Jay Buckmaker | thebuckmaker.com

Are you just starting a new blog or personal website? Maybe you’re interested in setting up online sales for your business. No matter what your particular situation is, securing your own private webspace through Web Hosting is not only a good choice for controlling your own content, but for establishing and maintaining a long term online presence as well.

There is a wide variety of hosting options available to you and understanding them can seem a bit daunting at first. Each type of web hosting offers its own set of specific benefits and knowing which of these benefits applies to your needs is something that will help you make the best informed decision.

The most common types of Web Hosting are:

Shared Hosting
VPS Hosting
Dedicated Hosting
Managed Hosting
Reseller Hosting

Here are some basics for you:

• Shared Hosting
  This is the most common type of web hosting and usually also the cheapest. Plans start at $1.99 and do not exceed $10 per month. If you are simply hosting a blog or a smaller site that will not receive a lot of traffic, then this is the plan for you. If your blog will one day outgrow “normal” dimensions, just upgrade your hosting plan. With Shared Hosting, the Web Hosting Company will monitor your shared server to make sure that one single client isn’t using most of the bandwidth, RAM, or other shared resources. Otherwise a single high-traffic website on a shared hosting server would slow down the speed of all other websites hosted there. You must make sure that shared hosting offers the features you need, since scripts and databases may not be offered on a shared hosting plan. At the bottom of this post you’ll find a selection of quality Shared Hosting providers with unlimited space and traffic, affordable plan prices and one-click-installation of your scripts or software. Shared Hosting is definitely the way to go for the average webmaster – I still use it and am very satisfied with this “no-brainer-solution” to website hosting.
• VPS Hosting
  A VPS is more expensive than shared hosting, but cheaper than dedicated hosting. Virtual Private Server hosting is similar to shared hosting in that your content is shared with other websites on the same server, but you are given your own “virtual” server. Your virtual server has its own space and bandwidth and acts like a real dedicated server. With a VPS, you are given a high amount of RAM and bandwidth to use each month. You will have more control and independence than you would have with shared hosting, but you will not have the reliability, protection, and control of a real, physical dedicated server. Also, a VPS allows your internet site to use resources without affecting other clients and their partitioned area of the server. If you decide that Shared Hosting doesn‘t offer enough, but you don’t need the power of a Dedicated Server, then perhaps this is your solution. Also if you need your site to run special scripts or programs, this is the hosting plan for you. However most webmasters won’t need more than a shared hosting plan.
• Dedicated Hosting
  This is actually a complete server dedicated exclusively to your own web content. The advantage here is that the only content hosted on the server is your own and you are essentially renting the hardware on which it is stored. This is a good option for professionals, businesses and users who would like to have total control over their host server, including what operating system it uses. But you should keep in mind that you need to be very skilled and experienced in setting up and managing IT servers and systems. An Internet Server has got nothing to do with your PC at home. Once it is online, you’ll have to invest a lot of time in monitoring its status and servicing its software, as well as protecting the whole system. Keep that in mind when you think of Dedicated Hosting as the “cheap alternative to Managed Hosting”.
• Managed Hosting
  Managed Hosting means that you have the pros of a Dedicated Server together with someone who does the maintenance service for you. Managed Hosting is ideal for people who want or need a professional web performance, but do not have the technical abilities to run it. Former Managed Hosting was one of the most expensive ways to do Web Hosting, but nowadays you already get very affordable offers. Managed Hosting offers the client an entire server to use for their internet site. If you are planning on running a large internet site, you’ll have to think of Managed Hosting. Your site will not be sharing resources with other sites, so you have much more freedom when it comes to your internet site’s size and the amount of bandwidth that it uses. As a rule of thumb, you will hardly need your own server or Managed Hosting as long as your website does not exceed 10.000 visitors per day. There are easy ways to handle traffic spikes, like the supercache plugin for WordPress. As long as you do not reach big site dimensions, Managed Hosting will definitely not pay off. You can always switch from Shared Hosting to Managed Hosting later, and with 10.000 people per day, I’m sure you can afford that.
• Reseller Hosting
  In this situation, you pay for the exclusive use of a dedicated server and are then able to “resell” partitions of the server for others to use to host their own web content. You dream of being the next BlueHost, HostGator, GoDaddy or JustHost? Than Reseller Hosting may be your first step.

I’m a big fan of Shared Hosting Plans like those of Webhostingpad or iPage, as they provide all you need and make first steps very easy. From time to time I sign up with one of them and check if they deliver what they promise. The following Top10 list is based on my experiences as well as other customer’s reviews.