Choosing a web hosting plan that best suits your needs can be a little confusing. There are so many options out there and they are not all the same. In fact, some plans have names that are the same from several companies but the plans are very different. How can you choose a plan that is best for your needs? Here are a few things to consider that might help you do just that.
Defining Your Needs
Before you can really decide what you need from a web hosting company, you need to take a look at all the things you need from your hosting plan. On the surface, they may look similar from one company to another but in truth, there are things that you may or may not need to be included in one or not in another. If you are looking for a place to host a small blog and that is all you need, a small, starter or basic plan might be the best fit but if you need email, multiple domains, and a large web presence, you are going to want a much better plan. If you are not sure what you need, talk to a representative at the hosting company and ask all the questions you need to get the answers to your questions.
Shared Hosting Plans
One of the most common plans available in the web hosting business is shared hosting. A shared hosting plan is just what it sounds like. The server that your web domain is hosted on is shared by many web domains and many uses. This allows the hosting company to put a lot of sites on one server so there are fewer servers required for the same amount of hosting. The result is a lower cost for you but it can also mean the server performance is not as good as if it were a dedicated server with just your site on it. If the hosting company is good about keeping the number of sites on a server in check, it can be a good way to go but if they overcrowded there servers like some cut-rate hosts do, the performance will be bad and may have you wishing you had opted for something else.
Virtual and Dedicated Private Servers
For the best performance you can get, a DPS or dedicated private service is a great option but will cost quite a bit more than shared hosting. Just like it sounds, a DPS account means you do not share the server so space is priced at a premium. Along the same lines are the VPS or virtual private server accounts.These sound like and perform like DPS hosting but they are set up with shared servers that have only a few accounts on them and use software to create virtual servers on the computer. They are cheaper than DPS accounts but more than the shared hosting and perform somewhere in between these two account levels.