Starting a new website or a blog can be intimidating enough but once you make the decision to start one it doesn’t get any easier. What platform to use? What theme to use? And what type of hosting do I need? One would think that hosting would be an easy choice but you go to a hosting providers website and you will see several options. So, which one do you pick? The three main hosting options are shared, VPS and dedicated. Each has its pros and cons so you will want to research each one to see which one is best for you at the current time. Let’s take a look at the different options and see which one you need.
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is just like it sounds. You share a server with several other websites. The good thing is the price. Since you are just using a part of a server along with other websites, you are sharing the cost so the cost is cheaper. However, that does come with some drawbacks. You also share resources and file space. If another website starts using a lot of the resources like memory or CPU time, then your site will slow down and could become inaccessible. The resources are just not there for your site to function as you would like.
However, the biggest drawback can be security. Since you are sharing resources, you are also sharing file space on one server. So if another website gets compromised, then yours could also. A virus or malware can copy itself across different websites and can copy itself into your site as well. You will want to make sure you keep all aspects of your site up to date and install a software firewall to keep the bad guys at bay.
Dedicated Hosting
On the other end of the spectrum is using a dedicated server. This is where your site is all alone on one server and all of the resources are dedicated to your site. The pros are you are not sharing resources and since you are the only site on the server, you don’t have to worry about another site getting your site infected. You also have all of the resources to yourself so another site can’t take your site down by using all of the resources.
One drawback of a dedicated server is price. The cost of a dedicated server is considerably higher than a shared server because you are paying for the server all by yourself. Another issue is you may be responsible for all things on that server. If you wanted to go this route, you would want to look at an unmanaged dedicated server. This means that the hosting company will take care of the things behind the scenes and keep the server updated. You will still be responsible for your site but the server itself will be managed by the hosting company. Some hosting companies offer a managed dedicated option for a cheaper price but you are responsible for the server as well as your site. This option can be tempting but if you go this route, make sure you are aware of what you are responsible for on the server.
VPS Hosting
A good in-between is to use a VPS or a virtual private server. Basically, you get the best of both worlds but you also get some of the cons from both. When using a VPS, you get a “virtual” dedicated server but your server is still on a shared server with other VPS users. You still get the security of having a dedicated server where the other servers using that same server can’t see or get to your files but you still share the resources. However, sharing resources on a VPS is not as bad as using a shared server. You get an allotment of the resources on the server and another server can’t access your resources. However, you can’t use theirs either if you need additional resources at any given time. The cost of a VPS is like you would expect, in between shared and dedicated servers.
Managed WordPress
Another option that is out now is Managed WordPress hosting. If you want to use WordPress for your platform, you may want to look at this option. With this type of hosting, your hosting company takes on the responsibility of updating the files of your website and keeping the security up to date. However, you may not have as much control over aspects of your hosting account. Since the hosting company is taking on additional responsibilities, you can expect the cost of this type of hosting to be higher. And sometimes they don’t look at how updates can go, so an update may take your site down and you might need to work with them to get your site back up and running.
Picking a hosting plan can be pretty intimidating but it doesn’t have to be. With a little research, you can pick the hosting plan that works best for you, and if you need help in deciding which plan works best for you, Jordan Web Solutions will be happy to help. Just go to our contact us page and fill out the form and we will get in touch with you to help you decide which plan is best for you.
