The Pros and Cons of Shared vs. Dedicated vs. VPS vs. Cloud Web Hosting Header

Did you know that there are several types of web hosting services?
If yes, do you know all the types of hosting?

There is a common belief among beginners that there is only one type of website hosting, but this belief is not true, as there are many types of website hosting.

These types vary depending on the category you are targeting, what you will use them for, and the price range they fall into.

In this lesson from the hosting lessons series, we will learn together about the different types of website hosting, old and new, starting from the most commonly used shared hosting to dedicated servers.

By reading this detailed explanation from the Best Hosting website, you will learn in detail about each type of website hosting. Thus, you will have a clear vision of the different types of hosting services, their advantages and disadvantages.

Thus, you will be able to easily determine the best type of hosting that suits your project or website.

You will also be able to gain a good amount of knowledge about web hosting through this article, which is one of our main goals at Best Hosting.

Types of Web Hosting

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting, also known as “shared web hosting,” is the most popular and widely used type of website hosting .

Shared Hosting
Shared web hosting

Shared hosting came about as a result of the high cost of renting an entire web server . Instead of the user having an entire server to himself, in shared hosting the server resources are shared or divided between more than one user.

As a result, the server costs are also shared, which is why we find that shared hosting is considered the cheapest web hosting service due to its low prices compared to other website hosting services, and there is even free shared hosting .

In addition to the low price of shared hosting, we also find that its advantages include ease of control and management, especially for beginners.

This is because of the cPanel control panel that always comes with Shared Web Hosting through which you can control email, files, databases and other resources.

The web hosting company also prepares and manages the technical aspects of the hosting and protects and updates it continuously. Therefore, we find that most beginners prefer to use shared hosting over other hosting services.

But the disadvantage of “shared hosting” is that there is no allocation of a specific amount of resources for each user, and thus the user is affected by the rest of the users on the same server.

Also, having more than one user sharing or dividing the same hosting does not make it the preferred type for users looking for a high level of security for their project or website.

The most prominent companies that provide this type of hosting are Bluehost , InMotion Hosting, iPage, HostMonster , and the well-known hosting company HostGator .

Shared Hosting Features

  • Its prices are affordable.
  • Easy to use
  • Technical matters are taken care of by the hosting company.
  • Enough for most small websites and blogs.
  • No prior knowledge of web hosting required.

Disadvantages of shared hosting

  • Hosting performance and security are lower than dedicated hosting types.
  • The hosting resources available to each user are limited.
  • You may not use software or tools other than those permitted by the hosting company.
  • Do not allow access to some server settings.

Virtual Private Server VPS

Virtual Private Server (VPS) is a type of web hosting that can be considered as an intermediate level between shared hosting and full server hosting.

Virtual Private Server (VPS)
VPS Servers

VPS is similar to shared hosting in terms of the structure through which websites are hosted. In it, the server is shared among many users, but the number of users is much less than in shared hosting.

In virtual server, a set of programs is used to divide the complete server into a group of smaller virtual servers where a certain portion of the resources of the complete server is allocated to each VPS server.

These virtual servers are completely separate from each other, as no virtual server shares its resources with another virtual server.

These virtual servers can be divided into shared hosting accounts that are suitable for sites with low to medium daily traffic.

The most important feature of the VPS is that it is more secure and powerful than shared hosting, but it remains lower in security and power levels than dedicated hosting or a full server.

There are quite a few VPS hosting companies, the most prominent of which are Bluehost , HostGator, A2 Hosting , and DreamHost . You can get a good VPS server from one of the companies on the list of the best VPS servers on the Best Hosting website.

Virtual Server Features

  • More powerful than shared hosting
  • More secure than using shared hosting.
  • Easily add additional resources
  • More control and powers
  • Cheaper than renting a whole web server.

Disadvantages of VPS Hosting

  • Higher in cost than shared web hosting
  • Requires some knowledge of web hosting.

Full server

Dedicated Server is the largest and most powerful type of website hosting.

Web Server
Web Server

When you can get a full server, you get all the server resources for yourself so that no one can share these resources with you. Therefore, dedicated hosting is considered the most powerful and secure hosting service.

However, despite these advantages, controlling and managing the entire server requires someone with a lot of experience in managing servers, and therefore dedicated hosting is not suitable for beginners.

Also, having the entire server hardware and all its resources to yourself makes dedicated hosting the most expensive type of web hosting.

You can get your own full server from InMotion Hosting , Bluehost, iPage or HostGator with the resources you want for a monthly fee.

Full Server Features

  • Stronger and better than other types of hosting
  • Maximum security
  • Full control over everything on the server

Disadvantages of private server

  • Renting a private server is expensive.
  • It requires strong knowledge of server management or hiring a professional to manage it.

Cloud Hosting

Cloud hosting, also known as “cloud hosting,” is one of the newest types of website hosting. Cloud hosting differs from regular hosting in that it does not rely on a single web server to host the website and its files.

Cloud Hostinghttps://myhost.host/
Cloud Web Hosting

Rather, cloud hosting relies on more than one server, so that all servers are connected to each other by a network of fast Internet cables and some software in a way that resembles the cloud, which gives more stability and strength to the site and hosting as well.

As a result of hosting your website on more than one server at the same time, the security and continuity rates of your website will be very high. Because in the event of a malfunction or stoppage of the server on which your website is hosted, one of the other servers will automatically replace the stopped server.

Flexibility is also one of the most important advantages of cloud hosting, and flexibility here means the ability to add additional hosting resources through the control panel with utmost ease. Additional resources that you can add to your cloud hosting account include: RAM, processor cores, and file storage space.

If your website gets a temporary increase in traffic from time to time, regular shared hosting may not be right for you. This is often the time to incur some extra costs and purchase cloud hosting for a higher level of performance and durability, as you can set it to automatically increase resources during times of increased traffic.

The cloud hosting market is growing rapidly and the most prominent key players in this market currently are:

  • Amazon AWS
  • Google Cloud
  • Microsoft Azure
  • DigitalOcean
  • Vultr.com
  • Linode

Cloud hosting features

  • Allows pay-per-use
  • Scalability and adding more resources
  • More stable than regular hosting
  • It is more secure than regular hosting.
  • Better working time and speed

Disadvantages of Cloud Hosting

  • It is difficult to predict expenses in some cases.
  • May be difficult to manage (if not managed)

WordPress Hosting

WordPress Hosting
WordPress

WordPress powers over 30% of all websites on the internet.

WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) ever. Although WordPress is completely free, like other content management systems, it requires hosting to work on.

Although WordPress can work without problems on all types of hosting that contain the PHP programming language and the MySQL database , the demand of many users for the WordPress system to build their projects or websites has prompted website hosting companies to provide WordPress Hosting service to serve websites that use WordPress.

This service is called Managed WordPress Hosting .

Although quite a few web hosts are offering this service, it is not considered a type of hosting but rather is closer to a managed hosting service.

Prominent companies that offer managed WordPress hosting include Bluehost ( this service ), Kinsta ( discount link ), and Flywheel ( discount link ).

What Makes Managed WordPress Hosting Special?

Managed WordPress hosting has many advantages over regular hosting, the most important of which are mentioned in the following points:

  • The presence of an automatic caching system increases the speed of the site.
  • WordPress can be installed on hosting very easily with hosting backups.
  • The hosting company takes care of updating WordPress, themes and plugins without any intervention from you.
  • WordPress hosting is easy to use, making it great for beginners.
  • WordPress hosting is more secure than regular hosting as it is managed by a team of specialists who are constantly working to protect and develop servers from potential attacks.
  • WordPress hosting has many add-ons that give your website more power, speed and security.
  • It comes with many free and paid WordPress themes.
  • There is a professional technical support team specialized in solving WordPress problems. You can contact them at any time to solve any problem you face.

WordPress Hosting Features

  • The hosting company takes care of the technical matters.
  • Hosting performance optimized for WordPress sites
  • Automatic updates and free backups
  • Ease of creating a WordPress website on hosting
  • Tools to help you manage WordPress easily
  • Technical support for solving WordPress problems
  • Often comes with free templates and plugins.

Disadvantages of WordPress Hosting

  • Its prices are higher than shared hosting.
  • The number of sites is limited in most cases.

Do you have a question about the types of web hosting?
We are happy to answer the questions of visitors to the Best Hosting website in the comments!