Here is a guide to Website Hosting, the various types and hosting providers. There are those hosting companies that provide just one type of account and those that provide many types. By providing multiple types of hosting accounts and sizes of account resources they can better meet your needs as your site or business grows.

There are various types of hosting accounts. In the past most were just simply hard drives with a database and web server. You would use a file transfer program (FTP) and send files to the hard drive. You would be responsible to locating the software you wanted and adding it to your site, configuring it and generally setting everything up. Unfortunately a lot of time would be wasted with configuration as opposed to creating your content or running your business.

Hosting Account Types

• Shared Web Hosting – this is typically the most reasonably priced hosting. One server has not only your site but others websites as well, in other words you are “sharing” the server. It means that you are sharing the server resources such as the memory and the CPU. One site could bring down all the other websites however they do monitor all the sites.
• Dedicated Server – this is the opposite of Shared Hosting because you get the entire server to yourself. You will be the only website on the server. However you do not own the server, you simply rent it. Everything is your responsibility on that server, upgrading the operating system, patching software, dealing with security etc.
• Managed Hosting – In this case you do get your own server however you do not have total control over the server. It is “managed” by administrators at the company. They keep the operating system updated, the software and deal with security.



• Colocation – much like a Dedicated Server you have complete control over the server. You also own the server. The hosting company provides space for you to place the server. Therefore you utilize their access to the internet and their space. You can even rent an entire rack and place multiple servers there. Cages are also available and hold multiple racks. This keeps others from gaining access to your servers.
• There are other types but these are the most common.

Websites and Hosting
Regardless of whether you use one of the above types of hosting or another such as Cloud Hosting or Grid Hosting, you will be able to create your website. The issue is not typically the type of site you can or cannot build, but the number of people your site can handle. It is look at as the number of simultaneous users. Once you grow you will need to review the architecture of your site. However a basic shared hosting account at a popular host can get you going as they will have the features to get you going quickly.