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With the introduction of the internet and it’s massive growth that continues to build everyday, having a website today is pretty common. Whether your website is personal, a blog about a specific niche, an online ecommerce business or promoting your offline business, harnessing the power of the internet can expose you to millions of people. To start a site you need web hosting and for that you need a server. There are 3 types of servers available; shared, virtual and dedicated.

Shared Server Web Hosting

A shared server hosts multiple websites and is by far the most common web hosting plan on the internet. Depending upon the server and the size of the web hosting provider, there could be anywhere in the range of a few to a few thousand web sites being hosted.

Why is shared server web hosting so popular? Because it is cheap! Some web hosts offer a shared server plan for as little as $5 a month. A shared server is also easy to use and requires far less technical knowledge compared to virtual and dedicated servers. It is pretty much a buy and go situation. Most web hosting providers will provide scripts and software to aid you in creating a website, publishing a blog, hosting a forum and many other services. Because shared server web hosting is so popular you can usually find a few different hosting plans to suit your needs.

So whats the catch then? Well unfortunately there are a few. Probably the biggest is that you could potentially be located on a server with a few thousand other websites. Why is this bad? Because your site along with all the others share the server’s resources. The CPU, RAM, hard disk, bandwidth and other hardware. If all of a sudden a site on the server starts taking up server resources, guess what? Your site is going to slow down, act weird or may not even work altogether. Bad news if you rely on your site as a money maker.

You also have very limited configuration options, if any at all. Because you are sharing resources with other websites, a web host cannot afford to provide you with access to the server. Doing this could allow you ( or another person ) access to other web site’s files and data. As you can imagine, this poses a major security risk and one that a web host will not take. This leaves you with some very limited options usually consisting of setting permissions and settings inside of a file. Some web hosts will provide a wider range of settings to be adjusted then others, so a good idea before you decide to buy is to contact their support team and ask about details. For the average user looking to host a personal site or a blog, there is no real need to tweak settings.

Another potential threat is a hacker or a virus. If the server your site is being hosted is becomes compromised, your data is no longer safe. Once the hacker has access to the server, it is just a matter of time before they come across your site and exploit it. Luckily, this does not happen all that often, at least a lot less then you would think and some hosts may provide a backup file for you just in case.

So it seems that shared server web hosting has more risk then reward. That is true, but you have to realize that you get what you pay for. While the above mentioned issues aren’t common, they are far more commonplace on a shared server then a virtual or dedicated server.

Lets take a quick glance at the pros and cons of shared server web hosting.

Pros

Cheapest and most affordable web hosting available
Easy to use
Requires very little technical knowledge (if any) to get your site up and running, very little to configure
Access to various scripts and software to make your site more dynamic

Cons

Very limited configuration options
Shares server resources with potentially thousands of other sites
Your site will suffer if another on the server is using too many resources
Limited on the amount of resources you many use
No access to the server whatsoever

Virtual Server Web Hosting

A virtual server is a step-up from shared server web hosting. One of the biggest changes is that your site will share a server with far fewer sites. What makes it different is that each virtual server acts like it’s owner server even though it is one main server. A virtual server is meant to mimic the functionality that a dedicated server provides.

A virtual server can have it’s own operating system and has the option to be independently rebooted. With these features, you have the ability to install software on the server instead of just your web space. There are some software such as anti-virus and firewalls that do not work well on a virtual server. Some web hosts may even limit what software you are allowed to install. A virtual server still provides far greater control compared to a shared server.

With a virtual server you can expect to see an increase in disk space, bandwidth, memory, programming languages and so on with the only downside being an increase in cost. Since you have your own server on the main server, you are shielded from an attack if the main server is compromised. Not only does a hacker have to break into the main server, they have an added obstacle of figuring out your password to your server.

If you find your web site reaching it’s limits while under a shared server hosting plan, you should consider looking into a virtual server. It allows far greater control of your web site and can be a great way to submerge yourself into a more professional web hosting experience.

A quick recap of some pros and cons of a virtual server.

Pros

More control over your server
Far fewer websites sharing server resources
Access to the operating system and system folder/directories

Cons

Increased cost
Still limited access with no access to the real server
Resources are still being shared between sites, although not as much
Typically does not provide the services and software of a shared server

Dedicated Server Web Hosting

This is it, you are now in the big leagues. A dedicated server is at the top of the food chain. A dedicated server is just that, dedicated. All of the server’s resources are fully available to the website being hosted. Complete access to the real server is granted and you have full control.

A dedicated server receives far more attention and special treatment then a shared or virtual server. While you have full access to the server and how it runs, some web hosting companies provide a manager server solution. That is, they will look over the physical server itself, although you can find companies that will provide this service for you as well. Depending on your situation, you may or may not need something like this.

Your site is allowed to use as many resources as it can, your only limit is the limits that the web host sets. Although there are still limits you can be assured that dedicated server hosting plans provide far more bandwidth, disk space, memory and other services. You have sole access to the networking connections and do not have to share them with anybody else.

All of this comes at a price of course. A very big price I may add. You can end up spending anywhere from $200 and up depending on which dedicated server plan that you choose. Dedicated servers are meant for large, high traffic websites.

A few pros and cons to hosting on a dedicated server.

Pros

Full control over server
No sharing of server resources
No limitations on software installs

Cons

Most expensive hosting option
Access to server provides a larger margin for errors/mistakes
Must know your way around a computer or find somebody who does and hire them

Hopefully this guide has given you a better explanation of each of the various web hosting servers available today. Still have questions or are you confused? You can head on over to our contact form, fill it out and send us your questions.

Check out our lists of hosts who provide shared server web hosting, virtual server web hosting and dedicated server web hosting.

Are you currently paying for web hosting? Are you happy with your web hosting service or have you had problems? Let us know! Check out our list of hosting providers and leave your review!

This is a question asked quite a bit on the internet. As a quick refresher or for those of you who aren’t aware, a website can have 2 different addresses. A website can have an address at www.webhostsdeals.com or it can have an address at webhostsdeals.com. So there are 2 different versions of the website? Nope, both addresses will take you to the same place.

So what is the difference then?

None actually! Other then the text itself of course. This is one of those things relating to personal preference or branding rather then having any actual effect on your site whatsoever. There have been countless discussions and tests on whether or not using www or not using it has any effect on your site.

So then why do people ask? Because some think that having one form of the address or the other will give them some kind of special privilege in the search engines. It doesn’t, although there are people that swear by it. However, it does have an effect when it comes to dealing with Google’s PageRank.

PageRank – Page Auhthority

Google uses a rating system to determine a web page’s authority against another web page. It is based off of a scale rating from 0 to 10 with 0 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. There are many discussions on the internet about PageRank and a quick Google search will give you some more information.

Obviously you want your page to rank higher on the scale. Building a high PageRank is beyond the scope of this article as there are many factors that affect your ranking. So what does this have to do with using www or no www? Glad you asked!

Remember that you can visit a web page by either going to www.webhostsdeals.com or webhostsdeals.com and that Google uses PageRank to determine a web page’s authority. Well, believe it or not, Google will count the 2 different addresses as 2 different addresses even though they lead to the same site. As you can see, for those trying to achieve a higher PageRank this can be a major problem. You don’t want PageRank split between 2 different versions of your webpage, this dilutes the ranking and the authority that that page has. Even though by visiting either address of the site we arrive at the same page, Google has a different system.

So you can see where deciding whether or not to use www for your website can cause issues.

Sending visitors to the right address

With certain files and code we can make search engine robots visit the right address. However, we can’t control what an actual human being will type in to get to our website. One person may use www and the next person may not.

Lets look at a quick example. Major companies spend millions of dollars advertising their websites. Most of them use www in their advertising as it is the standard. Even though these companies spend all this money, people will still visit their website without using www. Now, this isn’t too big of a deal as most visitors could care less whether or not your site uses www as either address will get them to the same place.

As stated above, this whole should I use www or not debate is more related to PageRank and branding.

So how exactly do we get the search engine robots and our human visitors to the right address?

Well, unfortunately it isn’t going to be easy if you know nothing about how the internet works. There are a lot of technical details when it comes to deciding and implementing using www or not using it.

Fortunately there are many web sites and forums out there that have some great guides on how to do this. Here are just a few of them:

Using mod_rewrite to direct traffic to your site

Redirecting between WWW and no WWW

Non WWW to WWW 301 Redirects

Are you currently paying for web hosting? Are you happy with your web hosting service or have you had problems? Let us know! Check out our list of hosting providers and leave your review!

There are a lot of web hosting providers out there and all of them have different plans and different options to choose from. One of the best things that you can do is look around before you buy; below is a list of 10 things that you should look into when you decide to buy web hosting.

What are the contract terms?

This is something that you really need to be looking into. Most of the time you will go along and find a great deal on a web hosting plan only to find out that you have to sign up for a certain length of time to save money. Some hosts require that you sign up for 3 years to get the deal!

Your best bet is to go month-by-month with a web host for at least a few months. This gives you a chance to test out their network, their customer service, uptime and what not. If something happens and it doesn’t work out, you’ve only spent the money that you have spent instead of buying hosting for a year or longer and not being able to use it. If after a few months everything is working out great and you like the host, you can choose to upgrade for a longer hosting period and there is a very good chance that you will still save money while doing so.

Backup! I need backup!

Let’s be real here, stuff happens. Networks can get hacked, power failures can cause data to get wiped, somebody could press a wrong button somewhere. There are a lot of things that can go wrong and most of the time when they do go wrong, it’s bad.

You are going to want to be sure that the web host you choose backs up your data or make sure that you can backup your own database. Once isn’t good enough, they should have at least 2 SEPARATE areas where your data is backed up. What use is backed up data if something happens and all of it is in the same spot?

Server uptime

You buy web hosting so that you can have a website whether it be for personal use or business. If you purchase web hosting for business needs and your site goes down, it could mean thousands of dollars or more. This isn’t to say that a personal site isn’t just as important as a business website making millions of dollars, nobody should have to worry about whether or not their site is down.

Most of the larger web hosts out there have 99% uptime or better. They have a lot of things in place to ensure that their servers don’t go down and that your site is always up. Most web hosts will proudly display 99.999% uptime or something along those lines, but you can never be sure as all of them are wanting your money in the end. There are many options out there that allow you to monitor web servers and their uptime and while you may not have months to devote to find a web host, there are some sites that provide data on web host’s server uptimes.

Negative press/reviews

A web host is surely going to make it seem like they are the best host to choose from because they want your money. But you should always check out the host before deciding to purchase from them. Make sure you find sites that rate the host based off of user reviews and not the site owner’s reviews. Site likes this one and a few others rate hosts dependent upon what actual customers think.

With that said, about 99% of the time, you will always find at least one bad thing about a web host. There are always those people out there that just have to complain about something. Make sure that if it is a negative review, that the review sounds legitimate and realistic. Don’t just go by one review though, check around the web and see what other people are experiencing with the particular web host.

Awards

Most web hosting rating sites will provide awards to the best web host or certified/trusted web host. You can trust some of these, but it would be a wise choice to look for official awards or good press from actual companies that you have heard of.

There aren’t a lot of awards given out to web hosts for their service quality or what have you, but you can be sure that if you see an award from a big name company that that web host is worth looking into.

Compare prices

Probably one of the biggest things that people go by. Although you may never find 2 hosting plans the exact same with 2 different web hosting providers, you can usually find hosting plans that are somewhat similar. Bigger web hosting providers will certainly be able to provide a cheaper price because they can afford to, but it may wise to choose a smaller company even though they cost more.

Some hosts offer a lot of different plans to choose from and others may only provide one plan to choose from. Just make sure to do your research and comparisons between the hosting plans to ensure that you are getting the best price while not getting ripped off.

Server hardware

Different plans offer different server hardware setups. The better the hardware, the faster the server. A lot of web hosts nowadays have upgraded their servers to better handle the resources that some sites require. The most common hardware information that you will find is the CPU, Disk Space, and Memory of each plan.

You also want to check out the network connections to the servers as well. A server connected to a higher capacity line will enable your site to load faster giving your visitors a more pleasant experience.

Customer/technical support

If something goes wrong, you want to be able to get in touch with somebody to have the issue sorted out. A lot of the bigger web hosting companies offer 24/7 support for phone and email, while some even offer round the clock live chat. Make sure to call up the support department before even purchasing and ask them any questions that you may have. If they cannot answer them in a way that you can understand or send you to 10 different people before you can even get an answer, it is a good chance that they won’t be of much help when an actual problem shows up.

If they offer 24/7 support, test it out. Get up at 4:36am and give them a call. Make sure to ask a really tough question that will get them thinking and see whether or not they provide you with an immediate answer or ask that you email some other department and wait for a response.

Hosting plan details

Surely you are going to want to look into the details for the hosting plan. Bandwidth, memory, and disk space are the 3 big ones and should always be provided. You may also want to check out other features such as programming language support, email accounts, password protected files/directories, server operating systems and so on. If you are planning to setup a business website with a shopping cart, credit card transactions and other secure data, make sure that all of that is covered in the hosting plan. Make sure that you also plan ahead for expansion in the near future. It is always better to buy more then you need instead of coming up short with resources when you actually need them.

Cheapest isn’t always best

As stated in the compare prices section, just because you find the cheapest deal, does not always mean that you are getting the best deal. There are a lot of web hosting deals out there and like all things in life, you get what you pay for. Not to say that the least expensive plan that you can find is the worst one, but really make sure you know what you are getting.

Once again, some hosts require you to sign up for lengthy contracts in order for you to get that great deal. If you do find a great deal, make sure to do your research and ask questions about subjects discussed in this guide. While most people never have a problem when they find a great deal on hosting, when problems do arise, they usually very quickly build up into a huge hassle and can make you regret your decision.

This guide only contains a few of the things that you should be looking at before purchasing web hosting. Do your research beforehand and know what your site is going to require and what it may require in the future.

Would you rather spend a little bit of extra time now figuring things out or spend a lot of time later on when your web host kicks you to the curb because they cannot provide you with the resources that your site needs?