What are the different types of web hosting?

In the world of web hosting, there are many options that will all get your site on the web. However, each of them cater directly to website owners' needs - whether those needs be big or small.

While they all act as a storage place for your website, where they differ is the amount of storage capacity, control, technical knowledge requirement, server speed and reliability. These are the six types of web hosting you will most often come across:

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is perfect for entry-level website hosting. This is where your website will be stored on the same server as multiple other websites. With a shared hosting plan, all domains share the same server resources, such as RAM (Random Access Memory) and CPU (Central Processing Unit). However, because all resources are shared, the cost of shared hosting plans are relatively low, making them an excellent option for website owners in their beginning stages.

In most cases, beginners will find shared the simplest method of hosting their website; so regardless of whether you’re a small business owner, a community group, or a stay-at-home mom with a desire to blog, your site will be accessible on the web. Shared hosting plans often comes with many helpful tools, and you can easily end up with bonus services such as the best website builder tools, the best WordPress hosting, and the ability to email clients.

Although shared hosting provides website owners with a more simplistic approach to the web, the trade-off is that you’re sharing the server with multiple other website owners. This means that surges in usage can ultimately affect your website’s user experience.

Shared hosting plans are ideal for website owners that do not receive a large amount of web traffic.

VPS Hosting

A VPS hosting plan is the ultimate middle ground between a shared server and a dedicated server. It’s ideal for website owners that need more control, but don’t necessarily need a dedicated server.

VPS hosting is unique because each website is hosted within its own space on the server, though it still shares a physical server with other users. While VPS hosting provides website owners with more customization and storage space, they’re still not able to handle incredibly high traffic levels or spikes in usage meaning that the site performance can still be affected by other sites on the server

Typically, VPS hosting is used by website owners who want dedicated hosting but don’t have the technical knowledge needed. VPS hosting offers the cost benefits of shared hosting with the control of dedicated hosting. A great choice for advanced users and those that want specific software and package installations.

Dedicated hosting

Dedicated hosting gives website owners the most control over the server that their website is stored on. That’s because the server is exclusively rented by you and your website is the only one stored on it. This means that you have full root and admin access, so you can control everything from security to operating system that you run.

However, all that control comes with a price.

Dedicated servers cost are one of the most expensive web hosting options. Typically, they are used by website owners with high levels of website traffic, and those who are in need of complete control of their servers. In addition, a high level of technical expertise is required for the installation and ongoing management of the server.

Cloud Hosting

Cloud hosting is the current buzzword of the technology industry. In regards to web hosting, it means many computers working together, running applications using combined computing resources. It’s a hosting solution that works via a network and enables companies to consume computing resource like a utility.

This allows users to employ as many resources as they need without having to build and maintain their own computing infrastructure. The resources that are being used are spread across several servers, reducing the chance of any downtime due to a server malfunction.

Cloud-based hosting is scalable, meaning your site can grow over time, using as many resources as it requires and while the website owner only pays for what they need.

Many hosts now use cloud architecture and use it to package traditional style hosting plans like shared and VPS. These 'cloud shared' and 'cloud VPS' plans provide basically the same amount of resources as the standard shared or VPS but with a bit more flexibility.

Managed Hosting

There are three level of management in hosting: unmanaged, managed, and fully managed. With unmanaged, you're renting just the hardware and have full access and control over your server environment. With managed, the server environment is managed by the host but your website files are managed by you. With fully managed the entire site can be managed by the host and this includes going into your website files and code to optimize or fix things.

You'll only find unmanaged hosting with VPS, dedicated, and cloud. This is because a host cannot have people doing whatever they want on a shared server as it poses security and stability risks. At a minimum shared servers come managed. You can find fully managed servers on all types of hosting.

Colocation

Instead of keeping servers in-house or at a private data centre, you may choose to ”‘co-locate” your equipment by renting space in a colocation centre. The centre will provide the power, bandwidth, IP address and cooling systems that your server requires. Space is rented out in racks and cabinets.

Colocation gives access to higher levels of bandwidth than a normal office server room at a much lower cost. You’re left to your own devices (literally) and will be expected to take care of everything including the hardware, software and services.

What's best for you?

Now you know more about the different types of web hosting, you may still be unsure about which type of web hosting is best for you. To help you I've put together a guide so you can find the right web hosting solution for you.