Paid Hosting: Shared vs. dedicated servers

ashish — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:37:04 +0000

A majority of the people who go in for setting up their own hosting accounts go in for shared hosting, where there are a large number of people sharing the same server (typically on a Linux machine). Shared / virtual hosting packages are the default web hosting accounts for beginners and intermediate web site owners and make the most sense as well. Shared hosting means that the server on which the web hosting account resides is shared by many (typically hundreds) customers. Such a hosting method is the most popular and most economical.
What are the advantages of a shared web hosting experience vs. getting a dedicated server? You get a trouble free administration of the hosting experience (the server) since the web hoster takes care of the administration (including keeping it up, checking for software patches, etc); the profile of most users who go in for shared web hosting is such that they would not prefer to get into any kind of detail about these administration duties. Power users however often require greater control over the system, such as “shell access” which allows them to perform command line operations or to install specific software (besides ordinary – php, perl, etc. – “scripts”, which usually shared customers can install, too).
Power users will often prefer setting up a Software Virtual Server or even a Dedicated (physically real) Server, in both cases with root access to configure, remove and install whatever they want.
How do shared hosting users get to install different applications, and so on ? Well, almost all shared web hosting plans come with a specific web hosting control panel. The type of control panel offered by the hosting provider is often an important feature for intermediate web site owners since they are often used to “their” control panel (i.e. CPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin…); and they provide a convenient interface to install a variety of blogging apps, forums, shopping carts, Content Management Systems, Statistics and Reports, etc.

Types of web sites suited for shared / virtual web hosting:

Almost all web sites are suited to be run on shared web hosting accounts, with a few exceptions:

- Chat server applications: These usually consume too much server resources and require a dedicated server unless the chat is barely active.
- Wildly popular forums: These also usually require too much server resources at a certain size (i.e. hundreds of users online simultaneously).
- Other very active web sites if they are very dynamic. Dynamic sites are sites that are served live from a database on each request, opposed to “static” web sites which can serve much more visitors on the same server resources (CPU time and RAM memory) than a dynamic web site.

Some top rated web hosting providers:

Globat
vistaPages
MidPhase
BlueHost
HostExcellence
IX Web Hosting
HostMonster
HostPapa

Free hosting vs. paid hosting

ashish — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:34:08 +0000

Consider this; you are just starting to create your own website, a place to host your own content, the place of your dreams. You have thought through all that you want to create, and are ready to go. However, now you are stuck with the logistics of where to create your own website. You would really not want to spend a large amount of money, while at the same having a good hosting experience and a set of tools that will help you easily host your content.
You have a choice now; you could either use a free web hosting experience, or you could go in for a paid site. There are advantages and disadvantages to both.

Advantages of free hosting:
1. It’s free; this literally needs no explanation
2. Helps when you are new to the web and would like to experiment with the medium
3. The hosting companies provide easy tools to upload content onto the site

Disadvantages of free hosting:
1. Many of these free hosting companies make money through ad banners – so when somebody comes to your site, they will see ads and popups
2. The revenue from these ads goes to the hosting company, and not to you
3. For many of these free hosting companies, you may get a domain name that is actually a sub-domain, that has the name of the hosting company as part of the name
4. The space provided may seem large initially, but this is actually limited space
5. If you are looking to appear professional, then it is better to host your own domain
6. Paid hosting gives you access to many different softwares such as blogging software, Content Management Software, Forums, Emails, Database Access, Shopping Carts, and so on
7. You get much better support if you are using paid hosting
8. Search engine rankings can be sometimes poorer if you are using free hosting
9. You may get limitations in terms of restriction on bandwidth – so if your site becomes very popular, visitors may find themselves unable to access the site

A) For a list of free hosting, refer to this list:
A listing
Netfirms
Bravenet
Mister.net
Tripod
Free Web Hosting Area
Geocities

B) A list of recommended paid hosts:
Globat
vistaPages
MidPhase
BlueHost
HostExcellence
IX Web Hosting
HostMonster
HostPapa

Make Money from Blogs » Paid

Paid Hosting: Shared vs. dedicated servers

Free hosting vs. paid hosting