Which website hosting service will be best for me?
There are various types of web hosting services suitable for different websites when it comes to the resources or the web hosting environment they demand. To choose the most optimal hosting service for your website, you must evaluate what server-side software applications it demands, how many hits per day you anticipate at the beginning and in the long run, as well as any other special requirements that may have to be answered.
Shared Web Hosting - Upsides
The most suitable option for small sized web portals with a few hundred or webspace hosting, each customer pays only for their account, which minimizes the total cost per client substantially. There are diverse web hosting solutions differing from one provider to another, delivering different amounts of server storage space and bandwidth, different email address account quotas and so on. The privilege is that you can obtain a package that will have the resources your web site indeed needs. You will not need to pay a lot for an account you will not make use of, or end up with a small plan that cannot shelter the site. At Duo Servers, there is a great choice of shared hosting solutions suitable for private or small business web pages that even come with pre-activated script-powered systems like Joomla, Mambo, Drupal or WordPress - to make things easier. If you start with a low grade plan and you require more functionalities, moving to a more powerful account requires only a click.
Shared Website Hosting - Negative Sides
A negative side of the shared webspace hosting environment is that the web hosting servers have some software platforms installed on them and you cannot install new software. Certain online portals, particularly web shops, require applications to be available on the web server for them to function, and with a shared webspace hosting platform, you can install solely software programs that do not require root access.
Private Virtual Web Hosting Servers and Dedicated Web Hosting Servers
For online portals that require complete root access, or if your portal has many 1000's or even 1 000 000's of visitors per day, what you need is a VPS or a dedicated server. A VPS web server is a virtual imitation of a dedicated solution and it runs in exactly the same way.
Private Virtual Hosting Servers
Both platforms normally come with root privileges and can be restarted via a software program by the client, autonomously from the web hosting provider. Analogous to the shared website hosting packages, the virtual web hosting server and the dedicated hosting packages involve different characteristics based on what the web hosting provider offers. A VPS server hosting plan has guaranteed hard disk space, RAM and CPU usage quotas that can sometimes be enhanced for short spans of time in case there are unused system resources on the physical server. With a dedicated server, the only limit is the hardware it is making use of, and it can be upgraded by altering or appending components. A virtual web hosting server is easier to handle as it ships with a virtualization software platform, which can be utilized to restart it, to install software applications, monitor stats, etc. The management of a dedicated hosting server is more complex, so such a solution would rather be used by competent customers.
Dedicated Web Servers
However, some web hosting vendors provide managed dedicated server hosting services where they execute dedicated web hosting server administration tasks instead of the customer. This can be a part of plan or an additional feature.
Prior To Deciding...
Opting for the top hosting plan is important as it can have an influence on the stable work of a web site. Before settling on a package, compare the pros and cons, check carefully all the preconditions for the web portal to perform properly, particularly if it is script-driven, and, last but not least, if you have already selected a web hosting supplier, the best thing to do would be to ask their client support team for a recommendation as to which plan exactly would be best for the proper performance of your online portal.