What types of web hosting are there?
Most web hosts will offer different types of hosting and each will vary in cost. It all depends on your websites needs. We’ve compiled a list below to help you understand, which type of hosting is best suited to you.
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is when a web hosting provider hosts a number of different websites on the same server. It is the most affordable form of hosting because you share the same server, so you split costs. If you are looking to start a blog or have a business that’s just starting up, then shared hosting is a good option.
In the past, sharing a server could lead to problems where a spike in traffic or resource usage from a single site would slow down its “neighbouring” websites. However, these days web hosting subscriptions come with a generous amount of resources that ensure good performance.
WordPress Hosting
WordPress Hosting simply means hosting that has been optimised for WordPress on a server level to ensure smooth sailing.
How is WordPress different from regular hosting? While details vary by provider, most WordPress hosting packages offer these common traits:
- Simple one-click installation that avoids the dozen or so manual steps in configuring a new WordPress site. At one.com, WordPress installs automatically in under a minute.
- Server configurations optimised for faster loading of WordPress sites. This could include performance cache optimisations and other tweaks.
- Security measures to protect against common WordPress vulnerabilities. As WordPress powers over 30% of the web, it regularly comes under attack. You might also come across “Managed WordPress”, which often refers to a pre-defined secure environment that restricts usage of unsupported or vulnerable plugins.
WordPress hosting can run on a shared, VPS or dedicated servers.
VPS Hosting
VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. Like shared hosting, websites that run on VPS share a physical server with other websites. However, each VPS tenant has its own partition with guaranteed dedicated resources. There’s often more memory, storage and processing power available – with a price tag to match.
VPS hosting is recommended for highly experienced users with server management skills. VPS customers have root access to their partition and can configure their server software, for example Ubuntu, CentOS or Windows Server. This provides a high level of customization to run web apps built for those systems.
You might come across “Business Hosting” or “Premium Hosting”, which are generic terms that some hosting providers associate with VPS Hosting managed by their in-house experts. However, levels of support, subscription details and prices vary significantly, so make sure you research these services thoroughly before signing up.
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting means you have the entire server to yourself. It gives you access like a VPS, but you don’t have to share the server with other sites or apps. Effectively, you are leasing a physical web server housed at your service provider’s facility. You also have professional support and expertise on hand when needed.
This top-end web hosting is only warranted for highly demanding enterprise-grade websites. Small and medium-sized businesses do not need to spend thousands each month to rent a dedicated web server for their business.
Cloud Hosting
These days, cloud hosting has become a bit of a nebulous term. So, we would strongly recommend looking closely at what you are getting if you are signing up for “Cloud Hosting”.
In the beginning, “cloud hosting” referred to a VPS setup scalable to multiple servers; this way, if your web application had a sudden traffic spike, the system would be able to provision more resources and keep things running smoothly. Cloud hosting would have a more variable pricing model and fluid specs as a result.
However, as the popularity of cloud computing has surged, some companies have started to co-op the term for their regular shared or VPS hosting. Other providers like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure offer cloud computing services, which usually include cloud hosting in an array of other advanced tools for cloud-based operations. While possible, hosting a typical website with one of these “hyperscalers” operating millions of servers can present a high technical hurdle
