Monday, October 1, 2007

Web Hosting Categories: Merits And Demerits

Web hosting solutions are available in different forms and at different prices. Your choice may differ according to your business objectives, technical know-how and customer demands. If you are setting up a website for personal or casual reasons, its requirements will be different from an informative or ecommerce business website.

The various types of web hosting are:

a. Shared Web Hosting
It is the cheapest and most common form of web hosting. You will get a share of server space with the web host on payment of a monthly fee. However, reliability and flexibility may be low due to hundreds of sites being housed on the same server. Also, bandwidth problems may arise with a single server bearing the load of large amount of data transfer. This type of hosting is suitable for small and medium sized websites and basic ecommerce websites.

b. Free web hosting
These are best for small websites which carry banner ads at the top. The website address is usually a sub domain of the web hosting company and not an independent domain name. Reliability, security and performance cannot be ensured. If you have a personal website without any customer response, this option may work for you. Otherwise, it is not recommended.

c. Collocated web hosting
Your website may be getting high customer traffic and supporting complex application. For such critical websites, you would not want any downtime for your website. This can be ensured with a collocated server hosting. Unlike a dedicated server, you own the server and don’t rent it. The web host will house the server and maintain it on your behalf. Features include high speed connectivity, bandwidth, security, sound technical support and diverse applications.

Do your homework and select the right web hosting plan according to your business requirements and budget. Search and compare different web hosting companies for package features and prices before making this “make or break” decision for your online business.

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