Free, Dedicated, or Shared Web Hosting; Which One Is Best

When someone decides to go for the hosting of his or her website with the objective of getting recognition on the web, higher traffic redirection, or greater revenue generation, such person would be confronted with a few alternative options. Free hosting is available on the web, while there are comparatively inexpensive shared hosting, and expensive but qualitative dedicated hosting. A little insight into them could facilitate proper selection.

Free Web Hosting Many sites provide free web hosting to customers which means no fees are charged for hosting. Best suited for small sites that have low traffic movement, they tend to compensate for the absence of fees in other ways. Use, however, is limited and options are few for the customer. For instance, one may not use his or her own domain names at the free site. Names have to provided by the host and they are often very difficult to remember and not professional either. Of course it could be good for low cost and personal sites for big sites it can never be recommended with no domain name, limited software, security, technical support, and no database support.

Shared or Virtual Web Hosting One of the greatest advantages of the shared hosting is that they are cost effective. One can have his own domain name and is hosted on a powerful server besides hundreds of other websites. Multiple software solutions such as email, editing, technical support, and database support are available. Low cost is the added advantage. However on the downside there is reduced security features, restricted traffic movement, software and database support, and all these could render life very difficult. 

Dedicated Web Hosting Hosting the website on a dedicated server is called dedicated web hosting. Most expensive among all the options it is suitable for large websites that generates high traffic movement and often use special software. Powerful and secure with unlimited solutions, it can support multiple domain hosting as well as all advanced types of hosting. Very large database support is also available. Only downside is the cost and requirement of higher technical skills to manage the hosting server and services.

Collocated Web Hosting Comparatively new concept, the collocated web hosting refers to the process of placing one’s own web server on the premises of the service provider. Such providers often have better infrastructure, security system, backup facilities, and dedicated Internet connections that could be fruitfully used by the client.