Back in 2008, when I started Blogging, I had no clue about Webhosting, domain, or even What it takes to start a WordPress Blog. Over time I learned things like Webhosting, cPanel, FTP, and so on.
Thanks to my engineering background, I learned many things by reading and many things I learned with the help of friends. No matter how you learn, if you are one of those who are working online (Blogging, IM, and Freelancing), there are many things that you ought to know. One of them is Webhosting packages. I’m not talking about companies that offer Webhosting space, but generic hosting types offered by these companies.
For a beginner, it might be confusing to differentiate between different Web-hosting types and what shared, Managed WordPress hosting, VPS and such hosting packages mean.
Here in this guide, I will be giving you a basic yet thorough overview of some of the common hosting packages types, that you will see or read about every day, and you will have a better understanding when you are reading any hosting-related article on the Internet or planning to get yourself a Webhost for your new Website.
Most Common Webhosting Packages:
There are a few things that I will not talk about here, like Windows or Linux hosting, as these are platform-based hosting. Some of the Web apps work best with Linux-based hosting, and some of them work great with Windows-based hosting. For example, WordPress works best with Linux Hosting. I will be talking about common hosting packages type: Shared, Managed WordPress hosting, VPS, dedicated, and so on.
1. Shared Hosting package:
This is one of the most common and cheapest WordPress hosting package types. For any newbie Blogger, this is most affordable package type as it starts from $2-$15/month depending upon which company you are opting for. The shared hosting package can further be classified into limited and unlimited hosting. Many Webhosting companies offer different shared hosting packages based on limitations.
For example, Popular hosting company Bluehost hosting offers various shared hosting plans under their hosting package and difference between them is feature and price.
In a shared hosting environment, your Website will be hosted along with many (10-200) other Web sites. This means, that all these Web sites will have the same I.P, and all of them will be sharing given resources. One of the limitations of shared hosting is, that if any site starts consuming high resources, it may affect other sites hosted on the same server. Though such issues happen once in a while and for a beginner, Shared hosting is the best place to start. If your WordPress site is hosted on shared hosting, you can run a reverse site lookup to see, what other sites are hosted on the same server.
For further reading:
2. Managed WordPress Hosting:
A decade back, who would have thought that there would be a dedicated category for WordPress hosting? It was companies like WPEngine, and Kinsta who made “Managed WordPress hosting” a popular hosting category.
Managed WordPress hosting is better than VPS and dedicated servers, as the hosting is optimized for running memory-hogging WordPress applications. The tech stack is not bloated with unnecessary components and is optimized for WordPress speed, security and high performance.
The pricing of a managed WordPress hosting could be compared with VPS and dedicated servers and is way higher than a normal shared WordPress hosting.
This kind of WordPress hosting is recommended for professional blogs, enterprise websites, SAAS WordPress applications and so on.
Note: ShoutMeLoud is hosted on a managed WordPress hosting company called Kinsta. I pay close to $400/month to host ShoutMeLoud and other WordPress websites on my network.
For further reading:
- Shared hosting Vs. Managed WordPress Hosting (Know the differences)
- Best managed WordPress hosting companies
3. VPS: Virtual Private Server
VPS is another most common hosting package offered by many companies. VPS is based on the virtualization, and unlike shared hosting, here your Website will get limited but dedicated resources. VPS are costlier than shared hosting but work perfectly when your site requires dedicated resources all the time.
VPS is also most commonly known as Virtual root server/virtual dedicated server. One most common myth is, moving to VPS will solve your Website down issues, but here is a tip: Common shared hosting package offered by Bluehost, Hostgator offer better resource than what offered by entry level VPS package.
Virtual private server bridges the gap between dedicated server and shared hosting server. Despite of sharing the same system with other Websites, your Website will have dedicated I.P., Dedicated computing resources and you will not be affected by any faulty Website on your Server.
There is two most common type of VPS packages: Managed VPS and unmanaged VPS.
- Unmanaged VPS: In this package, you will be given root access, and you will be responsible for doing everything on your server. Which includes installing new script, updating packages and so on. Linode is one of the best unmanaged VPS which I have used and certainly one with the most competitive price.
- Managed VPS: This package is perfect for Blogger and people who are non-technical. You will have the root access, and you are free to do anything on your virtual box and at the same time, hosting support team will assist you for everything. For example, if you wish to install a new package or add-on, you can ask managed VPS team to do it for you. Right now, ShoutMeLoud is hosted on Knownhost VPS which is also a managed VPS. Managed VPS are little costlier than unmanaged packages, but still worth it, since you don’t have to get your hands dirty with codes and commands.
4. Dedicated Server:
This is for resource-hungry Websites and Web apps. There are certain Web apps or Websites, which need a dedicated pool of resources all the time and you don’t want your system to be sharing anything with anyone else. Dedicated servers are usually costliest one here and they also come with managed and unmanaged dedicated server plan.
In plain words, when you purchase a dedicated hosting from a company, you are renting a system under their infrastructure. Depending upon Webhosting company package and policies, you will be offered limited or no support. Softlayer is one of the most popular name among dedicated hosting provider. Here are some resources from the past which will give you more information about dedicated hosting server:
It’s been more than seven & half year and I have tried a variety of WordPress Webhosting companies and various hosting packages. I started with a cheap shared hosting in 2008 and used them for one year, later on due to plugin glitch I moved it to Knownhost. Later, I moved to Hostgator, Cloudways, and so on. Of all the hosting packages, I got best uptime with Kinsta hosting.
Now, there are more Webhosting package types, especially for certain Web apps. For example, We have managed WordPress hosting for WordPress blogs, which are perfect but again comes with the higher cost and something which an individual blogger might not like to afford. Though, such packages are perfect for any business site or for someone, who prefer the peace of mind over the money. Here are some more resources from our Webhosting archive, which will help you to learn more:
- Why Shared WordPress Hosting is the Best Option for New Blogs
- Which is the Top WordPress Hosting for High Traffic Sites?
- Cheap WordPress Hosting Services
I will be sharing more such guides in coming days and if you have a question about any particular hosting package or type feel free to let me know. Also, let me know which hosting type and the company you are using right now to Host your Website.
In present, which Hosting package powers the ShoutMeLoud?
Hi Himanshu,
SML is powered by Kinsta.
Clear explanation on different web hosting packages.There is also business hosting which you can go for if don’t want server management burden and want complete power as that of VPS. With business hosting you can get dedicated resources, IP and isolated environment like any other VPS.
Thank you for the article & very detailed guide.Currently, I am hosting my website in the baby .plan.
Thank you for the article. Very informative and reliable. Keep up the good articles.
Does the shared hosting package offer a managed hosting? I am non-technical and would like the hosting support team to deal with installing new script, updating packages and so on. Please also inform if the bluehost or hostgator basic packages (price: around 60$/year) comprise also at least one e-mail address?
Thank you!
@Ghintere
The hosting is not managed however you can get email address.
Hostgator offers managed WordPress hosting which is costlier than the shared but worth it.
If you are looking for budget managed WordPress hosting, I could recommend:
Hostgator OWP
Hi,
Just wanna know that which is better? Hosting website on Indian servers or outside servers …
Does it affects performance or security aspects.
@Shruti
It Depends upon your requirement. I prefer hosting site outside India, and with companies which can provide 24 hours support. More over, It’s better to work with a company who is a brand itself, as they care a lot about brand reputation & customer satisfaction.
One more factor you need to keep in mind is: your target audience. It’s suggested to host your server in a location closer to your target audience location.
hi…
I am looking for a cheaper and best hosting pkg.. i found on net iPage hosting in 1.99$/m . Will you please tell me your opinion about this hosting….
Very Nice article harsh I have been reading your blog posts daily and this post regarding web hosting packages is one of the best articles you have written for beginners who might be thinking to move to paid hosting packages rather than staying with free hosting Great article and I loved it
Thanks Harsh
Shared Hosting is the best thing otherwise thing would have been much costlier i guess, one of my frd is staring up so he need both domain name (.com) and hosting space will Bluehost be a good option ??
Great addition to my knowledge. I was thinking blogging world is limited to where I am write now (to shared hosting). 🙂 But it is quite wide. So now I have to work hard even more.
What exactly makes Hosting providers superior to others? Earlier i used to host my blog on some Indian company for 500/year and i didn’t even face a single problem.
Ver nice guide. I think shared web hosting package would be best for me. I am planning to migrate to wp.
I noticed that you have somehow stopped promoting Hostgator aggressively unlike before, why is that, can you give us details? Can you help us out who are not as good as you when it comes to affiliate marketing so that we can prevent from making mistakes later on? Thank you.
Indeed an excellent and detailed guide on web hosting packages, this will be surely very helpful, eespecially for beginners. Thanks Harsh for sharing this info 🙂
Useful for me as i just moved to wordpress from blogger. Whats the benefit of virtual private sector and having the same IP throughout ?
Very detailed guide for beginners like me, no need to refer any other sites for more details. Thanks Harsh ! 🙂
Nice post eespecially for those who are introduced to hosting recently..