Every website, from the smallest family blog to the largest corporate marketing campaign, has one thing in common – they need Web Hosting. Something that often surprises newcomers is that there isn't just one type of Web Hosting. The proliferation of technical terms can be confusing, so in this article, we'll give you a quick overview of the different types of Web Hosting that are out there and the websites they're most suitable for.
Free Web Hosting
Strange as it may seem, there are companies out there that will host your site for free – providing you don't mind other people's adverts being run on your site. This can look messy and unprofessional, and free web hosts are not renowned for things like generous disk space and bandwidth allowances, or quality technical support.
Shared Web Hosting
This is the type of hosting that you're most likely to come across. Shared Hosting places your site on the same server with other users. This is a great way for the hosting companies to spread costs, therefore, Shared Hosting deals tend to be cheap. This is a good option for beginners to intermediate website owners, who want something a little more advanced and professional than they'd get from a free host, but who don't have a large budget to play with.
Virtual Private Server Hosting (vps)
This is a halfway house between dedicated and shared options. Although you're sharing a server with other users, your web space is partitioned off, so that for all intents and purposes you have your own server. It's a good compromise for those who'd like the additional security and benefits of a dedicated server, but who don't have the budget to afford one.
Dedicated Servers
This is the deluxe end of Web Hosting, and as the name suggests, dedicates one server to one website. This gives you maximum bandwidth, storage space and response times, with higher levels of security and reliability. However, it's also very expensive, and is something that only larger businesses or e-commerce operations should consider. Dedicated Hosting can be managed, where the hosting company looks after the physical server, or unmanaged, where you're expected to do it yourself. An unmanaged package is a cheaper version of Dedicated Hosting, but it's something that only the most technically proficient should consider. If the very idea of fixing and maintaining a computer server scares you, you should definitely avoid an unmanaged hosting deal.