Do you know how critical it is to choose the right web hosting service? We’ll use a scenario to illustrate this importance.
Let’s say you intend to build a website for your business, whether you’re doing it yourself or working with a professional web designer. You’ve spent hours or even days working on the perfect website that adequately portrays your brand. This includes both the content and design.
However, you haven’t done one key thing: you haven’t chosen a web hosting provider. Eventually, you get around to choosing one. Only, you’ve gone ahead to chose the wrong provider.
Your website loads slowly and you experience frequent downtime. On certain occasions, you even experience loss of data. Does this seem familiar? Well, this is a typical experience for many people as a result of subscribing to a subpar hosting service.
Website hosting basically refers to the service that helps individuals and organisations to make their websites digitally accessible by storing website data, files, and content on specialised computers called servers.
Web hosting services provide the technologies that help your website visitors seamlessly view and interact with your website. As such, you must get it right when choosing a hosting service. Failure to get it right will only lead to serious implications.
However, with so many web hosting services around, it is easy to get lost and confused. We have written this article to explain the different types of web hosting and how you can choose the best service for your website.
Types of Web Hosting
There are various types of web hosting. If you are going to work with us, we want you to have enough information to make smart decisions. So, we’ll briefly explain the different types of hosting.
- Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting
This hosting provides your website with a dedicated, private space on a shared server. You can decide to configure your VPS from scratch and obtain the required resources. It all depends on your hosting provider.
We should mention that some VPS hosting plans may not automatically include a control panel. This means you have to use the command line for server configuration and website setup. While this process will be intricate if you’re still getting familiar with it, we are specialists in getting it done at Cheap Web Design.
- Shared Hosting
This is the most common type of hosting. Here, multiple users share a single server. That means one computer can host hundreds of websites. To be honest, the quality of a shared hosting service is largely determined by your hosting provider. Some plans may be limiting, while others can handle websites with sizable traffic volumes.
- Managed WordPress Hosting
For this type of hosting, you can pass several day-to-day maintenance tasks to your provider. This is because it is not just a plan but a service. So they will provide a range of services including software updates, backups, and security monitoring.
- Dedicated Hosting
As the name implies, dedicated server hosting is all about complete control and exclusivity. Here, a dedicated server provides exclusive access to a single server. It may also serve multiple servers. But basically, you have full control over its configuration. The hosting provider only houses it for you. As you’d expect, dedicated servers come with a pretty high price tag.
- Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting refers to distributed Virtual Private Servers (VPS). For this form of hosting, your virtual server is hosted on interconnected computers instead of a single computer.
Candidly, cloud hosting isn’t quite beginner-friendly. It is an excellent choice if you need flexible resource allocation and have the experience. But if you have simpler needs, it may be best to go with other options that align better with your requirements.
Choosing a Web Hosting Service
- Determine Your Needs
The first step in choosing a hosting service is considering what you intend to achieve with your website. For example, a personal blog will have different resource needs than an e-commerce site. When you consider the volume of traffic your website may attract, in addition to other requirements, you can then make sure your hosting provider can accommodate those needs.
- Reliability And Uptime
This is where customer reviews come in handy to confirm reliability. You need to choose a hosting provider that can guarantee a minimum uptime of 99.9% with a proven track record of meeting that provision. Uptime ensures that your website is always accessible to visitors and that your data is safe.
- Speed and Performance
Website performance and speed affect not only user experience but also search engine optimisation. As such, you must choose a hosting service that prioritises fast load times as this gives your website a competitive edge.
You also want to think about the scalability and flexibility of the web hosting plans you are offered. It is important to confirm that they can handle future growth and accommodate traffic fluctuations without considerably affecting performance.
- Technical Assistance & Customer Support
This is even more critical if you have no technical knowledge. If you are a business owner, you need to make sure the provider hosting your website is accessible and responsive. This is important because situations may occur requiring prompt resolution. Given this, make sure you prioritise hosting providers that offer multiple support channels or 24/7 support to ensure swift assistance whenever you need it.
- Pricing And Plans
Pricing is a vital consideration, no doubt. However, it is also important to evaluate the value for money that a hosting provider offers. Look for any hidden costs that may significantly affect your budget as this is common with some providers.
We also need to emphasise the importance of closely reviewing the provider’s terms and conditions to ensure there are no blind spots. Generally, consider the overall value and affordability of the plan before making a decision.
- Security And Backups
Another essential factor to consider is the security measures the hosting provider has in place to protect your data and website. Cybercrime is at an all-time high. As such, you must only go with providers that offer regular malware scanning, firewalls, and SSL certificates to secure sensitive information. Also, confirm If they offer automated backups to retrieve your website in case of data loss or breaches.
Bottom Line
Considering the points highlighted in this article will help you in choosing a hosting provider that helps your business website thrive. This provider must guarantee fast loading times, uninterrupted accessibility, and robust security measures for your website.
If you need affordable website designs or web hosting services, we can provide these to you. Kindly reach out to us to discuss your specific needs. We are ready to take your digital presence to the next level!
