We have had articles about domain names so we figured it was only right to have one on web hosting. After you register a domain name, the next logical step is to find a host for your new web site. The great news is that the prices of bandwidth have been steadily falling for the past few years and today the hosting plans are more affordable than ever.

The big question is; which plan should you choose? What is the difference between shared, reseller, VPS, and dedicated hosting plans and which one is the best for you?

Shared Hosting

Also known as virtual, is the entry-level hosting plan, suitable for smaller or start-up websites. Each one of the subscribers shares the same physical server and the same server resources such as CPU power, RAM, and disk space. The main advantage of the virtual plans is their affordability, while the main disadvantage is the limited resources that your site can use. A single hosting company can offer differently priced virtual plans, according to the allocated bandwidth, the number of hosted domains, and the availability of certain add-ons offered. Bluehost, HostGator, and JustHost are amongst the top hosting companies, which offer shared hosting plans that are extremely affordable and backed by excellent support.

Reseller Hosting

These plans allow you to sell hosting to other people, without having to worry about the technical aspects. You are given all the tools that you need to resell the hosting services and in the case of any issues, you can rely on the technical support, offered by the company’s server administrators. Once you purchase such a plan, you can sell hosting to your existing or new customers, and give them everything that they need in order to set up and manage their own websites. JustHost, HostGator, and Site5 offer excellent reseller packages.

Virtual Private Server (VPS)

A unique hosting plan which is a go-between the shared and the dedicated plans. Even though more than one customer shares the same physical server, each one of them has strictly allocated resources. The advantage of using a VPS is that no matter what the other clients do, the CPU, memory, and disk space available to you will remain constant, and you can have root access and reboot your server when you need to. The virtual private servers are further divided into managed and unmanaged, where the former come with technical support from the hosting company and the latter are managed by the webmasters themselves. InMotion, LunarPages, and Site5 have VPS plans that range from basic to expert and come with features and options, likely to appeal to many.

Dedicated Server

These plans are suitable for high traffic volume websites, large organizations, and e-commerce websites, and offer one physical server per webmaster, who can make use of all the available server resources. Full control over the server, high-end technical support, adequate storage space, extremely fast response time, and complete control over the installed applications are only a few of the advantages that renting a dedicated server comes with. The dedicated servers are also divided into unmanaged and managed, where the unmanaged are typically less expensive, but the webmasters have to rely on their own administration skills. InMotion, SingleHop, and BODHost offer dedicated UNIX and Windows server, which range from the most affordable single Core ones to double Quad Core machines with two hard drives and enough RAM to handle heavy load and provide lighting fast loading time.

Many companies offer all or most of the listed hosting plans and provide hassle-free and painless migration from one plan to another. This allows webmasters to start with the most affordable solution and climb up to a better hosting plan as their website grows and attracts more daily visitors. When choosing a hosting plan, take into account not only the price, but also the reliability and the quality of the technical support that the company offers!