Web Host Comparing

By Author: Jamie Hanson
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Types of Web Hosting

There are four basic categories of Web hosting. We file them in order of price and discuss what each type is all about:

Free Hosting

Believe it or not you can get free hosting on for your Web site or blog. While free hosting has improved since years it is yet generally untrustworthy and quite poor in terms of performance. If you really don't bother about reliability and speed, then you are free to look for various free web alternatives available online.

Shared Hosting / Virtual Hosting

Shared or Virtual Web hosting is the most fundamental type of Web hosting service you could purchase and includes several accounts sharing resources on one Web server. You pay a monthly or yearly fee and get access to a server with a control panel where you can add a certain amount of domains and are limited to space and bandwidth depending on the plan you have selected.

Shared hosting is perfect for a medium business or prvate that decides on hosting one or a few small Web sites that don't need a number of resources. Relying on the number of different accounts and sites are hosted ...
... the performance might be regular to poor. If you plan on getting any decent amount of traffic at all or want to host multimedia, or a large discussion forum you should not choose shared hosting. You can always initiate with shared hosting and update if your funds is limited to start with. If you make a quarterly payment for the year, you just need to pay a small amount of $5 monthly for shared hosting.
Pros: Cheap, easy to access
Cons: Not great performance wise, no control over server, lacks advanced features

Virtual Private Server Hosting (VPS)

VPS hosting is similar to shared hosting but there are fewer accounts and each account has its own 'virtual' storage on the server with operating system, therefore improving performance. Special partition software optimizes the server and resources for the limited number of accounts. The VPS or virtual private server is an incredible option if you have some technological skill and don't mind getting your hands dirty. Thus if you are looking for more control but are not bothered about all resources belonging to particular server, then VPS is their best choice. Ideal for almost any application and rates touch about $50 monthly for decent service.
Pros: Better performance, some control over server
Cons: Technical knowledge needed, more expensive

Dedicated Hosting

With dedicated hosting you are the only customer on the server so the performance boost is a given. If you plan on hosting a lot of smaller sites or have a few that are going to be resource hogs, like media sharing, virtual communities, large message boards you would want to look at preferring a dedicated server as your hosting option. Though it may cost you much, but you get the worth of money you pay. Expect to pay $150 and above for a dedicated hosting package, and more if you want aid managing it.
Pros: Best performance and reliability
Cons: Expensive, need technical knowledge if not using fully managed solution

Conclusion

So before you can compare web hosting you need to know what your needs are and what type of site you plan on running. If you set up a solid business outline and think for the future you will be more liable to win with your Web business.

Learn more about hosting options and compare web hosting plans at http://www.comparewebhosting4u.com.