10 March 2021

Hosting your website demands a suitable hosting package that contributes to the growth of your business. There are different variants of hosting packages available with each one of them having specific properties. Understanding each hosting package and its functions is necessary before opting for one of them.

Shared Hosting

• The basic and economic form of hosting
• Hosts many websites on the server same as yours.
• But offers limited resources, flexibility and security

VPS Hosting

• A bridging of both shared and dedicated hosting.
• A physical server is divided into different VPS, with each server granted a limited resource.
• Each server acts as an independent server
• Offers better performance and security than shared hosting.

Dedicated Server Hosting

• An entire server is reserved for you
• They may share network access with other dedicated servers but not hardware.
• Expensive but offer the best security, performance and flexibility

Cloud Server Hosting

• The data is shared across multiple virtual servers rather than a single server.
• Offers better scalability, flexibility and high performance
• Can scale up and down according to workload and traffic fluctuations.

Performance

Performance plays an important part in determining a suitable hosting package. Different clients have different requirements and it is up to the client to choose the best package meeting their expectation.
Shared Hosting as the name suggests shares resources with multiple clients relying on a single server. It is possible that this sharing of resources could lead to the low performance of your website.
VPS Hosting offers better performance compared to Shared Hosting with each server having an independent identity. But each of these servers is offered a dedicated usage limit.
Dedicated Server Hosting offers a custom configuration facility to users offering better performance for clients.
Cloud Server Hosting offers high performance to even websites having high traffic flow with its multiple cloud server networks.

Traffic

Managing the traffic volume is important to offer the clients a better service. The amount of data being uploaded and shared upon requests like documents and images needs to be properly managed for the smooth performance of your website.
Shared hosting platforms distribute the resources with a large number of users which could lead to huge traffic flow but the limited bandwidth may restrict the traffic to your website. It is a preferable option for websites expecting limited and regularized traffic like small blogs, or websites for providing information.
For websites with high usage requirements like offering downloadable content to clients demands a dedicated server and better flexibility which could be offered by VPS OR Cloud hosting servers.

Security

Security of clients is of prime importance when it comes to hosting your website. Choosing the most secured and efficient hosting package is necessary to maintain your reputation within your client network.
In Shared Hosting, there is a possibility of attacks on other websites affecting your website as the resources are shared between different websites.
Each user has independent space in VPS Hosting with separate IP addresses. A virus attack is a rare scenario within these servers but an attack could make the server vulnerable, affecting your website.
The chances of a virus attack are less in a dedicated server as you have a space of your own, with no resources being shared with other websites.
Cloud Servers are frequently monitored for vulnerabilities and this reduces the chance of an attack on the servers, offering high security for your website.

Server Configuration

It refers to the control a server has over the servers and it varies for Shared, VPS, Dedicated and Cloud hosting services.
For users in a Shared Hosting environment, the control over servers is highly restricted.
VPS hosting offers limited restrictions to the users with each dedicated server working as an independent server. The main restriction is the denial of direct access to the hardware. The server also offers complete access into the system to install and uninstall any software according to user requirements.
Dedicated Hosting holds no restrictions and the user is provided with direct access to the hardware. Cloud hosting with cPanel offers unlimited configuration options. And both of them offers complete control of the system to install or remove software according to user specifications.

Scalability

Scalability is the expanding ability of a system to add more resources for reducing the workload.
Shared servers limit the resource usage for each website and the only option available is to upgrade to a higher hosting package or increasing disk space or migrating to a new server.
Dedicated Servers are limited by the physical hardware but offer great performance. Upgrading the server requires migrations and specific downtime depending on the upgrade needed.
VPS Hosting offers more flexible servers with options to add and remove resources. Increasing disk space and system memory etc. They offer upward scalability with limited downtime.
Cloud Servers can scale up and down swiftly according to demands in traffic and resources, making it the most scalable hosting server.

Pricing

Shared Hosting plans are available at low costs due to the resources being shared. It is one of the most preferred hosting packages for small and medium businesses.
VPS Hosting offers servers starting from 2GB to 128GB space. VPS parent servers are built with the best quality hardware to offer maximum configuration facility for users.
Dedicated servers are costly as the users are paying directly for the hardware they are using. Cloud servers are costly as dedicated servers as you are allowed access to a group of servers.
So choosing a desirable hosting package for your website should depend on all these factors and your requirements. A hosting company with the best hosting plans would be able to guide you with this process.