Webserver hosting comes in all sorts of sizes and shapes, depending on your needs you have to choose an optimal webserver that suits your organization.
Here's a list of the various types of Webserver hosting options:
- dedicated
- shared
- VPS
Each one of these has its own variants, upsides and downside which we will list:
Dedicated Webhosting:
Dedicated webservers as described, they are a dedicated server maintained only for individual/personal organizations and nothing else.
They are single handedly the fastest and can handle more for the given resources compared to other offerings.
Dedicated webhosts have variations such as:
- Bare metal webservers
- Virtual Host webservers
Bare Metal webservers
These dedicated webservers are quite simply the most basic webservers that are very lightweight and fast as they have no overhead
It's as simple as a dedicated computer, running a light OS, and hosting the webserver.
Pros:
- fast
- you maintain server ownership
Cons:
- expensive
- tougher to maintain and service
Virtual Host webservers
Virtual Host webservers are just like the aforementioned webservers, the catch being the hosting OS runs on top of a Hypervisor/Virtual Container.
This helps with maintenance of the system and control over the hosting system.
Bare Metal webservers are quite more cumbersome to deal with in maintenance situations.
Pros:
- still fast
- easier to maintain and service
- you maintain server ownership
Cons:
- Still expensive
Shared Web hosting:
Shared webservers in essence are servers that do shared tasks along with webhosting such as hosting other servers on the same system.
Since multiple tasks run on the same system, The resource usage is dynamically managed.
However if one task is in a state of using heavy resources it will affect other tasks.
Shared hosting can also be bare metal or virtually hosted.
Pros:
- Among the cheaper ways to host
Cons:
- harder to maintain and service
- not as lightweight
Virtual Private Server Hosting:
VPS services essentially provides the same kind of experience as a dedicated host but are organized in the same way shared hosts do.
Your webserver will be hosted a on cloud with limited resources, but it has full control for maintenance and is given various protection services like anti-DDoS protection, etc.
VPS services provide peace of mind as it doesn't involve too much of the design process for a proper hosting setup.
Instead, it's a set it and forget it type of service.
For more detailed info about VPS services check here.
Pros:
- depending on how it is configured it can still be fast
- cheapest way to host
- easier to maintain and service
Cons:
- you will lack server ownership
Hostinger is a popular VPS that offers this service.
So which kind of hosting should I prefer ?
Shared and Dedicated webhosts fall into more of a similar category of self-hosted webservers, whereas other services like VPS fall into the cloud-hosted/external hosting services.
If your organization doesn't have a complex need and just needs to host a simple static web page, external hosting might be a cheaper option.
Given the complexity and available resources, self-hosting might seem more reasonable.
If you expect less traffic but want to be able to manage the server on your own, consider self-hosting.
For larger commercial organizations, self-hosting again might seem more reasonable.
If you are a single individual or a smaller commercial business, cloud-hosted/external hosting is just much more feasible, considering network limitations as well.
Wrap-up:
In short, we were able to list down the various options for hosting a webserver for an Individual's needs.
may it be commercial or Individual.