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:
- GoDaddy
- InMotion
- A2 Hosting
- BlueHost
- GreenGeeks
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:
- WordPress website
- BlueHost
- HostGator
- InMotion
- SiteGround
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:
- HostPapa
- GreenGeeks
- InMotion
- HostGator
- A2 Hosting
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:
- Kinsta
- GreenGeeks
- DreamHost
- A2 Hosting
- HostPapa
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:
- GoDaddy
- InMotion
- A2 Hosting
- BlueHost
- GreenGeeks
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:
- WordPress website
- BlueHost
- HostGator
- InMotion
- SiteGround
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:
- HostPapa
- GreenGeeks
- InMotion
- HostGator
- A2 Hosting
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:
- Kinsta
- GreenGeeks
- DreamHost
- A2 Hosting
- HostPapa
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:
- GoDaddy
- InMotion
- A2 Hosting
- BlueHost
- GreenGeeks
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:
- WordPress website
- BlueHost
- HostGator
- InMotion
- SiteGround
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:
- HostPapa
- GreenGeeks
- InMotion
- HostGator
- A2 Hosting
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:
- Kinsta
- GreenGeeks
- DreamHost
- A2 Hosting
- HostPapa
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:
- GoDaddy
- InMotion
- A2 Hosting
- BlueHost
- GreenGeeks
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:
- WordPress website
- BlueHost
- HostGator
- InMotion
- SiteGround
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:
- HostPapa
- GreenGeeks
- InMotion
- HostGator
- A2 Hosting
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:
- Kinsta
- GreenGeeks
- DreamHost
- A2 Hosting
- HostPapa
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.
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