Everything in the internet starts with hosting. It can be confusing even to experienced web developers when it comes to choosing the right web host. Web hosting providers offer various hosting packages you can choose from depending on your personal/business requirements. For instance, in the case of web hosting Dubai, you can find providers offering unlimited bandwidth or uptime guarantee or a combination of both.

This is just one of the many variables you need to take into account while choosing a web host. In addition to this, you should also be aware of the various types of web hosts so you can choose which one suits you best. 

The most common types of web hosts and their differences between each other are explained below.

Based on server technology, the following are the most common types of hosting.

• Shared hosting
  
• VPS hosting
  
• Dedicated hosting
  
• Cloud hosting
  

Shared Hosting

It’s the budget option, ideal for beginners. Though it’s very cheap, it’s not very reliable. A shared hosting environment will have a single server housing, say, thousands of users at a time. These users may have a lot of websites. So a single server might host more than 2000 websites at least. 

These websites share server resources (hard disk space, RAM etc.). But if one of those sites get a lot more traffic than the rest, it will take up more resources. This means, other websites will have to manage with the remaining resources, in turn experiencing slow loads or even downtimes (bad neighbor effect). 

As you won’t be paying a lot for shared hosting, you can’t expect quality support from them either in case you experience issues. It is still the best option to host test sites or development sites where downtime is not going to be a problem, and can also help small businesses establish a web presence.

Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting

It’s also, technically, a shared service but significantly balanced. Depending on the number of users, the VPS is split into multiple parts each assigned for a user. For example, if the server has 10 GB RAM and 10 GB hard disk space, and if there are 10 users, each user will get 1 GB RAM and 1 GB hard disk space. 

This way, once a user reaches the RAM limit, it doesn’t affect other users who have their own RAM limits unlike shared hosting service. Separating the users within the server and managing the separation is done by the hypervisor. 

VPS is a scalable and highly configurable web hosting service allowing the user to make updates and configurations without affecting other users. 

Dedicated Hosting

Like the name suggests, dedicated hosting gives the user a dedicated server. There will only be one server with just a single user. As good as it sounds, it has its downsides. 

One great benefit is that the user is given flexibility in customizing the package, which includes choosing memory/storage size, operating system and other hardware accessories. One downside is that the user should have sound knowledge on computers and server technology so as to customize and configure the server. 

It’s ideal for a website with a large traffic (more than 100k visits a month). Some companies offer managed dedicated servers which don’t require the user to know everything about server technology and management. Dedicated servers also offer a great level of security.

Cloud Hosting

Often mistaken as VPS hosting (even referred to as such by various companies), cloud hosting is quite similar to VPS hosting. Cloud hosting enables the user to take up resources of multiple servers in a network, which means it’s scalable. The scalability of cloud hosting extends beyond that of VPS hosting. 

It requires you to rely on the technology of the vendor rather than choosing your own technical specifications. As there are a lot of investments on cloud computing and hosting at present, it will only get better in terms of security and reliability in the near future.