What Is Web Hosting?
Small to large businesses today benefit greatly from having a website. Internet users can visit your website to look for information or products you have on sale. They can even chat online with your customer support team before they make the best purchase decision. It’s like a brick and mortar store. Except you can serve Internet users from all over the world.
Every website on the Internet needs a host. Like a place that stores all your web information and put them to live. This host refers to us. Or technically speaking, a hosting provider. A Hosting Provider offers the technologies and services (building a server from scratch and solving technical problems from time to time) required to host a website.
So, what is Web Hosting? There are mainly 4 types of hosting in the market today. Shared hosting. Cloud Hosting. VPS Hosting. And Dedicated Server Hosting.
4 Types of Server Hosting
There are several types of server hosting, typically in the forms of shared hosting, dedicated server, virtual private server and cloud server. Each one has its own advantages and disadvantages from the aspects of specifications and pricing.
To choose the one that best fit your business or personal needs, you must first understand the pros and cons of each types of server hosting.
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is a type of web hosting service, where multiple users or websites are located on ONE web server, while sharing the same server resources. Imagine living in an apartment. There are multiple, separate residential units located in ONE building. However, all these residences would share common apartment facilities, such as the swimming pool, gym, badminton court, etc. Users of a shared hosting have their websites hosted on the same server, and they also share the same server specifications and resources, including CPU, RAM, memory, disk space.
Dedicated Hosting
A dedicated hosting, or dedicated server, is a type of web hosting service that rents out an entire server to a client. You will not be sharing the server with anyone else. It is like living in your own house. You don’t have to share the property with anyone. And you have full rights and access to the server resources. You are free to configure the hosting environment to the exact specifications that suit your needs and wishes.
VPS (Virtual Private Server) Hosting
A Virtual Private Server or VPS is a virtual environment that runs on its own Operating System (OS), typically on Linux or Windows. Unlike a dedicated server that operates fully on one mother computer, the mother computer of a VPS is divided into multiple compartments. Think of living in a low-density condominium. Although these compartments share the same server, the server specifications and resources are allocate individually and separately for each compartment. Hence this makes VPS a more affordable solution compared to a dedicated server.
Cloud Hosting
A cloud server is a type of web hosting service that is built, host and deliver through a cloud computing technology. Cloud servers have similar capabilities and functionality compared to a typical server, but cloud servers are access remotely from a cloud service provider. Think of renting a room from Airbnb. You rent the property for individual use. And you may be sharing property resources with the rest of the tenants. But unlike share hosting, cloud hosting is built on more servers, hence you have the access to more server resources.