Choosing the correct Hosting Package

July 12, 2010 - PRLog -- When looking for web hosting you undoubtedly notice the amount of companies out there promising they are the company you need for you hosting. Promising you the world be careful not to fall for the sales pitch as most promise everything but deliver nothing. What good is it have unlimited web space when the server is always down?

So what do you need to look for when selecting your provider:
•   Uptime – this is the amount of time a server has been available to the internet to display all the sites within that given server. The Higher the % the better for your site.
•   Support – you could have landed the best package available but who do you turn to when it all goes wrong. Look for a company that offers 24/7/365 support either by email or through s ticketing system.
•   Reviews – obviously you cannot get better than word of mouth.

What type of hosting should you go for?

There are 3 main types of hosting all of which we shall cover throughout this article.
Shared Hosting
Vps – Virtual Private Server
Dedicated – A Whole Server for yourself.


The most popular on the internet and the package of choice would be the shared hosting. This option is a server divided into sections, each section providing web hosting to another client. Although this option means that many clients split the cost of the server thus saving quite a lot of money (ideal for new websites) you also share the resources ( cpu, memory etc). Should another client on the server have a sudden influx of customers on their site the resources are diverted there. Which means in turn they are not available for your site, meaning your visitors may not be able to view your site or even worse make that ideal purchase.

Of course this very rarely happens as good web hosting providers police clients who overuse resources. Good webhosting providers also do not allow more than a certain number of clients on any given server.  Visit http://www.dmbhosting.co.uk who i can personally recommend for there good practices.

One disadvantage of a shared hosting package is you are restricted to be able to only run software configured to your server. This may not restrict the average client however when running certain scripts you may find certain features turned off to ensure security for the wider good of the server. Anyone using a package such as wordpress or joomla or looking to build an ecommerce site will probably be suited to a shared hosting package. As your site grows though you will be receiving higher traffic to your site and therefore using higher system resources. So to minimise risk on downtime this is the exact point you may wish to consider a vps server.

Vps is short for virtual dedicated server. A vps is a miniature version of a dedicated server. A server is taken by the web hosting company and maybe split into 4 creating 4 vps server’s. Now you only have to share your server with 4 other people. The resources are more readily available as they are not shared so thinly.
The other benefit of vps is you get full root access and a blank page. You can set the server up however you wish installing any software you may need without the worry of affecting other clients sites. You could even become your own web hosting provider by splitting your vps into packages allowing clients to purchase space and bandwith from yourself. Be careful though and remember you are still sharing the resources and even the most basic ecommerce site may at some stage outgrow a vps.

So what then?

When you outgrow the vps solution the only available option left is a dedicated server. This dedicated server is like having a pc just for your website. You need to look for things like memory, cpu, space needed when purchasing a dedicated server. The better the cpu the quicker your website can process requests etc, just like your pc at home. This machine is yours and only you use the resources within it. You can install anything you like on your machine as it only affects you. The cost of a dedicated server is high however the quality of your site’s speed, processes etc will greatly benefit from this private machine.

In summary;
Start with a shared package – look out for good deals such as unlimited bandwith, but watch for unlimited web space. Companies who often advertise unlimited space usually oversell the resources on your server therefore increasing the risk of downtime of your site.
Let your site build up before going for the state of the art server, most companies websites just don’t need the high resources and will never use the resources of a dedicated server. As you increase in visitors upgrade to a vps but again watch out for companies who oversell on servers. Look for at least 1 gig of ram and 160 gig of webspace. This would be perfect for 9 out 10 websites out there no matter how big the company.

Visit http://www.dmbhosting.co.uk for shared hosting and vps packages which i can personally recommend.