Shared, cloud, VPS, dedicated, and managed hosting are five different hosting definitions that you should consider when deciding how to host a website. Understanding these definitions can be really confusing and time consuming, so I decided to write this article for anyone who is looking for an efficient set of definitions that will allow them to make an informed decision.
TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read)
Here is the short version of this article. You will probably be able to get by just fine if you use a solid shared web host. You can use this blog to figure out how to set your site up properly, or you can hire a pro to set it up for you for a modest one time flat rate. If your site needs more power after it becomes popular, then you can switch to a managed cloud hosting service.
If you want hear why you should do this, then keep reading.
Hosting Definitions: Defining Shared Web Hosting
Shared web hosting means exactly what it sounds like. Your website will share server space with other websites. The downside of doing this is the performance of the other sites can impact your site’s performance. The upside is you share the cost of using the server with the other website owners.
Hosting Definitions: Defining Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting is hosting your site through a network of servers. It can be more complicated than shared hosting, and it will probably cost you more money, but it tends to have a better performance potential, especially if you are getting a lot of traffic. It is also worth noting that you will probably still need to use a CDN even if you choose cloud hosting.
Hosting Definitions: Defining VPS Hosting
VPS hosting can be basically defined as shared hosting without the sharing or cloud hosting without as much scalability. I could write a lot more about VPS hosting, but I want to keep this post as simple as possible. All you need to know is I don’t imagine that you would choose VPS hosting given your other options. However, if you don’t want to take my word for it, then feel free to dive into the weeds.
Hosting Definitions: Defining Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting means that you get the whole server to yourself. It’s expensive and complicated. Even if you know a lot about servers, this will probably still be way more power and responsibility than you will want or need, so it really isn’t worth considering.
Does Shared Web Hosting Suck?
Shared web hosting gets a bad rap. It’s not perfect. And it’s not always an adequate solution. But if you know how to set up a site properly, then it will probably give you the results you need to build a high performing website. Conversely, although other kinds of hosting are sometimes a good choice for certain circumstances, they are often unnecessarily expensive. Too often people choose other kinds of hosting to fix mistakes that don’t actually require changing their hosting package.
Hosting Definitions: Defining Managed Hosting
Unless you are running your website on a private server on your private property, you will always be paying your host for some level of management. Therefore, the term management can be somewhat confusing. When something is advertised as managed, it can mean different things for different purposes. And even if the hosting package doesn’t advertise itself as managed, there were will be services managed for you such as the server itself or software such as CPanel. When a hosting package is specifically advertised as managed, it tends to refer to installing and managing site specific software.
Is Managed WordPress Hosting a Good Deal?
I would never turn a customer away for using managed WordPress hosting, but it’s really hard for me to recommend it in good conscience. The difference between managed WordPress hosting and setting up a WordPress site yourself on a shared web host is kind of like the difference between buying a car and leasing a car. Just like leasing a car, over the life of the product’s use, getting a managed site will probably just cost you more money without any improvement in quality.
Managed WordPress Hosting is Often Shared Hosting
You should consider that a managed WordPress service is often performed on a shared server. Basically what web hosts do is charge you to set up software that you could set up yourself for free. If setting up this software seems daunting, then it might not seem like a bad deal. But if you consider that you could pay a professional web developer a one time fee to set it up for you, the deal from the managed hosting company might not seem so good. Why? Because the managed service provider will keep charging you a premium subscription fee in perpetuity.
How Good Are the Services Provided by the Managed Host?
You should consider the possibility that the managed host will actually produce a performance that is worse than something that you could set up yourself or have set up by a professional web developer.
Managed hosting has to figure out a standardized way to set up your website. This will often (but not always) produce good results. But this method will have a lot harder time producing great results because a website only has to use one idea that the standardized method doesn’t know how to handle for a significant performance detriment to be triggered.
Hosting Definitions: Defining Cloud Hosting
There are reasons that you may want a server that is higher performing than something that shared hosting can provide. If you’re site is getting unusually high traffic and/or if your site needs to run a lot of server side operations, then you may want to choose something more powerful than a shared server. However, if you just switch from a shared host to a managed shared host, then you are unlikely to see any improvement. In most instances, if shared hosting isn’t cutting it, then cloud hosting is the solution.
Hosting Definitions: Defining Managed Cloud Hosting
There are some circumstances where certain kinds of managed hosting may not be a bad idea. For example, if you have an e-commerce site with a lot of traffic, then you may want to consider using managed cloud hosting with a managing service like Cloudways because cloud hosting can be complicated. However, if you are just starting a new website, it is unlikely that you will need cloud hosting to run your site.
What is the Value of Your Time?
There are those who would be dissatisfied with having anything less than full control over their own dedicated server. However, if your goal is to get a quality server performance without spending too much time or money, then an unmanaged shared hosting package is the way to go most of the time. Once you set up your software properly, you can let your shared hosting provider do the rest of the heavy lifting. Most standard web host packages deal with most of the real hard problems of server management. So if you pay for a “managed” hosting package, then you will probably be just getting upsold into purchasing frivolous options that you could acquire for free.
How Much Power Do You Really Need?
Paying extra money for an average page load time that drops from an eighth of a second to a fifth of a second probably isn’t worth it. There is an endless sea of data to show how paying more will facilitate a faster page load. But if your visitors can’t actually detect the difference, then what is the point of the extra expense? So if you are considering a legitimate managed hosting option like for cloud hosting, then you should first consider the needs of your visitors relative to the content you are providing.
How Much Do You Want to Spend? And How Much Do You Need to Spend? How Long Should You Stay With the Same Web Host?
If the value of your time is worth much of anything, then you don’t want to nickel and dime yourself by constantly looking for the best deal. You also don’t want to slowly crush your overhead by paying a bunch of expenses that are totally unnecessary. When you pick a hosting provider, you should consider how much you are spending up front. And you should consider how much you will be spending after your initial offer is over.
Yes. You can keep jumping from one host to the next to keep your expenses down. But you should really figure out how much time that it will cost you. What is your time worth? How much do you think you ought to be getting paid per hour? Even if you think the value of your time to make the transfer is going to be worth less than the savings, then you still have to ask yourself, “Is the added stress worth the discount?”
Be Willing to Upgrade if You Need To
If your site starts taking on more traffic that it can handle, or if you need to provide features that your hosting package can’t deliver well, then you may want to consider updating to a more powerful hosting package. This may also be a good time to consider reorganizing your site. Often times ideas for sites come together in an ad hoc fashion. If you have to change hosts, you may want to consider separating your content from your content management and think about ways you can make improvements to your site.
In most cases, starting with a solid shared hosting package will probably be all that you will ever need to do. The volume of competition is such that prices tend to stay low with whomever you choose. However, if you do start to feel exploited, then switching to another hosting provider should be reasonably feasible. VPS hosting is more niche and is probably something that you will never need. Dedicated hosting will almost never be a good idea. And cloud hosting is good if you need to get big.
Questions?
If you have any questions, then please leave them in the comments section. If you would like me to review your existing site or build you a new site, then please read about my services.