If you feel about as uninformed as Truman Burbank on his porch step when it comes to hosting on t'internet then fear not as
Register365 has put together a little explanation for y'all.
1. Shared Hosting
This option sees many websites hosted on one web server and each has its own distinct area to keep it separate from other sites. However, if your site sits on a server with a neighbour that consumes a lot of resources, the speed of your website may be reduced and if the server your site is hosted on fails, so will your website.
Advantages:
Economical - many people share the overall cost of server maintenance and resources are shared rather than being dedicated to each site
Ease of use – the provider is in charge of performing server maintenance, management, installing software and security updates, technical support etc.
Simple - ideal for those that don’t need extensive software development.
2. Clustered Shared Hosting
Shared hosting but without some of the drawbacks, such as vulnerability to traffic spikes and the associated risk of downtime for your site. The load is spread over multiple high performance gateway servers to improve reliability.
Advantages:
Reliable – your website doesn’t depend on just one server, your site is backed up and will remain online even if one, two or three servers go offline.
Consistent performance - load balancing technology sees requests spread over different servers if there is extra or unplanned traffic.
3. Dedicated Servers
An individual server hosting a single website, the server is not shared with anyone else so is great for sites or sets of sites that have high traffic and need more space for a growing business. An SME starting out would be advised to think carefully if they require this level of hosting since it is a higher cost option compared to shared hosting / Virtual Private Servers, with multiple servers required for redundancy.
Advantages:
Flexible – you retain full control of the server and can customise the operating system, hardware and software to suit your specific needs.
Future-proof - supports businesses that forecast rapid growth.
4. Virtual Private Server (VPS)
A VPS offers a compromise between paying for a dedicated server and lower cost shared hosting. Sites are allocated a dedicated slice of the system resources on physical server hardware that is shared with other websites. Unlike standard shared hosting, your site is unaffected by the performance of other sites hosted on that server and you can draw on the shared resources on the server when required, offering greater flexibility.
Advantages:
Easy configuration – Advanced features are managed through a user-friendly control panel.
Shared resources – You have dedicated distinct portion of the physical server hardware but you can still take advantage of shared resources when you need to.
5. Cloud Hosting
This is an up and coming technology that is still in its infancy; your site operates across multiple connected servers on the web without being tied down to a server in a particular location.
Advantages:
Up time - Your website doesn’t depend on just one server but is distributed across many, this guarantees a high level of performance.
Scalable – A virtual approach offers unrestricted processing power and flexibility. You can adjust your requirements at any point by upgrading space and RAM without any down time, so it’s easy to grow your website in line with your business growth.
Folks, don't try this at home... or do. Your call.
Enlarge has over 1.8million domains registered in over 250 extensions and 500,000 websites hosted on their platforms so they know what they're talking about when it comes to Web hosting. Cheers for the breakdown
Register365!