Traditional web hosting types include shared, dedicated, WordPress hosting, and virtual private servers for constructing your website (VPS). Cloud hosting, on the other hand, spreads your website across numerous servers and gives you a customizable solution to power your website.
For websites that place a high priority on stability, cloud web hosting is the best option. You can handle additional traffic without your clients encountering a delayed checkout if one of your products becomes popular.
Unlike traditional web hosting, which allocates a fixed amount of bandwidth and RAM to a single server, cloud hosting distributes your website’s requirements across a vast virtual server that resides on hardware in data centers across the world.
It’s quite simple to add more resources or reduce them as needed with cloud hosting. And, because there are so many servers to pick up the slack, cloud hosting is far less prone to equipment failure.
Cloud storage web hosting.
Traditional hosting makes use of a single server’s CPU, RAM, storage, and data transfers to operate your website. For example, in shared web hosting, your website shares resources with other websites hosted on the same server. As a result, there is a slew of unpleasant power limits, as well as an inability to handle sudden traffic surges. You can pay for a virtual private server or even a dedicated server of varied power for better service. In all of these scenarios, you’re essentially reliant on one server. Cloud hosting, on the other hand, throws the single-server hosting concept out the window. Your website uses resources from several servers when it is hosted in the cloud.
Cloud hosting has some advantages over traditional hosting due to the use of multiple servers. For example, if your website has a sudden surge in traffic, it can borrow resources from another server to avoid delayed page loading or, worse, the site falling down entirely. Furthermore, cloud hosting allows you to easily scale your website’s resources up or down as needed. In order to get the power that your website requires with standard hosting, you may need to switch to a different hosting type (for example, from shared to VPS).
It’s worth noting that there are various sorts of cloud hosting. Traditional web hosts such as DreamHost and HostGator price their cloud hosting services similarly to their other web hosting packages, which are often in the shared or VPS categories. In this roundup, we’re especially interested in small business-friendly cloud hosting alternatives.
Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Rackspace all offer enterprise-level infrastructure-as-a-service cloud hosting options. These are technically cloud hosting services, however, they aren’t the focus of this article. Please see our story about the finest infrastructure-as-a-service solutions for more information on that flavor of expansive (and potentially more expensive!) cloud hosting.
Features of Cloud Hosting
The graph above shows the web hosts with the finest cloud hosting plans out of all the services we’ve looked at. Because this is a new category, we’re still evaluating cloud hosting options. We’ll be testing more providers in the coming months. Nonetheless, we’ve identified what you should look for in a cloud hosting provider based on our previous assessments and extensive study.
Many cloud web providers provide unlimited monthly data transfers, so consider other criteria when deciding which package is ideal for your company. However, if you’re interested in “unlimited” anything, whether it’s data or storage, make sure to read the fine print to avoid any unpleasant surprises. To put it another way, double-check that your concept of limitless corresponds to the hosting service’s definition. It’s possible that they’re two completely different entities.
When it comes to storage, we’ve observed that cloud providers often provide hard disks or solid-state drives with capacities ranging from 100 GB to 200 GB. However, you may come across a web server that offers limitless storage on occasion. (Once again, there are the usual limitations when it comes to “unlimited” anything.) Solid-state drives are generally speedier than their hard-drive-based counterparts, although they have less storage capacity. A standard hard drive is a way to go if you need a lot of storage.
When it comes to server operating systems, Linux is frequently chosen as the default. Some firms, however, also provide Windows hosting. If you have server-side programs that require Windows, such as SQL Server or a custom.NET application, you must ensure that your web host offers Windows hosting. Everything you need to know about Linux vs. Windows Server is explained in our Linux vs. Windows Server explainer.
You’ll also want a web host that offers responsive customer service 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When problems emerge, forums, knowledge bases, and tutorials are helpful, but nothing beats getting another human on the phone (or at least in a webchat) to help.
Security is also quite important. If you want to offer products or services online, you’ll need to learn about Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) (TLS). These technologies encrypt data as it passes between a customer’s computer and your company’s servers, ensuring that it is safe from hackers.
It’s Crucial to Have Uptime
Because uptime is so crucial, we devote a full section to it in each of our reviews. Simply, if your website is unavailable, clients and customers will be unable to locate your company or access your products or services. They might find exactly what they’re seeking somewhere else and never come back. Customers will be irritated at the very least, and their perception of your company will suffer as a result. Neither outcome is desirable.
We started tracking uptime three years ago as part of our assessment process, and the findings demonstrate that most web hosts do a fantastic job of keeping their sites up and functioning. If they don’t, their ranks will suffer as a result. Sites with downtime issues aren’t eligible for top marks, even if they get everything else right. Every service has ups and downs that are out of its control at times. Those websites that do not resolve the issue will be fined.
FINALLY,
While some solutions are superior to others, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Whether it’s affordability, customer service, flexibility, or anything else, you should base your hosting options on your priorities.
It’s a decision that could determine your website’s long-term viability. The future, however, appears to be bright, with so many wonderful options accessible.
