The first and most important decision a web designer, blogger, or marketer must make is determining what kind of hosting to use. Unfortunately, many designers and bloggers give this important task little thought, which limits their clients’ chances of success.

Understanding the different kinds of hosting and how they work will give your clients an advantage. Choosing the right kind of hosting often makes the difference between an effective blog or ecommerce platform, and a website nobody looks at.

There are three common types of hosting that every blogger, entrepreneur, marketer, and designer needs to consider. The differences between these varieties of hosting are vast so you should carefully study each of them. The three widely-used varieties of web hosting are:

Cloud and VPS Hosting

Cloud and Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting are the most versatile solutions because they are the biggest, fastest, and most flexible options.

Cloud hosting is popular because it allows users to build large and complex websites. That includes any website that needs a high level of customization or runs proprietary applications. The cloud is popular for ecommerce, financial services, streaming video, and storage solutions.

Cloud sites are highly reliable and fast because the cloud is scalable. The drawback to the cloud is the expense. Cloud sites require a lot of maintenance and special knowledge. That means you will need to hire a professional web hosting organization or experienced engineers and designers.

A growing segment of the cloud market is VPS; which is also known as “private cloud” or server virtualization. Server virtualization allows physical servers to operate run virtual servers, which offers a higher layer of security and reliability. Virtual servers and private cloud are best for organizations; like banks, law firms, and government agencies, that need vast amounts of cloud storage and a high level of security.

A huge advantage to VPS is that you can decouple the operating system from the server. That means the server can be anywhere, which allows it be placed to a safe location such as a peaceful neutral country.

This makes cloud servers and VPS ideal for organizations with widespread operations or many locations. Decoupling the operating system allows an organization to run its functions on multiple servers, which enables its platform to keep operating if a server goes down or get destroyed.

Managed or Platform Hosting

Hosted sites designed for specific content management software (CMS) platforms like WordPress are among the most popular.

Small businesspeople and bloggers love CMS sites because they do almost everything for them and are easily scalable. Bloggers can easily post content such as videos, articles, and audio at such sites.

More importantly, no special education or training is needed to operate most CMS platforms. Any literate person can usually figure out to use a solution like WordPress.

The drawbacks to CMS are limited amounts of control, and architecture that makes it hard to install new software and applications. Another serious problem is the open architecture of CMS – which creates serious holes in security. With TD Web Services, offers great Managed WordPress Hosting. Check Out our Managed WordPress Hosting and Highly Optimized WordPress Hosting Today!

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting on dedicated servers is the cheapest and simplest solution. Bloggers and small businesspeople prefer shared hosting because it does everything for them.

Most shared hosting solutions come with easy to use dashboards that make it easy to build and use sites in applications like WordPress and Drupal. The drawbacks to shared hosting are a lack of scalability, limited size, slower speeds, and often little or no storage availability.

As with CMS security is often limited, because of the open architecture. Shared sites can be very vulnerable to malware and hacking.

Applications in shared hosting sits are often basic and clunky. The lower speeds can lead to crashes – if there is a sudden burst of traffic or a fast-growing business.

What Hosting Should You Use

Asking the client what he or she wants to use the website for is the best way to determine the hosting.

Shared hosting is best for simple blogs and basic websites that help customers find a business. CMS hosting is best for ecommerce organizations, and persons or businesses that update a site on a regular basis. A blogger that adds content, or inventory, to his site every day will be better served by CMS. Somebody that makes occasional changes can get by with shared hosting.

Any organization that wants to conduct a large volume of business through a site will need cloud hosting. Clients that wish store large amounts of data online will have to use a private cloud. Any organization that needs a high level of security will need VPS or private cloud hosting.

It is best to explain the differences in hosting to clients up front because costs will vary widely. Getting clients to understand that paying extra for more hosting now can make life easier in the future will make a site builder’s job far more pleasant.

The three basic types of hosting are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many variations and added services that can increase a website or platform’s capabilities. For detailed information on a wide variety of hosting options please visit TD Web Services.