When you are searching for a web hosting, you’ll probably find in the top results of Google, big names like Godaddy, Bluehost, Hostgator.
You will also encounter a lot of technical terms designating web hosting plans like “Shared hosting”, “WordPress hosting”, “VPS Hosting”, “Dedicated”, “Cloud server” etc…
It might be really confusing for a normal person at the point to get lost and don’t know what to choose.
In this post, we are going to review each type of hosting and identify which one is the best for you.
The shared web hosting is probably the most widespread on the market.
Most of the web hosting services (ex: Godaddy, Bluehost, Hostinger, Ipage, Hostgator) are offering this type of plan.
Shared web hosting servers are very cheap but they are many drawbacks!
As you can guess by the name, it means that you have to share a server with other users.
Note also that monthly subscriptions fees look very cheap for the first year, but when its come to renewal fees it can be very high.
Be sure to check how much it will cost you on a span of years.
Technically you are sharing a server’s resources like Bandwith, Memory (RAM), Processor (CPU), and space (HDD) with other customers.
You will be generally allocated a small number of resources (ex: 32-128Mb of RAM, 2000 visitors, 2Gb of Bandwith, etc…).
So that’s why you can encounter some latency and disconnections if the server is overcharged when other users are using too many resources.
Shared web servers are also more subject to security’s breaches:
For example, if one user is hacked, attacked by a virus or malware, it can propagate to others accounts.
To make it easy to understand, you can compare a shared web hosting to a shared house.
You have to share all the equipment and furniture with your room-mates.
And if one habitant caught a cold, other persons can be contaminated.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| + Very cheap (2$-6$/Month)
+ Run many websites on the same plan |
– You have to share resources with other users
– Renewal fees are sometimes expensive – The IP address is shared (can be blacklisted or impacted by SEO punishments) – Low amount of RAM and CPU – Bad bandwidth for the traffic – Generally, use slow magnetic HDD instead of SSD. – Latencies (slow website) – Disconnections (offline website) – Subject to security breaches – Not scalable |
I don’t really recommend you to take a shared hosting server but if you really want to go for it.
Less worst are probably Hostgator…
WordPress hosting and others “Managed hosting”
As the WordPress Content Management System is very popular to build websites, more and more web hosting services are offering “WordPress hosting plans”.
They come with WordPress pre-installed and optimized for it.
Some companies just upgrade their sharing web hosting product by allocating extra resources.
While more specialized companies offer service close to a “dedicated server”.
Although we can’t really know what is the architecture behind as they will never give you the details explicitly.
That’s why the range of price can really differ from a company to another (ex: OVH, Wpengine).
WordPress hosting plans are usually managed by the company who offers the platform.
It’s especially recommended for a non-technical person.
Because you will not have to deal with technical tasks (ex: install your server, set up a database, install WordPress…).
But like Shared Web hosting, you will have also some limitations on the hardware’s resources (RAM, CPU, Bandwith, Disk space…).
Plus, it’s not rare to have some restrictions on WordPress’ backend.
For example, Wpengine doesn’t allow some WordPress’ plugins, doesn’t give the possibility to host many websites on your first plan (you must purchase another one).
If I have to use a metaphor, WordPress hosting is like rent a camping car for your holiday.
They are optimized for a simple lifestyle with minimum needs, but you can’t modify it as you want.
It can be expensive depending on the capacity of the car.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| + WordPress pre-installed
+ Unique IP address + Optimized for WordPress + Good bandwidth for the traffic + Use SSD + No need technical knowledge, managed by technicians + Good security |
– Expensive (+30$/Month)
– Can’t run many websites on the same plan – Limited resources – Can have some restrictions in WordPress backend – You can’t install what you want on your server – Not very scalable
|
Recommended providers
Virtual Private Server (VPS Hosting)
One of the most underestimated and unfamiliar hosting services.
A lot of people think they are only for geeks or big companies.
Except that you have to know how to install it from scratch, a Virtual Private Server is probably the best value for money in the world of Webhosting.
A Virtual Private Server (also called VPS) is an instance of an Operating System (OS) running on a rack of servers.
With the VPS, you have some pre-determined hardware’s resources (ex: 1Gb RAM, 2Ghz CPU, 50Gb SSD, 1Tb Traffic…).
It means that the resources belong to you and don’t have to share them.
VPS’ plan is very cheap (around 5-10$), reliable (99% uptime) and extremely flexible.
To give you an idea of the flexibility: You can run many websites (3-5 depending on the traffic) on VPS for the same price!
Moreover, as you have to total control on the machine, you can install all types of software in any languages (ex: PHP, Perl, Python).
For example, you can set up your own mail server, an auto-responder for your mailing list, scheduled tasks, your own customized Saas application…
We can compare VPS to an apartment.
You have your own privacy and you can do what you want in your apartment.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| + Cheap (5$-10$)
+ Unique(s) IP address + Full control on your OS + Use SSD + Good bandwidth for the traffic + You don’t have to share your resources and can use all of them + Run many websites for the same price + Fairly to well secured depending on your OS settings + You can install what you want on your server (any software) + Flexible and scalable |
– Need some technical knowledge (Linux commands) to install it
– Manage your server by yourself |
Recommended providers
I strongly recommend you to take a Virtual Private Server for your website(s).
It’s without any doubt, the best money value plan.
Don’t be afraid to install it by yourself, it’s not so difficult.
My top recommendations :
Dedicated Server
Dedicated Servers means that you have one entire machine rent to a user.
That kind of plans is usually designed for companies.
They are quite expensive (+60-100$/month), but the main advantage of a dedicated server is you have one whole server for yourself.
You can use all the capacity of the machine to run your web applications, scripts, task, etc…
It’s most secure than VPS as hardware and OS are completely encapsulated and separated from other users.
A Dedicated server is like rent a whole house for yourself.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| + Unique(s) IP address
+ Full control on your OS + Full control on the hardware + Good bandwidth for the traffic + You don’t have to share your resources and can use all of them + Run many websites + Encapsulated and secured depending on your OS settings + You can install what you want on your server (any software) + Flexible and scalable |
– Expensive (+60$)
– Need some technical knowledge (Linux commands) to install it – Manage your server by yourself – A bit outdated infrastructure |
If you are an individual, a Dedicated Server might not be suitable because of its price.
But even if you are a company, you maybe want to take a look to Cloud Hosting instead.
Nowadays, all serious IT companies tends to choose Cloud solutions.
Cloud
With this name, we could think that the servers are in the sky with clouds…
Actually “Cloud” refers to the non-material aspect to access the resources via the network.
A Cloud server has some similarities with Virtual Private Server, the server is totally virtualized (called Virtual Machine: VM).
You can minutely customize your Virtual Machine (add storage, memory, processor…) like a real one.
You can also adjust each part of your infrastructure and scale it.
For example, add some Network interfaces, add a Load Balancer, use a Content Delivery System depending on your needs.
The most popular in Cloud services are the giants: AWS – Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure.
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