Web Hosting Plans - What You Really Need

Windows or Linux

For the most part, websites are designed to run on any platform. HTML runs on anything, but if you have a dynamic website or web application, especially one that interfaces a database, then you need to figure out what platform (operating system) to use.

If you have a website that uses ASP, Access, or needs to run SQL server. Then, you'll need Windows. Otherwise, it doesn't technically matter. Most web servers are Linux-based. Most hosting plans are Linux plans. Linux is cheaper. Linux is generally faster and more reliable. There are pros and cons to both, but it really just depends on who's doing the programming, what (if any) technology you are interfacing with, and what you are comfortable with.

The debate between the two systems can go on forever, but we'd probably just recommend Linux for small websites that don't require integration or rely on Microsoft products. PHP is the common programming language used to build dynamic websites on the Linux platform, although there are many others. PHP also works on Windows servers.

Shared Hosting or Dedicated Hosting

Technically speaking, your website is just a bunch of files sitting on a computer in some room somewhere connected to a network. The question you have to ask yourself is, do I want to be the only website on that computer (the web server), or is it OK to have other websites on there with me.

A dedicated server sounds great, but it is expensive by comparison. It also requires that you do most of the set up work yourself or pay to have it done. It can be either managed or unmanaged. Managed means you'll have some techs at a data center who will take care of the server for you. Unmanaged means you're sort of on your own. This is a very simplistic explanation. The point is dedicated hosting costs more, and you need to know something about servers.

However, dedicated hosting gives you complete control over everything and more power. If you need to install a ton of things on your server or need direct access to it, you'll want to consider dedicated hosting. You also won't have to worry about other websites on your server causing problems.

We don't feel dedicated hosting is necessary for most websites unless they are getting tons and tons of traffic, require security above and beyond what a normal website would, are running major applications, or need complete control of all the server's resources.

Shared hosting comes in a couple of forms: Virtual Private Servers (VPS) and regular shared hosting.

A VPS mimics dedicated hosting. You get a lot of the same control and direct access to the server, but your site is still on a server with other websites. The VPS is accomplished by partitioning a server into multiple "virtual" smaller servers. It's a technical thing that we won't get into here. While cheaper than dedicated hosting, it is less reliable and still requires server knowledge. We don't recommend virtual private servers based on past experience. If you plan on hosting multiple websites and don't want to spring for the dedicated hosting plan, then you may want to look at a VPS.

Regular shared hosting means your site sits on a server with other websites, and you "share" the resources. Bad neighbors or a server hog can cause problems. But, if you host with the right company, you should be just fine. Computing and networking technology is so robust now and most hosting plans provide so much space and bandwidth that shared hosting suits most small and medium-sized businesses and basic e-Commerce sites. With shared hosting, you might also be able to get dedicated IP addresses (the unique network address of your website). If you need a unique IP address, then you want to make sure your shared hosting plan offers them. Most all shared hosting plans offer databases and virtually unlimited e-mails, storage, etc. There is no server set up required for shared hosting, and you do all your administration through web-based control panel software on your web hosting provider's site. If you plan to do your own e-Commerce site yourself, make sure they have a shopping cart feature.

What do you pick? If you're just going to have an informational website, a basic e-commerce site, or even an extremely large dynamic site, you probably can get away with shared hosting. If you start getting several thousand visitors a day, require lots of streaming video, need a great deal of security, or are a Fortune 500 company, then you want to look into dedicated. If you're stuck, contact a sales rep at one of the web hosting providers we have recommended, and they'll be glad to help. You can also drop us a line with your questions.

How Much Space, Bandwidth, etc. do I Need?

Thanks to drops in the cost of technology, these questions have become fairly obsolete for most organizations. For a few bucks a month, you can get a few hundred gigabytes of disk storage, which is probably what most new computers are shipping with these days. Remember, your website is a collection of files. To give you some idea...this web page is approximately 30 kb. I could have 100,000 pages just like it on the cheapest hosting package we recommend, which has 300 Gb of storage. If you are going to have hundreds of thousands of files, gigs and gigs of data, or stream movies for thousands of people...then you'll probably have somebody in charge of your site that won't need to read everything we just wrote.

Remember: Pick A Good Company...You Can Always Upgrade

A good hosting company can not only set you up with the right plan now, but pick something that meets your growth objectives. And, if you continue to grow, they should be able to easily work with you to seamlessly take care of your technology behind the scenes.