Which hosting account will suit me best?

There are various sorts of web hosting plans suitable for different sites in regard to the system resources or the web hosting platform they need. To choose the most adequate hosting service for your web site, you need to evaluate what server-side software programs it requires, how many visits per day you anticipate at the beginning and in the long run, as well as any other specific needs that may have to be met.

Shared Webspace Hosting - Positive Aspects

The most appropriate option for small sized websites with a few hundred or webspace hosting, each customer pays only for their account, which reduces the overall price per customer noticeably. There are different web hosting accounts differing from one host to another, offering different amounts of disk storage and bandwidth, different e-mail box account quotas and so on. The plus is that you can pay for an account that will offer the resources your web page in fact needs. You will not have to pay a lot of cash for a package you will not make use of, or end up with a small scale account that cannot accommodate the web portal. At HD Web Hosting, there is an extensive choice of shared hosting plans appropriate for private or small business websites that even offer pre-installed script-driven systems such as Joomla, Mambo, Drupal or WordPress - to render things easier. If you commence with a less powerful package and you need more functionalities, upgrading to a more powerful package demands just a click.

Shared Web Page Hosting - Negative Aspects

A disadvantage of the shared hosting solution is that the servers have some software platforms installed on them and you are unable to install new software programs. Some web portals, particularly online storefronts, demand software applications to be installed on the web hosting server for them to function, and with a shared web page hosting environment, you can activate only software programs that do not demand complete server root access.

Virtual Private Hosting Servers and Dedicated Servers

For websites that demand root access, or if your site has many 1000's or even millions of visits per day, what you need is a VPS or a dedicated server. A virtual server is a virtual simulation of a dedicated solution and it functions in exactly the same manner.

Virtual Web Hosting Servers

Both solutions generally give root access and can be restarted through a software program by the client, autonomously from the web hosting company. Similar to the shared web space hosting accounts, the private virtual hosting server and the dedicated web server plans include diverse specs based on what the web hosting supplier has to offer. A virtual web server hosting account offers guaranteed disk storage space, RAM and CPU quotas that can occasionally be increased for short spells of time if there are free resources on the physical server. With a dedicated server, the only limit is the hardware equipment it is making use of, and it can be revamped by changing or adding components. A virtual web server is easier to tackle as it comes with a virtualization console, which can be utilized to restart it, to install applications, explore stats, etc. The management of a dedicated hosting server is more complex, so such a plan would rather be resorted to by qualified customers.

Dedicated Web Hosting Servers

However, certain web hosting companies offer managed dedicated web hosting services where they carry out dedicated web hosting server administration procedures instead of the customer. This can be a part of package or an extra feature.

Before You Decide...

Settling on the top hosting package is essential as it can have an influence on the proper operation of a site. Prior to picking a plan, compare the pros and cons, study completely all the prerequisites for the web portal to operate properly, especially if it is script-powered, and, last but not least, if you have already picked a hosting company, the best you could do would be to ask their customer support staff for a recommendation as to which particular package would be best for the proper operation of your online portal.