Web Hosting

While there are many types of web hosting services available these days, the most common ones that you will come across include dedicated hosting, VPS hosting, grid hosting, and shared hosting.

Each of these hosting services is designed for people with different needs so you should choose wisely. If you make the wrong choice, you may end up wasting a lot of money. In a worst-case scenario, you may end up with a blog that people cannot access.

Here is a brief description of each type of service.

With a dedicated hosting service, you are renting your server. This means that you can access all of the functions of the server you are renting. However, this is also one of the most expensive options out there.

However, this type of service is recommended for experienced webmasters who work with large projects and can make full use of the server’s capabilities.

VPS Hosting

A VPS hosting service, also known as a Virtual Private Server hosting service, is a type of hosting arrangement where a small number of people share space on a single server.

While you are sharing a server with other people, you have your administrator access privileges and you can install whatever extra features you want. This is because each person is given a dedicated share of the server independent of the others.

This gives you the flexibility of a Dedicated hosting service with a smaller price tag. You should also keep in mind that a VPS hosting service shares a lot of similarities with dedicated hosting.

While you get a significantly less powerful setup compared to dedicated hosting, this is the less expensive option of the two. Like using a dedicated hosting service, this type of hosting is also recommended for experienced webmasters.

Grid Hosting

Grid hosting is cheaper than both dedicated and VPS services but slightly more expensive than shared hosting. In this case, you are sharing the space and resources of a server with a large number of people.

However, the resources available to you are flexible. This means that if you experience incidents when the number of visitors to your site suddenly rises depending on the time of day or month, then your blog will be able to handle the increased traffic.

Shared Hosting

Out of all the options discussed in this section, shared hosting is the most affordable option. However, expect that more than a hundred people are sharing the server with you.

In addition to that, you are also sharing the server’s resources with everybody else on the same server.

If you don’t need the number of resources available to people using dedicated hosting or VPS hosting, then this may be the perfect choice for you.

This is also a significantly cheaper option compared to the first three hosting services described above. However, this type of service is also a lot less reliable. This is the perfect set-up for blogs that do not require a lot of power and storage space.

Once you have chosen the type of hosting service you need for your blog, then you will need to decide on your budget. While some hosting companies offer cheaper services than others, cheaper does not always mean better.

You will need to factor in the company’s reputation as well as its reliability. Downtime is never good for a blog and choosing a company that can ensure that your site is always up and running is a must.

When choosing a host, you can easily check reviews online. This will help you get a feel for the reputation of different hosting companies. The more positive reviews about a service you can find, the better.

You should also pay attention to negative reviews since this will help give you an idea of the common problems that people face when dealing with certain hosting services.

Even the most reliable and reputable hosting services will have a negative review here and there. In this industry, information is very important. The more you know about potential hosting services, the better your decisions will be.

You can also find several free services online that will allow you to test the capabilities of hosting services. Simply enter a domain name into these tools and they will be able to provide you with a comprehensive report about the hosting service used by the website in question.

You should also pay close attention to the hosting company’s website. A hosting company’s website is a veritable treasure trove of information. Keep a close eye on the packages and services that they are offering. You can also opt to talk with a customer service representative from a hosting company if you want to dig deeper.

Once you have settled on a hosting company, you should choose a shorter contract. This way, you will be able to move your blog to a new host in case you are not satisfied with the services being provided by your host.

If you are satisfied with your current host, then you can simply sign up for a longer contract once your current contract ends. You should also keep a backup list of reputable alternatives to your current host so you will know where to move your site in short order in case you want to switch web hosts for some reason.