Webhosting Basic Guide

Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data centre. Web hosts can also provide data centre space and connectivity to the Internet for servers they do not own to be located in their data centre, called co-location.

Web hosting is often provided as part of a general Internet access plan; there are many free and paid providers offering these services. Packages often include a Web Content Management System, so the end-user doesn't have to worry about the more technical aspects.

There are various types of web hosting solutions. Depending on your needs you could choose from one of many, therefore it is important to research and evaluate the services prior to purchasing. Listed below are some of the most common types of web hosting services available today.

Free Web Hosting

A free web hosting service is, as the name indicates, a free service! It’s usually advertisement-supported and of limited functionality. Most companies may offer free web hosting in exchange for you having their banner ads at the top of your web page's or a similar agreement.

Shared Web Hosting

A Shared or virtual hosting service is by far the most common form of web hosting. Shared Hosting is a service where many websites reside on one web server connected to the Internet. Each site "sits" on its own partition, or section/place on the server to keep it separate from other sites. This is generally the most economical option for hosting as many people share the overall cost of server maintenance.

Reseller Web Hosting

If you have a network of websites or want to resell web hosting services to others, a reseller account can be a good start.

Reseller Web Hosting allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Resellers could function, for individual domains, under any combination of these listed types of hosting, depending on who they are affiliated with as a provider.

Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS) Web Hosting

If you require control over your hosting environment but not the resources of a dedicated server VDS hosting might be right for you.

A Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS), also referred to as Virtual Private Server (VPS), is a method of partitioning a physical server computer into multiple servers that each has the appearance and capabilities of running on its own dedicated machine.

Dedicated Web Hosting

Unlike shared hosting where tens to hundreds of websites of various customers are hosted on one computer, dedicated web hosting solutions allow a client to lease the complete computer and have access to all its resources to host one or multiple websites

Managed Web Hosting

This is the most hands-off solution for the client. Managed or "fully managed" web hosting solutions take the dedicated model to a higher level. We know that dedicated hosting allows the client to have full control of the server but dedicated servers can be difficult to operate technically and require that you have certain knowledge about server maintenance and system administration. The notch above is managed hosting, as it takes the dedicated features and adds extra services like reporting and monitoring, load balancing, security, setup, system administration and software updates.

Server Co-location

This type of web hosting is very similar to the dedicated web hosting except instead of renting the server, you own it!

Not dissimilar to the dedicated hosting service, but the user owns the colo server; the hosting company provides physical space that the server takes up and takes care of the server. This is the most powerful and expensive type of the web hosting service.