Bobs Musings

Web servers are the backbone of your website- allowing it to be served to all the visitors who would visit it. Varying degrees of traffic and needs would require that you get different types of servers. So before you start out with your new website, you must first decide on which web server best fits your needs.

Shared hosting is the least expensive of the budget, but also the most limited in freedom. Shared hosting puts your websites among others on a server. Essentially you and other webmasters are splitting the cost required to run the server and pay for upkeep, which means you will get a better price as a result. Shared hosting is usually less reliable and won’t allow you to edit core features.

A type of shared hosting that gives you more control is known as a virtual private server. A VPS is the next upgrade from the shared hosting environment, but only necessary if you actually need the freedom that a VPS provides. A VPS isn’t always any more stable or powerful than your typical shared hosting environment, so if what you need is power then you may have to upgrade to a dedicated server plan.

Prices in dedicated servers have come down dramatically. It’s now possible to get a managed dedicated server plan for $100 or less. The more options and performance you expect from the machine equates into much higher expense. You can easily shell out thousands of dollars each month for such servers, although odd are you won’t need to worry about that any time soon.

If you don’t plan on having a website at all, and only intend to resell server space, the reseller option is best for you. Dedicated servers already give you access to modify the bandwidth and disk space limitations of all accounts, so they are naturally good choices. A VPS can do the same thing, and even shared servers can accomplish this task through specific configurations. You get what you pay for, and you can only offer others what you yourself have to give.

The hierarchy of servers would seem to be shared hosting, virtual private servers, and then finally dedicated servers. That’s not always the case, but it’s generally what you will notice. You can get inexpensive dedicated servers cheaper than a VPS, and sometimes shared hosting can be more reliable than an unmanaged dedicated server. What it really comes down to is what the host you obtain the server from allows and at what price.

Closing Comments

Picking a web server isn’t hard at all. If you are just starting out, odds are shared hosting is just fine. Just make sure you allow yourself room to grow and be wary of signing leases until you know what you need.

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