Where’s your site hosted? Is it the same place your domain name is registered through? Is it the right hosting plan for your needs?

Many new MWD Web clients don’t know the answers to these questions. This week, we look at the three main types of hosting account. By the end you’ll be able to identify which is the best for your own situation.

(“What’s with the grease fire,” you ask? Keep reading!)

To begin with, a quick primer for those who don’t know: a Web host is a server that contains all your Web content. Every site needs to have a host in order to be visible. This site, for example, resides on a server that contains all the images, files, and databases related to the site. When you type mwdwebdenver.com into your address bar, the browser goes and finds this server and displays the content that’s contained there. With us so far? Good!

The three main types of hosting are:

1. Shared
2. Virtual Private Server (VPS)
3. Dedicated

Shared hosting is where you’re on the same server as a bunch of other sites. To use an analogy, shared hosting is like renting an apartment. You have your own little space, and next door there’s someone else with their own little space. Above you there’s someone else, and downstairs there’s yet another someone else. You each have your own furniture (content), and you each get to arrange it how you like.

But, you have no control over what your neighbor does right over your head. If one tenant leaves the stove on in the morning and sets their apartment on fire, that affects everyone else in the building: you all have to evacuate, and your apartment along with all your furniture, pets, etc. may be lost forever. Similarly, if one site on your shared host gets infected with any kind of malware, it may spread to your own site.

VPS is the best place to start for e-commerce. This is akin to having a house in a neighborhood. It’s more work to maintain and more expensive, but you get relative autonomy and you can install any kind of security system you want. If your neighbor’s house burns down because they left the stove on one morning, it’s not going to affect your house.

Dedicated is like having your own private island. It’s even more expensive than VPS, but correspondingly it’s even more isolated from others and thus more secure. If the island across the channel catches fire, you’ve got a whole stretch of ocean protecting you from any stray embers.

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In short, a shared host is fine for a starter site. If you collect any kind of sensitive data, you need to look into one of the higher-tier options. Hopefully our analogy makes it easy to understand!

Next week we’ll look at how important it is to make sure you’re in control of your hosting arrangement, and not depending on the good graces of your Web developer.

Photo Credit: State Farm via Compfight cc