Website Hosting Options

How do you host your Site?

[keyplyr]

Every website on the Internet needs to be stored somewhere, and that’s what we refer to as “hosting." Depending on the type of website, it's requirements and size, allowing for potential growth, there are many options to consider. The following are a few of the ways to host your website:

• Dedi - a Dedicated Server is a physical system which you rent from a data center. Usually the fastest, but often the most expensive hosting option.

• Managed - similiar to Dedi but with the maintenance, or other admin tasks, taken care of.

• VPS - a Virtual Private Server runs its own copy of an operating system, sharing the physical hardware with other VPSs via partitions. Less expensive than Dedi, and usually slower.

• Cloud - Cloud Hosting spreads your files and data across a network of peer-connected servers, expandable upon need.

• Self-Hosted - the DIY free route using your own hardware, often from an office or home server. Freedom to build what you like.

• Colocation - bring your own hardware and rent rack space from a data center which provides the power, cooling, physical security and the internet uplink.

• CDN - a Content Delivery (or Distribution) Network is a geographically distributed network of proxy servers and their data centers that distributes service spatially relative to end-users to provide high availability and performance.

• Shared Hosting - often the most economic choice for personal or small business websites. Your website will share a server with hundreds or even thousands of other websites. Prices and packages will vary depending on hosting company.

• Free Hosting - No cost but sometimes the host will place advertisements on your pages and limit storage and bandwidth.

I have a project on a Dedi box, with storage at a sub-leased rack space, although I am soon moving to Cloud computing. My personal website and a client's I manage are on Shared Hosting. Each has <100k page loads per day. It's cost effective and all we need.

What works for you and why?

(please, no company specifics)

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[robzilla]

It's all VPS for me these days, except for some low-value/traffic/maintenance sites and e-mail accounts on a shared hosting package.

My experience with VPS vs. dedicated is that a good VPS host will employ CPUs that are much more powerful than what you would get in a dedicated server 5-10x the price, so unless you need all that processing power, all the time, a VPS can actually be faster in bursts, and then it's certainly far more economical. With features like live migrations, snapshots and easy upgrades, I don't think I'll ever go back to dedicated (though the appeal of having your own box remains somehow). I've made it more expensive for myself by setting up my own CDN with a bunch of virtual servers, but even then the hosting costs are <2% of revenue. If you can spare the time to go unmanaged, the savings can be quite significant.

[mack]

Now all my sites are on shared hosting, and it gets me by for now. There was one case in the past when I went the DIY route. I required three fairly high-end servers and the cost to lease them or co-locate them was just too much for a potential loss leader project. I really would not recommend the DIY method before you have ruled out other options. You will end up having plenty of sleepless nights. When you hire a host or data centre space you are buying into their experience. That can be a huge safety net.

Mack.

[Peter_S]

Dedicated server.

Dedi … often the most expensive hosting option.

I operate two servers :

One for my sites, an Intel  Xeon E3-1245v2, 32GB, 3x120 GB SSD, 250Mbps at $55 /mo

And a second for my mail server, and also hosting an image of my main server, it's an Atom D425, 2GB, 2TB, 100Mbps at $10 /mo

Also, by definition, the "dedi" shouldn't be the most expensive option, since a "managed" is a dedi + management service.

[keyplyr]

Also, by definition, the "dedi" shouldn't be the most expensive option, since a "managed" is a dedi + management service

I'm using the cascade effect there... ;)

[creeking]

shared.

[lucy24]

the "dedi" shouldn't be the most expensive option, since a "managed" is a dedi + management service.

Depends how you categorize your expenses. If you've got your own server, someone is managing it, whether they're on your company payroll, an independent contractor, or included in a package.

[robzilla]

You also have managed VPS and, no doubt, managed cloud services.

@Peter_S, pretty good deal if you need all that horsepower :-)

[keyplyr]

Yes I can imagine many packages offered by hosting companies. I listed the main categories. There are surely variations :)

[Peter_S]

robzilla:pretty good deal if you need all that horsepower :-)

I wish I had enough traffic to exploit all the power of my server :), but I use only 15% of it. But as you said the deal is good, and I couldn't find anything else with SSD. Also, the thing is, I get this server brand new, no one had used the components before, and I worry that if I switch to another offer ($10 less), I would end with SSD already exhausted. (I have very few writes so my SSD are in perfect shape).

[keyplyr]

My current shared server has new SSD. Not sure of the specs. There are only 69 other sites on that machine. Runs pretty fast.

My last shared host had 9k sites on the machine with me, using SATA disk drive. Not so fast.

[graeme_p]

My own sites are on a VPS - one VPS hosting multiple sites, apart from by personal blog and a temporary static site that are on shared hosting.

Almost all my clients sites are on VPSs, but the odd dedi or shared hosting.