Everything in the internet starts with web hosting – the service that makes it all possible by enabling businesses, blogs, and other websites to be accessible online to prospective clients and users. So basically for a business, web hosting is the key to establishing an online presence.

And therein lies the catch…

An unreliable hosting service, despite giving your business an online presence, will occasionally end up making it inaccessible to prospective customers at times when they want to check your website out.

So what does people generally expect from a reliable hosting service then?

• Cost-effectiveness
• 99.9% uptime
• 24/7 technical support
• Ability to handle mission critical applications
• Responsiveness

…just to name a few.

But generally people just want a cost-effective hosting solution. Most of them end up availing shared hosting service. For a business, this is actually not a good deal. In the long run, shared hosting just wouldn’t cut it. This leaves them with three other alternatives.

• VPS hosting
• Dedicated hosting
• Cloud hosting

Before we get into details, let’s analyze why shared hosting isn’t a good idea for businesses.

Shared hosting’s low price tag is the decisive factor that makes it preferable to many website owners. But there are other variables that people don’t usually bother to consider. First off, shared hosting is not something that promotes the growth of a business. Your website will be sharing server resources with other websites. If a few of those neighboring websites utilize a lot of server resources, your website will be left to function with what remains; and it won’t be enough to guarantee accessibility to your potential customers at all times.

As a matter of fact, it can slow down your website. This is known as the bad neighbor effect. However, shared hosting is easier to set up and is a good start to just launch your website. But once your website starts to grow and traffic starts to increase, you will be forced to switch to a better hosting solution.
 

The Alternatives – VPS or Dedicated?

 
You have 3 alternatives – Cloud, VPS, and Dedicated. But in this blog, we will analyze facts and features to help make the choice between VPS and dedicated servers.
 

Virtual Private Servers

 
The best way to describe VPS is to think of it as a condo. When you own a condo, you will be responsible in maintaining it. However, you and the others in the building will be sharing a few resources. VPS is quite similar. Your website will be hosted on a virtual private server (a virtual compartment of a physical server). That is your condo. There will be other virtual compartments that house other websites, and each function independently.

You will get access to the resources you pay for. Other websites on the machine will not be affecting your website’s performance in any way. It also offers more security than shared hosting, and costs much less compared to a low-end dedicated server.
 
Other benefits include:

• Scalability; you can add or remove resources depending on your business needs
• Great control and security with root access
• Minimal server load, in most cases, results in a comparatively better performance

So basically this is pretty much a more reliable version of shared hosting. And the only limitation you should be worried about is the reliability of the hosting service provider. If you don’t have complete access to all the resources you paid for, your website will run out of breath at peak loads.
 

Dedicated Servers

 
One of the best albeit costlier alternative to shared hosting, dedicated hosting solutions give you a server dedicated to serving your website alone. You will not have to share resources with any other websites. Shared hosting may be prone to connectivity issues, downtimes, and even speed drops. Issues like that don’t exist in a dedicated server.

However, you should be mindful of the amount of resources your dedicated hosting solution provides. It’s primarily of use to websites with high or consistently increasing traffic.
 
Benefits include:

• More power and control over resources than other hosting alternatives
• Can handle high traffic without any issues
• Reliable and highly secure
• Customizable; you have the choice of using the software and hardware the way you want
• Supports a plethora of scripting languages

There are two things you need to be aware of if you are interested in availing a dedicated hosting solution. First, the amount of resources the server provides you. Make sure your website has more than enough to function even at peak loads. Second, go for a managed dedicated server if you think you can’t maintain the server on your own. If you go for an unmanaged dedicated server, you will either have to maintain/upgrade/repair the server by yourself or hire help from technicians.

Its biggest limitation is that it’s costlier than other hosting alternatives. If by some chance the server crashes, it will take a good amount of time to get it fixed.
 

Analysis

• VPS is less expensive comparatively and comes with reasonably good features for a low-mid scale website. Dedicated servers are expensive, robust, secure, and ideal for large websites with high traffic.
• Dedicated servers are comparatively more scalable than virtual private servers.
• VPS offers just enough security for a website to function (generally), while dedicated servers offer the best security you can get in the hosting sector.

Conclusion

 
Let’s make things easier. Ask yourself the following questions to figure out the right kind of hosting solution you will need.

• Is your website small, medium, or big?
• What is your budget to avail a reliable hosting package?
• Once the website grows, will there be a lot of traffic?
• Does your website accept payments for products or services, and does it save sensitive information of registered users in its database?

If your website is big and the traffic keeps increasing, a dedicated server will do you justice. If it’s small and you are not expecting a big spike in traffic, you can manage with a VPS package. If there are sensitive information involved, you would need robust security. A dedicated server is the best option when it comes to security. So basically, your choice ultimately depends on how big the website is, and its demands.

Stepping into the world of web hosting but with a mind full of questions? Worry not, for this blog is a concoction of just the right amounts of knowledge you would need to understand the fundamentals of web hosting and how things run behind the scene.

Let’s begin with the definition of web hosting.

In a nutshell, web hosting is the practice or business of providing storage space for websites thereby making them available to be viewed by internet users.

You store all the files and data required to run and operate the website in a web hosting server. Generally, from a business perspective, web hosting may also refer to the company which provides the hosting service – storing your website, providing internet connectivity, database etc.

So basically it’s a data center then?

No it isn’t. The hosting part is handled by a server of the hosting company. You are leasing a space in that server for your website. In some cases, you can have the whole server for your website alone. We’ll get into that later. So this server essentially holds important data of your website.

So doesn’t that mean the server should be protected?

Why, yes of course… which brings us to the answer to the first question – Data center. The server is housed at a secure facility to protect it from unauthorized accesses and other threats. This facility is what we call the data center.
 

Types of Web Hosting

 
Now that you have an idea what web hosting is, it’s time to introduce you to the various types of web hosting.

In general, there are 4 types.

• Shared hosting
• Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting
• Dedicated hosting
• Cloud hosting

Basically, all four serves the same purpose of storing websites but differs in the features. Each of the four will differ in the amount of control of the user over the website, the storage space for the website, the bandwidth, server performance and even reliability of the service.

Let’s get into the details.
 

Shared Hosting

 
Shared hosting is where your website is one of many websites hosted by a single server. It’s more like a building where tenants lease apartments. There’ll be many tenants in the building with their own space to live. Similarly, your website will have its own space in the server. The catch is that your website will have to share the server resources with the other websites.

It’s an entry level hosting solution, the least expensive of the four, and the ideal choice for small websites with a limited amount of traffic. The cons include the ‘bad neighbor effect’. This is when other websites in the server utilizes a lot of the server’s resources leaving your website with only a little to work with. This affects the website’s performance. You also don’t have access to the server. A shared environment generally won’t be able to handle higher traffic.
 

Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting

 
Virtual Private Server or VPS essentially means a virtual server which will be hosting a website. You are probably wondering how a virtual server can do this, because it’s well… a ‘virtual’ server.

Because, this virtual server is part of a physical server. So your website is technically hosted on that physical server but in a virtual partition. That virtual partition is what we generally refer to as virtual server, because it does resemble a dedicated server.

The hosting environment is secure, and you can also use your own copy of an operating system of your choice. The VPS also gives you a super user level access to this instance so that you can add and use programs that are compatible with that OS. This is an ideal option for those users who cannot invest in a dedicated server or have a mid-scale website with only a moderate amount of traffic.

The ability of VPS systems to handle traffic spikes can be limited. But you can upgrade the hosting package to acquire more features for your growing website. It costs a bit more than shared hosting, and considerably less than dedicated hosting.
 

Dedicated Server Hosting

 
Like its name suggested, dedicated server hosting service is when a full hosting solution completely dedicated to your website. Your site will be hosted on what we refer to as the dedicated server, and there will only be your website in the server. This means all of the server’s resources are at your website’s beck and call. You get more control over the server compared to the other types of hosting. Most dedicated hosting packages come with premium technical support and server performance.

However, this should make something else quite obvious. It affects your wallet. Dedicated hosting is the most expensive option out of the four types as it offers the best server performance, technical support and control. The price is of course justifiable. But this level of service is ideal only for big websites with a large amount of traffic.
 

Cloud Hosting

 
When it comes to high traffic and frequent traffic spikes, no other hosting is as good as cloud hosting. You’d have realized from its name that it is a cloud computing technology; and at its best. It’s also referred to as cluster server hosting or server-on-demand hosting.

It’s where multiple computers connected as a network (called a cloud) collaborates in operations, data transfer and storage thereby acting as a single super computer. So essentially, your website is hosted on multiple machines in the cloud. Now you know why spiking traffic isn’t an issue in cloud hosting.

Apart from its ability to handle high traffic, cloud hosting also isn’t confined to a single data center. The web hosting features like FTP, email services etc. are taken care of by different servers in the cloud. The point is, even if one server fails, your website will not be affected at all, as another server will take over. Another advantage is that the hosting solution is pay-per-use, meaning you will be charged only for what you use.

A dynamic, scalable, and robust solution cloud hosting is getting more popular each year with more users starting to realize the cloud’s potential. Add and remove resources on the go without compromising control and flexibility. The only con is that the reliability of a cloud solution depends on the solution provider. Some solutions may not give root access to change server settings despite having a high price tag.

That takes care of the hosting types. Now to address the most common confusion about web hosting.

Domain name and web hosting are sometimes confused to be the same

They aren’t.

Basically, a domain is the name of your website while a web host is the home of your website. The domain is more like the address to this home and not the home itself. Web host is the space where your website resides (in a server of course). Now that you understood the difference between domain name and web hosting, let’s explore a bit more about domain.

These are 3 fundamental things you should know about domain names:

• The name should be unique and relevant, and should relate to what your website does or have in it. (For example, if it’s a blog site, bloggersdeck.com is a good domain name)
• Purchase and register this domain
• Point the domain to your web hosting solution by changing the DNS

To know more about the significance of domains in the digital realm, point and tap here – domain registration
 

Conclusion

 
This is just a 101 guide to give you just the right amount of knowledge you need to find the right hosting for your website, or to give the hosting business a shot. Feel free to go through this one to know how to nail an ideal web hosting service. It’s sure to come in handy.

“This is pain. The website is starting to slow down. Is it the server? Is the universe telling me to switch to a better server? Can my website (and my business) survive?”

A friend of mine who runs a growing website mulled over when he’d noticed that his website was acting weird. This happens to a lot of business owners with growing websites. It’s gratifying to see the business flourish online, and traffic increasing on a daily basis. But when it starts wanting more server resources to function properly, there will be panic.

In some cases, the web hosting provider will be so good that they won’t let their clients panic. They will let you know that you need to upgrade to a better plan (which they offer, of course).

Most growing businesses usually go for VPS hosting (a cheaper alternative to dedicated hosting) when they take their first step into the digital realm. Once the business starts booming or when their sites start to get a boatload of traffic, their best bet is to migrate to a better hosting plan – specifically, a dedicated hosting solution.

If, for the sake of your growing website, you are thinking about switching to a better hosting plan, you need to do it the right way. That said, here are a few things to help you migrate from VPS to a dedicated hosting package….the right way.
 

Wait….what is this ‘right way’?

 
Just go left and turn around. That is the ‘right’ way.

Alright. Sorry. Couldn’t help it.

The right way of migrating to a different hosting plan is something that pretty much makes sure that:

• Nothing bad happens during the migration
• Your website functions better than ever, post migration
• Downtimes will be kept to a minimum

The ‘not right’ way can give rise to problems that only exist in a website owner’s worst hosting nightmare.

To go the right way, follow the guidelines mentioned below. Trust me. They are worth it.

1. Do not cancel your VPN plan as soon as you buy a dedicated server package

The first step to migrating to a dedicated server is to buy a dedicated server package obviously. Once that’s done, people tend to cancel their old hosting package (VPN, in this case). That’s a big No No.

Just to be on the safe side, you should wait till the migration is complete to say goodbye to your old VPN server. If you don’t, you may have to say goodbye to your website data instead.

2. Make sure the new hosting provider didn’t just troll you with a blacklisted IP

Your new hosting provider might give you a blacklisted IP with your dedicated server package. Blacklisted IPs will eventually prove to be a curse on your website affecting its operations and even the emails.

You have two options here, and getting the IP delisted from the blacklist is not one of them:

• Check the IP address provided to you to see if it’s blacklisted
• Don’t check the IP address. If it’s blacklisted, you and your business can go down in a blaze of glory.

3. Stop yourself from making any changes in the website during migration

Why? Because there’s no guarantee that they will be there after the migration. You might lose them. ‘Nuff said.

4. Backup the databases and every last file

This is a healthy practice website owners generally follow while running their websites. It’s equally important when you are ready to switch to a dedicated hosting solution.

Back up every last bit, pun intended, of data and store them (in more than one location, just to be safe) before migrating to the new hosting plan. The control panel of your current hosting plan should be offering a backup feature. All it takes is some time off your schedule.

5. Before uploading files to the new dedicated server, install the old apps

Do not ever forget the bond between your website and its apps. Once you are ready to transfer your files to the new server, make sure to install the apps you were using in the soon-to-be forgotten VPS server, in the new dedicated server.

Those files you are going to move to the new server will need those apps to accommodate them. This will also ensure that your website will start functioning in all its glory, like it used to in the VPS server, as soon as you are done uploading the files.

6. Feed your new email IDs to the dedicated server before switching DNS records

Every single email IDs hosted on your website address should be present in the dedicated server. And you should do this before switching DNS records.

For this, you can make use of the temporary login credentials that your new host will provide. Just login with the temporary ID and feed the email IDs to the server. There’s a chance that you could miss a few email addresses during the process. As a precaution, just create a ‘catchall’ address so you won’t lose emails that way during the migration.

7. Test the website with all your might

Once you are done transferring all the files and emails, it’s time to see if the website is alive. Test the website on the new server and see if everything’s functioning the way they are supposed to. You should also check every single image and links in the website are working properly. Not kidding.

8. Do the DNS update

Well? Are you satisfied with your website’s performance after testing it? If you are, it’s time to seal the deal. The domain registrar will have given you control by now. Domain registrars never fail. Now you should change the DNS records to the one you received in the welcome mail from your new hosting provider.

After the DNS records update, prepare to say farewell to your old VPS account. It’s time is up.
 

End-note

 
You have now successfully migrated ‘the right way’. Rejoice! And good luck to your business.

With the internet being the biggest and one of the most profitable markets in the world, internet marketing is crucial for online businesses, regardless of what they do. Investing in enhancing your website’s online presence is basically ‘internet marketing 101’.

Sounds easy, right? Well, it’s not. But doable of course. Your internet marketing journey starts from the creation of your website and ends when you don’t want to continue with your business online anymore.

Before you gecar up to find the right host for your website, make sure you are armed with these.

• Basic technical know-hows
• An idea of how the website should look
• An idea of the content you will be publishing on the website
• A list of targeted markets
• An idea of who potential customers could be
• An idea of the services you are planning to offer

Now ask yourself if you just want the website for your business or if you want to educate people.

Honestly, there are many more questions that you will want answers for. Let’s just assume this whole thing as a layered sandwich. Web hosting is just one of the ingredients in the sandwich. We will cover that first.
 

Your Hosting Package

 
The nature of your business, the targeted markets and the desired audience – these are critical factors that you should consider before choosing a hosting package for your website.

The ideal hosting package can get you everything you need to keep the website up and running without any hitch. This will include the right tools, adequate bandwidth, storage, technical support etc.

Here are a few questions I asked myself when I was introduced to web hosting.

Why is it so hard to find one?

Because there are a lot of companies offering various packages, it’s not going to be easy to find one that fits all your requirements.

Let’s just go for a free hosting service

You could be jeopardizing your whole business with a free service.

Why?

Every hosting package will have some kind of limitation. In rare cases, it can have everything you need but will cost you a lot (See? Limitation). However, there are still a few gems that you can easily miss.

Okay then, what’s the best approach?

Take it step by step.
 

Step by step

 
These steps are part of practical and tactical approach to finding the right web host. Each step should get you closer to the answer.

Step 1: Size of the hosting package you are going to need

To get an answer, you will have to write down what your website does. Is it a blog hub? Or an eCommerce portal? Web magazine maybe? Is it a place of business?

Once you are sure about what you are going to do with the website, you can start looking for a hosting package that fits.

Step 2: Growth of the website

The potential growth of your business is a huge factor. Do you intend to grow your business? If so, then you will be getting a lot of visitors every day. This calls for more powerful hosting packages. The package should make sure that your website doesn’t go down when the traffic increases.

Step 3: Server – Linux or Windows

You can find hosting offers with Linux/Unix and Windows servers. This could get confusing when you start thinking about which of the two is the best. That debate has been going on for a long time. Technically, both of them are fine. But if you have plans for the server, then it can affect your choice. If you don’t have any plans for the server, simply choose one.

Step 4: The types of hosting

Paid hosting comes in four types – Shared hosting, VPS hosting, Dedicated hosting, Co-location hosting.

• Shared hosting – The most popular type of hosting, shared hosting is also the cheapest. You share a single server with multiple other websites. This means you will be sharing the server resources as well. Ideal for small audiences. But if your neighbors start using more resources, you will be left with a little (bad neighbor effect).
• VPS hosting – Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting is where you purchase a virtual machine (which of course will be running in a physical server) with its own copy of OS. You can install any software in the machine as long as it’s compatible with the OS.
• Dedicated hosting – You can buy an entire server for yourself, with complete access to all its resources. You can host multiple sites in the dedicated hosting server. Ideal for websites with large traffic. It is comparatively more expensive, and generally comes with regular maintenance and around-the-clock technical support.
  If you want to do it all yourself, you can opt for self-managed hosting. If you don’t want to spend time maintaining your website on top of running your business, you can go for managed hosting. Everything will be taken care of by the provider.
• Co-location hosting – Here you can have your server hardware maintained by the provider. They will be keeping it physically secure. The provider will also give a dedicated internet connection on top of technical support and regulated power.

Step 5: Research

With all your questions answered, you will now have to find the right provider. This is where you are going to spend time researching. You don’t want to do business with a provider who has a history of bad service. You need the package to be dependable at all times. So your best bet is to seek out previous customers of the provider and get feedbacks.

Check third party reviews, and surf through customer support forums. However keep in mind that some bad reviews were posted just out of spite. Make sure every positive or negative review you go through are backed by facts. You can even reach out to the provider to get answers.

By the end of step 5, you will have a clear idea of who you can depend on, and what hosting package will be ideal for your website.

There is nothing called a perfect web hosting solution. There will always be trade-offs like with most things in the digital realm. Web hosting comes in various types meeting various needs. But VPS hosting will always be unique owing to its flexibility in both its functions and price.

Assuming you are new to the web hosting domain, here is a simple learner’s guide to VPS hosting that could get you on the right track.
 

Intro to VPS

 
VPS or Virtual Private Server is a hosting solution that lies somewhere between shared and dedicated hosting. Shared hosting is where your website shares resources with other websites in a single server. Dedicated hosting is when you get a server to host your website and only your website, which means your website will be the only one that uses all the resources of the server, unlike shared hosting.

VPS is a server in itself, but basically a virtual server that’s been divided into virtual compartments. It has its own copy of an operating system, and a set amount of allocated resources.

You could say VPS is shared hosting with dedicated resources but in a different, more flexible environment.
 

About the trade-off

 
Every hosting will be having trade-offs in one form or the other. So what’s that about VPS you ask?
Before we go to that, let’s analyze the drawbacks of shared and dedicated hosting just so you could get a clearer picture of how VPS is different.
 

Shared hosting

 
It’s more like a rental. You essentially lease a portion of the server, and share the resources with other websites that the server hosts. Although it’s a great deal for small-scale websites, bigger ones will have problems. If those other websites consume a lot of resources, your website will have to manage with the remaining resources. This means frequent downtimes or slow-loading speeds for your website. It’s cheap though.
 

Dedicated hosting

 
As for dedicated hosting, you essentially get a whole server and all its resources for yourself. The trade-off is that it will cost more. It’s the optimal package for a large website with a lot of traffic, or multimedia content.

You may also like this – Managed WordPress Hosting Vs Shared Hosting

How VPS is different

 
VPS is an isolated environment with its own dedicated resources. You will still be in a physical server, but unlike shared hosting, other websites consuming resources won’t be affecting you as you will already have the allocated resources to use.

Though, technically, you will be sharing the CPU, bandwidth and RAM of the physical server, it still wouldn’t compromise your website’s operations. You will have root access to the virtual server (similar to dedicated hosting), and with a copy of the operating system to yourself, you will also be able to add custom apps if need be.

Because of these reasons, VPS will cost you a bit more than shared hosting, but it still costs less than dedicated hosting. You pay only for a fraction of the server and get something as good as a full server.
 

Before choosing a VPS hosting provider

Basic know-hows

 
To use VPS, you should have a basic knowledge of shell commands, and using hosting control panels. You should also have server administration and troubleshooting skills. Depending on this, you can choose either self-managed or fully managed VPS service.

If you are not familiar with the things mentioned above, fully managed should be your choice. Fully managed VPS hosting will take care of such things for you, but at additional costs compared to a self-managed VPS service where you manage everything on your own.
 

Operating system

 
Your choice should be based on the operating system you prefer – Windows or Linux. There are Windows-based and Linux-based hosting solutions available.
 

Technical support and backup

 
No matter what hosting solution you go for, you should never forget to enquire about technical support. Go for a VPS hosting provider with 24/7 technical support over email, phone or live chat just in case you encounter a technical setback. You would want them to answer from the other end when you need help fixing a technical issue.

Backing up important files shouldn’t necessarily be your responsibility. You can back up files in your local computer, and have the host regularly back up your files in their database just in case your VPS gets shell script infections. If the host doesn’t provide backup facility, you may end up losing a good amount of your work.
 

Uptime

 
The uptime your web hosting provider offers is very important. Many guarantee 99.9% uptime. But you should still closely look into the details. For starters, you should check customer reviews, forums, and other third party reviewers of the hosting provider. Their past uptime records will also give you an idea if they are reliable enough.
 

Conclusion

 
If you have already been running a website for quite a while, you would have already experienced a couple of issues that keep giving you second thoughts on your hosting solution. If you want your website to perform consistently with its growth, a VPS hosting package would be the right call. By now, you should be on the right track.