Support Considerations. As a reseller you will be often supporting your own clients, but you have the hosting company available to help you out. So if a client has a problem they ask you, and if you need to escalate the problem, the hosting company will help you. In this way the customer only deals with you. Personally I like this option because my clients trust me, and I like to have total control over my brand. I don’t want someone who I haven’t trained or worked with interacting with my clients.

The other support option is what’s called “white label hosting support”. In this model, your clients can call tech support themselves, but the client isn’t told that they are speaking to the web hosting company’s staff, as opposed to your staff. This is also a good model, though I haven’t seen it very often in my travels.

Branding and Transparency. Many reseller programs will allow you to be completely “white label”. This basically means that the web hosting company’s name is replaced by your company’s name for the most of what the client will see; instead of having the web hosting company’s nameservers, you will have nameservers that match the name of your business (you can do the same thing with mailsevers because your names as basically just aliases). There are some instances, however, where the client may still see the web hosting providers company name instead of yours (e.g. especially with SSLs and control panel logins). So it’s important that you take this transparency issue into consideration — with some digging it’s not too difficult to find out that you are a reseller. But again it all depends on your clients, their knowledge level, and their expectations.

Backup Considerations. I’m not going to get into too much detail, here, but make sure that you have a backup plan in place. I am planning a future post about the backup options you have as a reseller.

The only thing worse than losing your own data, is losing your clients data.

Armed with this information, you can now make informed decisions about reseller web hosting options and reseller web hosting plans.

To learn about Virtual Private Servers (VPS), visit our other site, VPSNovice.com

If, however, you want to host websites for other people, reseller hosting may be an option for you. In the reseller hosting model, you still have a web hosting account, but you are given tools that help you manage websites for others.

From a hardware perspective, there are three types of reseller hosting options:
1. A reseller plan on a shared hosting platform.
2. A reseller plan with a VPS (really a VPS with a reseller control panel)
3. A reseller plan with a dedicated server (really a dedicated server with a reseller control panel)

Clearly this decision is based on 1) the number of sites you are hosting and on the amount of resources you need, and 2) what configuration or security customizations do you need. Generally speaking, if you want to make significant customizations (e.g. SSL, remote database access, add/configure certain PHP modules), then you will need a VPS or a dedicated server. The most important consideration is really to look at what you and your clients need, and see what the hosting providers offer.

There are two general resource-usage models for reseller web hosting.
1. You are given a fixed amount of resources, and you divide the resources among your users. . In this scenario you basically have a web hosting plan, with the ability to resell the resources. So when you actually sign up for the plan, you will be looking at the same resource allocations as if you were looking for a hosting plan for yourself. The difference, however, is that you have to consider how much storage, bandwidth, etc that you will need for multiple sites. So here you’d be looking for reseller hosting plans.

In this model you use a control panel such cPanel, which has a special control panel version for resellers.
With cPanel for resellers, you create hosting plans for your clients to use, and assign resources to these hosting plans (e.g. disk space, bandwidth, email accounts, databases). Each client account will have one of the hosting plans you have created (e.g. bronze, silver, gold), and each client account will have access to a client version of the control panel (the client version of the control panel is basically the same version of the control panel that you would use on a shared hosting account).

You do need to consider resources and plan accordingly. For example, if you have 10GB of bandwidth per month with your reseller plan, you need to make sure that your account as a whole does not go over this 10GB. There are many ways to prevent this from happening (and to warn and to charge users for overages) but that discussion is beyond the scope of this article.

So when setting up plans you need to do some thinking. Let’s say you have one hosting plan for everyone, and that plan includes 1GB of bandwidth per month. Technically speaking, if your reseller account has a maximum of 10GB of bandwidth per month, then you should be ok as long as you don’t have more than 10 clients (1GB x 10 users = 10GB/mo).

But what if you have 15 clients and you know that most of your clients don’t come close to using their alloted 1GB of bandwidth per month? Here’s where you can get creative. If you know that you clients are not using their allotted 10GB of bandwidth, then you can gamble a little. There’s nothing wrong with having 15 clients, each with a plan that allots 1GB of bandwidth. The only problem, however, is that if each client decides to use their full 1GB in a month, then you will go over the alloted bandwidth on your reseller account and you will have overage fees on your reseller account. But with proper planning, however, this situation should not occur – especially since you can easily see how much bandwidth (or any resource for that matter) that your clients are using.

If you find that your clients really don’t need to have accounts with 1GB of bandwidth allotted, you could consider reducing the plan so that each client has 500MB of bandwidth, instead. The disadvantage of this approach, however, is that if your competition is offering 1GB of bandwidth for the same price (or lower) you may seem less competitive to potential clients. Even though the clients generally don’t know (or understand) that they don’t need anywhere close to 1GB of bandwidth per month, if you competition is offering “more” than you are, then they will probably go with the competition.

Lastly, one of the best features of this type of reseller hosting configuration is that you can create as many plans as you need — you may have 10 clients that really need a simple plan, but one or two clients that need to have some specific resources allocated. So for the latter clients, you can just create a plan that meets their needs (and your pricing).

2. You disitribute pre-configured plans. This setup is almost like a reseller hosting program vs a reseller hosting plan. In this model, you are more of an affiliate, and you resell hosting plans to your clients. The idea is that you sign up as a reseller (though in this setup I feel as if you are more of an affiliate than a reseller) and the web hosting company discounts their regular plans to you. So if a client comes to you for a hosting plan, you can offer them one of the hosting company’s pre-configured plan at a rate less than retail. Note that in this setup, you may need to pay a setup or yearly fee in order to get the discount.

For example, if the hosting company’s basic plan is $5/mo, they would offer you the plan at $3.50/mo. You then “resell” the plan to your client for $4.50/mo. So the hosting company charges you $3.50, you charge the client $4.50, and you make $1.00.

I don’t like this model because I feel there is little flexibility, and you really need a lot of clients to make it worthwhile (especially if there’s a setup or yearly fee for you).

This concludes part I of this article. In part II of this introduction to reseller hosting,  I will discuss support considerations, branding/transparency, and backups.

To learn about Virtual Private Servers (VPS), visit our other site, VPSNovice.com

To put web server software into perspective, think of web server software as you would any other computer program.  Microsoft Word is for creating documents on a computer, Microsoft Excel is for creating spreadsheets, and Web Server software is for hosting web sites.

There are two major Web Server programs that are used today;  they are the Apache Web Server and Internet Information Server (IIS).  Generally speaking, Apache is the web server of choice for a Linux machine, and IIS is the web server of choice for a Windows machine.

While almost any computer can function as a web server, most production web servers are computers with some amount of specialized hardware, and really only run the web server software and supporting applications.  For example, you would not run Word and Excel on a production web server.

The diagram below illustrates how the web server software fits into the “big picture”:

Note that a web server does not necessarily host only one website. Many web servers, especially web servers in a shared web hosting environment, will host hundreds of websites. Though if a website is highly trafficked and a resource-intensive one, a dedicated server may be necessary. In fact there are some web sites that are so popular and require such a large amount of resources, that the job of hosting the website is handled by multiple web servers (that is, multiple physical computers).

The Very Short Version
Just as your home has an individual street address, your web site also needs to have an individual “internet address”. This “internet address” is known as the domain name. When a letter goes to 123 Main Street the post office knows where to deliver the letter. Similarly, when an internet address such as www.helpspa.com (a domain name) is typed into a web browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox, it tells your computer what web site to display.

That’s the minimum you need to know. If you’d like to learn just a bit more, keep reading. The next paragraph will talk about the Domain Name System (DNS), which is the “Phone Book of the Internet”

What is DNS, and How Does DNS Work?
As the non-internet world has a phone book with a directory of names and addresses, the computer world has something similar: the Domain Name System (DNS). The “big picture” purpose of the DNS system is to serve as a “internet phone book” for computers, whose purpose is to help computers get to websites on the internet.

Notice that I used the phrase “get to websites” and I didn’t use the phrase “find websites”. The reason I chose the word “get” is because the DNS system works to help computers “find” other computers only in the sense that the DNS system asks the question “Where can I find the web server that is hosting the website, www.helpspa.com?. The DNS system has nothing to do with the word “find” in the sense of internet search, or search engine listings.

Every time a person or a company registers a domain name, information gets added into the DNS database (in the same way an entry gets added into the phone book when you add a new phone line). You can think of the master DNS database as a huge “internet phone book” or “internet street map” — this explanation is a large oversimplification, but the concept is the same. There are computers around the world that keep a “master copy” of this database (we wouldn’t want it stored in only one place, would we?) and there are even more computers that have copies as well. These other computers that store copies of the DNS database are called (surprise) DNS servers.

How Does it Work?
Recall that the internet is a collection of computers, and that web sites are stored on these computers all over the world (computers that store web sites are called “web servers”). When you type the name of a web site in your web browser (i.e. www.helpspa.com), your computer goes to the local DNS server (just accept that this happens), where your computer “looks up” the domain name (internet address) information for the site you want to find. Your computer is basically asking the DNS server, “What is the address of the web server that hosts the website www.helpspa.com”? Though a process we won’t get into here, your computer now knows the address or location of the web site you want to find, and then goes to that computer on the internet to get the web site you want to see.

The figure below illustrates this process (there are lots of steps missing but this is the big picture):

1. Select an application if needed, and examine the web hosting requirements (platform, database, disk space, etc). If you are running a static site you can skip this step. For example, if you are running WordPress or Joomla, you will need MySql/PHP hosting. If are running a .NET application such as DotNetNuke, you will need .NET web hosting (Windows) hosting. Note that you may also need sql server hosting to go with your .NET hosting if you plan to use databases (which most web applications do).

2. Select a Linux or Windows platform. Usually this decision is based on the choice you made in step #1. If you aren’t using a specific application, then Linux hosting is the best hosting platform to start with as it has a large amount of features, is highly available, and relatively inexpensive. If you’d like to learn more about Linux vs. Windows hosting, this article can help.

3. Decide if you need shared hosting, Virtual Private Server hosting, or Dedicated hosting. Most people can easily start out with shared hosting an expand as their site and resource requirements expand. For more information about the differences among these types of hosting options, you can read this post.

4. Start looking for providers and examine and compare web hosting plans. Make a spreadsheet so you can compare web hosting providers. Once again, the requirements of your web application will help you sort out among the many web hosting plans that are out there. Take a look at what each plan is offering and at what price. Look at other options that may apply to you. Most hosting providers will provide more than enough bandwidth, storage space and email accounts for an entry-level site. You must do some planning ahead, however, to think about what your future needs may be. If you plan to one day add a shopping cart and have an eCommerce portion of your website, you may want to find a provider that allows SSL certificates and dedicated IPs (required for an SSL certificate).

I will often make a spreadsheet that lists the providers, as well as the offered resources with the plan prices and extra options. Note that most companies will offer more than one plan (e.g. bronze, silver, gold) so you may need to include more than one plan per host in your comparison. Having a spreadsheet will be very helpful in seeing the average price range for the hosting you require, and will also help you eliminate the providers with pricing that seems strangely low, and strangely high.

5. Test out the Web Hosting Control Panel and the webmail client. Most companies use a standard panel such as cPanel or Plesk, while other companies use their own custom control panels. Every reputable company offers a demo of their control panel, so spend some time playing with the demo before you sign-up so you can see if you like the look and feel of the interface. Also, even though you will probably be using a POP3 (or IMAP cilent) like Outlook or Thunderbird for your email, you may want to use Webmail (Hotmail and Gmail are examples of webmail-type interfaces) every so often, so it is important to also look at the Webmail interface to make sure you like it.

6. Read website hosting reviews, and take web hosting rankings with a grain of salt. Hosting reviews by individual people — actual users — are the most reliable way to find out about a provider. You will surely find a large array of comments about every host, and remember to try to see the “big picture”. If you are going to look at web hosting rankings, take the time to see who is doing the rankings, as rankings can sometimes be biased.

7. Test out their tech support and pre-sales support. Send out a request to the company asking a pre-sales question. If they don’t respond to you quickly for a pre-sales request, or you have a communication problem when trying to ask a pre-sales question, this doesn’t bode well for when you are a client and may have a problem that you need to be quickly resolved. You may even want to ask a general pre-sales type technical question to get an idea about the knowledge-level of the web hosting company’s staff, and about how long it takes your question to be answered.

8. Examine their contact information and refund policy, as well as the fine-print about overage and other charges. Make sure that they have a 14-day or 30-day return policy or trial period, and make sure the link “to cancel” is a functioning link. Also make sure that you can actually contact someone at the company easily (see #5).

9.  Domain Name Issues. As far as I’m concerned, you should NEVER buy your domain from your web hosting company.

10. Consider purchasing a test domain or two that you can use to try out web hosts. Usually there is a reason you are looking for web hosting — either your requirements have changed, you are looking for first time hosting, or your current provider isn’t meeting your needs or expectations. If you have some test domain names that you own, you can use these domains to test out a new web host BEFORE you move over one of your more important or critical domains. You don’t want to be in a position where you want to leave a web host, but you can’t because people depend on your website and expect to see content when they get there — especially on a new site. Consider paying with PayPal to give your credit-card information a little more security and to give you a little more purchase protection (though PayPal and purchase protection are debatable, and this subject is a topic for another day).

11. Stick with a Monthly plan until you’ve really had a good test run with the provider. I will usually go with a web hosting company for around 6 months before I will commit to a yearly plan. Because a monthly plan gives me the flexibility of quitting at any time (generally), I want the freedom to leave a web host if there services don’t meet my needs, or if their uptime or performance is poor.

Ok, so it was 11 Tips and not 10. But if you follow the steps on this list, you will hopefully wind up with a great web hosting provider. Remember that you may have to go through a bit of trial-and-error before you find the right host for you. I’m sure if you ask around, you will find that most people have a long list of hosting providers in their web-hosting past. So go ahead and research your needs and spend some time comparing providers. When you find the right provider, your effort will be rewarded.

To learn about Virtual Private Servers (VPS), visit our other site, VPSNovice.com

Disk or Storage Space – usually measured in MB or GB (megabytes or gigabytes), this term represents the amount of disk space you have in your account. This is the same concept as the amount of storage space on your regular computer’s hard drive. The more files and data you have, the more disk space you will need. Usually a few hundred MB (e.g. 200-500MB) is a fine place to start for a basic site. Some hosting plans even offer unlimited disk space, which is great.,

Bandwidth – bandwidth is a measure of how much data, or transfer data you can use. For example, if you have a 5mb file, and one person downloads it, you have used 5mb of bandwidth. If 10 people download it, you’ve used 50mb of bandwidth. Generally speaking most websites do not have people downloading 5mb files and 1GB of bandwidth is usually more than enough for most basic websites. If you have a site where a lot of downloading or viewing of large files is expected, then you may need more bandwidth. It’s best to track your bandwidth usage and then try to predict how much more you will need. But for any site that’s not involved with downloading or viewing very large files, bandwidth is usually not a limitation.

Email Protocols and Accounts — most hosting providers allow POP3 access to your email. This means that you can use a program like Outlook or Thunderbird to view your emails, and that you don’t necessarily need to use a webmail client. For example, you are no longer to use Outlook to access your Hotmail email, and you must use www.hotmail.com to get to your Hotmail email messages. But like I said, most hosting companies allow you to have POP3 and webmail access and you can use whatever method you prefer. Some companies also allow IMAP access, and if you are like me, IMAP access is a critical selling point.   To review the difference between POP3 and IMAP hosting, you can this post.

In terms of the number of actual email accounts, most basic hosting plans allow many, many accounts, so this factor is not usually a limiting one. Some basic plans even allow you to have hundreds of accounts — but if you are at the point where you have hundreds of people who need accounts, you may want to consider something other than basic web hosting to manage all of these email accounts.

Databases – most dynamic or “interactive” web sites need some kind of database to store the data. Hosting companies generally will offer two major types of database options: MySql for Linux hosting, and MSSQL for Windows (.NET) hosting. Some hosting companies will not offer databases until their “second” tier of hosting plans, while other companies will limit the number of databases that you can have based on the tier of your plan. For example, if a company offers a “bronze, silver, and a gold package”, they may not offer any databases until the silver package. And they may list that the Silver package can have 2 databases, while the gold package can have 10. With MySql hosting, almost every provider offers some number of databases even at the entry-level plan (e.g. the bronze).
SQL Server hosting is a little different, because due to licensing restrictions and expenses, only higher Windows hosting plans have some type of MSSQL hosting — and they usually limit you to one or two databases due to the aforementioned licensing reasons. Also note if remote access is allowed, though this is a more advanced feature that most casual users don’t need.

Programming Language Support – a big picture, Linux hosting supports PHP/MySql, whereas Windows hosting supports .NET/Sql Server. Check the requirements of any application you will be using before you make a hosting choice (for example WordPress needs Linux hosting because it uses PHP/MySql)

FTP access. Almost every company will allow some level of FTP access. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and using FTP is the easiest way to upload files to your website. Some providers also have an FTP-type program built into the hosting control panel so that you don’t have to use a free-standing FTP client. Usually the differences you will see in terms of FTP is the number of FTP accounts you are allowed to have. Generally speaking, you really don’t need more than one or two, because people should NOT be FTPing in and out of your site. FTP should be reserved for website file maintenance only.

Domains allowed – this measures the number of different website you may host on one web hosting account. Most companies allow you to host multiple sites. This means that on one account you may host www.somewebsite.com, www.anotherwebsite.com, www.yetanotherwebsite.com. You will usually see a number that tells you the maximum number of domains you may host with an account. In my opinion, DO NOT purchase your domain name directly from your web hosting provider as this can be problematic if you decide to change web hosts. See a more detailed explanation of my reasoning here.

Sub-Domains Allowed. A sub-domain is a domain that can be used as a subsection, or to separate different parts of a website. Most small websites don’t need to worry about subdomains. Examples of subdomains are: mail.mywebsite.com, store.mywebsite.com, clients.mywebsite.com. All three of these domains are sub-domains of the “mywebsite.com” main (or top-level) domain.

Backups - some web companies will tell you that they provide daily backups of your account data. That being said, even if your company does offer some kind of backup, it’s critical that you always have your own backup handy. Sometimes a company backup will fail, or will have a problem, and most companies will tell you that even that they do perform a backup, that you must have your own backup anyway.

Control Panel – a control panel is a piece of software that comes with your hosting account. It is the web- based software that you use to perform everyday tasks such as creating email accounts and databases. For a quick introduction to hosting control panels such a cPanel, you can read this post.

Other features — some hosting plans offer automatic install of common applications and scripts such as WordPress or phpBBS. Having these automatic installers makes the setup of applications very easy, as opposed to having to have to install these programs yourself. One of the most common installers is a program called Fantastico. You should also check for money-back guarantees, as well as your access to support. Some basic plans offer email-only support, and require that you have a higher plan to have phone access (though if this is the case, find another host). That being said, 99% of all of the hosting support I’ve ever needed was done successfully over email. I’ve only used phone support for hosting in extremely rare instances.

This list generally covers most of what you need to know to understand a web hosting company’s web hosting plans and offerings.  If you see another feature that you don’t understand or have a question about,  ask them — or ask right here. But I will say that a  great test of a web hosting provider is how quickly and courteously they will respond to your request.  If you have a hard time getting an answer for a pre-sales technical question, then imagine what kind of trouble you’d have if you had a real-life problem with your account.

Lastly, I’ve developed a helpful 10-point (really 11-point) checklist that you may want to read to help you evaluate and choose a web hosting company.

To learn about Virtual Private Servers (VPS), visit our other site, VPSNovice.com

The image below shows the relationship among the operating system, the web server software, and the control panel.

A control panel such as cPanel (Plesk is another popular control panel choice) sits on top of the web server and helps you manage the web server. A control panel is not required for managing a web server, but many people do find it much easier to run a web server with control panel vs. without a control panel.

The available features of any control panel depend on the type of hosting you have (shared, VPS, dedicated), and cPanel versions are tailored to your hosting needs. For example if you are on a shared hosting account, there’s no need for you to have certain features that really only apply to a VPS or a dedicated server. So the virtual private server cpanel version will be slightly different than the shared hosting version of cpanel.

Almost all shared hosting environments will come with some type of control panel. You will usually first choose your platform (Linux vs Windows) and then select your control panel based on the features you need, or simply because it’s what your host provides. cPanel and Plesk generally serve the same purpose, but some people prefer one over the other due the ease at performing certain tasks, or just familiarity. The control panel argument is similar to the PC vs. Mac question – you can write a document very easily on a PC or a Mac, yet for whatever reason you do chose one over the other.

When it comes to VPS hosting, the addition of a control panel makes a significant difference for many people. Recall that a VPS is simply like having your own “web server environment in-a-container.” Consequently, unless you are using a control panel (like cPanel) you must be comfortable administering a Linux server from the command line. For people who are not experienced with Linux, however, properly securing, upgrading and maintaining a server can be difficult. Having a control panel, therefore, adds a GUI layer to almost all of your web hosting management tasks. Things such as adding email addresses, modifying cron jobs, and creating backups can all be easily done via a control panel. There are still a few things you generally need to do from the command line with a VPS, but having a control panel greatly simplifies administration.

That being said, because a VPS is similar to having your own server environment, there is usually an extra monthly cost to having a commercial control panel (like cPanel or Plesk) on your VPS; this is due to licensing requirements. As for my personal preference, because I want to spend my time working on my websites and with my clients, I prefer to have a control panel instead of working from the Linux shell, and cPanel is my control panel of choice. Note that VPSs often are offered as managed or unmanaged. In an unmanaged setup you are totally on your own when it comes to administering the server, whereas in a managed environment,

The situation with a dedicated server is similar to that with a VPS in that unless you are using a control panel, you will need to administer the server from the command line.

To learn about Virtual Private Servers (VPS), visit our other site, VPSNovice.com

Cost
Whether we are talking about Shared, VPS, or Dedicated Server web hosting, Linux based hosting is probably the most popular hosting platform on the Internet. One of the reasons for this trend is the fact that Linux web servers are run by the open-source (and rock solid) Apache web server. Thus, the cost of Linux-based web hosting is generally less than a comparable Windows-based web hosting. Recall that with Microsoft Windows Servers do need to comply with Microsoft’s licensing rules, so an added level of cost is therefore introduced when using a Windows Platform. These costs may be significant when it comes to Windows dedicated server hosting, as well as sql server hosting.

Compatibility
As a general rule, your choice of web hosting platform really depends on the applications that you need to run. Linux hosting is great because it gives you native support for the MySql database system and the PHP programming language. So if you are running a PHP/MySql application, then Linux is the clear choice. That’s not to say that you can’t run PHP/MySql on a Windows platform, but because MySql/PHP is not native to Windows, sticking with a Linux platform in this situation is a better choice.

If you need, however, to run a .NET application, or you are still using .ASP technology, then a Windows platform is a must. .NET is designed to run on Windows, and thus you must stick with a Windows Web Server to make it work. Further, if you are using MS SQL Server, then sticking with Windows hosting is imperative.

There are other considerations about what you “can and cannot” do with Linux and Windows hosting, but you really need to look at your application’s needs to make these determinations. Many eCommerce and Shopping Cart applications are specifically run for one platform or another. WordPress and Joomla, two popular blogging and CMS platforms, are designed for Linux servers. So what you first need to do is determine what application you will use to meet your website’s needs and goals, and then you can see whether you need Linux or Windows to run it.

Availability
Linux and Windows based hosting solutions are both popular and easy to find as there are thousands of companies that provide these services. In my own experience, however, I find that there is a larger availability of Linux-based providers vs Windows-based providers. There is also therefore more support information available for Linux hosting as well as competition on price among hosting providers.

Summary
In the end your decision really depends on the needs of your site and application (heard that before?). But if you are a beginner to web hosting, and running a basic site with no specific application or programming needs, then Linux hosting is the best way to go.

Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is entry-level web hosting and is great for people with small starter sites, or for sites that don’t consume a lot of resources (e.g processing power, ram, storage space, bandwidth).

In a shared hosting environment a large number of websites are all stored and accessed from the same server. The advantage of shared hosting is that it is very inexpensive, and is a great starting point for your website. As your need for resources expands, you can very easily migrate or upgrade to a more powerful shared hosting configuration, or move to one of the options listed below

With shared hosting providers you will often find multiple levels, or plans, that are based on the amount of resources used. For example, the difference among the “bronze, silver, and gold” plans may be that as you go to a higher plan, you are given more storage space. Of course if you don’t need more storage space, there’s nothing wrong with having the minimum plan until you need more. So with web hosting, more isn’t necessarily better – it really depends upon your sites specific needs.

One of the major disadvantages of shared hosting is that because there are so many sites stored on same web server, your site may run slowly. If you are running a small, basic website, then you will probably not notice if the site is slow. If the site does feel slow, however, it may be prudent to check with your shared hosting provider – as some shared hosting providers are “slower” than others. You can very easily do a Google search for shared hosting provider reviews, and you will get a ton of information about quality shared hosting providers.

Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting
Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting is for websites that need more resources than are generally available in a shared hosting environment, for websites that need to run specific applications that are resource-intensive, or for increased security.

The idea behind VPS hosting is that a server computer is divided-up into mini operating systems and each VPS hosting customer is given full control over this environment. You do share hardware resources (e.g. if there are two VPS accounts on a server, you will “split” the processing power), but each VPS is in own container, so a problem with someone else’s VPS won’t affect your VPS. Most companies will also provide you with a guaranteed minimum amount of RAM, so that you are not competing directly with other VPS users on the server.

Contrary to popular perception, VPS hosting is NOT shared hosting on steroids. When you have a VPS, it is as if you are running and marinating your own web server on the Internet. Thus, you need to be comfortable maintaining, upgrading, and securing a web server. VPS’s are great, for example, if you really want to customize how your web server works. For example, for security purposes, most shared hosts will not allow certain types of remote access to MySQL or MSSQL Servers. But if you are running a VPS, you can easily enable remote access. You must, however, understand the security implications of this decision, as you do not want your server to be compromised.

If you are not comfortable running your own Linux box, however, most web hosting providers offer Managed VPS hosting. Unmanaged VPS hosting is where you are on your own with running the server, whereas in a managed hosting environment, the hosting company manages the VPS for you – providing regular security updates, and helping you install packages, and backups, etc. Note that you will pay a premium for managed VPS hosting, but if you are not comfortable running and securing your own VPS, I’d highly recommend it.

Dedicated Server
As its name implies, a dedicated server is just that – a web server that is dedicated to only running your web site or web sites. Dedicated servers are more expensive than VPSs (as you would expect), and similarly to a VPS, you have total control of the server. With a dedicated server, you configure the server to your specifications – from the processor, ram, and hardware, to the backup and bandwidth options. Like a VPS, a dedicated server is used for websites with large amounts of traffic, as well as specific configuration and security needs – dedicated servers just take it to the next level.

Often websites that need dedicated servers have high volumes, or run processor or database intensive applications to maintain performance. For example, you could run Windows Notepad or Wordpad easily on practically any PC, but you would need a very-high end PC to work with HD Video, or high-end multimedia processing and DVD authoring.

This article summarized the difference among the three major hosting types: shared, VPS, and dedicated. Remember that your hosting choice really depends upon the needs and goals of your specific website. If you are unsure about the type of hosting you need, leave a comment and we can try to help.

To learn about Virtual Private Servers (VPS), visit our other site, VPSNovice.com