Web Hosting 101
In order for you to have a site that is live for users to visit it, you will need to find a web host service provider. Many types of hosting companies can provide you server space for your site including free hosting, shared hosting, clustered hosting and reseller hosting providers.
Free Hosting
Domain registration companies usually provide free web hosting for advertising purposes. Many of these hosting and registration companies will require you to have there sponsored links on the site. This sometimes can be a problem with your site design. You will be limited to your site design because they will require banner ads in key focal points of your site. Free hosting is suggested if you cannot afford the hosting costs of a premium hosting company. It is best to search the net for free hosting companies that do not require you to have their ads on your site.
Shard Hosting
Shard hosting is the most costs effective form of hosting that does not have any advertising requirements. Also known as virtual hosting service, multiple sites share space on a server in this hosting system. Depending on the type of system, you may share the IP address with the other sites on the server. On a name name-based virtual hosting, you will have the same IP. However, on an IP-based virtual hosting, you will have your own IP address. The main benefit to this kind of hosting is the system administration service that will maintain the server. This is wonderful for people who don’t have the time to learn how to maintain a server.
Clustered Hosting
Clustered hosting is used mostly for large websites. If you are a small business looking to start a site, this kind of hosting will be much more complex and costly for your company’s needs. However, if your site starts to get thousands users that will be using the site at the same time, a clustered hosting system will help maintain the quality of your site. Cluster hosting stretches the weight of hosting across multiple machines so one system will not affect the other. If your email goes down in a cluster hosting system, you will not loss the usability of your database.
Reseller Hosting
Mostly small web design companies use reseller hosting. They purchase server space in order to resale it to their customers as part of the web design package. This is very similar to shard hosting because all the sites will be using the same server and most of the time the same IP address. The design company will handle all the administration services for you.
After you decide which kind of web hosting is best for your need, you should do research on the web to find the best service provider for your needs and budget. If you are a beginner and would like for some one else to handle all the technical aspects of hosting a shard account or a reseller services would be best. However, if you are more experienced and are developing a site that will have many users using the site at the same time a cluster hosting service will best suit your needs. Lastly, if you do not have the money to afford a standard hosting service, then go with a free service.
