Need managed web hosting services? Not sure which to pick? Relax, because not only do we offer a variety of plans, but we also manage web hosting services for clients worldwide. Our trained team explains each of them below so you can get the one that is right for you.
Have a hobby site? Want to test the waters with an idea but you don’t want to risk any money? Then free hosting COULD be the solution for you. We emphasize “could” because this type of hosting has several drawbacks. Often the connection speed is not great and you could see your site down more often than would happen with paid hosting solutions. Also, you may see advertising banners automatically added to your site and you won’t be able to remove them. Finally, you may be given a sub-domain such as “yoursite.hostingsite.com” and this sub-domain cannot be transferred. So if your site does become a runaway success, you’ll have to rebuild it to get your own domain. But, hey, it’s free.
Here you share your web hosting server with other website owners. That means that connectivity speed is also shared, so sites might be slower on this type of hosting. Also, because your data is on a shared server it is not as secure as dedicated hosting. However, the expenses are also shared making this a cost effective way of getting your site online.
Here you get a whole web server to yourself. Lucky you. Because of this your site will be faster and more secure. If you are running a resource intensive site, or need your data protected, this is a good option. However, do understand that while the server is all yours, the costs are too.
The ultimate hosting package. With this option you actually purchase the web server itself and have it installed in a hosting facility. This means you have total control over that server and can do whatever you like to it. This is great if you have a lot of custom apps, or require very specific software on your server. Do bear in mind that all this freedom comes with a cost.
There is no point having a website if, when readers come to visit, it is not working. This event is known as “downtime”, while conversely, everything working fine is known as “uptime”. Obviously, you want lots more uptime than downtime.
Now there are some hosting sites that promise 100% uptime. That is a pretty big promise. A 99.99% uptime means that your site would be down for just 53 minutes a year. Bear in mind that this includes things such as scheduled maintenance, or even unforeseen events such as hacking, server overload from unexpected traffic, or even a disaster (such as a fire) at the hosting location. So promising 100% uptime is a big promise – and one you should be wary of.
Unless a host is able to provide a wealth of redundancy and backup methods, that 100% guarantee is not going to hold water and you could be paying for nothing. However, you should expect to see an average uptime advertised by the site so you know what to expect from the service.