Four Types of Web Hosting
Free Web Hosting Service
This is the most basic kind of Web hosting that you can get.
Free Web hosting is typically advertisement-supported and offers
limited features. This is the best option for those just
starting out and only interested in hosting a small personal
site that will be light on traffic.
Free Web hosts will give you a subdomain (yoursite.example.com)
or a directory (www.example.com/~yoursite). They include a small
amount of bandwidth and storage and tend to offer little to no
support for MySQL, PHP, multiple e-mail addresses, and site
statistics.
Shared Web Hosting Service
Shared hosting is the most popular kind of Web hosting service.
Virtually all small businesses, medium to large Web sites, and
professional sites see shared hosting as the perfect solution to
their hosting needs. None of these entities require anywhere
near all the resources of an entire Web server, not to mention
the fact that it would be very costly for them to purchase and
run one.
As the name suggests, shared Web hosts allow more than one site
to be hosted on the same server. These hosts provide system
administration, which is good for users that do not want to deal
with the hassles of running a server along with a number of
other users.
Although it depends on the specifics of the hosting plan, most
server features will be readily available to the user, including
PHP or ASP, MySQL, multiple e-mail addresses, and more bandwidth
and storage than a free host. One downside is the possible
security risks that are inherent with sharing a server with a
number of other sites.
Dedicated Web Hosting - Unmanaged
This is a great option for users who want more bandwidth,
storage, and other server features that free or shared hosting
cannot offer. Having a dedicated server means that there are
unlimited numbers of databases and e-mail addresses that the
user can create, not to mention bigger bandwidth capabilities.
Normal dedicated server plans give the user about 500 to 1,000GB
of bandwidth per month, and if extra storage is required, a new
hard drive can be purchased for the server.
For some users, the one big downside of having an unmanaged
dedicated host is that you must be your own server
administrator. If you do not know how to deal with this task,
there are two options: learn about how to be a server
administrator, or just go for the next Web hosting option.
Dedicated Web Hosting - Managed
So, if you want the big-time capabilities of a dedicated server
but you do not want to deal with the hassle of learning about
server administration, then this should be the perfect option
for you.
Going this route means that you will have help in getting your
server up and running, and you will have assistance readily
available to you if something should ever go wrong. That being
said, it is best to get a referral from a close and trustworthy
person, or to at the very least do some diligent research on the
Internet.
Pricing varies depending on how much reliability, security, and
depth of support you want.
Web Hosting