Choosing The Perfect Webhost – What To Look For
May 7th, 2011 by Andrew
One of the decisions a lot of companies and individuals don’t look into is their web host. Most people just find a company they like the look of, have heard good reviews for or like the prices, and sign up without a second thought. Further down the line this can turn out to be a costly mistake.
There are several types of hosting – shared, virtual private, dedicated and cloud. They all have their advantages and disadvantages. You can also get Windows and Linux hosting too, just to further complicate matters.
Windows or Linux?
The first thing to deal with is the operating system your hosting will be running. Which do you need, Windows or Linux?
Simply put, in most cases it won’t matter. Unless the platform you’re going to be using is specific to either platform (for example ASP.NET in Windows) then using either probably won’t make much difference. Linux is generally considered more powerful but increasingly more difficult to configure. Windows is a lot simpler but in some cases not powerful enough feature wise.
Most shared hosting will offer both Windows and Linux hosting if they are of good quality. Windows often costs a little more due to licensing costs for the provider. It’s up to you which you choose as both can perform equally as well as one another.
Shared hosting
Shared hosting is the most common and cheapest kind of hosting. Smaller sites you view will probably be hosted on a shared hosting platform.
Advantages:
• Cheap and feature packed (prices start from £1/month)
• Perfect for new starters
• Easy to use and configure
Disadvantages:
• Multiple clients on one server can cause slower loading times
• Cheap hosts may out-source to other countries
• Support may not be very good
• Little control over base configurations
Virtual private hosting
The next level up from shared hosting is virtual private hosting. This gives you a “piece” of a server which is virtualised into a dedicated server. This means you will get full root access to the operating system so you can install your own services (Web, E-mail, etc) and manage it yourself. If you don’t know how, managed hosting companies can do this for you for a fee.
Advantages:
• Can cope with more traffic than shared hosting giving room to grow
• The server will only be split between a few people (usually less than 10 clients)
• Full root capabilities of the server to install and configure your own software
Disadvantages:
• More expensive than shared hosting (prices start from £10/month)
• Requires intermediate knowledge to operate and configure it (although this could be outsourced for a small fee)
Dedicated hosting
The third level is dedicated hosting. This gives you a whole server dedicated to your website. Just imagine it as a computer all to yourself only running your website and nobody else’s.
Advantages:
• Very fast hosting
• Only you are on the server to ensure zero bottlenecks
• Huge room to expand
• Can run any software you require with your own configurations
Disadvantages:
• Has the highest cost of all of the options (Often starting from £60/month)
• Requires full management by the user (this can be outsourced for a small fee)
Cloud hosting
Cloud hosting is fairly new, and you may have heard it’s going to revolutionise the way we use computers. It’s not only used for storing data as you can also host websites from it. The power of cloud hosting can be as small as shared hosting to as powerful as a dedicated server, it all depends on your needs and your price range.
Advantages:
• Costs as much as a shared hosting package to begin with (Starting from £10/month)
• Scalability (increase resources and pay a little more as your site grows)
• Offers full control of the software you run
• Some cloud hosting offers pay per hour, so it’s useful for test purposes, only paying when you use it.
Disadvantages:
• Costs often go out of control as you scale larger
• Requires full management by the user (again you can outsource this for a fee)
• Not a well developed technology
It’s important to have a fast website for SEO purposes too. If a Search Engine Optimised site is slow, the Google Caffeine update could result in the site being lightly penalised and your SERP’s could drop. Quite often the slowness of a website is down to its hosting, not the programming.
So there you have it. Hopefully from this information you can make the right choice for you or your business. With the right tools and the right website, your business could profit from it in no time at all.
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