Are you curious to host your website on the internet but not able to understand which type of hosting you should prefer for.
See, there are different types of hostings to choose from and each of them comes with different use cases.
Types of Hostings
Here is the list of major hosting types:
Free Hosting
Shared Hosting
Dedicated Hosting
Cloud Hosting
I am damn sure that you want to get knowledge of each hosting type. Right? No worries. Let’s begin.
Free Hosting:
As the name reflects, this type of hosting comes at 0 cost and you can host your website for free. Enjoy hosting advertisements, banners and other related things.
Let me make it very clear that this type of hosting is only suitable for fun projects and testing websites.
Do you know why? Because whenever your website crashes and you need support then there will be no support by these free hosting sites.
Of course you will have very low control on your website and limited bandwidth data.
Shared Hosting:
Listen, before you dive into the world of websites, let’s talk about shared hosting. It is an upgraded version of free hosting. Let me describe you in very simple language.
Shared hosting is like renting a small office in a big building. You get your own space, but you’re sharing the building’s electricity, water, and maintenance staff with everyone else.
Same goes for websites, your site shares a computer (called a server) with other websites.
I learned this the hard way when I first started building websites. I jumped into shared hosting because it was cheap and I don’t want free services. Because nothing is free in this world my friend.
For my simple portfolio site, it worked great. But then I built a site for a local restaurant, and things got interesting during their weekend rush.
The site slowed to a crawl because too many hungry customers were checking the menu at once. Remember this point because shared hosting delivers poor results at the time of high traffic.
Do you know why I like this hosting type because it is budget friendly. Seriously, you can help you to cut the cost at the initial phase of your business.
It is perfectly fit for simple websites that don’t get lots of visitors. Yeah you can easily upgrade to heavy traffic loaded hostings.
But wait, your site might slow down when others on your server get busy. Most importantly, you can’t customize much of what you get.
So what I advise is start with shared hosting if you’re new to this.
Just watch out for signs you’re outgrowing it:
Your website feels sluggish
You’re getting more than a few hundred visitors daily
You need to add complex features like online payments
Want my take? Does it really matter? If you are a beginner then it definitely matters. Shared hosting is like your first apartment as I told you. It might not be fancy, but it’s a perfect place to start. Just don’t try to run a restaurant out of it, if you know what I mean.
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting means you get an entire server all to yourself. It is one of my favourite hosting types as it provides me great control over my website.
Of course the premium things come with premium prices so you have to pay more. Let me explain with an example so you can understand it easily. It’s like owning your own house, with complete control over everything. No neighbors, no shared resources, just pure power at your fingertips.
You know what? I learned about dedicated hosting when my e-commerce site started crashing during the heavy traffic coming on Black Friday Sales. Shared hosting wasn’t cutting it anymore, and my business was losing money. That’s when I realized – sometimes you need to go big or go home.
But hold on! Before you jump in, there’s something you should know my friend. Running a dedicated server is like managing your own property. You need technical knowledge otherwise it will not be worth it.
Want my honest advice? If you are handling serious traffic or need complete control, dedicated hosting is your answer.
Cloud Hosting
You know what’s funny about cloud hosting? Everyone talks about it like it’s some high-tech magic, but really, it’s quite simple once you understand it. Let me share my journey with you.
Back in 2024, I was running a photography website. Everything was fine until one of my photos went viral on social media. Suddenly, my regular hosting couldn’t handle the traffic, and my website crashed.
That’s when I discovered cloud hosting, and honestly? It changed everything for me and from that time my photography site is still there.
There are various companies in the cloud hosting area but you have to choose according to services that you want. Always remember to have great security in your hosting.
Think of cloud hosting like a smart power grid. Instead of getting electricity from just one power plant, you’re connected to many. If one plant has issues or can’t handle demand, power automatically comes from others. That’s exactly how cloud hosting works with your website.
This is where it gets interesting. With traditional hosting, your website sits on a server in one location. But with cloud hosting, your site’s data is spread across multiple locations worldwide.
When someone in Tokyo visits your website, they’re connecting to a server in Asia. Someone in London? They’re hitting a European server. So it means your website will load at lightning fast speed.
Final Words:
So I hope you get an understanding of these major hosting types. Now you have to be specific while choosing hosting for your website.
I will not say that you should only choose dedicated hosting or cloud hosting because these are premium types of hosting and provide great support. The decision is completely yours and depends upon your budget and the amount of traffic your website is getting currently. But yes, I want to say don’t go with hostings with poor support at least for your serious projects otherwise it can cost you time and money as well.