It’s usually hard to settle on the correct web hosting service for your online business given there happens to be a very wide assortment available. They give you the positive aspects of being relatively cheap and allowing you to easily set up your own business website or blog using provided plug-ins and the greatest web hosting services will have a combination of great hosting features such as unlimited space and bandwidth as well as good service. If you are having a hard time deciding on a web hosting service for your online business this article will summarize the foremost criteria to take into consideration.

1. Checking Disk Space

The matter of checking disk space is advantageous as a lot of space is necessary for hosting big sites and this also gives you a lot of room for storing larger files such as videos. It mainly involves comparing different hosting plans from a variety of service providers to see which one offers the right amount of space (most of the better hosts will allow unlimited space).

2. Checking Available Bandwidth

Among the points you should look at checking available bandwidth is since without enough bandwidth your website will not be able to cope with a large amount of traffic and will go offline. This undertaking generally implies choosing between available plans depending on the level of monthly traffic your website receives (higher traffic websites will use a greater amount of bandwidth).

3. Checking For Available Plug-Ins

The procedure of checking for available plug-ins is regarded by many to be advantageous because of the fact that having the right plug-ins with your hosting service will allow you to know you are able to do all you intend with your website. Most of the time this implies seeing what plug-ins a hosting plan offers, most often to check that they will allow installation of WordPress (which is commonly used as a platform for building websites).

4. Checking For FTP Access

Whenever people refer to checking for FTP access, you most probably know it comprises seeing whether a hosting provider allows you to upload files using FTP software. This is a quite useful exercise due to the fact this will mean you don’t have to log in to your hosting account every time you want to add new files to your website.

5. Checking Guaranteed Up-Time

Have you looked at checking guaranteed up-time? This exercise mainly encompasses looking at a web hosting service to see the percentage of time they guarantee your site will be live (usually this will be around 99% for the best hosts), and is quite useful on account that a high percentage of up-time means your site will almost always be available when people try to reach it (a lower up-time on the other hand could cost you a lot of business).

For most website owners, a dedicated or shared server is always needed as well as other connectivity services like IP transit. Cheap dedicated servers are steadily becoming popular for web hosting needs. Those in this industry long enough know these terms by heart but for those who are just starting out, all this technical jargon can be confusing. In an effort to make these terms easier, here are the main differences between dedicated and shared servers.

A shared server, as the name implies, is a shared resource among multiple users. On a shared server, a website sits in its own partition that ultimately detaches it from other websites on the same server. Many opt to put their websites on a shared server as this is the most economical in terms of cost. However, this is only a good solution for beginners, individuals, small businesses and organisations that have sites that expect little traffic, require low bandwidth and disk space. Services such as maintenance, security updates and software installation, just to name a few are provided by the website host.

A dedicated server on the other hand is one that solely serves one client. There are two kinds of dedicated servers namely managed and unmanaged servers. Unmanaged servers are configured and managed by the client. Managed servers on the other hand normally include a wide range of services such as operating system and application updates, various system monitoring packages and so on.

Let us breakdown where the two really vary so one who is confused between the two can make an informed decision whether a shared or dedicated server is what he or she needs.

Traffic issues can be a problem on a shared server. When another website on the same server gets a huge amount of traffic, your website can experience slow response time or even downtime. This does not happen on a dedicated server. However, if you really do not expect a lot of traffic to come your way, a shared server is a good option.

Cost can also be a deciding factor. Obviously, shared server costs are a lot more affordable than that of a dedicated server as the costs can be ten times more expensive than shared server costs.

Disk space and bandwidth are important factors. This makes a lot of difference if you expect your website to grow. With dedicated servers you will have all the disk space and bandwidth you can possibly need unlike on shared servers. It is easy to run out of space when you have a growing website. In this scenario, you will have to keep adding space and bandwidth to accommodate your needs.

Security is always going to be an issue. On a shared server, the IP address is also shared. This only means that once one of the sites on the same IP address is banned, yours can get banned too. Websites are usually banned through the IP address instead of their domain name. Also, a website on a shared server can get hacked into by other webmasters. This simply does not happen on a dedicated server.

Preference for operating systems and software can also be a deciding factor. On a dedicated server, you have the option of using your operating system of choice. This can be anything from Windows to Mac to Linux. Of course you will want to choose the operating system that your people will most be comfortable with. This goes the same for applications. On a shared server, these are aspects that you will have to adjust to.

So, depending on the factors above, you can now make an informed decision as to which is it that you really need. It is really up to personal preference and your computing needs whether shared servers or dedicated servers are the choices you should make. If you do want to use a dedicated server but are afraid of the expense, there are reputable providers that offer cheap dedicated servers and also other services like IP transit at an affordable rate. It is all a matter of knowing where to find them.

Sarah Shore writes articles for ConNetU, expert providers of cheap dedicated servers and UK server hosting solutions, suitable for a wide range of different clients. ConNetU’s dedicated servers come with a variety of memory, storage and CPU options for different budgets and requirements. ConNetU’s IP transit service is fully IPv6 enabled and provides a resilient, low-latency and high bandwidth connection, ensuring 100 percent core network uptime.