly monthly fees for dedicated hosting.

    If you’re just starting your business or website, you won’t want to start with dedicated hosting. As your business grows, you can decide if this type of web hosting is the best option for your website.

    Any website with over 100,000 hits per month would benefit from dedicated hosting, but eCommerce sites tend to do very well with this type. You have complete control over the server’s functions, and they have a high level of security when people use credit cards to purchase items.

    What Are Some Dedicated Hosting Providers?

    As with other web hosting sites, there are several dedicated hosting providers available to you. If you think this type of web hosting service is best option for your website, here are some you’ll want to check out:

    4: Reseller Hosting

    Reseller hosting isn’t your typical web hosting. As the name may suggest, you’re reselling a web hosting product to other people.

    What is Reseller Hosting?

    Reseller hosting is when you’re selling your hosting services to clients. You may have heard of this as white label web hosting, but reseller hosting is the more well-known name.

    When you have reseller hosting, you’re selling your hosting services to clients, and you’ll, in turn, make a profit off of this since many people are looking for a web host.

    Reseller hosting works when you buy web hosting from another provider and then rebrand and resell it to different clients.

    One of the best things about reseller hosting is that it’s sustainable. Building websites for people can generate high income, but you’ll only be paid once for that service. With web hosting, you’ll be generating income until they shut down their website.

    Who Should Use Reseller Hosting?

    Reseller hosting isn’t for everyone. Generally, web designers, developers, and agencies would benefit the most from reseller hosting. They’re perfect for reseller hosting because they already have clients that they can upgrade to web hosting.

    If you’re starting out with your agency, you may need to hold off on reseller hosting until you’ve built up a reliable client list. Providing a website host to your clients lets them keep all their business with you rather than looking elsewhere for a web host.

    You’ll want to have a list of clients before reselling hosting services. The ideal amount of clients to have lined up is ten or more. If you have less than this, this type of hosting may not be beneficial for you, at least not yet.

    What Are Some Reseller Hosting?

    If you’re a business looking to use a reseller hosting provider, here are five of the best ones:

    Cloud Hosting

    Even if you haven’t heard of the various types of web hosts on the market, you’ve probably heard of cloud hosting.

    What is Cloud Hosting?

    When you choose cloud hosting, you have unlimited ability to take on high website traffic, whether that’s normal for you or it’s suddenly spiked.

    Instead of one server, cloud hosting uses a team of servers, the cloud, that all work together to host a group of websites. When you’re using cloud hosting, multiple computers can work at the same time to handle high traffic on any website.

    This hosting solution works so that various companies can use server resources as they need without causing another website on the server to slow down.

    Cloud hosting allows businesses and websites to have access to the resources they need without having to maintain the technology on their own. You won’t have root access, meaning you can’t change server settings because an IT team will manage the cloud server.

    The server resources are spread across multiple servers at once. This reduces the chance of downtime, meaning you won’t miss out on any website traffic. The best part of cloud hosting is that you only pay for the resources you need.

    Who Should Use Cloud Hosting?

    Cloud hosting is perfect for medium and large businesses. Especially if those businesses are expanding at a rapid rate, websites that get more than 50,000 hits per month are ideal for a cloud hosting solution.

    When a business is growing rapidly, website traffic can be unpredictable. Using cloud hosting can help you scale the company for years to come.

    Most people who have a cloud hosting plan begin with a shared hosting plan. Once their website starts to grow, switching to a cloud hosting plan is the typical move.

    What Are Some Cloud Hosting Providers?

    Many other host providers also have cloud hosting. Here are some of the best cloud hosting providers:

    6: Green Hosting

    We’ve all heard the term “going green.” Focusing on environmentally friendly ways to perform everyday tasks can help our planet in more ways than one. You may have never heard about green hosting, but there is an environmentally friendly way to host websites.

    What is Green Hosting?

    Green hosting is an environmentally friendly way to host websites. If you’re wondering how website hosting can harm the environment, it has more to do with the hosting provider and their carbon footprint, not the physical server.

    One of the most common ways a web host is a green hosting provider is using renewable power sources to generate energy. This can be solar panels, windmills, or other green methods.

    Sometimes the company won’t generate their renewable energy with solar or wind, but they’re still a green hosting provider. They manage to do this by outsourcing to a certified green energy supplier.

    Green web hosts will purchase what is called Green tags from green energy suppliers. When they purchase these tags, the supplier will add that specific amount to the energy grid on behalf of the green web host.

    Another common way green hosting providers are environmentally friendly is by implementing recycling initiatives. Once a company has these credits, it can cancel out some carbon they’ve contributed to the world.

    Who Should Use Green Hosting?

    Unlike the other website hosts mentioned, there’s not one specific type of website that benefits from a green web host more than the other.

    Using green hosting is excellent for a website owner who cares about the environment at all levels and is looking for more ways to help the planet.

    What Are Some Green Hosting Providers?

    With so many web hosting options, it can be hard to find some that are green. Here are some of the best green web hosts:

    So where do you begin?

    6 Types of Website Hosting: What Are the Best Options for Your Site?

    When you’re launching your website, using a hosting provider is ideal to ensure that people can access your content. This essential element in establishing a website isn’t something to take lightly.

    Since website hosting is much needed, there’s plenty of options available to you. If you’ve never used a website hosting provider before, it can be challenging to know the difference between the types of website servers and which one is the best option for your website.

    Overview of Website Hosting

    If you’ve never used a hosting provider, you may not know what these services are for. Website hosting providers host hardware and help store any data from your website on a server.

    Website hosts provide the proper technology to make sure your website is accessible to people on the internet. This way, people searching for similar content that you have on your website can find it.

    What Are Website Servers for Hosting?

    The servers on a website hosting service provider are where all the data from your website is stored.

    Shared Hosting

    Shared web hosting is one of the most common types of website hosting and the most basic kind. Shared hosting is one of the most popular choices because there are dozens of shared hosting providers available for reasonable prices.

    What is Shared Hosting?

    Shared hosting is when your website’s information is stored on a shared server with other websites. You will have access to all the resources provided by your web hosting provider through a server shared by however many other business owners.

    By uploading resources and data to a shared server, these website hosting providers are able to keep costs down. Depending on the plan you sign up for with your provider, you’ll have access to a certain amount of resources on said server.

    Who Should Use Shared Hosting?

    Anyone can use shared hosting if they choose. While anyone can use shared hosting, this type of web hosting is ideal for small businesses or entry-level businesses. People who are new to web hosting or looking to save money are great candidates for shared hosting.

    Shared hosting is great for small businesses. While you may have a lot of traffic to your website, you probably don’t have as much as nationally or internationally recognized brands. Therefore, other small business owners are likely using the same server as you.

    When other websites on the shared server have a spike in traffic, it can potentially slow down access to your website. While this is great if your website is the one with the traffic, it can be challenging if it’s not.

    Sharing a server with other small business owners can help reduce the technical issues you may experience if you’re a small business sharing a server with larger companies.

    What Are Some Shared Hosting Providers?

    If you’re interested in exploring your options for shared hosting providers, here are some of the most popular:

    2: Virtual Private Seller (VPS) Hosting

    A virtual private seller (VPS) is a step up from using a shared hosting provider. The main difference between the two is that the server is private with a VPS, unlike a shared server.

    What is VPS Hosting?

    With VPS hosting, you’ll still be sharing the server with other website owners like you would with shared hosting. The most significant difference is that with VPS, your website is hosted on its own virtual server.

    The best way to describe VPS hosting is to picture a neighborhood. There are several different houses, and they all belong to someone different, but they’re all in the same neighborhood.

    Essentially, you and other website owners all are on the same server but have your own space.

    Even though you and other websites are sharing a server, you can customize your space more and more storage space since you have your own virtual space.

    Using VPS hosting allows you to have more space and a more secure hosting platform than shared hosting but without having to shell out the money for a dedicated server.

    While VPS is a step up from shared hosting providers, you can still see your website affected by high website traffic levels. Regardless of whether you and other website owners have their own virtual property, everyone affects each other’s websites on the same server.

    Who Should Use VPS Hosting?

    Anyone can use a VPS web host, but this type is the best option for those who want the affordability of shared hosting but the control of dedicated hosting.

    Small to medium-sized businesses tend to benefit the most from VPS hosting. This is because they typically can’t afford to have any downtime. It’s also a good option for those who’ve outgrown their shared hosting plan.

    What Are Some VPS Hosting Providers?

    For those of you looking at VPS hosting, here are some of the most popular options for a hosting company:

    Dedicated Hosting

    Unlike a shared or virtual private server, dedicated hosting gives you the rights over a web server.

    What is Dedicated Hosting?

    With dedicated hosting, you have exclusive rights, well rental rights, over the web server where your website is. All other websites that you may have previously shared a server with are a thing of the past.

    You can do whatever you want when you have a dedicated hosting server because you have all administrative access. Since you’re the only website on your server, you can handle much more website traffic without worrying that your site will slow down.

    Using dedicated hosting requires that you or someone you work with have enough technical knowledge to install and manage the server. Having one person or an IT team handle everything is a good idea with dedicated hosting.

    While all the control over your website and its server are nice, great power comes at a high cost. Dedicated hosting tends to be much more expensive than shared hosting or VPS.

    The price may seem steep, but when you consider all the benefits of dedicated hosting, it’s well worth the money. You won’t need to share any server resources with other website owners, and you don’t need to worry about another company slowing down your website speed.

    When you implement dedicated hosting, how you’ll manage the server is up to you. You can handle everything yourself, hire someone to do it for you, or find a hosting provider that provides management for you.

    While it may seem easier and more cost-effective to manage the server on your own, if glitches or other technical issues arise, you’ll be on the hook for the money to fix it. With a hosting provider who manages it for you, they’ll handle it all.

    Who Should Use Dedicated Hosting?

    First, a dedicated web server isn’t the web hosting to go with if you have zero experience with web hosting or managing a server.

    These types of website hosting providers are better for companies or individuals who have enterprise-level websites. An enterprise-level website is any website that has more than 100,000 monthly hits.

    Besides the monthly hits, these websites tend to have more revenue coming in and therefore can afford the costly monthly fees for dedicated hosting.

    If you’re just starting your business or website, you won’t want to start with dedicated hosting. As your business grows, you can decide if this type of web hosting is the best option for your website.

    Any website with over 100,000 hits per month would benefit from dedicated hosting, but eCommerce sites tend to do very well with this type. You have complete control over the server’s functions, and they have a high level of security when people use credit cards to purchase items.

    What Are Some Dedicated Hosting Providers?

    As with other web hosting sites, there are several dedicated hosting providers available to you. If you think this type of web hosting service is best option for your website, here are some you’ll want to check out:

    4: Reseller Hosting

    Reseller hosting isn’t your typical web hosting. As the name may suggest, you’re reselling a web hosting product to other people.

    What is Reseller Hosting?

    Reseller hosting is when you’re selling your hosting services to clients. You may have heard of this as white label web hosting, but reseller hosting is the more well-known name.

    When you have reseller hosting, you’re selling your hosting services to clients, and you’ll, in turn, make a profit off of this since many people are looking for a web host.

    Reseller hosting works when you buy web hosting from another provider and then rebrand and resell it to different clients.

    One of the best things about reseller hosting is that it’s sustainable. Building websites for people can generate high income, but you’ll only be paid once for that service. With web hosting, you’ll be generating income until they shut down their website.

    Who Should Use Reseller Hosting?

    Reseller hosting isn’t for everyone. Generally, web designers, developers, and agencies would benefit the most from reseller hosting. They’re perfect for reseller hosting because they already have clients that they can upgrade to web hosting.

    If you’re starting out with your agency, you may need to hold off on reseller hosting until you’ve built up a reliable client list. Providing a website host to your clients lets them keep all their business with you rather than looking elsewhere for a web host.

    You’ll want to have a list of clients before reselling hosting services. The ideal amount of clients to have lined up is ten or more. If you have less than this, this type of hosting may not be beneficial for you, at least not yet.

    What Are Some Reseller Hosting?

    If you’re a business looking to use a reseller hosting provider, here are five of the best ones:

    Cloud Hosting

    Even if you haven’t heard of the various types of web hosts on the market, you’ve probably heard of cloud hosting.

    What is Cloud Hosting?

    When you choose cloud hosting, you have unlimited ability to take on high website traffic, whether that’s normal for you or it’s suddenly spiked.

    Instead of one server, cloud hosting uses a team of servers, the cloud, that all work together to host a group of websites. When you’re using cloud hosting, multiple computers can work at the same time to handle high traffic on any website.

    This hosting solution works so that various companies can use server resources as they need without causing another website on the server to slow down.

    Cloud hosting allows businesses and websites to have access to the resources they need without having to maintain the technology on their own. You won’t have root access, meaning you can’t change server settings because an IT team will manage the cloud server.

    The server resources are spread across multiple servers at once. This reduces the chance of downtime, meaning you won’t miss out on any website traffic. The best part of cloud hosting is that you only pay for the resources you need.

    Who Should Use Cloud Hosting?

    Cloud hosting is perfect for medium and large businesses. Especially if those businesses are expanding at a rapid rate, websites that get more than 50,000 hits per month are ideal for a cloud hosting solution.

    When a business is growing rapidly, website traffic can be unpredictable. Using cloud hosting can help you scale the company for years to come.

    Most people who have a cloud hosting plan begin with a shared hosting plan. Once their website starts to grow, switching to a cloud hosting plan is the typical move.

    What Are Some Cloud Hosting Providers?

    Many other host providers also have cloud hosting. Here are some of the best cloud hosting providers:

    6: Green Hosting

    We’ve all heard the term “going green.” Focusing on environmentally friendly ways to perform everyday tasks can help our planet in more ways than one. You may have never heard about green hosting, but there is an environmentally friendly way to host websites.

    What is Green Hosting?

    Green hosting is an environmentally friendly way to host websites. If you’re wondering how website hosting can harm the environment, it has more to do with the hosting provider and their carbon footprint, not the physical server.

    One of the most common ways a web host is a green hosting provider is using renewable power sources to generate energy. This can be solar panels, windmills, or other green methods.

    Sometimes the company won’t generate their renewable energy with solar or wind, but they’re still a green hosting provider. They manage to do this by outsourcing to a certified green energy supplier.

    Green web hosts will purchase what is called Green tags from green energy suppliers. When they purchase these tags, the supplier will add that specific amount to the energy grid on behalf of the green web host.

    Another common way green hosting providers are environmentally friendly is by implementing recycling initiatives. Once a company has these credits, it can cancel out some carbon they’ve contributed to the world.

    Who Should Use Green Hosting?

    Unlike the other website hosts mentioned, there’s not one specific type of website that benefits from a green web host more than the other.

    Using green hosting is excellent for a website owner who cares about the environment at all levels and is looking for more ways to help the planet.

    What Are Some Green Hosting Providers?

    With so many web hosting options, it can be hard to find some that are green. Here are some of the best green web hosts:

    So where do you begin?

    6 Types of Website Hosting: What Are the Best Options for Your Site?

    When you’re launching your website, using a hosting provider is ideal to ensure that people can access your content. This essential element in establishing a website isn’t something to take lightly.

    Since website hosting is much needed, there’s plenty of options available to you. If you’ve never used a website hosting provider before, it can be challenging to know the difference between the types of website servers and which one is the best option for your website.

    Overview of Website Hosting

    If you’ve never used a hosting provider, you may not know what these services are for. Website hosting providers host hardware and help store any data from your website on a server.

    Website hosts provide the proper technology to make sure your website is accessible to people on the internet. This way, people searching for similar content that you have on your website can find it.

    What Are Website Servers for Hosting?

    The servers on a website hosting service provider are where all the data from your website is stored.

    Shared Hosting

    Shared web hosting is one of the most common types of website hosting and the most basic kind. Shared hosting is one of the most popular choices because there are dozens of shared hosting providers available for reasonable prices.

    What is Shared Hosting?

    Shared hosting is when your website’s information is stored on a shared server with other websites. You will have access to all the resources provided by your web hosting provider through a server shared by however many other business owners.

    By uploading resources and data to a shared server, these website hosting providers are able to keep costs down. Depending on the plan you sign up for with your provider, you’ll have access to a certain amount of resources on said server.

    Who Should Use Shared Hosting?

    Anyone can use shared hosting if they choose. While anyone can use shared hosting, this type of web hosting is ideal for small businesses or entry-level businesses. People who are new to web hosting or looking to save money are great candidates for shared hosting.

    Shared hosting is great for small businesses. While you may have a lot of traffic to your website, you probably don’t have as much as nationally or internationally recognized brands. Therefore, other small business owners are likely using the same server as you.

    When other websites on the shared server have a spike in traffic, it can potentially slow down access to your website. While this is great if your website is the one with the traffic, it can be challenging if it’s not.

    Sharing a server with other small business owners can help reduce the technical issues you may experience if you’re a small business sharing a server with larger companies.

    What Are Some Shared Hosting Providers?

    If you’re interested in exploring your options for shared hosting providers, here are some of the most popular:

    2: Virtual Private Seller (VPS) Hosting

    A virtual private seller (VPS) is a step up from using a shared hosting provider. The main difference between the two is that the server is private with a VPS, unlike a shared server.

    What is VPS Hosting?

    With VPS hosting, you’ll still be sharing the server with other website owners like you would with shared hosting. The most significant difference is that with VPS, your website is hosted on its own virtual server.

    The best way to describe VPS hosting is to picture a neighborhood. There are several different houses, and they all belong to someone different, but they’re all in the same neighborhood.

    Essentially, you and other website owners all are on the same server but have your own space.

    Even though you and other websites are sharing a server, you can customize your space more and more storage space since you have your own virtual space.

    Using VPS hosting allows you to have more space and a more secure hosting platform than shared hosting but without having to shell out the money for a dedicated server.

    While VPS is a step up from shared hosting providers, you can still see your website affected by high website traffic levels. Regardless of whether you and other website owners have their own virtual property, everyone affects each other’s websites on the same server.

    Who Should Use VPS Hosting?

    Anyone can use a VPS web host, but this type is the best option for those who want the affordability of shared hosting but the control of dedicated hosting.

    Small to medium-sized businesses tend to benefit the most from VPS hosting. This is because they typically can’t afford to have any downtime. It’s also a good option for those who’ve outgrown their shared hosting plan.

    What Are Some VPS Hosting Providers?

    For those of you looking at VPS hosting, here are some of the most popular options for a hosting company:

    Dedicated Hosting

    Unlike a shared or virtual private server, dedicated hosting gives you the rights over a web server.

    What is Dedicated Hosting?

    With dedicated hosting, you have exclusive rights, well rental rights, over the web server where your website is. All other websites that you may have previously shared a server with are a thing of the past.

    You can do whatever you want when you have a dedicated hosting server because you have all administrative access. Since you’re the only website on your server, you can handle much more website traffic without worrying that your site will slow down.

    Using dedicated hosting requires that you or someone you work with have enough technical knowledge to install and manage the server. Having one person or an IT team handle everything is a good idea with dedicated hosting.

    While all the control over your website and its server are nice, great power comes at a high cost. Dedicated hosting tends to be much more expensive than shared hosting or VPS.

    The price may seem steep, but when you consider all the benefits of dedicated hosting, it’s well worth the money. You won’t need to share any server resources with other website owners, and you don’t need to worry about another company slowing down your website speed.

    When you implement dedicated hosting, how you’ll manage the server is up to you. You can handle everything yourself, hire someone to do it for you, or find a hosting provider that provides management for you.

    While it may seem easier and more cost-effective to manage the server on your own, if glitches or other technical issues arise, you’ll be on the hook for the money to fix it. With a hosting provider who manages it for you, they’ll handle it all.

    Who Should Use Dedicated Hosting?

    First, a dedicated web server isn’t the web hosting to go with if you have zero experience with web hosting or managing a server.

    These types of website hosting providers are better for companies or individuals who have enterprise-level websites. An enterprise-level website is any website that has more than 100,000 monthly hits.

    Besides the monthly hits, these websites tend to have more revenue coming in and therefore can afford the costly monthly fees for dedicated hosting.

    If you’re just starting your business or website, you won’t want to start with dedicated hosting. As your business grows, you can decide if this type of web hosting is the best option for your website.

    Any website with over 100,000 hits per month would benefit from dedicated hosting, but eCommerce sites tend to do very well with this type. You have complete control over the server’s functions, and they have a high level of security when people use credit cards to purchase items.

    What Are Some Dedicated Hosting Providers?

    As with other web hosting sites, there are several dedicated hosting providers available to you. If you think this type of web hosting service is best option for your website, here are some you’ll want to check out:

    4: Reseller Hosting

    Reseller hosting isn’t your typical web hosting. As the name may suggest, you’re reselling a web hosting product to other people.

    What is Reseller Hosting?

    Reseller hosting is when you’re selling your hosting services to clients. You may have heard of this as white label web hosting, but reseller hosting is the more well-known name.

    When you have reseller hosting, you’re selling your hosting services to clients, and you’ll, in turn, make a profit off of this since many people are looking for a web host.

    Reseller hosting works when you buy web hosting from another provider and then rebrand and resell it to different clients.

    One of the best things about reseller hosting is that it’s sustainable. Building websites for people can generate high income, but you’ll only be paid once for that service. With web hosting, you’ll be generating income until they shut down their website.

    Who Should Use Reseller Hosting?

    Reseller hosting isn’t for everyone. Generally, web designers, developers, and agencies would benefit the most from reseller hosting. They’re perfect for reseller hosting because they already have clients that they can upgrade to web hosting.

    If you’re starting out with your agency, you may need to hold off on reseller hosting until you’ve built up a reliable client list. Providing a website host to your clients lets them keep all their business with you rather than looking elsewhere for a web host.

    You’ll want to have a list of clients before reselling hosting services. The ideal amount of clients to have lined up is ten or more. If you have less than this, this type of hosting may not be beneficial for you, at least not yet.

    What Are Some Reseller Hosting?

    If you’re a business looking to use a reseller hosting provider, here are five of the best ones:

    Cloud Hosting

    Even if you haven’t heard of the various types of web hosts on the market, you’ve probably heard of cloud hosting.

    What is Cloud Hosting?

    When you choose cloud hosting, you have unlimited ability to take on high website traffic, whether that’s normal for you or it’s suddenly spiked.

    Instead of one server, cloud hosting uses a team of servers, the cloud, that all work together to host a group of websites. When you’re using cloud hosting, multiple computers can work at the same time to handle high traffic on any website.

    This hosting solution works so that various companies can use server resources as they need without causing another website on the server to slow down.

    Cloud hosting allows businesses and websites to have access to the resources they need without having to maintain the technology on their own. You won’t have root access, meaning you can’t change server settings because an IT team will manage the cloud server.

    The server resources are spread across multiple servers at once. This reduces the chance of downtime, meaning you won’t miss out on any website traffic. The best part of cloud hosting is that you only pay for the resources you need.

    Who Should Use Cloud Hosting?

    Cloud hosting is perfect for medium and large businesses. Especially if those businesses are expanding at a rapid rate, websites that get more than 50,000 hits per month are ideal for a cloud hosting solution.

    When a business is growing rapidly, website traffic can be unpredictable. Using cloud hosting can help you scale the company for years to come.

    Most people who have a cloud hosting plan begin with a shared hosting plan. Once their website starts to grow, switching to a cloud hosting plan is the typical move.

    What Are Some Cloud Hosting Providers?

    Many other host providers also have cloud hosting. Here are some of the best cloud hosting providers:

    6: Green Hosting

    We’ve all heard the term “going green.” Focusing on environmentally friendly ways to perform everyday tasks can help our planet in more ways than one. You may have never heard about green hosting, but there is an environmentally friendly way to host websites.

    What is Green Hosting?

    Green hosting is an environmentally friendly way to host websites. If you’re wondering how website hosting can harm the environment, it has more to do with the hosting provider and their carbon footprint, not the physical server.

    One of the most common ways a web host is a green hosting provider is using renewable power sources to generate energy. This can be solar panels, windmills, or other green methods.

    Sometimes the company won’t generate their renewable energy with solar or wind, but they’re still a green hosting provider. They manage to do this by outsourcing to a certified green energy supplier.

    Green web hosts will purchase what is called Green tags from green energy suppliers. When they purchase these tags, the supplier will add that specific amount to the energy grid on behalf of the green web host.

    Another common way green hosting providers are environmentally friendly is by implementing recycling initiatives. Once a company has these credits, it can cancel out some carbon they’ve contributed to the world.

    Who Should Use Green Hosting?

    Unlike the other website hosts mentioned, there’s not one specific type of website that benefits from a green web host more than the other.

    Using green hosting is excellent for a website owner who cares about the environment at all levels and is looking for more ways to help the planet.

    What Are Some Green Hosting Providers?

    With so many web hosting options, it can be hard to find some that are green. Here are some of the best green web hosts:

    So where do you begin?

    6 Types of Website Hosting: What Are the Best Options for Your Site?

    When you’re launching your website, using a hosting provider is ideal to ensure that people can access your content. This essential element in establishing a website isn’t something to take lightly. 

    Since website hosting is much needed, there’s plenty of options available to you. If you’ve never used a website hosting provider before, it can be challenging to know the difference between the types of website servers and which one is the best option for your website. 

    Overview of Website Hosting

    If you’ve never used a hosting provider, you may not know what these services are for. Website hosting providers host hardware and help store any data from your website on a server. 

    Website hosts provide the proper technology to make sure your website is accessible to people on the internet. This way, people searching for similar content that you have on your website can find it. 

    What Are Website Servers for Hosting?

    The servers on a website hosting service provider are where all the data from your website is stored. 

    Shared Hosting

    Shared web hosting is one of the most common types of website hosting and the most basic kind. Shared hosting is one of the most popular choices because there are dozens of shared hosting providers available for reasonable prices. 

    What is Shared Hosting?

    Shared hosting is when your website’s information is stored on a shared server with other websites. You will have access to all the resources provided by your web hosting provider through a server shared by however many other business owners. 

    By uploading resources and data to a shared server, these website hosting providers are able to keep costs down. Depending on the plan you sign up for with your provider, you’ll have access to a certain amount of resources on said server. 

    Who Should Use Shared Hosting?

    Anyone can use shared hosting if they choose. While anyone can use shared hosting, this type of web hosting is ideal for small businesses or entry-level businesses. People who are new to web hosting or looking to save money are great candidates for shared hosting. 

    Shared hosting is great for small businesses. While you may have a lot of traffic to your website, you probably don’t have as much as nationally or internationally recognized brands. Therefore, other small business owners are likely using the same server as you.

    When other websites on the shared server have a spike in traffic, it can potentially slow down access to your website. While this is great if your website is the one with the traffic, it can be challenging if it’s not. 

    Sharing a server with other small business owners can help reduce the technical issues you may experience if you’re a small business sharing a server with larger companies.

    What Are Some Shared Hosting Providers?

    If you’re interested in exploring your options for shared hosting providers, here are some of the most popular: 

    2: Virtual Private Seller (VPS) Hosting

    A virtual private seller (VPS) is a step up from using a shared hosting provider. The main difference between the two is that the server is private with a VPS, unlike a shared server.  

    What is VPS Hosting?

    With VPS hosting, you’ll still be sharing the server with other website owners like you would with shared hosting. The most significant difference is that with VPS, your website is hosted on its own virtual server. 

    The best way to describe VPS hosting is to picture a neighborhood. There are several different houses, and they all belong to someone different, but they’re all in the same neighborhood. 

    Essentially, you and other website owners all are on the same server but have your own space.

    Even though you and other websites are sharing a server, you can customize your space more and more storage space since you have your own virtual space. 

    Using VPS hosting allows you to have more space and a more secure hosting platform than shared hosting but without having to shell out the money for a dedicated server. 

    While VPS is a step up from shared hosting providers, you can still see your website affected by high website traffic levels. Regardless of whether you and other website owners have their own virtual property, everyone affects each other’s websites on the same server.

    Who Should Use VPS Hosting?

    Anyone can use a VPS web host, but this type is the best option for those who want the affordability of shared hosting but the control of dedicated hosting. 

    Small to medium-sized businesses tend to benefit the most from VPS hosting. This is because they typically can’t afford to have any downtime. It’s also a good option for those who’ve outgrown their shared hosting plan.

    What Are Some VPS Hosting Providers?

    For those of you looking at VPS hosting, here are some of the most popular options for a hosting company:

    Dedicated Hosting

    Unlike a shared or virtual private server, dedicated hosting gives you the rights over a web server. 

    What is Dedicated Hosting?

    With dedicated hosting, you have exclusive rights, well rental rights, over the web server where your website is. All other websites that you may have previously shared a server with are a thing of the past. 

    You can do whatever you want when you have a dedicated hosting server because you have all administrative access. Since you’re the only website on your server, you can handle much more website traffic without worrying that your site will slow down.

    Using dedicated hosting requires that you or someone you work with have enough technical knowledge to install and manage the server. Having one person or an IT team handle everything is a good idea with dedicated hosting. 

    While all the control over your website and its server are nice, great power comes at a high cost. Dedicated hosting tends to be much more expensive than shared hosting or VPS.

    The price may seem steep, but when you consider all the benefits of dedicated hosting, it’s well worth the money. You won’t need to share any server resources with other website owners, and you don’t need to worry about another company slowing down your website speed.  

    When you implement dedicated hosting, how you’ll manage the server is up to you. You can handle everything yourself, hire someone to do it for you, or find a hosting provider that provides management for you. 

    While it may seem easier and more cost-effective to manage the server on your own, if glitches or other technical issues arise, you’ll be on the hook for the money to fix it. With a hosting provider who manages it for you, they’ll handle it all.

    Who Should Use Dedicated Hosting?

    First, a dedicated web server isn’t the web hosting to go with if you have zero experience with web hosting or managing a server. 

    These types of website hosting providers are better for companies or individuals who have enterprise-level websites. An enterprise-level website is any website that has more than 100,000 monthly hits.

    Besides the monthly hits, these websites tend to have more revenue coming in and therefore can afford the costly monthly fees for dedicated hosting. 

    If you’re just starting your business or website, you won’t want to start with dedicated hosting. As your business grows, you can decide if this type of web hosting is the best option for your website. 

    Any website with over 100,000 hits per month would benefit from dedicated hosting, but eCommerce sites tend to do very well with this type. You have complete control over the server’s functions, and they have a high level of security when people use credit cards to purchase items.

    What Are Some Dedicated Hosting Providers?

    As with other web hosting sites, there are several dedicated hosting providers available to you. If you think this type of web hosting service is best option for your website, here are some you’ll want to check out:

    4: Reseller Hosting

    Reseller hosting isn’t your typical web hosting. As the name may suggest, you’re reselling a web hosting product to other people. 

    What is Reseller Hosting?

    Reseller hosting is when you’re selling your hosting services to clients. You may have heard of this as white label web hosting, but reseller hosting is the more well-known name. 

    When you have reseller hosting, you’re selling your hosting services to clients, and you’ll, in turn, make a profit off of this since many people are looking for a web host. 

    Reseller hosting works when you buy web hosting from another provider and then rebrand and resell it to different clients. 

    One of the best things about reseller hosting is that it’s sustainable. Building websites for people can generate high income, but you’ll only be paid once for that service. With web hosting, you’ll be generating income until they shut down their website. 

    Who Should Use Reseller Hosting?

    Reseller hosting isn’t for everyone. Generally, web designers, developers, and agencies would benefit the most from reseller hosting. They’re perfect for reseller hosting because they already have clients that they can upgrade to web hosting. 

    If you’re starting out with your agency, you may need to hold off on reseller hosting until you’ve built up a reliable client list. Providing a website host to your clients lets them keep all their business with you rather than looking elsewhere for a web host. 

    You’ll want to have a list of clients before reselling hosting services. The ideal amount of clients to have lined up is ten or more. If you have less than this, this type of hosting may not be beneficial for you, at least not yet.

    What Are Some Reseller Hosting?

    If you’re a business looking to use a reseller hosting provider, here are five of the best ones: 

    Cloud Hosting

    Even if you haven’t heard of the various types of web hosts on the market, you’ve probably heard of cloud hosting.

    What is Cloud Hosting?

    When you choose cloud hosting, you have unlimited ability to take on high website traffic, whether that’s normal for you or it’s suddenly spiked. 

    Instead of one server, cloud hosting uses a team of servers, the cloud, that all work together to host a group of websites. When you’re using cloud hosting, multiple computers can work at the same time to handle high traffic on any website. 

    This hosting solution works so that various companies can use server resources as they need without causing another website on the server to slow down. 

    Cloud hosting allows businesses and websites to have access to the resources they need without having to maintain the technology on their own. You won’t have root access, meaning you can’t change server settings because an IT team will manage the cloud server. 

    The server resources are spread across multiple servers at once. This reduces the chance of downtime, meaning you won’t miss out on any website traffic. The best part of cloud hosting is that you only pay for the resources you need.

    Who Should Use Cloud Hosting?

    Cloud hosting is perfect for medium and large businesses. Especially if those businesses are expanding at a rapid rate, websites that get more than 50,000 hits per month are ideal for a cloud hosting solution. 

    When a business is growing rapidly, website traffic can be unpredictable. Using cloud hosting can help you scale the company for years to come. 

    Most people who have a cloud hosting plan begin with a shared hosting plan. Once their website starts to grow, switching to a cloud hosting plan is the typical move.

    What Are Some Cloud Hosting Providers?

    Many other host providers also have cloud hosting. Here are some of the best cloud hosting providers: 

    6: Green Hosting

    We’ve all heard the term “going green.” Focusing on environmentally friendly ways to perform everyday tasks can help our planet in more ways than one. You may have never heard about green hosting, but there is an environmentally friendly way to host websites. 

    What is Green Hosting?

    Green hosting is an environmentally friendly way to host websites. If you’re wondering how website hosting can harm the environment, it has more to do with the hosting provider and their carbon footprint, not the physical server. 

    One of the most common ways a web host is a green hosting provider is using renewable power sources to generate energy. This can be solar panels, windmills, or other green methods. 

    Sometimes the company won’t generate their renewable energy with solar or wind, but they’re still a green hosting provider. They manage to do this by outsourcing to a certified green energy supplier. 

    Green web hosts will purchase what is called Green tags from green energy suppliers. When they purchase these tags, the supplier will add that specific amount to the energy grid on behalf of the green web host. 

    Another common way green hosting providers are environmentally friendly is by implementing recycling initiatives. Once a company has these credits, it can cancel out some carbon they’ve contributed to the world. 

    Who Should Use Green Hosting?

    Unlike the other website hosts mentioned, there’s not one specific type of website that benefits from a green web host more than the other. 

    Using green hosting is excellent for a website owner who cares about the environment at all levels and is looking for more ways to help the planet.

    What Are Some Green Hosting Providers?

    With so many web hosting options, it can be hard to find some that are green. Here are some of the best green web hosts: 

    So where do you begin?

    Whether you’re just starting your website or it’s beginning to grow quickly, you need a solid web host. Website hosts ensure that your website is always accessible by internet users, meaning you won’t miss out on purchases or website hits. 

    The best thing about website hosting is that there’s one for everyone. There are web hosts that are ideal for those just starting out and those who are large-scale businesses. Before you sign up for a web host, you’ll need to decide which one is the best for you and your business goals. 

    How about checking out some of our top picks for web hosting? Each of these companies offers affordable shared hosting and the ability to scale up to other types of website servers as it grows.

    Latest posts by Amy Geldean (see all)

    • Choosing a Web Hosting Service: 5 Website Hosting Tips

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    Website Hosting Tips When Deciding Between Web Hosting Services

    When it comes to finding a web host for your new website, there are many options. Finding a decent web host is similar to choosing a suitable domain name. What should you look for while selecting a dependable web host? How do you know which hosting package is best for your site?

    There are various factors and guidelines to consider while selecting a web host, and website hosting tips are hard to come by. Allow us to assist you in finding the answers to these and other questions. We’ll provide you with website hosting tips guaranteed to help you understand how to choose the best web hosting.

    What Is Website Hosting?

    Web hosting is a service that enables you to upload your website files to the internet. As a result, your website is accessible to everyone with an internet connection. In practice, it usually refers to the services provided by a web hosting company.

    Website hosting occurs when a hosting company provides space on a web server to store a website’s files. Web hosting ensures that all of the website’s files are accessible online.

    Although you can run an actual server for your website at home, there are numerous advantages to using a web hosting service provider.

    Understand the Different Hosting Types

    There are many different types of web host, and you can choose one, depending on what exactly you need. Keep reading for our website hosting tips for the different kinds of web hosts:

    What Is Shared Hosting?

    Shared hosting is possibly the best type of website hosting for beginners. This form of web host involves your website being stored with many other websites on one server.

    If you use a shared hosting plan, all the web hosting provider plan domains share resources like the CPU and RAM. Because they share their resources, shared hosting plans cost less than others, making them a great choice for new website owners.

    Most times, novice website owners choose a shared web host because it’s one of the simplest plans, and it works for almost anything you want to use your website for. Shared hosting usually has many tools like being able to email clients and website builders.

    Shared hosting provides website owners a more straightforward approach to the web, but the disadvantage is, you will share the server with many other websites. Spikes in traffic might affect your site’s user experience accordingly.

    What Is Reseller Hosting?

    This type of web host allows the account holder to use their allotted space on the hard drive and bandwidth for commercial website hosting. This type of hosting makes the reseller the owner of the original hosting account.

    When the amount of space you buy isn’t being used, and you can share some of the allocated resources with another website builder, this type of hosting can be a great hosting option. You can share CPU, bandwidth, disk space, and various resources.

    These hosting plans are available from hosting providers for entrepreneurs interested in this business model. Anyone with many domains or a strong website idea will benefit from purchasing a reseller hosting service. You are free to make your designs and hosting packages for your websites or clients using the hosting account’s resources.

    What Is VPS Hosting?

    A Virtual Private Server -or VPS- hosting package is the perfect combination of dedicated and shared hosting. It’s the best choice for site owners that want more control but don’t want to pay for a dedicated server.

    Each website on a VPS is housed in its own space while still sharing a physical server with other customers. VPS hosting provides website owners with more storage and customization capacity. Still, it can’t withstand high usage or traffic spikes, which means that other websites on the VPS might still influence your managed WordPress website’s performance.

    VPS hosting is usually employed by site owners that want dedicated hosting but don’t have the technical competence that is needed. VPS hosting merges the flexibility and control of dedicated hosting with the affordability of shared hosting.

    Advanced website owners and users who require a particular type of software and package installation will find this to be a great choice.

    What Is Dedicated Hosting?

    This type of hosting gives website owners maximum control over their website’s host server. This is because they have rented the server solely, and theirs is the only site on it. This means they have total admin and root access, which allows them to control everything from the security to the operating system they choose to use.

    Dedicated hosting is one of, if not the, most expensive web hosting options available. It is typically utilized by site owners that have a lot of traffic and need to control their servers completely. The server’s installation and continuing operation require a high level of technical competence.

    What Is Green Hosting?

    Green web hosting is defined as web hosting that relies on renewable energy sources to either power or counterbalances the energy consumed by the web servers. The majority of green web hosting providers strive to deliver high-quality services while minimizing their carbon footprint.

    A popular strategy is to generate an equal or larger amount of energy than is consumed and then return that energy to the grid. Businesses can use renewable energy technologies such as solar and wind to create electricity.

    What Is Cloud Hosting?

    Cloud hosting is the technology industry’s latest innovation. Cloud hosting operates with computers that work together to run programs while sharing computing resources. It is a form of network-based hosting that allows websites to use computing resources like utilities.

    Website owners can utilize all the resources they need without having to construct and maintain their computing infrastructure. Every resource is distributed among numerous servers, lowering the possibility of downtime because a server failed.

    Cloud hosting is scalable, which means your site can grow and use all the resources it needs while being cost-effective.

    Understand the Terminology

    One of the big website hosting tips is to know the language. Here are some terms you might see when you’re searching for the perfect web hosting service:

    What Is Uptime?

    Uptime is the amount of time your website is available while the server is up and running. This is usually expressed as a percentage. All web servers require maintenance on a regular basis, and as with any technology, there’s always the danger of technical faults and situations that you can’t predict.

    However, the most reliable web host companies will still guarantee their customers up to 99.9% uptime. To avoid disrupting access to your site, you need a high uptime (at least 99 percent).

    What Is Bandwidth?

    When visitors visit your website, use a search engine, consume content, or download files, bandwidth is used to describe how much data is transported.

    This happens every time someone visits or uses your website, or business website sends or receives an email, or uploads or downloads files. The amount of bandwidth you’re allocated is one of the significant variations between a different web hosting provider and domain names (a free domain will offer less).

    Higher-cost hosting options from a hosting provider like Siteground, Bluehost, Hostgator, or a WordPress site will often accommodate more visitors accessing more material.

    What Is Disk Space?

    Disk space is the storage space included in your hosting plan. You’ll need a lot of space to store your photos, HTML pages, files, emails, databases, and other things.

    A free web host with fewer hosting costs will generally provide less disk space than for a small business website, for instance. It’s the amount of server space in your hosting plan that gives you for storing files, pages, emails, and other items.

    Think About the Features You Want

    The features you want from a web host provider are also quite important when it comes to picking the website hosting service you wish to use:

    What Features Are Associated With Website Hosting?

    Here are some of the most essential features that are associated with website hosting:

    • Storage or Disk Space
    • Control Panel (CPanel) Features
    • Bandwidth
    • Free hosting and a free domain
    • Reduced website hosting cost
    • Uptime
    • Shared and Dedicated IP Addresses
    • Domain Name
    • Support
    • Email Features
    • Security

    What Security Features Are There?

    Security features such as safe data centers, security monitoring, DDoS protection, RAID, and LetsEncrypt should all be available from your web hosting company. When opting for a web hosting service, keep security in mind. Choosing a hosting solution that provides an SSL certificate and excellent security ensures the safety of both your website and your clients’ data.

    What Level of Customer Support Is There?

    The customer service provided by the web hosting provider is a crucial point to consider for the website owner. You can deal with website issues faster and more efficiently if you have competent customer service.

    Clients can frequently reach out to web hosting companies by phone or chat. What counts most, though, is how quickly they reply and how skilled their support staff is.

    What Website Storage Is Offered?

    A hosting service provider that provides limitless bandwidth is always the best option. The amount of data that a website can transmit to its visitors over a set period is web hosting bandwidth. As a result, the more bandwidth a web hosting company provides, the better.

    The more storage you have, similar to bandwidth, the better. Because the term is so widely used, storage or disk space is self-explanatory. It decides how much site material, including text, code, photos, emails, and databases, you can store.

    Take Into Consideration the Type of Website You Want

    You should concentrate on what you need rather than what you might obtain from various web hosting options. Make a list of all the needs to accomplish the aim of your website and write it down. What type of website do you have or intend to build?

    Is it a brand-new website that needs to be built from the ground up or an existing website with a lot of traffic? Is your website a PHP script or an HTML page? Is a free web hosting plan going to cover your data needs? Is there a database, and if so, what kind of database would be used to power your site?

    How Does a Blog Website Differ From an E-Commerce Website?

    A blog is a type of website. The only distinction is that blogs feature continuously updated information and can often have a free domain, while websites are more static and divided into pages. A blog can be a website on its own or a part of a broader site. Earlier versions of blogs were mostly utilized as online personal journals.

    Know What Price You Want to Pay

    Consider your website hosting budget. Your website hosting budget will play a large part in what type of website hosting service you go for. For example, if you want a less expensive hosting service, you might want to go for the shared hosting service, as opposed to the dedicated hosting service that costs more.

    Read Our Hosting Reviews

    Hosting reviews are a great way to help you decide on which website hosting service to employ because you will be able to read reviews from other website owners like you. They will provide you with real-life experience, which will help you decide which hosting service is best for you. Our blog can provide more website hosting tips for you when choosing a web service.

    Choosing A Web Host Service: 5 Website Hosting Tips You Should Know

     

    Our independent research projects and impartial reviews are funded in part by affiliate commissions, at no extra cost to our readers.

    • 8:05 pm
    Paul Wheeler
    Latest posts by Paul Wheeler (see all)

    If you don’t have a website in this day and age, you might as well be invisible.

    It doesn’t matter if you’re a small business, a Fortune 500 company, or just an individual trying to make a name for yourself. If you want the world to hear about you, you need to have some kind of digital presence. The truth is, in order to be successful, you have to have a good website which means you also need a good web hosting service.

    There’s a lot of different options out there and sometimes it can be a bit of a head scratcher trying to figure out what’s best for your site’s specific needs. If you’re a business for example, you’ll want space to grow and an email address associated with your website. On the other hand if you’re a blogger, simplicity and low costs may be your main priorities. In that case, you’ll want less services than a large business would.

    Determining exactly what you need can be confusing, but don’t worry because we laid out all the website hosting tips you need to know! We have put together everything you need to save time and money while making the best choice for your site.

    What Is The Difference Between Web Hosting And Web Building?

    The first and most important question to ask is, are you looking for a web hosting provider, a website builder? Or how about both? Don’t worry if you still don’t know the difference, we’ll walk you through it.

    A Web Host: Is a type of provider that serves as a home to your website and allows it to reach the worldwide web. A web host can also host your company’s mail, files, drives and other content. Once you determine a web host provider you’ll choose a hosting plan which will determine your server space and any other services you may need.

    A Website Builder: Is a set of tools you can use to create your website. Website builders allow you to quickly create and customize a high quality site without extensive knowledge. So, if you’re looking to create a high functioning website without spending a fortune on developers and designers, website builders help you take a DIY approach! With tons of templates, apps and other functional features these make creating a professional website quick, easy and inexpensive.

    What if you need both? There are lots of great options out there that provide you with both solutions! Some examples of website builders that are also web hosting providers include Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, Shopify, and Blogger.

    The most famous example of a web builder is WordPress. It’s one of the most popular web builders out there because of its simple, user-friendly experience and because the WordPress hosting requirements are minimal. Plus there are tons of reliable web hosting services with word press hosting as an option like DreamHost, A2 Hosting, SiteGround, HostGator, and InMotion Hosting just to name a few.

    If you’re looking to add basic technical tasks to your WordPress website such as updates, backups, uptime, speed, and security there are tons of great options from host providers like Bluehost, GoDaddy, WP Engine, and GreenGeeks.

    But what if you’re not interested in WordPress as a sitebuilder? No problem! In that case you can always find a web host capable of integrating an alternative web builder.

    PRO TIP: Before you decide on a hosting provider, be sure to check the requirements of your preferred web builder. It would be a waste of valuable time and resources to discover you’ve chosen a web-building platform that isn’t compatible with your preferred host server.

    Website Hosting Tips: Know 5 S’s Of A Successful Web Hosting

    Knowing exactly what you need can be hard but we made it easy with these 5 simple website hosting tips! All you have to do is follow the 5 S’s of Successful Web Hosting.

    Security

    This is one of the most important factors to think about when researching host providers. Protecting your data and your customer’s data is extremely important in the age of the internet. So it’s crucial that you put measures in place to protect you and your customer if something goes wrong. Important security features like firewalls, backups, and user authentication can help prevent dangerous breaches in security that can cost you time, money and customers.

    One simple option that can make a huge difference in the security of your site is an SSL certificate. SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) protects data with encryptions. These encryptions ensure that the connection between a web server (your site) and the web user (your customer) is safe and secure. There are two primary SSL options, free and paid. The free SSL certificates that do the same primary job as paid SSL certificates with minor differences. Depending on the purpose of your website, you might benefit from either.

    Speed

    Loading speed is crucial for attracting and keeping site visitors. No one wants to come to your page and stare at a loading bar. The truth is, if you want your website to be successful, it needs to be fast. The most important search engines like Google only promote pages with faster than average loading speeds. SEO initiatives can only do so much if your page doesn’t load fast enough. Long story short, a slow site could end up costing you a fortune in lost traffic.

    Storage

    The amount of storage your site needs depends on the number of files you have or whether or not you’re sharing a server. But think of it this way, the more storage you have, the more room you have to grow.

    Choosing the right amount of space can save you money in the long run so before deciding what type of storage you need, carefully consider how much space your site needs right now, and how much will be needed when you grow.

    Support

    Regardless of the size of your website or its intended use, your web host provider should be available to assist you with any minor issues that occur day-to-day plus the occasional crises that can pop up from time to time. No matter the problem, big or small it’s important that you reach them! Maybe you’re a business experiencing a problem during customer service off-hours, it’s important that you’re able to contact them or troubleshoot.

    There are other support features that could benefit you such as language options and time zone. Customer support in English isn’t rare, but you might prefer speaking with a customer representative in your country or time zone. Do you primarily speak Spanish or French? If so, looking for additional language options could be beneficial to you! Either way, whatever web hosting solution you choose, their support system should make your life easier, not more difficult.

    Services

    Any web host you choose will offer additional services. It’s up to you to determine which are a must for your website. For example, if you’re a business, email is a must so look for a hosting package that includes email. It’s always best to have a professional email that integrates smoothly with your website!

    We mentioned before that a web builder isn’t the same as a web host, so you might want to look for a hosting package that includes a web builder so you can have a seamless experience and integration.

    Another important service to consider is a domain name. While some web hosting service providers include a free domain name, others require that you purchase the domain separately. Therefore, it’s less hassle to use a hosting package that includes a free domain, plus it can save you future costs.

    Knowing these essential components will help you understand how your website host functions and how those functions impact you.

     

    5 s of successful website hosting tips

    Consider These 5 Factors When Choosing A Web Host Service

    UpTime

    Uptime refers to the amount of time a website is operational. Downtime, which is when a website isn’t available or functioning. The longer your website spends in downtime the more damage. One example of the costly effects of downtime is Amazon’s one-hour downtime in 2018 lost approximately $99 million in sales.

    Your website might not be as large as Amazon, but uptime can determine the success of your business or blog. Downtime can deter potential site visitors, frustrate customers, and incur costs for fixing the problem. Generally, the goal is to achieve a rate of 99.99% uptime. Of course, there is no such thing as perfect, but you want a web host that prioritizes service availability. When researching your preferred web hosting plan, find out if they include uptime guarantees.

    Unmetered Bandwidth

    Something to watch for in your web hosting option is unmetered bandwidth. If you experience an increase in site traffic, some hosting plans have fees or limit data speed. With unmetered bandwidth, an increase in site visitors won’t increase your costs. Unmetered bandwidth means the web host charges a flat rate instead of a price influenced by how much data you use.

    On the other hand, unmetered bandwidth doesn’t mean it’s unlimited bandwidth. You see, unmetered bandwidth only refers to the amount of data transferred, not the speed at which it’s transferred. That means some host providers can actually slow the rate of data transfers. But with true unlimited bandwidth, you get unlimited data transfers within a specific time frame so you don’t risk your provider slowing you down and costing you money.

    Regardless of which option you choose, carefully read the contract between you and your web host provider, there are still additional fees that can be inquired depending on your specific contract. For example, unlimited bandwidth plans are often an option on shared servers. This means you’re sharing bandwidth with other website owners. So in theory you can use as much as you want as long as the other website owners aren’t maxing out their bandwidth at the same time. It’s likely you’d never run into this problem but it’s important we give you all the facts when it comes to choosing the right provider for you.

    Server Location

    A good rule of thumb is the closer you are to your servers the better. Yes in the digital world you can get servers anywhere but location does in fact impact your website’s speed. Using more servers will increase the speed, but the location of those servers changes your relationship with that speed. Long story short, if your servers are on the other side of the world, you’ll have slower speeds no matter what.

    So, If you’re in the US, it’s better to choose a host server with locations within the US. If you’re a business spanning the globe, you’d want to invest in more server capacity and a broader range of areas. If you’re a small business with a limited shipping range, choose a server with a domestic server location.

    Pricing and Renewal

    Host packages and bundle building can be really confusing. So here are some good rules of thumb to go by that can make the process easier.

    Rule #1: YOU control the budget.

    A website is an investment, as the website owner, you determine the budget and what features are worth paying for. You can always start small and build as you grow.

    Rule #2: Skip the bells and whistles.

    When evaluating a host’s pricing it’s crucial to not only look at the overall cost but the included features too. Only pay for tools you know you’re going to use instead of adding bonus features that only sound useful.

    Rule #3: Remember ‘Renewal’

    An often forgotten cost is account renewal. It’s easy to forget but can end up costing you big. Depending on your plan you’ll either be charged monthly or annually but what’s often overlooked is that the price of renewing your account is often MORE expensive than your initial payment.

    When you sign up for a web host be sure you know exactly how much it will cost to renew, and if possible, consider long-term deals rather than short-term deals. It can end up saving you huge!

    PRO TIP: Most hosting companies will offer you a discount if you sign up for a longer termed contract with their platform.

    Mobile Capability

    Did you know 61% of website visits in the US come from mobile devices like cell phones? Just because a user can access your site on their mobile phone doesn’t mean it’s going to be the same quality as it would if they viewed your site on their computer.

    Poor mobile performance is a leading cause of missed conversions. Losing just one valued viewer to a poor mobile display is a huge waste of your precious time and money. Luckily testing your mobile web page performance is easy and free thanks to Google’s free mobile-friendly tool! 

    PRO TIP: For a mobile friendly website use responsive designs and fast loading speeds. Always make sure your web host has a web building tool that allows your viewer to seamlessly navigate your site from any mobile device!

    5 Most Popular Types Of Web Hosting

    The type of web hosting provider you choose will determine what hosting services are available to you. In this section we’ll go over the web hosting types you need to know to make the right choice for your site!

    1. Free Hosting

    Free might seem like the smartest financial choice but it’s not always going to be the best option in the long run. A free website hosting service involves sharing your website with ad space. That means annoying pop-ups or banners that can potentially deter your visitors.

    Another downside is that there’s no guarantee that service will last. Your provider can choose to discontinue your space or even begin charging you at any time without any given notice. If you still decide a free hosting service is for you, make sure you have a backup plan in place in case your current provider becomes no longer available.

    2. Shared Hosting

    This is the most common choice amongst small businesses and individuals looking for an affordable but reliable option. By sharing a server with other websites you can get a better rate, more support, and more than enough space.

    However, there will be usage restrictions. Shared web hosting may result in slower loading speeds during times of high traffic because of the shared server. Plus If your business or website space needs to grow, there will be a limit to how much you can expand. The web host may limit your size or ask you to upgrade, which will increase your cost so keep that in mind when choosing a web host provider.

    popular types of website hosting

    3. VPS Hosting

    VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting or cloud hosting is similar to shared hosting in that you share the server space with multiple websites. It costs more than shared hosting however because it’s more independent. You still share bandwidth but with added flexibility.

    This is for those who want the benefits of shared hosting with more personal space to grow. One of the major advantages of VPS hosting is that you’re protected from dangerous server limitations that can hold you and your site back. For example, If one website on your server is experiencing high traffic, it won’t drastically impact your website’s speed.

    Think of it as a strip mall…

    VPS hosting is like being store neighbors at a strip mall. Your next-door neighbor or the store three doors down won’t negatively impact your day-to-day business.

    However, you share a parking lot and some of the same walls. So if they have a blowout sale and have tons of traffic to their store, it won’t be until the parking lot is full that you’ll have to worry about how many spaces belong to your customers or theirs.

    4. Dedicated Hosting

    If you’re someone looking for a ton of space and a ton of server resources then dedicated hosting is for you! With dedicated hosting, you can support high amounts of traffic for longer periods of time. But this increase in stability and server capacity comes at a cost. It’s important to consider whether a dedicated server is within your budget.

    If you anticipate having high traffic regularly, a dedicated server will be essential to the success of your growing business. You also get the benefits of increased support, speed, and bandwidth.

    This could be the right choice for anyone, even a small business that can prioritize space, speed, and stability into their budget.

    5. Reseller Hosting

    Reseller hosting is the perfect way to indirectly take space on a server. Instead of purchasing a hosting service, you can rent space from a middle-man. Account owners resell their bandwidth and disk space, they act as the web host for the third party.

    This allows you to get better service at a better price. It’s important to note as the buyer you won’t know if the host server is a reseller hosting or not but that doesn’t matter to you because you’ll be getting space and service either way.

    PRO TIP:

    Utilize free trials! If you’re comparing a handful of web hosting providers, it can be tricky to weigh the pros and cons without actually trying them first.

    You don’t have to jump into anything headfirst, you can take your time and shop around, test the waters. There are plenty of providers that allow you to sign up for a free trial of a hosting package. You can test out features, check out customer support, or discover if the bandwidth or storage is suitable for you.

    If you like the hosting service, buy it. If you don’t, you haven’t wasted money, and you might have a better idea of what you need from a hosting service.

    Now For The Fun Part, Here’s A List Of Our Top Website Hosting Providers

    Now that you have all the facts on what you need and the right things to look for in a provider. We did the hard part for you! We tried tons of the top web hosting platforms and weighed out the pros and cons so you can save your valuable time!

    If you want our full-length reviews you can find them HERE! 

    Below is our brief overview of the best web hosting services you must try, enjoy!

    Hostinger

    The Hostinger Premium Shared Hosting includes a free domain, 25,000 monthly visits, managed WordPress, free email service, and a 30-day satisfaction guarantee.

    Features:

    • Free SSL and backups
    • User-friendly website builder
    • Automatic website set up
    • Fast LiteSpeed servers
    • Google Ads credit
    • Unlimited bandwidth

    HostGator

    HostGator is a user-friendly shared hosting provider. They have excellent 24/7 customer service and fast loading speeds.

    Features:

    • Free SSL and domain
    • Unlimited storage
    • 99.9% uptime guarantee

    Bluehost

    Bluehost Has WordPress integration that allows Bluehost to add a custom WordPress experience with smooth website design tools

    Features:

    • Free SSL and domain
    • 24/7 customer support
    • 99.9% uptime guarantee

    GoDaddy

    GoDaddy has been a top website host for a long time. This host has international server locations and a free domain for customers.

    Features:

    • Unmetered bandwidth
    • 24/7 customer support
    • 99.9% uptime guarantee

    A2 Hosting

    A2 Hosting offers all types of hosting with robust plans, especially for WordPress. However, it can be a more expensive option.

    Features:

    • Fast loading
    • Free SSL and domain
    • 24/7 customer support
    • Managed WordPress

    DreamHost

    DreamHost has reliable security features, including domain privacy and free SSL certificates. In addition, monthly data transfers are unlimited.

    Features:

    • Free domain
    • Daily backups
    • WordPress-optimized
    • 100% uptime guarantee

    InMotion Hosting

    InMotion Hosting offers every type of hosting, and all plans offer unlimited email. In addition, shared and WordPress hosting plans have unlimited data transfers.

    Features:

    • Local 24/7 customer support
    • Privately owned
    • DDoS protection
    • 90-day money-back guarantee
    • 99.9% uptime guarantee

      SquareSpace

    Overall, Squarespace beats a lot of the competition as a mobile-friendly and user-friendly website builder. However, it has slower loading speeds than other web hosts.

    Features:

    • Renewal rates are the same as the initial cost
    • Free SSL and WHOIS privacy
    • Easy DNS management
    • 24/7 customer support
    • 99.9% uptime guarantee

    HostPapa

    HostPapa has reliable shared and VPS hosting plans with unlimited monthly data transfers.

    Features:

    • International server locations
    • Free domain and SSL
    • 24/7 customer support
    • Fast SSD servers
    • Affordable add-ons

    SiteGround

    Shared hosting, cloud hosting, and email hosting are available through SiteGround. The web host also integrates smooth website transfers.

      Features:

    • Fast speed
    • 24/7 customer support
    • Managed WordPress
    • 99.9% uptime guarantee

    Final Thoughts

    Now that we’ve covered all the basics, you have all the information you need to try some of the incredible hosting options we’ve recommended for you, You know what you need and what you don’t need. You know what to look for and what to watch out for. Just remember, there’s no right or wrong package, only what’s best for you. And we’ve provided the top choices in the industry so there’s nothing stopping you from making the best decision for the future of your website.

    Remember, you don’t have to commit right away, shop around. We highly recommend you check out every host on our list, you never know which one could be your perfect match.

    Don’t forget, always compare features and think like a site visitor when making a decision. Prioritize speed, bandwidth, and security! We recommend making a checklist and checking out every host on our review list to see if they offer the type of client support you need, or if they offer too many extra services you don’t want.

     

    Make sure you read our full web hosting reviews and check out our resource library to answer any more of your web hosting questions. Now start at the top of our list and get started on finding your perfect web host!

     

    • Website Hosting Glossary of Terms

     
    • 3:40 pm
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    You made the big decision to start a website. Maybe you want to propel your business or share some ideas with everyone out there surfing the web.

    Of course, once you start researching website creation, you may encounter language that doesn’t seem quite English. Don’t worry. Our website hosting glossary of terms will help. While some of the terminologies may seem a little overwhelming, once you understand what it means in plain English it isn’t so bad.

    The learning curve for creating a website isn’t as hard as you think. Put it this way: there are over one billion sites on the world wide web. Many are created by newbies. With a little time and effort, you can certainly make one you will love to

    Understanding this Website Hosting Glossary of Terms

    To make this glossary a little more user-friendly for rookie website creators, we broke up the terms by subject matter. While many are alphabetical by subject, sometimes the more basic terms are listed first in each category. After all, it’s a lot easier to understand what a Linux server is once you understand how a server helps your website.

    Ready?

    Let’s get started understanding all this web hosting lingo:

    Web Hosting

    Web hosting is a platform that allows your website to be accessed and viewed on the world wide web. There are several types of web hosting services you can purchase depending on your website’s requirements. Web hosting companies like Bluehost or InterServer often offer packages that take care of a lot of the details of creating a website. They also offer customer support when you’re trying to figure out how to make your website function the way you want.

    Let’s look at a few common web hosting services and other terms you need to know.

    Cloud Hosting

    Web hosting that stores data virtually in the “cloud”. This makes it accessible to the owner anywhere as opposed to physical data centers. It is often a cluster of services that can scale resources in real-time depending on your site’s requirements. Cloud hosting can be an affordable option for your website.

    Dedicated Hosting

    Dedicated hosting means you rent a complete server. You have complete control over the server and all its resources. This allows for maximum control of your website and better server performance. On the flipside, it can be expensive and a little overwhelming to those who don’t have IT experience.

    Shared Hosting

    One of the most affordable options for web hosting. This is because a server hosts multiple websites. Each hosting customer has limits to resources like bandwidth, disc space, and other features. Make sure you check out the shared hosting packages to see if it fits your website’s requirements.

    Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting

    If you are looking for a happy medium between dedicated hosting and shared hosting, VPS hosting may be a good option. VPS hosting offers more space and functionality than shared hosting. It is essentially a dedicated server with virtual partitions for each client.

    Green Hosting

    Hosting companies that strive to be eco-friendly. Green hosting uses earth-friendly materials and energy-saving technology that reduces its impact on the environment. Check for companies with a Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) or Carbon Offset Certificate (VER).

    More Hosting Terms

    Have more questions than answers? Here are some more defined terms that may help you.

    Server

    Web hosting talks a lot about servers. So what does that actually mean? A server is a computer where your website exists. In many cases, the server is owned by a web hosting company. A server makes the content of your website available to anyone using the world wide web.

    Linux Server

    Servers powered by the Linux operating system. Most web hosting companies use this type of server.

    Windows Server

    Servers powered by the Windows operating system. It may cost a little more, but it is ideal for those who prefer certain Windows features or use certain Windows applications like ASP.NET, FrontPage, or Visual Basic.

    Bandwidth

    The total amount of data transferred when someone visits your site. Everytime someone visits your site and accesses texts, images, downloads, etc, you will be charged bandwidth. Check each of your web hosting bandwidth options.

    Internet Protocol (IP) address

    A unique series of numbers and dots identifying the connection of your individual computer to the internet. An IP address identifies every computer using the internet protocol to communicate over a network.

    Dedicated IP

    An IP address tied to your website. If you plan on selling products or accepting online payments, you will need a dedicated IP to get an SSL certificate.

    Secure Socket Layer (SSL)

    A type of encryption allowing people to securely send and receive transactions online. You can get an SSL certificate fairly easily with the help of your web hosting service–usually with a reasonable annual fee. Secured pages also rank higher in search engines. How do you know a page is secured? It’s as easy as observing one simple letter. At the very beginning of a web address, https means the site is secured. Http means it never obtained or has an expired SSL certificate.

    Uptime

    The time a server runs without interruption. Why is this important? If your website’s uptime is sporadic, potential readers and customers will quickly jump to another site (didn’t we mention there were more than a billion websites) if your website isn’t working properly. Find a web hosting company with proven uptime ratings of 99 percent or more.

    Overselling

    Some web hosting companies sell more services than they can actually deliver. This keeps web hosting costs more affordable. There is, however, a slim chance it can affect your site. In the rare instances where all of the web hosting customers use their fully allocated space or bandwidth at once, your website may not perform optimally.

    No Overselling Host

    This, of course, is a web host that does not oversell their services to customers. Most of the time, overselling doesn’t cause any issues. If you plan to create a website with lots of data and bandwidth, however, you may get peace of mind using a no overselling host.

    Website Hosting Comparison Chart: Which Hosting Provider is Best for You?

     

    Our independent research projects and impartial reviews are funded in part by affiliate commissions, at no extra cost to our readers.

    • 11:28 am

    Website Hosting Comparison Chart: Which Hosting Provider is Best for You?

    • 11:28 am

    Our independent research projects and impartial reviews are funded in part by affiliate commissions, at no extra cost to our readers.

    Web hosting is an essential part of owning a website, so finding the right provider is critical. With so many options to choose from, which hosting plan is the best for your needs?

    Our website hosting comparison chart outlines some of the best providers in various categories so that you can compare each service to find the right one for your website.

    What is Web Hosting?

    In its simplest form, web hosting is a service provided to store data and files that comprise your website and its software. This includes all physical hardware, network infrastructure, and additional vital pieces that make your website function.

    A web host can offer a basic hosting package that includes the barebones. The company can give you features like unlimited disk space, free domain registration, or a web design platform.

    The web host manages all of your website data and stores it on a server, a computer large enough to hold every aspect needed to power your site.

    Instead of needing to learn the ins and outs of web hosting (and it is complicated!), web hosts offer the opportunity to “rent” space on their servers and manage the hosting so you can focus on the more essential parts of your website.

    Comparison Chart for Cheapest Plans

    When choosing a hosting provider, investing in the “best overall” won’t work. Every company offers different services for different types of websites. You’ll likely choose another web host for your business site and another for your blog.

    Here are our favorite web hosting companies for the cheapest plans and how they match up to their competitors:

    IONOS may be the most affordable hosting service available, with prices starting at $0.50 per month. That’s almost obscenely low compared to other products, and you can still expect 99.9% uptime and a plethora of other features. Of course, if you want to upgrade or explore alternative hosting, like VPS or dedicated hosting, you can expect to pay a little more.

    Hosting Servers

    • WordPress Hosting: starting at $1/month
    • WordPress Pro Hosting: starting at $18/month
    • VPS: starting at $5/month
    • Dedicated Hosting: starting at $45/month
    • eCommerce: starting at $1/month
    • Resellers: professionals can join the partner program for free to access reseller services

    Top Features

    • Exceptional price points, especially for new and small businesses
    • Several plan options to meet your needs
    • 99.9% uptime
    • Modern, user-friendly interface
    • 24/7 support and extensive help center database

    InMotion hosting is a fantastic web host for just about any type of website, whether you’re building a WordPress host site or developing the code yourself. In addition to unlimited bandwidth and unlimited disk space, the company will allow you to put up to two sites on its servers with your plan.

    Hosting Servers

    • Shared Hosting: Starting at $2.49/month
    • WordPress Hosting: Starting at $4.99/month
    • VPS: Starting at $21.04
    • Dedicated Servers: Starting at $105.69

    Top Features

    • Up to two websites are available for hosting
    • Unmetered bandwidth
    • Unmetered disk space
    • 24/7 customer support
    • Free SSL certificate
    • Automatic site backups
    • Website hacking protection

    Comparison Chart for Best Plans for Shared Hosting

    Shared hosting is one of the most common and cheapest web host options on the market. The company hosts numerous websites on the same server to use the same CPU and RAM disk space.

    While this type of hosting certainly slows down a website’s performance and load speeds, it’s an ideal choice for new domains. Any website with low traffic will also benefit from this cost-effective type of hosting.

    Here are our favorite platforms that offer at least one shared hosting plan:

    Bluehost is one of the top hosting services for WordPress and a popular provider in general, thanks to its ease of use and straightforward plans. The company has something for just about anyone, from WordPress blogs to e-commerce websites.

    Hosting Servers

    • WordPress Hosting: Starting at $2.75/month
    • WordPress Pro Hosting: Starting at $19.95
    • eCommerce: Starting at $6.95
    • VPS: $18.99
    • Dedicated Servers: Starting at $79.99

    Top Features

    • The entry-level plan includes a free domain for the first year
    • Unmetered bandwidth
    • Up to 50 GB disk space
    • Free SSL (extra fee)
    • 24/7 customer support

    SiteGround offers web hosting for small and medium sites, WordPress hosting, and high-performance WooCommerce hosting to meet our needs. They also offer reseller hosting options and affiliate programs. SiteGround’s network is fast and powered by Google Cloud.

    Hosting Servers

    • WordPress Hosting: starting at $4.99/month
    • WooCommerce Hosting: starting at $4.99/month
    • Cloud Hosting: starting at $100/month
    • Reseller Hosting: starting at $7.99/month

    Top Features

    • Free email, SSL, and CDN included
    • Top-rated customer service team
    • 100% renewable energy match
    • Unmetered traffic
    • Frequent specials and deals for new accounts

    Comparison Chart for Best Plans for Dedicated Hosting

    Dedicated server hosting is one of the best plans for high-traffic websites that need fantastic performance. The entire server, including the hard drive, software, and RAM, works solely for your website and yours alone.

    Of note, dedicated servers are the most expensive option, and they’re only worth the price for those who have a lot of resources or high-traffic pages. However, if you desire dedicated hosting, this may be your best bet:

    Though some hosting platforms offer dedicated hosting, iPower is one of the more transparent options. Aside from dedicated hosting, iPower offers several options to fit individual or business needs. From a basic starter plan to advanced VPS and Pro plans, you can choose a package with features that work for you.

    Some hosting plans include free features, like domains and email addresses. You can even get advertising credits for Microsoft and Google to help with marketing efforts.

    Hosting Servers

    • Starter Plan Hosting: starting at $3.99/month
    • Pro Plan Hosting: starting at $3.95/month
    • Pro Plus Plan Hosting: starting at $11.99/month
    • WordPress Hosting: starting at $3.75/month
    • VPS Hosting: starting at $19.99/month
    • Dedicated Hosting: starting at $119.99/month

    Top Features

    • Unlimited disc space with most plans
    • Access to multiple help features, including 24/7 customer support
    • Multiple plans available
    • eCommerce options available with most plans

    Comparison Chart for Best Plans for VPS Hosting

    A virtual private server (VPS) host combines shared host and dedicated host services. The company puts multiple websites onto the same server but puts virtual walls to ensure no site uses the same resources.

    The benefit of VPS hosts is the ability to get high performance and reliability without the hefty price tag of dedicated servers.

    These providers offer the best VPS hosting options:

    FatCow may feature several quips and jokes on its site, but the company has a lot to offer its clients. You have access to several hosting options, including VPS and some key perks that you won’t find elsewhere. FatCow doesn’t even charge you for excess usage, and they deliver multiple customization options.

    Hosting Servers

    • WordPress Hosting: starting at $3.75/month
    • VPS Hosting: starting at $19.99/month
    • Dedicated Hosting: starting at $119.99/month
    • Original FatCow web hosting: starting at $4.08/month

    Top Features

    • Free domain name and free transfer
    • Google Ad and Microsoft Advertising credits
    • VPS hosting includes semi-private resources with guaranteed memory
    • 24/7 customer support via email, chat, or phone
    • Cloud-based flexibility provides room to grow

    Though InterServer boasts some of the cheapest prices for hosting, it also offers stellar VPS options. You can access all-inclusive services for a reasonable price, and there are more than a dozen packages to choose from based on your ssd storage needs. Additionally, InterServer offers multiple VPS hosting options, including WordPress and Windows.

    Hosting Servers

    • Standard Hosting: starting at $2.50/month
    • VPS Hosting: starting at $6/month
    • Reseller Hosting: starting at $19.95/month

    Top Features

    • Flexible cloud VPS with remote backup services
    • One-click installation possible
    • Supports most scripts
    • Self-healing hardware for cloud VPS services keeps your site running smoothly.
    • 99.9% uptime guarantee

    Comparison Chart for Best Plans for Cloud Hosting

    Any type of plan that runs on a cloud server falls under the cloud hosting umbrella. This type of web hosting is popular for smartphone apps because of their fantastic reliability and ability to handle upticks in traffic.

    While cloud hosting plans are noticeably more expensive than non-cloud packages, it’s a great option if your site deals with a lot of visitors and you want to minimize downtime as much as possible.

    WP Engine boasts more than one million customers from more than 150 countries, including some notable companies. The company offers customized cloud-hosting solutions for individuals and businesses of any size. You can access some innovative features, like GeoTargeting, and increase performance with scalable architecture.

    Hosting Servers

    • Managed Hosting: starting at $25/month
    • Managed Hosting Plus: starting at $28/month
    • eCommerce Hosting: starting at $30/month
    • Secure Hosting: starting at $44/month

    Top Features

    • All hosting is cloud-based
    • Automated plugin updates to keep site operational
    • Free SSL and SSH with each package
    • Secure and dedicated hosting available
    • One-click creation for eCommerce options

    Host Color offers one of the best cloud-based hosting packages around with three unique arrangements. Choose Public, Private, or Hybrid to meet your hosting needs. Host Color claims to offer a 100% uptime network for cloud hosting with low latency and multiple internet routes.

    Hosting Servers

    • Managed Hosting: starting at $29/month
    • Self-Managed Hosting: starting at $3.99/month
    • WP Hosting: starting at $2.99/month
    • VPS Hosting: starting at $4/month
    • Dedicated Hosting: starting at $99/month
    • Public Cloud Hosting: starting at $19/month
    • Private Cloud Hosting: starting at $39/month
    • Hybrid Cloud Hosting: starting at $90/month

    Top Features

    • Flexible plans and hosting solutions available
    • Uses an advanced Cloud Computing automation platform
    • Independent IT infrastructure
    • Main facility located in the U.S. with 40 satellites around the world
    • Extensive data center and help network including 24/7 support

    Offering private cloud servers and impressive packages, BuildYourSite is one of the best cloud hosting services available. Aside from shared and private cloud hosting services, they offer DIY website building and custom web design.

    Hosting Servers

    • Shared Cloud Hosting: starting at $11.95/month
    • Private Cloud Servers: starting at $149/month

    Top Features

    • Fast, reliable hosting with 12 years of 99.99% uptime
    • Built-in security
    • Various package levels to accommodate your needs
    • Hosting included with every plan
    • 24/7/365 customer support

    Comparison Chart for Best Plans for Reseller Hosting

    A2 Hosting is one of the most affordable providers available without sacrificing features and reliability. With a hosting plan, you can benefit from unmetered server use, website staging, a free SSL, and free migration from your previous hosting company.

    Hosting Servers

    • WordPress Hosting: $1.99/month
    • VPS: Starting at $5
    • Dedicated Hosting: Starting at $99.59
    • Resellers: Starting at $9.80

    Top Features

    • Free migration (extra fee)
    • Free SSL (additional fee)
    • Unmetered bandwidth and disk space
    • Free domain
    • 24/7 customer support

    Particular Types of Web Hosting Services

    Not every website is built the same, and hosting providers know that. Whether you have a WordPress blog or are an advanced developer, here’s what types of specializations a web hosting company can provide:

    Web Hosting Service for Small Businesses

    Many web hosting providers offer various business packages aimed mainly at small businesses. Whether you own a restaurant or knick knack shop, you can find the following benefits from a small business web host package:

    • Free business email address (typically for the first year only)
    • SSL certificate
    • User-friendly content management systems
    • Website builders

    WordPress Website Hosting

    The web hosting hub is lucrative for your WordPress site, and the platform itself recommends several companies for VPS hosting, shared services, and dedicated servers.

    While you can host your site on the WordPress system, various companies offer fully managed WordPress hosting packages.

    Web Hosting for Blogs and Personal Sites

    Blogs and personal websites are usually smaller and easier to manage from a web host perspective, so finding a server is a lot cheaper than if you had an e-commerce or business site. Like the web design platform Squarespace, many platforms offer user-friendly website builder platforms with the ability to publish your website without purchasing a hosting package. That’s right; you can host your site for free.

    While the “free” aspect is appealing to all, these types of host servers don’t have unlimited bandwidth, and your site’s uptime may decrease as traffic builds. At that point, it will be time to migrate to a paid hosting service.

    E-Commerce and Online Store Hosting Package

    Many reliable web hosting providers offer packages specific to e-commerce and online stores. These sites typically require more bandwidth and services, as you’re storing hundreds, if not thousands, of products onto your server.

    The number of high-resolution images, demo videos, and product descriptions fill up disk space quickly to add up the price tag. You also need to ensure your customer’s data remains secure, so purchasing a hosting package specific to e-commerce will go a long way in customer loyalty.

    Web Hosting on a Budget

    If you already explored our web hosting comparison chart, it’s evident that hosting services have a broad price range. If you’re starting a brand-new website or expect low traffic to start, using a service on a budget can help you save money and avoid needlessly spending on services you won’t use.

    Keep in mind that a cheap provider won’t have the fantastic load speeds and uptimes as more expensive services. If your website grows exponentially, you may have to consider switching.

    Developer Web Hosting Plan

    If you’re an advanced website builder or developer, chances are you don’t need user-friendly interfaces or drag-and-drop web design editors. Many web hosts keep developers in mind with plans specific to these tech-savvy individuals. You can find various web hosting packages that offer what you need, whether it’s PostgreSQL or Nginx.

    How We Choose the Best Web Hosting Companies

    As mentioned above, you don’t need the most expensive web hosting service to fulfill all your needs. Some servers come with free domain names, while others have better load speeds.

    To better understand what the best web hosting companies offered, we looked at a variety of factors:

    Multiple Servers Available

    The best hosting companies offer different types of servers. The server that helps your site function is essential for optimal performance.

    A web host with shared, dedicated, cloud, and other server plans available will make it easier to switch over to more reliable packages when your site attracts more traffic. If your host doesn’t have many options, it can be a challenging process to switch to a different hosting provider once your website gains traction.

    Reliable Uptime

    Uptime is the percentage of which your site’s hosting system remains operational. Obviously, the better the uptime, the better the server.

    Fast Load Speed

    Load speed is a vital factor in creating a user-friendly website. After all, you don’t want your site’s visitors to be deterred by long loading times and slow pages. A lot of the loading speed can come down to how your host server works.

    A strong web host server will keep your website running smoothly and efficiently.

    Fantastic Customer Service

    You can’t count out customer service! Web hosting is likely not your forte, and you need to reach someone if something goes wrong.

    If you look at our website hosting comparison charts, the web hosting providers we included all have excellent customer service. Each one has quick response times and agents available around the clock.

    Web Hosting Server Management

    When you purchase a plan with a hosting service, they provide a team of experts who know everything about the service you’re receiving. From hardware and software technicians to technical and customer support, there is a large team behind the company.

    Managing Your Own Website Server

    If you have experience with web hosting, you can manage your own server with the companies that offer the opportunity. You can also purchase a plan that allows the web hosting provider to handle everything for you.

    Conclusion

    Choosing the web host for your needs can be daunting with the seemingly endless number of providers and hosting option platforms available. With this website hosting comparison chart, you can easily compare the top providers.

    Whether you need a reliable website builder or a hosting provider for your e-commerce site, the above providers have something for everyone.

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    • Website Hosting Bandwidth: Why Is It Important?

     

    Our independent research projects and impartial reviews are funded in part by affiliate commissions, at no extra cost to our readers.

    • 9:55 am

    If you’re going through the processing of researching and choosing a new web hosting provider like Bluehost or A2 Hosting, one thing you will have to look for is the right amount of hosting bandwidth offered. Bandwidth usage varies significantly from web to website, so it’s important to know exactly how much website hosting bandwidth your users will actually need from your hosting provider.

    In this guide, we’ll explore everything website owners need to know about what website hosting bandwidth is, how it works, and everything else you need to know about finding the right website hosting bandwidth plan for your unique needs. Let’s start by breaking down what bandwidth actually is in the context of a web hosting service.

    What is Bandwidth?

    Bandwidth, in the context of website hosting, is the overall amount of data that your specific website can transfer over to the users on your website in a specific amount of time. Usually, bandwidth can be added up and sold on a gigabyte basis, though some companies that provide web hosting will offer unlimited bandwidth for a certain flat rate.

    It helps to think of bandwidth as the physical width of a straw. A very thick straw can pass a lot of liquid through it when compared to a thinner straw. This is simply because the wider straw has a higher capacity to pass the liquid through it. Likewise, having more bandwidth makes it possible to transfer more website data to your users. The result is a faster, more reliable website experience.

    Why is Bandwidth Important?

    Bandwidth, or rather the amount of it that you can access, will determine host fast your website can send content to your website users during times of intensive traffic. If the purpose of your website is to expand your target audience and boost your sales, having the right amount of bandwidth is a very important part of running your website.

    A higher amount of bandwidth gives website owners the ability to create unique and responsive features for their website, which can be very appealing to website visitors.

    What to Consider When Choosing a Bandwidth Plan

    The only thing you’ll need to consider when choosing a bandwidth plan is exactly how much bandwidth you will need. You’ll need to know this before you can select the right website hosting bandwidth plan from a web host. While many web hosting providers offer unlimited hosting plans nowadays that may seem worth it, it’s worth noting that these plans aren’t actually unlimited. In fact, unlimited plans will also include pricey penalties in the event that your website experiences a big spike in traffic. As such, knowing how much bandwidth you actually need is very important, but it can be a bit of a tricky thing to figure out.

    To start, it’s important to understand the difference between a data transfer and web hosting bandwidth, as the two are often used synonymously, which is incorrect. Data transfer is essentially the amount of data that is going to be transferred during a period of time, which is usually about a month. Bandwidth, on the other hand, is the total maximum amount of data that can be transferred in a specific amount of time, which is usually measured by seconds or minutes.

    The number of your average data transfer will tell you exactly how much data you can transfer in a specific period of time. The bandwidth number, likewise, will tell you how quickly that data can be transferred. Data transfer could be described as the actual consumption of website hosting bandwidth.

    When you start looking for a web hosting provider, the amount of bandwidth your chosen provider offers will indicate how capable their company is. Higher bandwidth is usually accompanied by better speed, networks, overall connectivity, etc.

    That being said, be wary of cheap web hosting plans offered by companies that note “unlimited” bandwidth. As we mentioned earlier, such plans aren’t actually unlimited– they have very real limits that you could be penalized for going over in the event of a sharp increase in web traffic. It’s simply not really possible to offer unlimited bandwidth, as the price would be extremely expensive. These unlimited plans will have a “normal” range of bandwidth use which is determined on a provider-by-provider basis.

    In order to figure out which plan is best for you, it’s vital to calculate your website’s actual bandwidth needs that you can compare among the best possible web hosting providers.

    Calculating Bandwidth Requirements

    Calculating bandwidth is actually quite simple. One might compare calculating bandwidth to purchasing a shirt. There’s no reason to buy a size up or down– you simply need the number that fits the best. If you wear a medium-sized shirt, size small simply will not fit. A size large will keep you covered, but all that extra space might be a waste. It’s the same with bandwidth.

    It makes the most sense to opt for web hosting providers who offer growth-focused or scalable solutions in case your website becomes much more popular. This will make it easier to change plans when you “outgrow” your current bandwidth limit.

    To know what your bandwidth needs are currently, follow these steps to calculate your bandwidth requirement:

    1. Estimate your page size average in kilobytes or megabytes.
    2. Times that number by your average. monthly visitor count.
    3. Times the number calculated in Step 2 by your average number of views per visitor.

    After calculating this number, allocate some space to cover rare traffic spikes. We recommend a tolerance of 50%.

    There are a few different tools out there that can do this calculation for you for free, but you can also easily calculate this yourself by finding the above-noted information via your website’s analytics dashboard.

    For more information on website bandwidth for a certain web hosting company, check out our reviews of website hosting providers.

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