Free Hosting
With this type of hosting you do not pay any money for the service. Most of the Free Hosting solutions in the market are less reliable compared to a paid hosting service. Since the service is offered free the hosting company has Terms and Conditions which do not always serve in your best interest. Some Free Hosting services require you to display ads and some are designed as a marketing tool (or bait) to upgrade you to a paid hosting package. I do not recommend Free Hosting service if you are serious about your online venture. I only recommend Free Hosting services for projects that are in Testing or Prototyping phase.
Self Hosting
Self Hosting refers to hosting your website at home on your own computer. Personally I do not recommend this option either. First of all, you have to spend time setting up and maintaining your web server. This time and effort could be well spent on developing your online business. Secondly, you should have good working knowledge of web servers and networking. Other common problems with self hosting include problems such as maintaining consistent speed and uptimes. Unless you are a techie who really wants to have full control of your web server, do not consider self hosting as a viable solution to your Internet business.
Shared Hosting
This is the most common and popular choice of hosting for a new website that has a low volume of traffic. In shared hosting your website is hosted on a computer along side with many other websites, thus the name Shared Hosting. Your website has to share resources with other websites on the same computer. Nowadays you can get a decent Shared Hosting service for around 5$ – 10$ a month. Cheaper services tend to put more web sites on a single computer while quality services tries to keep this number down in order to maintain good performance and customer satisfaction.
In Shared Hosting your website shares the IP address of the computer with other websites. Sharing the same IP address can pose you with some problems. For example, if another person’s website on the same computer is involved in email spamming, Spam Blocking Software might block all emails from that IP address. As a result your outgoing emails could end up in the spam folder.
Dedicated Hosting or Dedicated Server
Dedicated Hosting is the Lamborghinis of Web Hosting solutions. Dedicated Hosting is suitable for major online businesses and stores. In Dedicated Hosting you have exclusive access to the entire computer and its resources. You do not share the computer with others. Dedicated Hosting is expensive and only justified if your website attracts a very large volume of traffic. Dedicated Hosting comes in two flavors: Managed and Unmanaged. In Managed Dedicated Hosting the hosting company takes cares of the administration of the server. In an Unmanaged operation the hosting company leases the server to you and you are responsible for the maintenance of the computer. This gives you more control over the computer. In the Unmanaged option the hosting company is only providing you the infrastructure support. Dedicated Hosting Packages are priced from $100 – $500 a month.
Virtual Private Server
Is your website too big to be hosted on a Shared Hosting and not big enough to justify the use of Dedicated server? If this is the case then a Virtual Private Server based hosting might be the solution for you. Mid size companies and websites that have a good volume of traffic can consider a Virtual Private Server hosting. In this hosting solution you get your own virtual server. A number of virtual servers can use the same physical computer.
So what’s the difference between a Virtual Private Server and Shared Hosting? Unlike in Shared Hosting where an IP address is shared with multiple websites, in a Virtual Private Server setup, each server sharing the same physical computer has unique IP addresses and completely different sets of Operating Systems. Virtual Private Server provides increased isolation and protection. Price for Virtual Private Server range from $30 – $ 120 a month.
Grid or Cloud Hosting
Grid or Cloud Hosting is suitable when your website traffic is highly volatile. For example, if on some days you have very low traffic and on other days you have very large volume of traffic, then Grid or Cloud based hosting could be your choice.
In Grid Hosting a cluster of computers work together to host a website. During low traffic periods few or one computer can handle visitor requests. During heavy traffic periods more computers will support the website. This means you only use computing resources as and when required.
Grid based hosting is highly scalable. In Grid based hosting you only pay for the resources you use allowing you to save money. Grid Hosting prices can range from $10 – $20 a month.
Reseller Hosting
In Reseller Hosting your hosting company will provide you with an account that will allow you to manage hosting services for your clients. In this account, your web hosting company will provide you with special administration features that will allow you to create user accounts for your own clients. This means you act as a mini hosting company. This option is suitable if you want to provide web hosting as a value added service to your clients. For example, if you are a website designer you can provide hosting services to your clients under Reseller Hosting program.
If you have any questions or doubts please leave a comment.
Photo Credit: torkildr’s photostream
Thanks for going over some of these. I have personally used each on various sites and starting to switch most of my sites over to grid hosting as it seems to be the most stable, scalable, and affordable for my needs. There are benefits to each, but having a site that can cope with traffic and has good uptime is a main concern, which is why the grid-hosting solution is so appealing.