How much does it cost to host a website?
Well, that ultimately depends on your web hosting. Choosing a hosting company for your business website is one of the most important decisions you’ll make. You’ll want to make sure you choose a company that’s reliable, so you’ll be less likely to worry about your site experiencing unexpected downtime.
However, that’s not the only decision you need to make. You also need to decide what kind of hosting plan is best for you. If you’re new to building and managing websites, this may all sound a little confusing – but it doesn’t have to be!
This post shares the various hosting plans available, so you can make the best decision and budget accordingly. Plus, there are recommendations from some favorite web hosts that you should consider.
5 Different Types of Hosting Plans for Your Website
The first thing you need to know when choosing a web host is that there are different types of hosting plans. It helps to understand each one so you can determine what will best suit your needs. Here are five different options that you can choose from:
1. Shared Hosting
If you’re just getting started, shared hosting is a great option. In fact, it’s actually one of the most popular choices for a new website. With shared hosting, multiple websites are housed on a single server. It’s suitable for those who are seeing lower traffic rates since there’s typically a limit on the server resources one website can use. A bonus is that it’s also one of the cheapest ways to go in terms of web hosting, making it ideal for those on a budget. In fact, A2 Hosting has shared hosting starting at $1.99/month.
Although shared hosting is affordable and easy to manage, you may notice some disadvantages as your site grows. If this happens, you can always upgrade your plan.
2. Virtual Private Server (VPS)
Another option to consider is web hosting on a virtual private server (VPS). In this case, one physical server is split into multiple virtual servers. Unlike shared hosting, this is private. A virtual server will be reserved specifically for your website and all of its data. This means you don’t have to share CPU, RAM, or data with any other users on a server.
If your website is getting a lot of traffic and you’re worried about things like performance and security, you may want to upgrade. How much does it cost to host a website on a virtual private server? InMotion offers an unmanaged VPS starting at $31.99/month. Price-wise, it’s a happy medium between shared hosting and the next option, which is a dedicated server.
3. Dedicated Hosting
This type of hosting is exactly the opposite of shared hosting. Instead of being on the same server as a bunch of other users, you’ll never know, with dedicated hosting, you’ll have your own server. It’s a server that’s reserved for your website and all of its data alone. That means you’ll never have to worry about others on a shared server impacting your website performance in any way.
For a website that’s getting a lot of daily traffic or requires custom software, dedicated hosting is a good option. The only thing is, this comes with a much higher price tag. Unmanaged dedicated hosting from A2 Hosting starts at $99.99/month. On the plus side, you’ll have all the control over your website that you’ll ever need.
4. Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting may sound a bit like a virtual private server, but there is one key difference. Most web hosting options have you using space on a physical server. Even a virtual private server originates from a physical server before being split up virtually. But with cloud hosting, everything is virtual.
Cloud hosting is rather flexible since it’s able to grow with your site over time. Plus, if there are ever any issues with performance, your site can jump over to a better-performing server. With SiteGround, you can get cloud hosting starting at $100/month.
5. Managed Hosting
Finally, many web hosts offer managed hosting. With this option, there’s really nothing that needs to be done on your end once you’ve signed up. Your web host will manage everything for you, taking care of performance issues, conducting backups, and watching out for security threats.
It’s perfect if you aren’t particularly experienced with web hosting or if you just don’t have the time to dedicate to it. You can also get managed WordPress hosting for $4.99/month with SiteGround.
All of these can be great choices for your website. The best part is that you can change your hosting plan at any time if you find you need more speed, storage capacity, and reliability. To learn more, read this post about the best web hosting for small business.
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