Choosing a Hosting Plan
Hosting providers are offering a wide range of service packages these days that choosing the right plan for your business needs can be a bit confusing. Understanding what each plan entails will allow you, the customer, to assess your options and make a choice according to what is most convenient for you.
There are four major hosting types: Reseller Hosting, Shared Hosting, Dedicated Servers Hosting and Virtual Private Servers Hosting. They generally work to provide a hosting environment and that is where the similarities end.
Shared hosting is a type of service that is most commonly associated with hosting. In fact, it is the most widely used solution by websites on the internet. The advantage of this option is the low cost, and the variety of applications that are compatible with it. The downside is that it doesn’t offer support for video and audio streaming. It is also not as flexible as the other plans. This is a service that is more suited to personal, e-commerce and community websites that do not attract a lot of traffic. Suffice to say, it’s a starter plan.
Reseller services are, as the name implies, hosting that is resold but still serves the needs of the client. On the upside, it offers full flexibility of hosting account parameters which can be controlled by the reseller. Unfortunately, it has not overcome the same issues that are bringing shared hosting plans down. On the whole, reseller services are affordable and offer a convenient way to control a number of shared hosting accounts.
Virtual Private hosting offers flexibility as its main selling point instead of its features. Clients can assign resources, adjust configurations, and request to modify software according to your needs. The downside is that it is a virtual environment as opposed to physical servers. It is suited for building a custom environment at a cheaper price.
Finally, dedicated servers are universal services. They can utilize all the features mentioned above. It brings together all the good points of the other plans. The only disadvantage is that it’s going to cost you a lot unless you use it for a profitable project.
