Shared or Dedicated Web Site Hosting

A Web Hosting Article Contributed by Frances Rhea

What Type of Web Site Hosting

There are three main types of servers available for web site hosting, four if you include special reseller packages. The server plan you choose will depend on your current and future site needs. Knowing what type of plans are available, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each is helpful.

Shared or Virtual Servers for Web Site Hosting

With these plans you have a limited amount of server resources to use. The quotas provided for virtual or shared web hosting will vary. Typical disk space is from 20-50Mb. Normally this is more than enough. This hosting is the cheapest option (excep for free web site hosting).

On a shared server, the number of features and technologies available are limited. ASP, PHP and cgi are not always available because of security and stability issues. When provided not all of the modules or components needed will be available. JSP support is still rare.

Your web site will not be the only one on the server. This could bring the speed or even your site down completely. The more sites on a server and the more custom made scripts the hosting allows, the more likely there will be problems.

It is easy to exceed your data transfer limit. If your site becomes popular, you could find a huge bill or that your web site only works part time.

Dedicated Server for Web Site Hosting

Setting up a dedicated server is more difficult than renting space on a shared server. You can use up all the resources available for your web site.

Having a dedicated server gives you the freedom to use JSP support. You can install it yourself or have your host install it for you.

You can have more than one web site on the server if you want. This can be useful to help alleviate the cost. Remember that the more sites on the server, the more could go wrong.

Having your own dedicated server can be a lot of work: setting up DNS entries, FTP accounts and mail settings for all the domains. Some web hosting companies will do all the hard work for you but raise the price. Watch for hidden charges such as backups, and rebooting.

A dedicated server is not for everyone. If your web site will be using server side technologies and databases for most content, then this type of web site hosting is probably for you.

Co-Location Servers for Web Hosting

Similar to a dedicated server only you buy the hardware and set it up yourself. Then you rent the space in the data center with connections to the Internet.

This is not for the beginner! With a dedicated server, the host sets the server up for you. They are not likely to set up a server for co-location.

Although this option gives you the most freedom, it is also the most involved. If you are unable to fix the problems yourself, expect large charges.

This type of hosting is expensive and time consuming.