You want to launch a website soon? It all starts with web hosting. This service is often misunderstood. Not only are there many hosting providers on the market, but there are also three main types of hosting: shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting.
Meaning of “Website Hosting”
Let’s first define what web hosting is. When you visit a website from your browser, your computer receives a message written in web languages. Your browser translates this language into the form you know: images, text, buttons, everything that makes up a web page.
This code comes from different files that need a storage space: this space is what we call a server. which is composed of a computer that contains memory, a hard disk and an operating system.
So let’s get back to the main topic: the web host is the company that owns the servers where the information related to your website is stored. Usually, in addition to selling space on servers, web hosting providers also offer server management, IT support, antivirus and website backup services.
Types of web hosting
As mentioned earlier, there are four types of hosting available to website owners: shared hosting, VPS hosting and dedicated server hosting
1. Shared hosting
This is the most economical solution, but also a poor quality solution. Shared hosting works as follows: several websites – even 1,000 to 3,000 websites – share the resources of ONE server.
For example, a very busy website or one with bad code could take up to 80% of the memory of a shared server. This would leave only 20% of memory for the other 2,999 sites on the same server.
Can shared hosting be a good option? YES! For websites in development, test websites or those where loading speed is not an important element.
Price: about 5 – 10$ per month
2. VPS hosting
VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting is an excellent solution in terms of quality-price ratio. Although it is also a shared environment, this type of web hosting is limited to a maximum of 20 sites on the same server.
VPS hosting is an equal solution: all sites on a server are given the same memory and hard drive space on the server.
VPS is flexible in terms of configuration and gives a lot of options to developers. The same is true with budgets: the price of VPS hosting ranges from $80 to $450 per month.
3. Dedicated hosting
The preferred option for sites that receive more than 100,000 visitors per month. As the name implies, this is a single server that hosts a single website.
The main disadvantage of dedicated hosting is that it requires superior computer and hosting skills.
Dedicated hosting is essential for the following two types of websites: those with hyper hardware requirements and those for whom data privacy is the priority.
Price: starting at $125 per month
Choosing a hosting type can be complicated. The first step is to identify your needs. Once you do, don’t just call one provider – store around! Prices vary depending on options, including RAM, hard drive space, content delivery network, bandwidth and more.