Which Web Hosting Is Best For Small Businesses?

Are you ready to take your business online with a website or an e-commerce solution? Then you’ve probably come across several hosting providers and hosting plans. We totally understand that hosting can seem like an enormous headache at first. It can be extremely difficult to know what kind of web hosting will be best for your business. We’re here to help. That’s why today we’re sharing some key web hosting basics.

What is web hosting?

In order for a website to be available online, its files need to be uploaded to a web server. This is done by hosting providers and is called web hosting. Now there are different ways in which you can host your website. The most common ways are: shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated hosting.

1. Shared hosting

Shared hosting is as the name suggests: shared. With shared hosting, you share a physical server and all of its resources. This means that it’s often the cheapest option. However, other websites that use your server can influence the performance of your website. 

You can compare shared hosting to sharing an apartment with some friends. You will have to share the bathroom, the shower, the kitchen, and other common areas. This means that if one of your housemates is taking a shower, you cannot. Your behavior in the apartment can influence others.

2. VPS hosting

Let’s start with what VPS hosting stands for – Virtual Private Server. With VPS hosting you share a physical server with others. However, the big difference is that with virtualization technology the server is divided in multiple “private” compartments. This means that your website will have its own space in a shared hosting environment. 

The best thing about this is that not all resources are shared and that portions of the resources are dedicated to your website only. This allows for more power, flexibility, and security.

You can compare VPS hosting with owning your own condo. Whilst you still share the elevator, stairs, and entrance of the property, you’re responsible for your own space.

3. Dedicated hosting

With dedicated hosting, you have an entire server that is fully dedicated to hosting only your website – it’s like owning your own house. You have access to all the resources available, can tweak it so it fits your needs and you don’t have to worry about the behavior of others.

Which Web Hosting Is Best For Small Businesses?

Whether you have a personal website, a small business, or want to run a larger site, you might be wondering whether you should choose shared hosting, VPS hosting, or dedicated hosting. Which one you should choose highly depends on your needs and future plans.

Shared hosting is great for

• Blogs and personal websites
• Small to midsize companies
• Someone who’s planning to start a new business
• Businesses that aren’t planning to receive a lot of visitors

VPS hosting is great for:

• Large personal websites
• Businesses that are planning to grow rapidly online
• Businesses that are planning to host multiple websites
• Businesses that expect an increase in traffic
• Anyone who wants the flexibility to scale up

Dedicated hosting is great for:

• Medium to large businesses that receive large volumes of traffic
• Businesses that want to be in charge of their own security
• Anyone who needs a lot of bandwidth and disk space
• Businesses that need high security
• Everyone who expects a lot of visitors at the same time

If you’ve made the decision between shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated hosting, it’s important to look at the hosting provider. Check their uptime, if they offer 24/7 support, if they have a helpdesk, what their infrastructure is like, and if they have a knowledge base.