Types of Hosting Available
To continue with the analogy of living arrangements, you have many different choices for where you want to live. You could rent an apartment, flat, or townhouse, or you could buy a condominium or a house.
Let's compare different types of home choices to website hosting. Table 2-1 provides you with a metaphorical comparison for residences and website hosting. For example, shared hosting is like renting an apartment — you are not responsible for much, other than your own dwelling. Yet, a dedicated server is like owning a home — you must take care of it all.
Table 2-1: Simple Comparison of Residences and Hosting Equivalents
| RESIDENCE | WEBSITE HOSTING EQUIVALENT |
| Apartments (multifamily) | Shared hosting |
| Condominium/Town homes | Virtual Private Server (VPS) |
| Owning your own home | Dedicated server |
| Spectacular time share | Cloud hosting (for example, Amazon) |
This section begins with an overview of basic concepts, and then digs into some areas that sales web pages do not tell you about hosting companies.
Various types of hosting are available to choose from, including the following:
- Shared hosting
- Virtual Private Server (VPS)
- Dedicated server
- Cloud hosting
Shared Hosting
Today's average server hardware has much more power than most users consume. Shared hosting spreads both the cost and the user load out over many clients in order to make it affordable. The hosting company can put more people on a single box, lowering its cost.
With shared hosting, your ...
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