| Web hosting comes in two general flavors - shared | | | | server; most hosting providers won't let you install, |
| servers (where you and a bunch of other clients of | | | | say, your own custom software on a shared server, |
| the hosting provider are all hosted on the same | | | | because it's possible you could bring down a lot of |
| physical machine) and a dedicated server (where | | | | other web sites if you screw up with it. On your own |
| your hosting is on a single machine for all your own | | | | server, they'll give you enough rope to hang yourself, |
| web sites.) | | | | and may even give you shell access. |
| Shared server solutions are great for getting into the | | | | Dedicated servers are a lot more expensive than |
| business, because they're usually set up to be more | | | | shared ones. But they're critical if you've got a piece |
| user friendly to the novice web site administrator. | | | | of functionality that must always run, like a shopping |
| They'll have consoles, lots of menus to select from | | | | cart package. They're also important if you want |
| and they're also usually a lot cheaper. They're also | | | | more direct control over your metrics and your own |
| usually on lower-end hardware, because the people | | | | web site administration. |
| who sell hosting packages know that the people who | | | | When it's time to get a dedicated server, you should |
| need more will upgrade. | | | | talk to your hosting provider and see what can and is |
| The downside of shared servers is that performance | | | | available, and how scalable the packages are. Most will |
| can take a serious hit. Now, if you're mostly using | | | | be happy to give you the upgrade, and will usually |
| WordPress for a blog, hosting a couple of database | | | | bundle something with it as part of a contract setup. |
| driven items, that's not so bad - up until your traffic | | | | The major downside of a dedicated server is that |
| spikes. Or, worse yet, if one of the other people on | | | | there's a lot less handholding, and the tech support |
| that physical box has their traffic spike, or they get | | | | gets a lot more expensive. Hosting providers are |
| hacked, or spam-scripted into oblivion. | | | | trying to minimize expenses, which is why shared |
| Much the same way that everyone sharing the same | | | | hosting exists - it's less expensive for them, and |
| bathroom means you have to wait for the shower, | | | | from a software installation perspective, it's the |
| the same thing applies to splitting CPU cycles, disk | | | | equivalent of a fast food order - you can only get |
| space, bandwidth and RAM on a server. If you notice | | | | the things off the menu. It costs less to train the |
| that your site is consistently loading slowly, you're | | | | techs, there's less need for the techs to do |
| probably in the market for a dedicated server | | | | things...and when you go to a dedicated server, in a |
| package. | | | | lot of cases, you're going to be your own technical |
| Other signs of this need include wanting to use a | | | | support agent. |
| piece of software that isn't already installed on the | | | | |