Web Hosting Types Explained: Choose The Best One

When you create a website, the first thing you need to consider is web hosting. But to choose the right one can be difficult because there are many different types of hosting.

All hosting platforms offer different features and options, some cost more than others, etc. So, to choose the best hosting for your website, first, you need to know the difference between them.

And because there are many types of hosting, many people don’t know which to choose. So, here I am to explain it and help you to choose the right one for your project.

What Is Web Hosting

Web hosting is a platform where you host your website. You upload your web files to the platform, you connect the domain, and it goes live. So, you need hosting to make your website available to the world.

Every hosting has similar features and options. Every one of them offers storage, a number of websites you can host, bandwidth, free SSL, email accounts, etc.

Also Read: Top Cheap WordPress Hosting

And every hosting has different plans that offer different features. The more expensive the plan is, the more features it has and also performs better.

Although hosting a website on a platform is easy, choosing the right hosting can be difficult. Especially nowadays because there are many platforms and different types of hosting.

Web Hosting Types

But these platforms don’t have just one hosting type with different pricing plans. Every good web hosting platform offers different types of hosting.

There are differences between all types of hosting like speed, price, storage, features, and more. The more powerful hosting is, the more expensive it is but that doesn’t mean you need it.

In this post I will explain the four main types of hosting:

1. Shared Hosting
2. VPS Hosting
3. Dedicated Hosting
4. Cloud Hosting

All these types have some advantages over others and can be good for different kinds of projects.

I will explain what they are, how they work, what they are best for, and recommend the best hosting platforms for each type.

Shared Hosting

The first type of web hosting is shared hosting and it is the most popular one. Shared hosting is the cheapest one and you can get it for a couple of bucks per month.

The way shared hosting works is that a website shares server resources like processor cores and RAM with other websites. There could be ten or more other websites on one server and you split the resources with them. If one website gets more traffic, the more resource it will take from the server.

With shared hosting, you have no access to the server and you can change any settings. You can’t modify RAM usage or anything like that.

When you host your website on shared hosting, you have to know that as it gets bigger, you will have to upgrade to a better one or your website will become slower and will crash.

In general, shared hosting performance is not that great because of that limitations. But it’s the cheapest solution and is great for small websites with small traffic.

Because of the ease of use and price, it is a very popular choice for many websites and there are many platforms you can find a good shared hosting.

Best Shared Hosting Platforms:

• Hostinger
• Bluehost
• Namecheap

VPS Hosting

The next step from shared hosting is VPS web hosting. VPS stands for Virtual Private Server and it’s more powerful and costs a little bit more. But you get better performance.

With VPS hosting, your website is hosted on the server with other websites but you have your dedicated resources. This means that a specific number of RAM and processor cores will be assigned to your website and you don’t share resources with others although you are on the same server.

This way you know exactly how many resources your website has. VPS costs more but also has better performance. Also, with VPS you get a dedicated IP and in general, it’s great for medium size websites.

So, if another website on the server gets bigger, has more traffic, and needs more resources, it will have no impact on your website because you have your separate resources.

VPS hosting offers good performance, resources enough for medium size websites, and affordable prices.

Best VPS Hosting Platforms:

• InMotion
• Bluehost
• Liquid Web

Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated web hosting is great for medium to big websites that need good performance. But also cost more and can be quite expensive.

Dedicated hosting works like VPS but instead of separating resources from the server, you get the whole server dedicated only for you. Your website will be hosted on a separate server with multiple cores and RAM. Most dedicated servers have SSD storage, high bandwidth, and separate IPs.

And because it is a dedicated server, you can tweak settings, install apps, modify them, and manage them like your own server. Great for big websites but also it expensive.

So, if you know that your website will grow in the future, dedicated hosting is a great option. But remember that you will have expenses. So, your website should have some revenue soon to cover the hosting expenses.

Although it’s a great hosting with amazing performance, it is recommended for websites that generate revenue because hosting fees are high.

Best Dedicated Hosting Platforms:

• Bluehost
• InMotion
• A2 Hosting

Cloud Hosting

Cloud hosting is very popular and my favorite type of web hosting. It’s as powerful as dedicated hosting, has similar features, but costs less.

With cloud hosting, you get dedicated resources but it doesn’t rely on one server but uses multiple servers. So, if one server goes down, it switches to another one and your website will be always live. Cloud hosting is very fast, reliable, and scalable.

Cloud hosting has several benefits over other types of hosting. One of them is scalability. It’s very easy to upgrade or downgrade resources with any cloud hosting.

Also, it’s relatively cheap considering the high prices of VPS. With cloud hosting, you pay for the resources you use and that is a great feature of it. But there is one thing to consider when choosing cloud hosting – managed and unmanaged solutions.

For example, cloud hosting provider Digital Ocean offers great unmanaged hosting. But you do everything from creating servers, installing an operating system, creating databases, and so on.

And for many people, it can be difficult because you have to know a little bit about how servers work, how to install OS, etc. Also, you get no support if something goes wrong. You do everything.

And here comes managed cloud hosting like SiteGround. It offers managed cloud hosting where you don’t worry about servers or anything like that. They do all the management of the server.

But because of that, managed costs a little bit more than unmanaged hosting.

I think that cloud hosting is the best solution for every website whether it is small or big. Because it’s very affordable and scalability is not the issue.

Best Cloud Hosting Platforms:

• Cloudways
• SiteGround
• Hostinger

How To Choose The Right hosting

Now you know how each type of web hosting works and it will be easier to choose the right one. Everything depends on your project and what type of website you have.

If you have a simple website, a landing page, or a portfolio that will have very small traffic, shared hosting is a great solution.

For big or eCommerce websites, VPS and dedicated hosting is a better solution but it will cost more.

But the best solution in my opinion is cloud hosting because it’s great for every kind of website – small or big. It’s affordable and scalable. You can start with the smallest plan and upgrade when a website gets bigger.

Conclusion

As you can see there are different benefits for each type of web hosting and now you understand how they work. From now on it will be easier to choose the right type of hosting for your projects.

Depending on your project, choose the type of hosting you want from the recommended hosting providers. All of them offer great services, are well-known, and perform very well. The difference is in pricing and features.