There are various types of web shoting, each having its pros and cons. It is important when choosing your web host that you choose the right type of hosting for you. Below is a list of the various hosting types along with some information that should help you decide. Remember though, if you are unsure about which one to get, make sure you ask questions, the wrong decision could be costly.

Virtual Hosting

Also known as shared hosting, this form of web hosting should suffice for most everyone. Virtual hosting simple refers to the fact that your site is on one server, and that this server hosts mulitple sites. You are virtually shared - your site will not be the only one on this specific server.Very few sites would actually need the power of a dedicated server, so this option provides to be a reliable and cheap solution.

Dedicated Server

For sites requiring more power than what normal hosting can provide, a dedicated server is usually the better route to take. Having a dedicated server is a completely different from normal virtual (shared) hosting. The server is now fully yours - the entire hard disk and all the bandwidth allocated can be used as you want. There is no longer any CPU Usage restriction. If you need, you can use up 100% CPU utilization. You can put all your sites on this one server without having to worry about paying hosting fees for each site added. But along with these new liberations come new responsibilities. Most important is to ensure that you server is always patched and up to date. There are new updates being constantly released, which if not applied to your server could let a hacker could gain inner access to your server. Because management can be so difficult, there are usually two types of dedicated hosting offered:

Unmanaged - your host will not help you maintain the server. Far more cheaper than managed dedicated, you should only opt for an unmanaged server if you are well versed with how a server functions. The server will be given to you either with a plain operating system installation or with a control panel installed. It is your duty to take care of all upgrades, patches, configuration, security, and fixing any problems. In such a situation, it might be worthwhile to hire a system administrator to ensure that your server is always in good condition

Managed - your host will assist you in the upkeep of your server. This can be quite expensive, but for those without the technical skills it can be very helpful. By choosing to go with a managed dedicated server, the web host will help you with the above-mentioned administrator responsibilities. While more expensive, it will save you the headache of trying to get your server to work if there are any problems.

Dedicated servers come either as just plain installations (where only the operating system and basic services are installed) or with a control panel. The control panel lets you easily modify most server features from a web page. It should be noted that the control panel will have limitations, and will not provide access to everything. It should be noted that with a dedicated server, even though you may be paying a set up fee, the server is usually owned by the company – you are only renting it for the time being.

Colocation

Colocation services are for those that require complete control over their server configuration. Colocation is a service in which a company will connect a server that you own to the internet. If you do not already have one, some companies offer to build a server for you. This is the key difference between dedicated servers and colocated servers. In a dedicated environment, the server itself is owned by the web hosting company, whereas in a colocated environment, the server is your own. There are two costs associated with colocated servers - rental fees and connection fees.

1. Rental Fees - These are the costs associated with actually having your server located in the web host's datacenter. Ranging from 1U to a full rack, this measurement is the height of the server(s) being hosted. Most servers come in either 1U or 2U configurations. Servers with a large number of harddrives can be as big as 3U or 4U.
2. Connection Charges - Instead of measuring the total number of gigabytes transferred per month, a connection average is usually used. So a 1 mbp/s connection means that you can average 1 megabyte of transfer per second for the entire month. Getting more complicated now, there are two other things to consider. Firstly is how this transfer is measured. Some simply take the amount of bandwidth used that month, divide it by the number of seconds in that month, and come to a figure that way. Much more popular though is a system called '95th percentile' in which bandwidth measurements are taken every 5 minutes. At the end of the month, the top 5% of readings are discarded, and the highest remaining reading left is what the user is billed at. This brings us to the second point - burstable connections. While you may be allowed to average 1 mbp/s, you can suddenly burst to a higher transfer rate. With a system of measurement such as 95th percentile, you have to make sure that you do not need to burst your connection often.

Since you are entrusting your server in the hands of another company, there are other things to be aware of -

• Facility - It is important to know where your server will be physically located.
• Physical Infrastructure - Natural disasters can and do occur. You want to ensure that your server and the data it contains is kept safe.
• Security / Access - Just as you would not allow anyone into your server, you want to make sure that only people with the proper authorization will have access to your server.
• Bandwidth - Not all internet connections are equal. For more detail, please refer to our page on differences in bandwidth.
• IPs - If you want to be using features such as Anonymous FTP, private nameservers, or game servers, having multiple IPs can become important. The host should be checked for how many IPs they can provide and at what cost.
• Support Options - This is important with any type of hosting. You want to make sure that the people that work with your servers are both knowledgeable and helpful.
• Cross Connect Fees - This is a more advanced feature. In certain places, you can actually physically co-locate your server with one host, while having the internet connection provided by another host. These additional fees are called cross connect fees.
• Uptime Guarantees - Just as they are very important in virtual hosting, it is extremely important to ensure that your host has guarantees in regards to the performance of your connection.
• Contract - The fine print is always important. Things to be noted include the terms of service, an uptime guarantees, and the contract length.

Courtesy of Web Hosting Choice