Which web hosting solution will be most optimal for me?

There are different kinds of web hosting services suitable for different sites with regard to the system resources or the web hosting environment they need. To pick the most suitable hosting service for your web page, you must access what server-side software programs it needs, how many hits per day you anticipate at the beginning and in the long run, as well as any other special needs that may need to be answered.

Shared Web Page Hosting - Positive Aspects

The best choice for small scale web portals with several hundred or webspace hosting, each client pays only for their plan, which decreases the overall cost per client significantly. There are diverse web hosting solutions varying from one web hosting corporation to another, supplying different quotas of data space and bandwidth, different e-mail quotas and so on. The privilege is that you can obtain a package that will provide the specs your online portal really needs. You will not have to pay lots of money for a plan you will not avail of, or wind up with a small plan that cannot accommodate the web page. At 2HostLive Networks, there is a big array of shared hosting plans appropriate for private or small business web portals that even include pre-activated script-powered systems like Joomla, Mambo, Drupal or WordPress - to make it easier. If you commence with a basic plan and you demand more functionalities, upgrading to a more powerful account requires only a click of the mouse.

Shared Web Space Hosting - Shortcomings

A disadvantage of the shared site hosting solution is that the servers have some software installed on them and you cannot install new software programs. Certain websites, chiefly web stores, need applications to be installed on the web server for them to operate, and with a shared website hosting plan, you can activate only software programs that do not need server root access.

Private Virtual Hosting Servers and Dedicated Web Hosting Servers

For websites that request full server root access, or if your online portal has many 1000's or even 1 000 000's of daily visitors, what you require is a VPS or a dedicated server. A private virtual hosting server is a virtual emulation of a dedicated hosting server and it behaves in an absolutely identical manner.

Private Virtual Web Hosting Servers

Both solutions generally offer full server root privileges and can be restarted through a software platform by the client, autonomously from the hosting provider. Just like the shared web site hosting packages, the VPS hosting server and the dedicated web hosting plans contain diverse functionalities based on what the web hosting provider has to offer. A virtual private hosting server plan contains guaranteed disk storage, random access memory and CPU quotas that can sometimes be expanded for short spans of time if there are free system resources on the physical machine. With a dedicated server, the only limitation is the hardware architecture it is using, and it can be configured by changing or appending components. A private virtual web server is easier to handle as it comprises a virtualization platform, which can be used to reboot it, to install applications, examine stats, etc. The management of a dedicated web hosting server is more intricate, so such a plan would rather be resorted to by knowledgeable customers.

Dedicated Hosting Servers

Nonetheless, certain hosting suppliers offer managed dedicated server web hosting services where they implement web hosting server administration tasks on behalf of the customer. This can be included in the package or an extra upgrade.

Before You Decide...

Opting for the top hosting package is important as it can influence the proper operation of a web portal. Prior to selecting a plan, compare the pros and cons, investigate carefully all the prerequisites for the site to function properly, particularly if it is script-driven, and, last but not least, if you have already selected a web hosting supplier, the best you could do would be to ask their support staff for an opinion as to which plan exactly would be best for the stable operation of your web site.