As a small-business owner, you definitely know that you need a website, either as a presentation of your business or for e-commerce. Today, everyone knows that if you don’t exist online, it’s as if you don’t exist at all. However, what many do wrong is to downplay the importance of web hosting. When they create a website, they take care of the design, functionality, and many other features, but they forget something that is fundamental.
And that is web hosting. There are many different types as well as thousands of companies offering this service. And that is why you need to find out about all types of it, as well as the offers of companies in order to make the right decision and make a balance between price and quality. If you choose the wrong one, you will surely regret it because you will either have a slow-loading website or you will spend too much. We will help you choose a hosting solution for your small business by explaining the different types and what to look for.
Types of web hosting
There are a lot of different types and each of them has its advantages and disadvantages. These advantages and disadvantages are mostly against individual needs, short and long-term goals. That is quite logical, because if there is one option which is perfect for every business, everyone would use only that option and other options wouldn’t exist at all.
We will introduce you to some of the most popular types. We will start with VPS and cloud hosting, because we consider these to be the two best and most cost-effective options for small businesses.
VPS hosting
VPS is an abbreviation used for virtual private server. It is a hybrid type, and there are a few advantages as to why we single it out as one of the best options for small businesses.
First of all, it is a very good option because it has the best of both worlds. It’s just a little slower than dedicated hosting, and it is significantly cheaper. How exactly does it work? Although you will share the same server with others as with shared hosting, most of the disadvantages of shared hosting are avoided. You share hardware but that hardware will create multiple virtual servers, so you will have a virtual server all to yourself. You can think of it similar to renting apartment in a building. Except for building, you won’t have to share anything else with other residents. Same is when you opt for VPS.
If the provider has quality hardware, you will get almost the same performance as on dedicated hosting. Faster loading times is guaranteed, and it is many times cheaper than dedicated hosting.
Cloud hosting
It is basically very similar to a VPS, but instead of a single server, it is located on a network of servers. This brings additional benefits over the VPS.
First, you are protected much better from denial-of-service attacks and other problems that can cause downtimes. And periods, when your website is down, is something you have to avoid as much as possible. As we are told by the experts from vietnix, it is important to check do they have Firewall anti-DDoS to be 100% sure of security. With cloud hosting, there is always another server to take over and this guarantees very rare downtimes. The other thing is that the loading will be very good, and the price is also affordable.
It is a new type, but for now it has proven to be very useful. The only thing users complain about is that the price can be affected by unpredictable traffic. This means the price isn’t always fixed so you may have unplanned expenses.
Dedicated hosting
As its name suggests, this type of hosting means having the entire server to yourself. This is of course the best option as nothing can affect the operation of your website. Also when you choose dedicated hosting you have the best support and all the other benefits.
Still, it is by far the most expensive option and something most small businesses do not need. The price is too high compared to the traffic you have and the earnings that your website will bring you. The only small businesses that can benefit from this type of hosting are those that focus exclusively on e-commerce and want their website to work flawlessly.
Shared hosting
It is very cheap and that is why it exists. Bandwidth, disc space and everything else is usually either very low or limited so you will be charged additionally if the traffic is higher than that.
This means that it is only a good option for beginning while having low website traffic. Then those few customers visiting your website will have a solid loading time, and you will pay very little. As soon as the traffic increases, you should change to some other type of it, because your customers will have a bad experience on your website, and you will be charged extra.
Other options
There are other options worth mentioning. For example WordPress hosting is similar to shared hosting but is much faster and more secure. The downside is that it doesn’t allow much customization of the WordPress website.
There are also colocation hosting, self-service hosting, and so on. Most of those other options are not very good choice for small business.
What to look for when choosing?
Customer support is probably the first thing you should pay attention to when choosing a company that will provide you with web hosting services. Customer support must be available 24/7, without exception. Otherwise, you risk having your website down for a long time.
Constant security updates are a must, so ask how often they do it and in what way. Scalability is very important because the traffic on your site can change often, so at some point, you will need one type of hosting, and then in a few months another one.
Conclusion
You should not take it easy to choose the type of web hosting or company that will provide you with these services. Poor choices can have far-reaching negative implications for your small business.
