The Inside Scoop On Cheap Web Hosting
There are literally thousands of web hosting providers on the Internet from which to choose. All of these can be categorized into different styles of hosting – reseller, server co-located, managed, dedicated, VPS (Virtual Private Server) and shared. Of all these types, shared web hosting is the most economical.
What is it?
Shared web hosting simply means the web server is divided out among several web hosting accounts. The cost of hosting on a shared server heavily depends on how many hosting clients a web hosting provider is able to deposit onto one server. The more clients on one server, the less the overall cost is for the end user. Those customers on a shared hosting plan have no control over the server itself but do manage and control their own web site, usually through a control panel provided by the hosting company.
Bandwidth and web space
As customers are all on the same server, bandwidth and space considerations are taken into account. However, it is a growing trend for web hosting providers to offer unlimited amounts of web space and bandwidth with each hosting account. In reality, this is a physical impossibility.
Hosting providers can offer these types of claims due to the server memory size. Server hard drives run in the terabytes rather than the megabytes and gigabytes most computer users are accustomed to. Several hard drives are tied together into one server. This adds up to an astronomical amount of space. This does not equate to unlimited, but rather a fairly unreachable limit.
The same information holds true for bandwidth. Unless one is running a web site that will have hundreds of web pages and stands to be visited by more than a couple thousand people on a monthly basis, neither web space nor bandwidth will be considered restricted. However, should your business grow, or receive over 2,000 visitors in any given month, you will quickly outgrow the means to host on a shared account, and thus, dedicated or VPS hosting should be considered.
Up-time
When searching for a decent, inexpensive web hosting provider, it is prudent to peruse some basic facts about the hosting being provided. One of the most important and telling items about a web hosting provider is its guaranteed up-time.
Nearly every provider available will sport a minimum of a 99% up-time. This always sounds fantastic, but the reality is this percentage is indicating that for 7 hours and 18 minutes out of each month, customers can expect their web sites to become totally unavailable. That is nearly an entire business day. When considering out this number, remember that the more nines that follow the decimal point, the better the up-time. For example, a 99.99% up-time guarantee equates to only 4 minutes of downtime.
Customer support
Another item to check heavily into is what manner of support the web hosting company provides. At the very least they should offer a way to contact them either through e-mail or online contact form, have a toll-free number for customers to call, and ideally a support section should be in place and easily found within the company web site. The better hosting providers will take this further and have manuals, FAQs, and knowledge bases for customers to read if and when they need assistance.
Conclusion
If the web site in question will be in the small to medium range as far as total web pages and expected traffic, one can easily find a quality web hosting provider that offers everything needed to run a successful web site at a remarkably low monthly cost. There are quite a few providers offering more than enough space and bandwidth, guaranteed up-times higher than 99.9%, and superb support centers. One can expect to find the pricing of these web hosting plans to range from as low as $3 per month up to $7 per month.
What is it?
Shared web hosting simply means the web server is divided out among several web hosting accounts. The cost of hosting on a shared server heavily depends on how many hosting clients a web hosting provider is able to deposit onto one server. The more clients on one server, the less the overall cost is for the end user. Those customers on a shared hosting plan have no control over the server itself but do manage and control their own web site, usually through a control panel provided by the hosting company.
Bandwidth and web space
As customers are all on the same server, bandwidth and space considerations are taken into account. However, it is a growing trend for web hosting providers to offer unlimited amounts of web space and bandwidth with each hosting account. In reality, this is a physical impossibility.
Hosting providers can offer these types of claims due to the server memory size. Server hard drives run in the terabytes rather than the megabytes and gigabytes most computer users are accustomed to. Several hard drives are tied together into one server. This adds up to an astronomical amount of space. This does not equate to unlimited, but rather a fairly unreachable limit.
The same information holds true for bandwidth. Unless one is running a web site that will have hundreds of web pages and stands to be visited by more than a couple thousand people on a monthly basis, neither web space nor bandwidth will be considered restricted. However, should your business grow, or receive over 2,000 visitors in any given month, you will quickly outgrow the means to host on a shared account, and thus, dedicated or VPS hosting should be considered.
Up-time
When searching for a decent, inexpensive web hosting provider, it is prudent to peruse some basic facts about the hosting being provided. One of the most important and telling items about a web hosting provider is its guaranteed up-time.
Nearly every provider available will sport a minimum of a 99% up-time. This always sounds fantastic, but the reality is this percentage is indicating that for 7 hours and 18 minutes out of each month, customers can expect their web sites to become totally unavailable. That is nearly an entire business day. When considering out this number, remember that the more nines that follow the decimal point, the better the up-time. For example, a 99.99% up-time guarantee equates to only 4 minutes of downtime.
Customer support
Another item to check heavily into is what manner of support the web hosting company provides. At the very least they should offer a way to contact them either through e-mail or online contact form, have a toll-free number for customers to call, and ideally a support section should be in place and easily found within the company web site. The better hosting providers will take this further and have manuals, FAQs, and knowledge bases for customers to read if and when they need assistance.
Conclusion
If the web site in question will be in the small to medium range as far as total web pages and expected traffic, one can easily find a quality web hosting provider that offers everything needed to run a successful web site at a remarkably low monthly cost. There are quite a few providers offering more than enough space and bandwidth, guaranteed up-times higher than 99.9%, and superb support centers. One can expect to find the pricing of these web hosting plans to range from as low as $3 per month up to $7 per month.
