- Shared hosting or cloud – good choices for different reasons
- Shared hosting – or simply web hosting
- 3 reasons to consider shared
- Keep this in mind
- Cloud hosting
- 3 reasons to consider cloud
- Cloud is flexible – but comes with great responsibility
- …so what should you opt for?
A web host provider, or hosting company, offers several forms of hosting to meet the varying needs of websites. There are many different options: shared hosting, VPS (Virtual Private Server), cloud hosting, dedicated server, managed server, WordPress hosting. Knowing which fits you isn’t the easiest thing.
As a website owner, you want your website to be as fast as it can be. That the uptime is stable. That the site is secure and that your data is stored in safe hands.
So which form of hosting does these things best?
Shared hosting or cloud – good choices for different reasons
Two of the most common options available today are shared hosting and cloud hosting. The other options mentioned above can be at least as good or even better depending on your needs. But the two we’re focusing on in this post are often the most popular options. It’s a good place to start when looking for which type of hosting is best for you.
There are several reasons why.
Shared hosting – or simply web hosting
The most common option on the market for hosting your servers today is to put your website on a web host. This is what’s called shared hosting or web hosting.
If you use a shared hosting solution, you share space on a server with other sites. It means you’re not alone using the server’s capacity, storage and performance (CPU, RAM, IOPS, etc.). To put it simply, you have virtual neighbors!
This means that in the “neighborhood”, i.e. on the server you’re on, you affect each other. For example, if one of your server neighbors draws an unusually large amount of traffic during a Black Friday campaign, it could theoretically affect how fast your website loads.
We offer large amounts of both memory and storage even in our smallest shared hosting options to make sure a smooth running of your web hosting. Addtitionally, there are three levels of hosting accounts, offering different features depending on what suits your needs. As an example, our customers use less than 3 GB RAM on average.
3 reasons to consider shared
- The hosting company takes care of running your site. It’s tricky managing everything that needs to be taken care of for a website to run optimally. That’s why it can be nice to let someone else take care of it for you. The web host ensures that the servers are as fast as they can be, updates security and offers support when you need it. So that you can have the best experience possible and focus on what you do best.
- It’s cost-effective. Compared to an in-house cloud solution (more on that below), the price picture is lower when choosing shared hosting. Why? Well, the resources you pay for, you also share with others, which means you also share the cost.
- You can save time. With your own cloud, in addition to ensuring that hygiene factors such as speed and security work, you need to install all applications yourself and keep everything up to date. That makes it a little more complicated. With web hosting, you get several benefits that save you valuable time. For example, we offer 1-click installation of over 450 applications such as WordPress and WooCommerce.
Keep this in mind
There is a limit to how much resources your website can use with a web hosting account. Because you’re sharing resources with others, your website isn’t just affected by your own usage. This can be limiting depending on where you choose to store your website. (However, there are add-ons that can overcome this limitation by, for example, scaling up your resources when the situation demands it.) Our hosting servers are deliberately sized per website to guarantee the same speed, regardless of traffic and load from other websites.
Because we take care of running your servers, it entails that you have less control to make customized changes that are completely tailored to your business. With unique needs, unique solutions may be needed, which is limited with a web hosting account.
Cloud hosting
Do you want to be able to customize your servers yourself, scale up and down as you see fit, and have complete control over how your infrastructure is set up? Then it might be interesting to start looking up a cloud hosting solution.
Technically, a cloud solution means that it can retrieve and use data from multiple servers at the same time (compared to the single server in shared hosting). If one server becomes overloaded, resources are drawn from another. The consequence: more resources usually means better performance.
Using the same analogy as before, you can say that with the cloud, you live a little more secluded – without neighbours consuming your resources. Because you’re a bit remote, you’re your own master: You can find solutions optimized for your particular situation. If you run out of resources, just scale up when it suits you.
Cloud is suitable for those who run a website with frequent large traffic peaks and who seek flexibility in choosing which applications, firewalls and operating systems to install. With the cloud, you do what you want – but you take care of running the site yourself.
3 reasons to consider cloud hosting
- More freedom. With a cloud solution, you can run applications and programs that a web host can’t support. But remember, with greater freedom comes great responsibility.
- Increased scalability. Most websites experience fluctuating traffic, especially e-commerce sites. By keeping an eye on your peaks and valleys, you can control how and when your resources are used. That way, you know you’re only paying for what you actually use, not letting unused capacity go to waste.
- In short, your site will be better equipped to work as fast as it can. Cloud hosting can provide better performance than shared hosting because resources are allocated more dynamically with no risk of being affected by other users. Sharing resources between servers is the hosting equivalent of not putting all your eggs in one basket.
It’s flexible – but comes with great responsibility
Firstly, a cloud solution is often (but not always) more expensive than web hosting. It depends on your choice of hosting company, but above all it depends on how much resources your server requires.
In addition, knowledge is a big factor. As mentioned earlier, with your own cloud, you need to install everything yourself and make sure to keep it updated and secure. Those who choose a cloud solution often have a good understanding of what is needed to optimize and troubleshoot, which is required as they usually can’t turn to their web host for support. If you have a business-critical website or e-commerce, best-case scenario, you want to have access to support 24/7, 365 days a year in case something happens. Make sure you have people in your organization or external resources who can help you when needed, even during weekends and holidays.
Worth mentioning in this context: We offer services in the form of customized Cloud solutions where support and operation are included along with the already high performance. For those who want it all and more.
…so should you go for shared hosting or cloud hosting?
Yes, it might feel complicated looking for the right hosting. There are many alteratives, all offering their own perks and challenges. In the end, it’s all about how you assess your needs and your level of knowledge:
Do you know everything that goes into setting up, optimizing, and updating a website? Do you want more control and greater ability to manage your resources? Then you might want to consider setting up your own cloud solution.
Would you rather it just work? Are you relatively new to running your own website? Do you want the experience to be as easy as possible and have access to knowledgeable, technical support to help you when you need it? Consider one of our web hosting packages!
