Hosting
Why do I have to have hosting?
Hosting is your plot of land online; your real estate where you set and build your web site. If your web site is going ‘live’ in cyberspace, then you have to have it.
Physically, hosting takes place on a server: a computer set-up with internet connectivity, capable of handling decent traffic (web site visitors), item downloads and interactivity (counters, form processing, special, site behavior, etc.). A clunky old computer with little memory will have a major effect of visitor site experience because the site will be slow to react, causing loss of visitor confidence and possibly, loss of returning.
There is also software that manages the server and a lot of its capabilities. Called a Hosting Control Panel, this software controls such tasks as backup management, FTP management, database management and much, much more. Two popular server control panels are Plesk and cPanel™ (recommended). Chad Austin marketing and Media Designs offers both on either Linux Operating system (recommended) or Windows™.
All servers for Chad Austin Marketing and Media Design have hardware no older than 2 (two) years.
What is the best hosting?
Short answer: depends on your needs.
But that’s not a fair description because you, as someone who is need of hosting, may not know what your needs are going to be. If you’re not an experienced developer, even if you know what you need now, you may not know what you’re going to need long-term. So let’s look at the standard available options:
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is where the server’s hard drive has been petitioned to house / host multiple unrelated sites, sometimes hundreds. It’s like an apartment inside of a large apartment building, with everyone sharing the same resources, like the swimming pool, parking, etc.
The advantage is that shared hosting is cheap, compared to the other, more robust server options.
Shared hosting is most often used for WordPress.
The disadvantage is that heavy traffic and resource-hungry sites can bog down other sites on the same server. So, if you have a shared plan and there is another site also on the same server who suddenly started receiving 300-400 visitors in a day, then your site might have trouble being viewed due to heavy processor use from the busy site.
Virtual Private Hosting
Virtual Private Hosting has been likened to moving into a Condo over an apartment. There are more committed resources, like dedicated parking. With Virtual Private Hosting comes more power and flexibility.
The advantage is more power, manageability and performance.
Dedicated Hosting
Finally, there is Dedicated hosting. Dedicated hosting is the best hosting available, the full crème de la crème. In keeping with our housing analogies, it is the free standing home.
Chad Austin Marketing and Media design offers dedicated servers that your company can manage, or, we can provide a full team, available 24/7, with North American-based support, who can save companies tens of thousands in IT labor.