8 Popular Types of Web Hosting Services

Things can easily become complex when there are thousands of different web hosting plans offered by hundreds of online firms vying for your business. It is simple to understand how someone who just wants to establish an internet business and generate money online can get quickly discouraged when faced with all of the “technical geek” jargon like bandwidth, GB, and DNS.

Your internet business will expand, and with it, the complexity and size of your hosting requirements. Free and cheap web hosting plans may have been adequate during the early stages of your online business, but if your website feels sluggish as it grows and you experience more internet traffic, you may need to start thinking about beefing up your web hosting plan.

Consider this list as a development of the hosting plans and services that a developing internet business might want to take into account. Having said that, let’s have a look at the most popular web hosting plan types and decide which one would best suit your company’s goals, whether you are just starting an online business or hoping to advance your online endeavor.

Cloud-Based Web Hosting

Cloud-based web hosting is a relatively new hosting technology that allows hundreds of individual servers to work together to appear as one large server. As demand grows, the hosting company can simply add more commodity hardware to create a larger grid or cloud.

The benefit of cloud-based web hosting is that if you experience an unusually high volume of website traffic, the web hosting plan can accommodate the surge rather than shutting down your website.

If your website is growing and receiving more traffic, this is likely the first point at which you would upgrade from a shared hosting plan.

Price Range: All grid computing packages use a pay-for-what-you-use pricing model.

Managed WordPress Hosting

With the increasing popularity of WordPress as a web-building platform, many web hosting servers are offering what are referred to as “Managed WordPress Hosting.

In a nutshell, managed WordPress hosting is a service in which the web hosting provider keeps your WordPress installation up to date, which can help protect your site from security threats that would allow hackers to access your site.

While not as cheap as shared web hosting, this is an excellent option for both new and established businesses that use the WordPress platform.

Shared Web Hosting

Hosting that is shared is just that. On a server that is also used by other websites, your website is hosted. The shared expense of this arrangement is a benefit. You can share a super server with (likely) hundreds (or thousands) of other websites for as little as $5 to $10 per month.

Being at the mercy of the other websites on your server is the main drawback of a shared hosting account. A really popular website could have a negative impact on how well your own website performs. However, if your website is the most visited one on the server, you can use a super server for a very low cost.

Most people who start an online business do so with a shared hosting plan to cut costs, and they are unlikely to receive a lot of traffic at first.

Shared hosting is appropriate for a brochure site or a newer site that does not receive a lot of traffic.

Price Range: $5 to $20/month.

Bluehost is a popular shared web hosting option.

Dedicated Web Server

A dedicated server is a single physical server that you rent from a hosting company. If you want, you can have complete control (called “root” permissions in Linux).

You don’t have to worry about other websites on a shared server eating up your resources and slowing down your website when you have a dedicated server.

If your online business grows into a presence that receives a lot of website traffic, you will generally require a dedicated server. While the costs of a dedicated server are significantly higher than those of shared hosting, your company will be in a position to easily afford the costs of having your own server.

Pricing: Dedicated servers start at $100 and go up from there. However, if you are thinking about getting a dedicated server, you should also consider the costs of hiring a system administrator to handle the technical details.

Reseller Web Hosting

Reseller hosting packages are essentially shared hosting accounts with additional tools to assist you in reselling hosting space.

Reseller packages include more technical control (often through the Web Host Manager (WHM) control panel), billing software to help you invoice clients, and other extras.

Among the benefits are:

website templates for free
White-label technical support entails the hosting company handling your clients’ technical support needs.
private name servers — make your company appear larger by directing your clients’ domain name servers to you  ns1.yourwebdesignfirm.com

Reseller packages range in price from $15 to $50, depending on features and resource limits.

If you want to sell web hosting as a business, reseller web hosting is ideal for you. Otherwise, if you’re just getting started, stick with a shared hosting plan.

Also, if you want to make money as a web hosting affiliate, you should read this article on how to make money with affiliate marketing.

Colocation Web Hosting

You rent rack space from a data center when you colocate. You supply your own server hardware, and they supply power, cooling, physical security, and an internet connection. This means you’re in charge of your own server software, data storage, backup procedures, and so on. If hardware fails, you must replace it and bring the server back up and running.

Colocation is probably not worth the investment in time, expertise, and money for most small businesses unless they have the technical know-how in-house.

Virtual Private Server (VPS)

Virtual private servers share a single physical server but function as multiple, independent servers. A VPS is a stepping stone between shared hosting and getting your own dedicated machine. Despite the fact that each VPS instance shares hardware resources, they each have their own slice of computing resources.

A VPS eliminates the risk of your hosting neighbors bringing down your website while avoiding the expense of a dedicated server.
The majority of VPS hosting packages cost between $50 and $200. Pricing is determined by the amount of guaranteed CPU and memory (RAM) you receive.

Self Service Web Hosting

The ultimate hosting strategy: you do everything yourself! You purchase the servers, install and configure the software, ensure adequate cooling and power in your machine room, and duplicate everything for redundancy. You’ll have to deal with the following issues:

• data center space
• cooling
• power (with backup)
• bandwidth
• server hardware
• systems administrator
• data integrity and backup
• … and the list goes on

This, like colocation web hosting, is probably outside the scope of what you’d want to do as an online business owner.