Web Hosting Options For Online Business

Once you have registered your domain, it is time to look for a home for your future Web site. Before you build your site, you should find a hosting company that is right for your business. Hosting has become inexpensive in the past few years. If you spend more than fifteen dollars per month, you are spending too much.

Most small businesses should host their sites with a hosting company as opposed to hosting in house. Hosting in house requires and IT staff and expertise. It is expensive, and it will never be as reliable as a professional hosting solution. There are so much that could go wrong in your business, don’t add another headache to your already hectic schedule. Let the pros do it for you.

Shared – The most popular option for small business is shared hosting. Web servers running as shared hosts can house several hundreds of Web sites. It is a great way to get your domain online and save.

Pros – Shared accounts are inexpensive. Quick and easy set up.

Cons – Limited bandwidth, shared IP address, limited storage, slower server response, more crashes, limited support, resource limitation

Price – Could be as low as a few dollars per month.

Dedicated – High traffic web sites require high performance dedicated hosting servers.

Pros: Dedicated servers are all about contraol. You are in full control of the server. You can customize it any way you like. You can only blame yourself if your web site becomes unavailable! Because the server is dedicated to your site, your site will load quickly. It is ideal for high bandwidth use such as streaming video. Freedom to install any program you wish without restrictions.

Cons: More expensive than shared hosting.

Cost: Several hundred dollars to several thousands of dollars depending on specific needs.

Colocated Hosting

A very similar concept to dedicated hosting with one major difference. While you rent a server with a dedicated hosting account, you own the server with a collocated account. Instead of renting the server, you rent the rack space. The collocation service provider provides you a connection to the Internet and optional support. You pay a fee for maintenance and bandwidth.