Best Hosting for First Time Websites
- The very first steps – Free Blog Hosts
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One problem that you might have with setting up a free blog hosting account might be your requirements for your own domain name. A domain name is essentially the address for your website (e.g. example.com). Fortunately there are absolutely loads of free blog hosts out there that allow you to integrate a domain name with your blog account. Some free blog sites also offer paid solutions should you require additional features such as website theme editing.
There are some disadvantages that are common amongst many of the free blog platforms. Usually free blog hosts restrict the ability to change the core code of the website. This might not be such a problem if you are thinking about staying away from code as much as possible (!) but if you are looking to add any javascript for tracking (a requirement for Google Analytics) or you’d like to change the way the site looks then you normally have to pay extra or (in many cases) simply look elsewhere.
Another problem with free blog hosting is that the space made available to you is fairly limited which can be a problem especially if your posts are very multi-media heavy – e.g. lots of images, video and other files. Finally the content that is put on to a free blog site is owned by the blog provider – they have the power to take down content when it suits them.
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is the cheapest form of web server hosting available. Simply put – a shared host is when multiple websites share one web server connected to the internet. Hosting companies often sell shared hosting as part of a domain+hosting deals and thus can represent some of the best value for money for those starting out with their first website.
Shared hosting can be an excellent first step in exposure to a server environment. Whilst you do not specifically have to manage the performance of the server or perform server updates you can still have a huge amount of influence on the development of your site by adding, editing and removing files on the server through direct FTP (file transfer). This gives you a lot more control over your site from a code and website design perspective although it does require a bit of knowledge of the server language that powers your blogging software and html/css. Choosing a server language will undoubtedly effect your choice of server – for example if you are developing in a .NET framework then you will need a Windows based server. For a majority of people a linux based server that runs Apache is enough to run most blogging and content management system websites that rely on the server language PHP and are often a developer’s first choice.
Shared Hosting still suffers from some of the same problems as free blog hosts – namely space restrictions. Also the nature of a shared host means that resources are split across several different domains and thus the performance of the server can sometimes be slow and sluggish. Finally bandwidth (the rate or amount of permitted data transfer) is fairly restrictive. For example if you are expecting (or in fact hoping) for a site that generates a lot of traffic then you might need to think bigger than a shared hosting solution. Sites that get a lot of website traffic (excessive amount of data transfer) at once can cause the site to go offline. If you are looking to develop a site for the purposes of selling product or show cases any rich media (big file size) then your site will likely experience high bandwidth drains.
Virtualised Hosting and Cloud Hosting
A virtualised server is functionally equivalent to an individual dedicated server that is used by one user rather than shared with other users. Virtual servers tend to be cheaper than a dedicated server because they require less hardware but can be as powerful because the resources (CPU, memory etc) that are running the virtual server can be similar.
Your virtualised resources are dependent on your usage of the server, thus your blog tends to run a little bit faster depending on your content on a virtualised server compared with a shared host. For this reason the logical step up from a shared host tends to be a VPS (virtual private server).
VPS tends to be better for smaller businesses that need to have their own web server with a static IP but might not be able to afford their own dedicated server. VPS are also better for handling bandwidth (data transfer) and offer better storage options.
Dedicated Hosting
The last piece of the hosting puzzle is dedicated hosting. Dedicated hosting refers to a physical server that is owned by the hosting company that is maintained and managed. Usually very large sites with high traffic benefit from dedicated hosting due to the fact that all the computational resource of the server is dedicated to the website only. Usually they are sold with batch resources – bandwidth, memory, CPU, storage etc are set as part of the price. If you require additional resource then physical component needs to be bought for the machine. In this respect dedicated hosting falls short when compared with a virtualized cloud host. Nonetheless dedicated hosting remains popular amongst high traffic sites and those who need control over the server.
Really want one? Then Click here
Really want one? Then Click here
