Types of Web Hosting Explained and Tested

Both options are more expensive than shared hosting. Self-managed VPS hosting may only cost a few dollars more than shared hosting each month, whereas managed VPS hosting is often $30 or more per month.

VPS hosting is a good option for medium-sized companies that require more resources than shared hosting can provide but aren’t prepared to invest in a whole server.

Pros:

• Can handle higher traffic levels than shared hosting
• Server separation provides better security than shared hosting
• Can customize your virtual private server to meet your unique needs

Cons:

• Configuring a virtual private server is complicated
• More expensive than shared hosting, especially if you choose not to self-manage your server

Dedicated hosting

Dedicated hosting gives you an entire physical server. This provides a massive amount of storage — usually at least 1 terabyte — and the server’s full bandwidth. With dedicated hosting you can host hundreds of thousands of files and provide a fast browsing experience for millions of visitors.

The hosting company handles physical server maintenance, but you’re responsible for digital configuration and maintenance — things like selecting the operating system and installing security software. If you lack the knowledge to manage the server, you’ll have to hire a system administrator or pay for a managed dedicated hosting plan.

Dedicated hosting plans are expensive, with the lowest-tier options often costing $80 to $100 per month. Managed plans can cost thousands of dollars a month. This makes dedicated hosting prohibitively expensive for small businesses, bloggers and hobby website owners.

Because of this, dedicated hosting is best for large or medium-size companies with extensive data needs.

Pros:

• Massive amount of storage space
• Access to the full bandwidth capabilities of your server
• Ability to customize your server

Cons:

• Plans are quite expensive, often costing over $100 a month
• Digital configuration and maintenance are your responsibility
• Not offered by all web hosting companies

Cloud hosting

Cloud hosting takes a different approach from other types of web hosting. Instead of keeping your website on one server, cloud hosting stores your website on several linked servers in data centers — buildings where web servers are stored — around the globe.

Hosting your website across multiple servers provides a few advantages:

• Ability to stay functional in the event of an attack: If one server is compromised, another server will activate to keep your website running.
• Faster service around the world: When someone visits your website, their browser pulls information from the data center closest to their location. This ensures faster loading speeds for international visitors and employees working on your website internally.
• Scalability: If your website outgrows the resources initially allocated to it, a cloud hosting service can give it space on a greater number of servers to accommodate your needs.
• Flexibility: Many cloud hosting services make it easy to add or reduce things like storage space as your website’s needs change.
• Customization: Cloud hosting services often let you customize aspects of your server configuration. This customization is more complex than anything you need to do on shared hosting, but not as complicated as configuring a VPS or dedicated server.

Some cloud hosting services like Google Cloud Web Hosting also offer specialized tools for quickly creating various types of websites, including web apps.

The cost of cloud hosting varies widely, but it’s generally more affordable than VPS or dedicated hosting. For example, the one-click deployment of a WordPress site on Google Cloud Web Hosting costs $13.17 a month at its most basic level.

Cloud hosting is great for businesses of any size, especially businesses catering to an international audience and/or expecting rapid growth. Hobbyists and bloggers can also do well with cloud hosting.

Note that website builders using cloud hosting typically don’t offer all of these benefits. Most have rigid pricing plans and lack server configuration options for customers, but they do provide the improved speed, security and uptime of cloud hosting.

Pros:

• Your site will stay up if one server goes down
• Use of global data centers ensures fast loading speeds for users from all over the world
• Easy to scale without switching to a more complicated form of hosting
• Most cloud hosting services provide flexible pricing so you can pay for what you need — nothing more, nothing less
• Many cloud hosting services include some level of server configuration, without the complications of running a VPS or dedicated hosting server

Cons:

• No starting discount like the ones offered on shared hosting
• Pricing varies widely, complicating comparative shopping

Colocation hosting

Colocation hosting is like dedicated hosting: you get an entire physical server to yourself.

The difference is that with dedicated hosting, you rent the server, but in colocation hosting, you own the server. You buy the hardware, such as solid-state drives — SSDs — for storage, then rent physical space for it. You may also be responsible for installing this hardware in the physical server space.

The hosting company maintains your server’s physical environment. This includes providing a 24/7 internet connection and consistent power to your hardware, maintaining climate control, running server cooling systems and securing the building.

Your responsibilities are dependent on whether you choose self-managed or managed colocation hosting.

In self-managed colocation hosting, you’ll maintain your server’s hardware and software. The company may notify you if something’s obviously wrong, but you’ll be on the hook to fix it yourself. You may be able to hire a company technician to fix it on a job-by-job basis.

In managed colocation hosting, the data center’s employees monitor your hardware 24/7. These employees will fix it if anything goes wrong. Your main responsibility will be configuring and maintaining the server’s software, plus replacing hardware if it can’t be fixed.

Both types of colocation hosting are expensive. You can find self-managed plans for $50 per month, but you’ll also have to buy your hardware and you may have to pay someone to configure and maintain it. Prices for managed plans aren’t listed on most colocation hosting sites — you’ll have to contact the company for a quote.

Colocation hosting is ideal for large businesses with massive data needs that aren’t prepared to invest in an entire data center but still want complete control over the configuration of their servers.

Pros:

• You own your hardware and have full control over it
• You get many of the benefits of having your own data center without having to invest in an entire data center

Cons:

• Expensive
• Plan listings include a lot of terms you won’t find on other web hosting sites, requiring more extensive research before you choose one
• You need a comprehensive understanding of server hardware to set it up
• You’re responsible for every aspect of server maintenance and configuration unless you pay a lot more for managed colocation hosting

Which type of web hosting is right for you?

Every type of web hosting plan has its pros and cons, so how do you choose the right one for your website’s needs? Choose:

• Select shared hosting for a small business or hobby site that requires minimal setup and maintenance.
• Buy WordPress hosting for a small business or hobby site intending to use WordPress as its CMS.
• Select website builder hosting if you’re starting a hobby site or a website for a small- to medium-sized business and user-friendliness is more important to you than flexibility.
• Pick VPS hosting for a medium-sized business website that requires higher levels of storage (or expects higher levels of data) than you’ll get on shared hosting.
• Choose dedicated hosting if you’re building a website for a medium-to-large business needing significant resources (and with a significant budget for hosting and technical setup).
• Pick cloud hosting if you’re starting a website for an international company or a small business in which you expect to see rapid growth.
• Invest in colocation hosting if you’re building a website for a large business with extensive data needs and you want full control over your server configuration, including hardware.

After selecting a hosting type, research web hosting companies before you invest in a plan. The right company can help your website be successful at every stage of growth, while the wrong one can stifle it.