Types of Web Hosting
A web hosting service is a type of internet hosting that lets people host the websites, store information and other content in order to make it accessible through web. The service also allows using e-mail hosting service, hosting dbs, etc.
There are various types of web hosting solutions. You can choose one of many web hosting solutions, depending on your needs and means. It’s very important to investigate and evaluate web hosting services to choose the correct one.
The types of hosting can be classified depending on the following criteria:
- software, installed on the server;
- files, hosted on the servers of the hosting company;
- server’s type;
- the place, where your DC is located.
1. Depending on the software installed, web hosting can be divided into Unix-hosting and Windows-hosting. This means that different OS platforms are set up on the server.
2. Second classification is based on the type of the files, stored on the server. There are two types of the hosting: web hosting (site’s file storing) and application hosting (software storing).
3. According to the type of the servers, hosting can be subdivided into Shared Web Hosting, Reseller Web Hosting, Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting, Dedicated Web Hosting, Server Co-Location.
Shared Web Hosting and Reseller Web Hosting.
Shared web hosting means that sites’ files of several or many web sites owners are placed on the one server. The disc space and bandwidth, as well as the other server resources are divided among all users’ accounts.
Reseller web hosting is of the same type as shared web hosting but it allows clients to become web hosts themselves. It gives people the(an) opportunity to earn a potential income, reselling the web hosting services.
Virtual Private Server Hosting implies that the server is sliced up into virtual servers. Each user feels like it’s their own dedicated server but the resources are actually shared with other users on the same server. The distinct feature here is that every virtual server has its own resources limit not depended on the other users’.
Dedicated Web Hosting. A user rents the whole server from the hosting company and gets the full control over the server. This type of hosting requires good skills of server administration from the user.
Server Co-Location. This type of hosting is similar to dedicated web hosting. The difference is that a user owns the server and locates it in the company’s data center but not rent it.
4. The last classification is formed on the geographical location of the Data Center. So, the traffic on your site can be internal or external.
There also some specific types of hosting service exist: file hosting service (just files but not web pages are hosted), image hosting service (giving the possibility to upload and store images on the server), video hosting service (the same as previous one but for video files), blog hosting service and one-click hosting.
One more important thing, for the people that are not able or don’t need to spend money on hosting, is that some companies offers free hosting. But this is the case with limited web space, banners, popups and other restrictions got from the web hosting company.
Web hosting is not only the place for storing your files but also a number of services and functions provided by web hosting companies. So, you should think properly (carefully) before choosing the one you really need.
Author: Vjachik Koshelev
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