The Difference Between The Several Types Of Web Servers
June 15th, 2009
Starting up a website requires that you meet certain prerequisites. One such act is getting a web server in which to store the files that will allow you to share your thoughts, ideas, or products with others. You will soon see that there are several types of servers in which to buy, making the process a bit more complicated than anticipated.
Just starting out as a webmaster probably puts you in the shared hosting category. Shared hosting is best for websites that don’t need a lot of system resources to function. Even some medium-sized websites won’t require an upgrade if you find the right shared hosting package. The only problem is that you can’t edit the server according to your liking, and reliability could prove to be a problem.
A type of shared hosting that gives you more control is known as a virtual private server. A VPS is the next upgrade from the shared hosting environment, but only necessary if you actually need the freedom that a VPS provides. A VPS isn’t always any more stable or powerful than your typical shared hosting environment, so if what you need is power then you may have to upgrade to a dedicated server plan.
Prices in dedicated servers have come down dramatically. It’s now possible to get a managed dedicated server plan for $100 or less. The more options and performance you expect from the machine equates into much higher expense. You can easily shell out thousands of dollars each month for such servers, although odd are you won’t need to worry about that any time soon.
Some web hosts also offer something called a reseller hosting plan. Don’t be confused, technically every server type could be a reseller hosting plan. You are granted access to a Web Host Manager, or WHM, that allows you to allot different accounts to different limits of bandwidth and disk space usage. It’s unlikely to see such a thing on shared environments, but VPS and dedicated servers will often have this by default.
Don’t judge your options based solely on types of servers. Dedicated servers do appear to be the holy grail of web servers, yet that isn’t always true. A VPS can outperform a dedicated server, and even the lowly shared server environment can outperform other server types if the host limits the amount of webmasters on each server. The real thing to consider is what your desired host is selling, at what price, and whether or not the server is managed.
Closing Comments
Pricing in web hosting is very competitive. You will find that starter packages can be just dollars each month. Such packages are usually enough to get you started on your way to learning more in web development and design.
Learn more about affordable web hosting and unix hosting.
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