Web Hosting Options Pros and Cons
You want to host your website, but the amount of different ways and hosting providers overwhelms you?
This post was written to help you decide on what web hosting option you should stick to, based on advantages and disadvantages of different types of hosting.
1. Shared hosting
Probably most popular one. Your website is hosted with bunch of other websites on the same computer, sharing resources with everybody on the server. This is a good way to host your website, if you are a beginner and have no programming skills.
Pros
- cheap
- beginner friendly
- no need for a lengthy setup
Cons
- sharing resources with other users
- slower than other options on this list
Providers
- BlueHost
- HostGator
2. CDN from Git
In my opinion, this type of hosting requires its own category. Even though it is techically shared hosting, it works a bit differently. Your website resides in a Git repository, from which it is uploaded into the cloud, each time you update it. Then your files are being served from CDN (content delivery network). Oftentimes, websites are generated using something called static website generators. This type of hosting is perfect for blogging in my opinion. Website you are reading right now is hosted this way.
Pros
- Fast
- Simple
- Git based
- It is effectively free for most websites
Cons
- Requires familiarity with Git
Providers
- Netlify
- Vercel
3. VPS
VPS is a virtual machine hosted on a bigger server. You have certain computer resources just for your use and get administrative privilages to it. It requires familiarity with Linux in most cases (unless you want to use other operating system).
Contrary to what other peple say, I think this type of hosting is good for beginner software developers, as you will learn the most about how hosting works and how servers work. As a software developer you will gain knowledge on how to move around Linux server using commands.
Pros
- Fast
- Administrative access
- Ability to install own packages
- Full customisation
Cons
- Steep learning curve
- A bit more pricy than previous ones (static IPv4 starts from $5)
Providers
- Vultr
- Digital Ocean
- Linode
4. Bare metal server
Bare metal server is used when you need to have a lot of computing power, usually for big websites. Otherwise works like a VPS, it is just much much more expensive to rent servers like these.