How To Choose The Right Web Hosting In 2024

How Does Web Hosting Function?

Hosting providers offer space on a server. A server is a computer equipped with one or more powerful hard drives that can hold all the data, text, graphics, and other content your website consists of. A web server is a program dedicated to processing the code stored on the server. Simply put, visitors request a connection to your web server when they click a link to the website or type its URL into their browser. When the server receives a request, the web server starts and sends the specified resources (files, data) to the browser.

Types Of Hostings

Once you start exploring the possibilities, you’ll immediately learn that there are various hosting options, each with a range of costs, features, and technical nuances. Understanding the differences between hosting types is crucial if you want to choose the best option for your website.

Shared Hosting

It is the cheapest and easiest solution to set up and keep. It’s perfect for small business websites that don’t see a lot of traffic or demand substantial bandwidth. The website team can handle email, move files to and from the server, monitor bandwidth usage, and install databases and applications.

However, as you share server space with other customers, you may have some traffic and bandwidth restrictions (file transfers, video, etc.). A shared hosting account has some limitations on the kinds of items that can be installed or modified, and you might experience traffic spikes that slow down the website.

Dedicated Server Hosting

The most robust web hosting option is a dedicated server, which is the best choice for demanding websites. It’s clear from the name that a website has its own server. In most cases, an online business receiving a lot of internet traffic would require this kind of server.

You will have complete control over the server, which could be helpful if you intend to run specialized applications on it.

On the other hand, it demands a high level of skill; you’ll need staff who can effectively run your server.

Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting

VPS is a bit more expensive than shared hosting. However, it’s a great solution if you frequently receive more significant traffic to your website. Even though VPS hosting is technically still a form of shared hosting, it simulates having a dedicated server just for your website. Your account is housed on a virtual computer on a VPS account, which serves as an independent server. You, therefore, have root access to the server and can scale it if needed.

Managed Hosting

It is more a service rather than a hosting type. When you choose managed hosting, your provider handles many maintenance chores that would otherwise be in your responsibilities. Backups, security monitoring, and software updates are a few of them. It’s critical to realize that managed hosting plans can be available in various forms: shared plans, VPSs, and even managed dedicated servers.

It typically costs more than standard hosting plans. And at the same time, you have less control over the server settings and the website optimization.

Cloud Hosting

It enables numerous independent servers to collaborate and act like one sizable server. This system operates by hosting a virtual server across a vast network of computers. The benefit of this strategy is that you can simply scale the server’s resources according to your demands. Growing businesses benefit from this kind of web hosting since it allows the expansion of the cloud space as website traffic rises.

The pricing plans for cloud hosting can be a little confusing. Cloud hosting can be either cheap or very expensive, depending on your server configuration.

WordPress Hosting

WordPress is an extremely popular Content Management System (CMS). Therefore, it shouldn’t be surprising that many web hosting companies provide plans specifically for WordPress customers. There are hosting platforms that solely support this CMS. This can bring many benefits, as it often means having WordPress specialists on staff as part of a support team. The best part is that WordPress-specific plans are generally priced similarly to their more generic alternatives.

How To Choose The Right Web Hosting?

Although web hosting type is a primary factor for consideration, there are others. Let’s discuss what else you should take care of to avoid a mistake.

What Support Do You Require

Like our PCs, servers require upkeep and updates to maintain optimal performance and content security. Think about how much effort you are ready to put into this maintenance.

As we’ve already mentioned, hosting providers deliver various technical support levels, including security, maintenance, installation, and optimization. Determining whether or not you have or expect to hire a team member who will be in charge of managing your server is vital. If not, consider turning to managed hosting. Ask yourself if urgent problems that require a quick fix might occur on your website. The conclusions will determine how much support you need from the service provider.

Do You Expect Your Website To Grow?

Investing in a dedicated server might be wise if you anticipate having a lot of traffic on your company website. Cloud-based hosting is a good option if you expect moderate growth and traffic, which has the potential to change significantly over time.

Some companies need a web hosting provider that can increase performance right away when needed and decrease it when demand declines. If a store receives thousands of orders in a matter of weeks during a particular year’s season, the hosting provider must be ready to scale up and down as needed. Not every service can offer this powerful capability.

Mind The Budget

The provider you select, the kind of hosting you require, and the plan you choose all affect the price of web hosting services. Even if you’re a small company, this is an extremely vital factor to consider.

Overall, such solutions can cost from a few dollars per month up to several hundred dollars per month for web hosting. The least expensive choice is typically shared hosting, while the most expensive one is dedicated hosting.

Usually, the more money you spend on hosting, the more bandwidth you’ll have, the more security measures you’ll have in place, and the more features and benefits you’ll be able to use.

A number of companies will host your pages for no cost. InfinityFree, Wix, and 000WebHost are only some of them. However, there are several disadvantages to free hosting that you should be aware of:

• Many free providers embed their branding and advertisements into the website;
• Limitations are imposed, such as restrictions on the allowed number of website pages, limited storage, limited bandwidth, etc.;
• Such providers are less secure.

What Storage Space Do You Need

In most cases, the web host allows you to choose the storage for your hosting program. Storage is the amount of hard disk space reserved for your website pages, photographs, videos, databases, and other data. Small startup companies might not need much storage space; they can select the entry-level hosting package for a website with limited bandwidth. By choosing a smaller storage size, you can lower the cost of your server.

Although many plans claim that they have infinite space, simple websites typically don’t need this. This assertion should be taken with caution since it is technically impossible to have unlimited space. Look at the storage upgrade possibilities web hosts offer; some offer more space as your needs grow.

Wrapping Up

The digital revolution has made it quite evident that internet-based services are the way of the future. According to Statista, in 2021, the number of internet users worldwide was 4.9 billion, up from 4.6 billion in the previous year. Now that the whole world is online, it’s high time to put resources into the website to grow your business into something significant. But to do this, it’s vital to find the right web hosting provider. Our guide will assist you in making decisions and save you from mistakes.

Kate Parish

Chief Marketing Officer at Onilab

Kate Parish is a chief marketing officer at Onilab. She has almost a decade of experience in the company and is still enthusiastic about every aspect of digital marketing. Kate sees the marketing mission in ensuring sustainable business growth. For this purpose, she helps companies and readers create efficient campaigns, solve common problems, and enhance crucial website metrics, such as conversions, bounce rates, and others.