Shared Hosting, VPS, or Cloud Hosting which one to choose?

During the process of creating your website you will be faced with a choice. Which hosting to choose?

Briefly for the forgetful or novice:

• a hosting represents the space for your online project, it is a network service that allows you to allocate on a web server all the files that make up your site, thus making it accessible and visible to users on the web.

Which ones can you choose?

• Shared hosting
• Hosting on a virtual private server (VPS)
• Cloud hosting

Let’s analyse the advantages and disadvantages, and above all how they work, in order to choose which hosting method best suits your needs.

Let’s start with:

Let’s talk about the most popular hosting service, as well as the cheapest.
In this case, you will find yourself sharing hardware and resources, such as bandwidth and storage, with the other hosted sites.

There are various packages with different access levels to choose from, but they all tend to occupy roughly the same space.

Advantages: most common hosting method, easy to use, cheap.

Disadvantages: if security controls are weak or server resources are not robust enough, the consequences will not be long in coming. You would end up with a website potentially at risk of compromise and slow to load.

Here we go up one step.
With virtual private servers, you will share the same server with other users, but you will be given a well-defined operating space where you can decide on more specific system features. This will give you more control and at the same time more freedom to implement security systems.

Advantage: it is the ideal hosting for consumer-focused sites such as online shops and small businesses. It guarantees faster loading times, improved security and you will notice an increase in overall site performance.

Disadvantages: you are still subject to resource limits, i.e. if, for example, everyone uses the maximum bandwidth at the same time then there will be a general slowdown that will affect all users, including you. This method implies some technical knowledge and is therefore not very easy to use.

Let’s now talk about a virtual server, i.e. a space built, hosted and provided within a cloud computing platform to which you have access via the Internet, remotely.

Any software is isolated from the site environment, so any other cloud server will have no impact on your project and vice versa.

Advantage: the scalability offered. Let’s explain, if you are eager to grow your site you will certainly want a server that can adapt as quickly as possible to these power variations. This is exactly what the cloud server offers you: the ability to add memory and power when you deem it necessary.

Disadvantages: it is very expensive and if you are not aware of what you are doing, you may end up paying for more resources than you are using and that you actually need.

On the basis of the above, you should be able to establish, with some more expertise, what might be the solution that best suits your needs.
Remember to always weigh the pros and cons carefully before making your choice.