Various Types of Web Hosting - Understanding Web Hosting

Various types of web hosting available in market andruns on the OS. Simply put, a VPS simulates a private
which one is suited for your website. This article listsserver in that you, the site owner, can deploy
the featuresfor all types of web hostingwhatever software you want or need to continue
Choosing Web hosting type can get somewhatgrowing an e-biz. This isn’t possible with
confusing if you are not aware of the possible andshared hosting plans which limit you to the software
popular web hosting types available in the market. Ioptions offered by the hosting company, thus limiting
have tried to compile a list of possible web hostingthe database, checkout and other software you use.
types giving brief features of each type. AfterDedicated hosting
reading this article you should(hopefully ;) ) be inA dedicated hosting service, dedicated server, or
position to differentiate between all hosting types.managed hosting service is a type of Internet hosting
Free web hostingin which the client leases an entire server not shared
Free web hosting is offered by different companieswith anyone. This is more flexible than shared
with limited services, sometimeshosting, as organizations have full control over the
advertisement-supported web hosting, and is oftenserver(s), including choice of operating system,
limited when compared to paid hosting. A free webhardware, etc. Server administration can usually be
hosting service is a web hosting service that is free,provided by the hosting company as an add-on
usually advertisement-supported. Free web hosts willservice. In some cases a dedicated server can offer
usually provide a subdomain (yoursite.example.com) orless overhead and a larger return on investment.
a directory ( In contrast, paid web hosts will usuallyDedicated servers are most often housed in data
provide a second-level domain along with the hostingcenters, similar to colocation facilities, providing
( Many free hosts do allow use ofredundant power sources and HVAC systems. In
separately-purchased domains.The majority of thecontrast to collocation, the server hardware is owned
hosting companies use free hosting to introduce theirby the provider and in some cases they will provide
services, and as an entry point to their moresupport for your operating system or applications.
expensive offerings. Generally they recoup their costManaged hosting service
by Advertising, Referrals etcIn Managed hosting the user gets his or her own
Shared web hostingWeb server but is not allowed full control over it
In Shared web hosting, as name suggests, your web(root access for Linux/administrator access for
site is placed on the same server as many otherWindows); however, they are allowed to manage
sites, ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands.their data via FTP or other remote management
Typically, all domains may share a common pool oftools. The user is disallowed full control so that the
server resources, such as RAM and the CPU. Theprovider can guarantee quality of service by not
features available with this type of service can beallowing the user to modify the server or potentially
quite extensive. A shared web hosting service orcreate configuration problems. The user typically does
virtual hosting service or derive host refers to a webnot own the server. The server is leased to the
hosting service where many websites reside on sameclient.
web server connected to the Internet. Each siteColocation web hosting
"resides" on its own partition, or section/place on theColocation web hosting is similar to the dedicated
server to keep it separate from other sites. This isweb hosting service, but the user owns the colo
generally the most economical option for hosting asserver; the hosting company provides physical space
many people share the overall cost of serverthat the server takes up and takes care of the
maintenance. Shared web hosting can beserver. This is the most powerful and expensive type
accomplished in two ways: name-based and IP-based,of the web hosting service. In most cases, the
although some control panels allow a mix ofcolocation provider may provide little to no support
name-based and IP-based on the one server.directly for their client's machine, providing only the
Reseller web hostingelectrical, Internet access, and storage facilities for
Reseller hosting is a form of web hosting wherein thethe server. In most cases for colo, the client would
account owner has the ability to use his/her allottedhave his own administrator visit the data center on
hard drive space and bandwidth to host websites onsite to do any hardware upgrades or changes.
behalf of third parties. The reseller purchases theCloud hosting
host's services wholesale and then sells them toCloud hosting is a new type of hosting platform that
customers for a profit. A certain portion of hard driveallows customers powerful, scalable and reliable
and bandwidth is allocated to the reseller account.hosting based on clustered load-balanced servers and
The reseller may rent a dedicated server from autility billing. Removing single-point of failures and
hosting company, or resell shared hosting services. Inallowing customers to pay for only what they use
the latter case, the reseller is simply given theversus what they could use.
permission to sell a certain amount of disk space andClustered hosting
bandwidth to his own customers without renting aClustered hosting is having multiple servers hosting
server from a web hosting company he signed for athe same content for better resource utilization.
reseller account with. Reseller hosting is also anClustered Servers are a perfect solution for
inexpensive way for web hosting entrepreneurs tohigh-availability dedicated hosting, or creating a
start a company. Most reseller hosting plans allowscalable web hosting solution. A cluster may separate
resellers to create their own service plans andweb serving from database hosting capability.
choose their own pricing structure. In many cases,Grid hosting
resellers are able to establish their own branding viaGrid hosting is a form of distributed hosting is where
customized control panels and name servers.a server cluster acts like a grid and is composed of
VPS Hostingmultiple nodes.
A virtual private server (VPS, also referred to asHome server
VPS Hosting) is a method of partitioning a physicalIt is usually a single machine placed in a private
server computer into multiple servers such that eachresidence can be used to host one or more web
has the appearance and capabilities of running on itssites from a usually consumer-grade broadband
own dedicated machine. Each virtual server can runconnection. These can be purpose-built machines or
its own full-fledged operating system, and eachmore commonly old PCs. Some ISPs actively attempt
server can be independently rebooted. Virtual privateto block home servers by disallowing incoming
servers bridge the gap between shared web hostingrequests to TCP port 80 of the user's connection
services and dedicated hosting services, givingand by refusing to provide static IP addresses. A
independence from other customers of the VPScommon way to attain a reliable DNS hostname is by
service in software terms but at less cost than acreating an account with a dynamic DNS service. A
physical dedicated server. As a VPS runs its owndynamic DNS service will automatically change the IP
copy of its operating system, customers haveaddress that a URL points to when the IP address
superuser-level access to that operating systemchanges.
instance, and can install almost any software that