Types of Web Hosting

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is the most common and affordable type of web hosting. When you have a shared hosting service, your website shares server space and resources with other websites on the network. Think of the hosting server as a buffet and the different websites as customers. They all share the same utensils, tables, chairs, bathroom and, of course, the food. The customers (websites) can only hold so much food and eat so much at a time. If a website keeps going through plates, brings a big party, or hogs the bathroom, then things will start moving slow and the other customers/websites will have to wait longer to get resources. A good shared hosting platform, will prepare for surges and unexpected services spikes, by efficiently allocating resources without disruption and keep things running smoothly.

This is arguably the most economical and efficient hosting type. This kind of hosting is ideal for small sites, blogs, and low-traffic pages. Northwest offers shared hosting to make it easy for businesses to quickly get their Business Identity up and on the web. Because shared hosting is so cost-effective, we take it a step farther and start our hosting packages with free hosting plans.

Cons:

• Performance Ups & Downs – If you have high traffic sites on the same server, it can sometimes make your site run slow.
• Limited Resources – There are limits to what your website can use such as RAM and bandwidth.
• Less Control – No custom options and settings are predetermined.

Pros:

• User Friendly – Most things are done through an easy-to-use user interface made for non-technical as well as technical users.
• Affordable – Shared hosting is one of the most affordable and cost-effective ways to host your website. This is great for those just getting their feet wet like starting a business and want to keep overhead costs low.
• Low Maintenance – With shared hosting, your hosting provider does all of the software updates, installations and other backend technical jobs, so that you can stay focused on your business.

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VPS Hosting (Virtual Private Server)

VPS hosting takes the best of both worlds, shared hosting and a full dedicated server. How VPS works is that each client gets their own portion of a physical server, along with its own guaranteed resources. This is done by one server getting split into many “virtual machines” with each virtual machine a certain amount of dedicated resources for it to use. This can be compared to owning a private apartment where you have dedicated resources (such as CPU, RAM, and storage) in your apartment but, you still share the building or server with other websites.

Cons:

• Pricey – It is not the most expensive, but is noticeably more expensive than shared hosting.
• Not Beginner Friendly – There are more options to customize and be responsible for, which is not great for beginners.
• Server Knowledge Required – Will require technical knowledge to manage your own server.

Pros:

• Performance – VPS can produce better performance than shared hosting and can easily scale up if things get a bit busy.
• Dedicated Resources – You have dedicated resources (CPU, RAM, and Storage) that is not shared with anyone else.
• Customization – For those that are more tech savvy, custom software can be installed for your website and settings can be configured to optimize your website.

Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated hosting is the most expensive out of this list. With this hosting type, you can rent your own physical server reserved exclusively for your website. Unlike the Shared Hosting or VPS, you don’t share any resources. However, this will cost a hefty penny for such service. Dedicated hosting is ideal for large websites, resource-heavy applications, or businesses with strict compliance and security requirements. If you happen to need dedicated hosting, there are two types that you will need to know about:

Managed Hosting

Pretty much, this is where the hosting provider gives the customer a hosting butler service and handles all of the hard technical work from setup to security and backups. Managed hosting is ideal for organizations that need reliability, security, and time savings, especially when technical expertise is limited.

Unmanaged Hosting

Provides the highest level of control but also the greatest responsibility. The hosting provider delivers only the core infrastructure, such as the physical server and network connectivity. Everything else—including operating system installation, security hardening, software configuration, updates, backups, monitoring, and troubleshooting—is handled by the user. This type of hosting is best suited for experienced system administrators or development teams who need full customization and are comfortable managing servers independently.

Cons:

• Expensive – Dedicated hosting is the most expensive hosting type, pricier than shared hosting.
• Non-Beginner Friendly – Similar to VPS hosting, it is not meant for beginners but for those with some experience.
• Technical Knowledge Required – To operate your own server, advanced technical knowledge about servers will be required (unless you select managed hosting, but it will cost more).

Pros:

• Dedicated Resources – No need to share resources. You have a whole server all to yourself.
• Customization – Based on the hosting provider, you can choose your server setup down to the RAM and even install software to support your website.
• More Security – Having a server to yourself gives increased security from other websites and traffic.

Cloud Hosting

Cloud hosting is the one of the newer methods of hosting. It runs virtual servers that draw resources from a pool of connected servers. Essentially, your website draws resources from multiple servers such as RAM, Storage, and CPU power.

Cons:

• Downtime and Outages – Because the cloud relies on the internet differently than the other forms of hosting, if the internet goes down, your server is down too.
• Security – Cloud servers use external services and external vendors. This can be a security risk if you store sensitive information using cloud servers.
• Limited Flexibility – Cloud hosting do not offer the same degree of flexibility as VPS and dedicated hosting due to its nature. Everything is managed though the cloud service provider and not the hosting service provider.

Pros:

• Scalability – Because cloud hosting draws resources from a lot of servers, it can dial down and increase resources as quickly as the situation can change.
• Flexibility – This kind of hosting can work for the beginner and the expert levels of hosting needs.
• Uptime and resilience – Having a pool of servers to provide resources gives redundancy and improves up-time in times of need.

Which Hosting Type is Right For You?

With so many options on how to host your website, your first step should be to find out what your website needs. Here are some things you may want to consider:

• Will your site be an e-commerce shop?
• Will your site have a lot of visitor traffic?
• Will you have a large site with custom features?
• Will you have video conferencing or videos posted on your site?
• Will you need a lot of storage to store content on your site?

You can use our server resources guide to see how your site performs and what is most important for your website. From there you can determine what hosting package or plan will work for you through our complete hosting guide.

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