The selection of the web hosting plan is a crucial decision that can immediately impact your online visibility.
The web hosting market offers a huge range of alternatives with different characteristics, and technical specifications, and of course, the range of prices is also huge. So, we decided to share a couple of practical recommendations so you will have a clear picture of where to start in your search.
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Specification of the needs
The initial step in the selection of the hosting solution is understanding your specific aims and requirements. Start with a short analysis of the site requirements such as:
- Type of content. The websites with mostly text-based content will need less storage space, while those with a huge number of interactive features such as images/video will definitely need more storage and bandwidth.
- Traffic. This factor is crucial and you should approximately figure out what type of website you are planning to launch, the one with several visitors who are reading your small blog or you are going to have a huge store with high traffic volumes. The more specific you will be to the actual numbers the fewer risks will be with the downtime and slowdowns.
- Functionality. Try to be specific with the functionality criteria. The chosen hosting solution should definitely support needed technologies whether it is a content management system or apps that require lots of resources.
Once, you have a more or less clear plan of the basic site’s needs, you should consider scalability. Successful websites are gradually increasing the volume of traffic so you should also plan whether you are expecting some peaks in the users’ activity and if your hosting plan can easily scale.
Some websites may have seasonal peaks so if you have such a factor, it is better to search for hosting solutions that offer more resources during a certain period of time and then can quickly downgrade. That will help you to have good performance characteristics and at the same time manage the spending efficiently.
When your current needs are well-specified and you have a vision of the potential growth, then you can choose a plan that perfectly suits you.
Types of Hosting Plans
Let’s discuss a couple of the most typical hosting types that are usually offered by the majority of web providers. Every option offers distinctive features for various requirements.
Shared Hosting
A shared hosting solution perfectly suits websites with low-traffic activity. This is the cheapest variant because all the resources and prices are shared between the clients who use the same server.
The major benefit of such an option is price so any individual with a personal blog or startup can use it. Moreover, this type of plan is really simple in the setting up and management. All the updates and maintenance are usually done by the hosting provider so clients don’t need to have any technical skills.
VPS
Virtual Private Server offers more resources and control than previously discussed type of solution. VPS functions according to a specific technology where one physical server is divided into several virtual ones. Each such virtual server offers access to dedicated resources. Clients who choose this type will get better customization and isolation.
VPS is a great variant for developing platforms that need more control characteristics, better performance, and of course more resources.
The major advantage is better configuration features with the help of which users can install the needed software and choose resources that are needed for the website.
Dedicated server
Dedicated hosting solutions are an amazing alternative for sites that need high performance. This is a physical server that is entirely used for the functioning of only one website. So, the users of such types of hosting get full control over the security characteristics, resources, and also performance.
A dedicated hosting solution is an expensive option and that’s why only huge corporations and large e-commerce websites need such exceptional performance. Complex web projects with high traffic function flawlessly on this type of hosting plan.
Cloud hosting
Cloud hosting is a solution that works as a network of several connected virtual servers. This choice is ideal for the sites with the changing traffic volume so it is way easier to upgrade and downgrade resources whenever it is needed.
The major benefit of this hosting solution is the higher uptime because the resources are split between different servers. Also, cloud hosting is considered to be a reasonable variant when speaking about the price, mainly due to the fact that clients are paying only for the consumed resources.
The selection of a hosting plan for your website should not be an intuitive, but a rational decision so try to specify your budget, requirements, and aims. Don’t forget to evaluate scalability, reliability, and security factors when making your choice.
