Which website hosting account will serve me best?

There are different varieties of web hosting plans appropriate for different web sites in terms of the resources or the web hosting environment they require. To pick the most suitable hosting service for your online portal, you must access what server-side software applications it needs, how many visits per day you expect at the beginning and in the long run, as well as any other specific demands that may have to be fulfilled.

Shared Web Site Hosting - Strong Points

The most suitable alternative for small sites with a few hundred or web space hosting, each user pays only for their plan, which lowers the total price per customer drastically. There are various web hosting plans varying from one hosting vendor to another, furnishing different quotas of data storage space and monthly traffic, different email mailbox account quotas and so on. The positive point is that you can purchase a plan that will offer the features your web site in fact requires. You will not have to pay lots of money for an account you will not use, or end up with a small scale package that cannot host the web page. At sunma, there is a big choice of shared hosting accounts suitable for personal or small business portals that even offer pre-activated script-driven systems like Joomla, Mambo, Drupal or WordPress - to render it simpler. If you start with a low-price plan and you demand more features, upgrading to a more advanced plan requires only a mouse click.

Shared Website Hosting - Weaknesses

A negative side of the shared hosting solution is that the web servers have some software programs installed on them and you cannot install additional software platforms. Specific web portals, above all web shops, need software applications to be available on the server for them to run, and with a shared web space hosting platform, you can install solely software applications that do not need root-level access.

Virtual Servers and Dedicated Web Hosting Servers

For sites that need full server root access, or if your web site has many 1000's or even 1 000 000's of daily hits, what you require is a VPS or a dedicated server. A virtual hosting server is a virtual simulation of a dedicated machine and it runs in a precisely identical manner.

VPS Web Hosting Servers

Both services commonly offer full root access and can be restarted through a software interface by the user, independently from the hosting provider. Just like the shared web site hosting accounts, the Virtual Private Server and the dedicated web server accounts have diverse functionalities based on what the hosting supplier has to offer. A VPS hosting server package includes guaranteed data space, RAM and CPU usage quotas that can at times be enhanced for brief intervals of time in case there are free resources on the physical machine. With a dedicated hosting server, the only limiting factor is the hardware equipment it is using, and it can be revamped by changing or adding components. A private virtual web hosting server is simpler to run as it comprises a virtualization software platform, which can be utilized to restart it, to install software applications, examine statistics, etc. The administration of a dedicated server is more elaborate, so such a plan would rather be resorted to by tech-savvy customers.

Dedicated Web Servers

However, some companies provide managed dedicated web hosting solutions where they implement web server administration assignments on behalf of the customer. This can be included in the package or an additional feature.

Before You Decide...

Selecting the top hosting package is crucial as it can influence the stable functioning of a site. Prior to selecting a package, compare the pros and cons, inspect thoroughly all the preconditions for the online portal to run properly, particularly if it is script-powered, and, last but not least, if you have already settled on a hosting corporation, the best choice would be to ask their client support team for advice as to which particular package would be best for the stable functioning of your web page.