Different Types of Hosting
Choosing the right
web hosting plan
can seem a bit daunting, especially if you aren’t a techie. So, in this
post we’ll take a look at the differences between the four different
types of hosting- Shared, SSD, VPS Hosting, and Dedicated Server.
Let’s run through each in our beginner´s guide.
Shared Hosting
This type of web hosting is a great place to start. Among other
types of hosting plans, it’s the one that most people will be familiar
with. It’s called
shared hosting
because your data (website files, databases, emails etc.) are stored on
a powerful server along with other customers’. It is suitable for
absolute beginners.
The advantage of shared is that it’s low cost and has all the features you would need such as a hosting control panel
(we use cPanel) where you manage all the aspects of your hosting like setting up email addresses. You also get access to a
Website Builder Tool to allow you to build a stunning new website.
With shared you are sharing all of the main resources of the server
such as the CPU, RAM memory and disk space with other customers on the
server. In order to prevent any one particular customer from using all
of the server’s resources (and affecting other customers), we use a tool
called CloudLinux, which keeps the resources spread evenly over all the
customers’ accounts on the server.
See
Pickaweb’s shared hosting from £2.49
On our shared servers, we use Dell hardware and all servers are
equipped with Dual Power Supplies, Dual Processors and 10K SAS
Enterprise hot swap hard drives in a RAID10 configuration. This means
that redundancy is built in to our servers to ensure maximum
uptime.
To give you an analogy, shared is like flying business class. You
get plenty of room along with a great selection of destinations, but
you have to fly from a standard airport and in terms of onboard
cuisine, you can choose from the standard menu on offer.
See the following infographic listing the different types of hosting based on knowledge, budget and requirements.
SSD Hosting
If you want super fast hosting, our SSD Hosting is the plan to go
for. It’s the same as shared, but we use super fast Solid State Drives
(SSD). These are incredibly fast; that is becoming more and more
important these days especially since
the speed at which your website loads is a ranking factor with Google.
With SSD drives there are no moving parts, unlike traditional hard
drives. They are electronic devices and they are extremely quick and
reliable so there are some serious advantages with SSD hosting. In this
type of hosting, we restrict the number of domains on one server to
ensure the highest possible level of service.
Going back to the analogy above, SSD hosting is like flying first
class in a supersonic jet. You get the same choice of great
destinations, the menu is set for you but you get to your destination
much, much faster and you share the cabin with fewer passengers.
See
Pickaweb’s SSD Hosting packages from £9.99
VPS Hosting
When we looked at shared hosting above, one of the main points to
consider is that you are sharing the server’s key resources such as RAM
and CPU. You are also restricted from changing any of the server’s
configuration settings (i.e. version of PHP, security settings). For
most people, that won’t be an issue. But if you are running a busy
website/eCommerce store or you want to run a particular configuration
that your website software requires, a VPS Hosting will definitely meet
your needs.
The way that a Virtual Private Server or VPS works is that a physical
server is split into several virtual servers. See what it is. In this
type of hosting, each server is its own self contained unit and it’s
allocated its own guaranteed resources such as CPU, RAM and disk space.
The advantage to you is that you can have all of the power and
functionality of a dedicated server but at a fraction of the cost. Each
VPS has its own hosting control panel too and you can choose which
operating system you require whether it is a Linux based one (eg:
CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu) or Windows. You can choose whether you want a
1GB, 2GB or 4GB VPS Plan.
Our VPS Hosting is offered via our high availability
cloud infrastructure.
What this means is that your data is stored across many different hard
drives on several physical servers. The result is that the possibility
of hardware related downtime is dramatically reduced because if one
server fails the data is available via the other servers in the cloud.
The cloud also means that if you need more power, you just upgrade your
plan and it’s done in an instant. There is no waiting around.
With our VPS we have two types for you to choose from. We have fast
UK VPS which uses fast, Enterprise grade 10K SAS hard drives and our SSD
VPS which use super fast SSD drives.
Going back to the airline analogy VPS Hosting is the equivalent
of a Private Jet club where you get full use without owning the plane.
You get to choose where you fly to and when. There are very few other
passengers on board, the menu is a la carte and if you need to get there
in supersonic time the SSD VPS is the one to go for.
See
Pickaweb’s VPS Hosting packages from £9.99
Dedicated Hosting
As with the VPS option a Dedicated server you are in complete
control, but this time you don’t share the hardware with anyone. It is
the ultimate in terms of power and control because you get all of the
server’s key resources assigned to you such as CPU, RAM and disk space.
Going back to our analogy, this is like owning your own private
jet. You can go the full Elvis and customise your server exactly the way
you want it. Fly when you want, to where you want and with whom you
want. You are 100% in control.
See
Pickaweb’s Dedicated Server Solutions
Managed VPS and Dedicated Servers
One thing that may concern you about upgrading to a VPS or a
Dedicated Server is the prospect of managing it. Some people love server
administration and that’s great – they get full root access and can run
it how they want. But if you just want to focus on running your
business with no desire to manage your VPS or Dedicated Server, leave it
to us.
We’ll set it up, configure it, make sure it’s kept up to date and
anything else to make sure it runs the way it should. You can order the
Managed Service when you order your service.
SOURCE: https://www.pickaweb.co.uk/blog/different-types-of-web-hosting/
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