Webhosting Prices
We all want to be sure that we’re getting all the best deals possible - so there’s no reason for not checking that you’re getting a great deal on your webhosting prices. Incredibly some folk are paying way over what they should be paying for their website hosting, simply because they didn’t take the time to check that the webhosting package they signed up for was the correct one! So, if you’re looking to sign up for a new website hosting plan, whether a dedicated, virtual or shared hosting plan - we hope this article will help you to find the right one and at the right price for you and your website.
The types of website hosting plans
Before getting too much into the price of a webhosting plan we ought to quickly run through the different types of webhosting available. This is important as, depending on what your website is for, you could sign up for a more advanced webhosting plan than you really need and end up paying for features that you don’t need. For example, a well-established website with a high number of visitors running several databases, most likely with sales and confidential information on it may well need to use a dedicated webhosting plan. However, if your website is a new one, or has fewer visitors to it possibly with only limited sales/confidential data - then shared hosting plans would be both more appropriate and economical. Should your website be somewhat in-between the two then a virtual webhosting package could be appropriate. However, for the best value for money shared webhosting will always offer the lowest webhosting prices.
Webhosting price comparison prices
Looking on a webhosting price comparison site can seem quite confusing. They are useful for finding webhosting companies that are already popular with people looking for webhosting plans, but you do need to be careful to make sure they guide you to the package that really is the best one for you. For example, a webhosting price comparison site could offer blog webhosting or shared webhosting plans. If you intended to post a web site that you consider to be a blog you could reasonably think you’d take the blog webhosting plan. However, upon closer inspection you’ll probably find that the shared webhosting plan is the same price and not only includes ‘blogging’ facilities but could also offer security up to ‘SSL’ for sales and storing confidential data. Although most people will be happy to use a Linux (open-source) web-server, there are those who might prefer an MS one. Webhosting price comparison sites invariably quote for Linux prices, so if you want an MS web-server do check that the webhosting plan prices are the same.
Dedicated or Shared?
A very common question for people looking at webhosting prices is do I need a dedicated server or would shared hosting plans be sufficient for me? Dedicated hosting plans are typically $100 or more a month, whereas a shared webhosting plan can be bought for under $10 a month and even for as little as $5 a month for the very simplest of websites using only static web pages. These days the better web hosting companies will be able to offer you unlimited storage and bandwidth in a shared hosting plan and apparently pretty well all the other facilities that are offered on their dedicated web server plans. However, the extra money you pay for a dedicated server means that you have greater control over the web-server set up and that it can cope better with high volumes of traffic. Which will be important if your website is used for sales and has high expectations in user satisfaction levels. Generally speaking if you are new to requiring webhosting, unless you’re setting up a gaming website or already run a well established and popular business with high sales levels - shared hosting plans will represent a better deal for you price-wise.
The Virtual question?
If you think you fall in-between those two camps of dedicated or shared webhosting then a virtual webhosting plan is the one for you, especially if you want to exert more control over exactly how the web-server itself is setup. Virtual Private Servers will typically cost between $30 and $90 a month depending on the web-server specification you want to work with. So, although in some respects a virtual web-server is rather like using shared hosting plans it has several other advantages. For example, apart from the memory, storage space and bandwidth available - how many processors would you like access to 1, 4 or 8?