Even if you wouldn’t consider yourself a geek, you can still grok web hosting. Okay, maybe saying grok instead of understand on a deep level is being too geeky. The truth is that a lot of people are running websites these days – many with no technical experience. While getting web hosting without being a geek is possible, you want to make sure you don’t get taken for a ride. These basic web hosting tips will be your guide.
Web Hosting Tips for Non-Geeks
Here’s a breakdown of the absolute basics you need to know about.
Forget the Numbers
Some web hosts may offer “unlimited domains” or even “unlimited bandwidth,” but these aren’t that much of a big deal to most people. More important is the amount of memory the server has installed and how many other websites are on the machine with your website. Ignoring the numbers for a moment, it’s easier to think about the four basic classes of web hosts.
Four Types of Web Hosting
Starting from the least expensive (and least powerful) to the most expensive (and most powerful), here’s a non-geeky breakdown of the types of web hosting options.
- Shared Hosting – The most basic type of web host you can buy is a shared server. As the name suggests, you’re on a web server with other people – sometimes hundreds of other customers.
- Cloud Hosting – Nestled in between shared hosting and a VPS/VDS, this is web hosting on a large network (cloud) of servers. The big benefit here is that you can scale up very easily if you get a sudden burst of traffic. This may cost you, but it can keep your website up and running.
- Virtual Private Servers – Also known as Virtual Dedicated Servers (VDS), this is more powerful than shared hosting or cloud hosting. However, you will still be on a server with six to twelve other people most of the time.
- Dedicated Server – If you have a very busy website, dedicated server hosting is probably going to be best for you. Dedicated hosting means you have an entire server all to yourself. You get all of the processing power and memory to load your website(s).
The above breakdown of the basics about the different types of web servers should give you a good idea of everything you need to think about for your website. For most people shared or cloud hosting will probably be more than enough, but a lot of people find they need the power of a VPS/VDS when they start to get a lot of people coming to their website.
Being a geek can be helpful when trying to find the right web host, but you don’t need to be one in order to find something that will work for you. Just take it a step at a time and don’t fall prey to marketing hype.
Bio: When writing guest posts online, Adam Prattler likes to take his time to make sure his articles really shine. He has been in love with hosting technology for quite a while and loves researching online to increase his knowledge and keep him on the cutting edge.
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