How many website visitors your site can handle is a direct reflection of the web hosting you have. Web hosting plays an indispensable role in ensuring website performance, speed, and availability. It is the technical element that powers anything online, making your website or online shop accessible to internet users.
The number of visitors your website can handle is dependent on the level of web hosting you have. The hosting bandwidth you need depends on the type of business you run. Most people, especially begginers, will be best off with shared hosting. As your business grows you can opt for a Virtual Private Server (VPS), Dedicated Hosting, Cloud Hosting, Managed Hosting or Co-Location.
Table of Contents
Most hosting providers will say the visitors to you site are unlimited but you only have so much bandwith according to your hosting plan. After a certin number of visitors, your site will slow down and will not be available for people to see. It is most important to understand how many visitors you get to your website so you can adjust your plan for bandwidth.
Whether you are starting a blog or an online shop, you will most certainly need a web hosting service. However, with hundreds of web hosting companies competing for your business and a myriad of hosting plans, choosing the right web host can be intimidating.
Things get trickier when your online business grows because your web hosting needs increase and become more complex.
Ideally, you need a web hosting service that can handle the traffic your website receives alongside a good deal of bandwidth, DG, and DNS.
That said, understanding the different types of web hosting and the amount of traffic each type can realistically handle can help you choose the best hosting for your needs.
If you are starting a website or blog but can’t decide which type of web host suits your hosting needs, this article is for you. Read on to learn about the different types of web hosting so that you can make an informed decision.
What Is Web Hosting?
Every website you have ever visited is hosted on a server, a powerful piece of hardware that houses websites and data related to those websites. Servers are physically located in data centers where they store components of websites, including texts, images, and videos.
That said, web hosting is an online service that provides the technology and server space required for your website to be accessed on the internet. Mainly, web hosting service provides storage space that website owners can rent for their websites to be made available on the internet.
Notably, hosting companies offer a vast range of hosting plans, where each plan is best suited for specific needs. Understanding each plan, what it offers, and how it works will help you choose the best plan for your hosting needs and know when to change from one plan to another.
Different Types Of Web Hosting
In the world of web hosting, there are many options from which bloggers and website owners can choose.
While all options do an excellent job providing storage for your website, they offer varying features. Most Importantly capacity, control, server speed and reliability require a varying degree of technical knowledge. The diversity in hosting accommodates the various needs of different clients.
Shared Hosting
Hailed as the perfect entry-level web hosting service, shared hosting is an arrangement where your website is stored with other websites on the same server. It is the most basic type of web hosting commonly used by bloggers, small businesses, and other website owners with tight budgets.
With shared hosting, all domains share the same server resources, including CPU, storage, RAM, and network bandwidth (usually limited to 10 Mbps). This sharing extends to the prices, so it should be no surprise that shared hosting plans are relatively cheap.
Shared hosting is an excellent option for websites with minimal traffic. While this type of shared hosting may not seem ideal, it is the standard and the quality of the service you get will largely depend on the provider.
Practically, shared hosting from a reputable hosting provider can efficiently handle up to 12,000 visitors daily or more, depending on how your website is optimized. In most cases, shared hosting handles an average of 100,000 visitors per month.
This makes it a perfect hosting option for small businesses, bloggers, affiliate marketers, and early-growth startups.
The biggest disadvantage of shared hosting is that you are at the mercy of others, meaning your site’s performance can be drastically affected by a popular website with which you share the same server.
Pros
- Affordable
- It doesn’t require any specific technical knowledge
- Pre-configured server environment
- You get managed server administration and maintenance
Cons
- Network bandwidth is usually limited
- You have limited control over factors affecting website performance
- The performance of your site can be adversely affected by traffic surges on other sites
Virtual Private Server (VPS)
A VPS hosting plan is an upgrade from shared hosting, where your website shares a physical server with other websites but is hosted on a virtual server. Set between shared hosting and dedicated, VPS hosting is the ultimate plan for websites that have outgrown shared hosting.
There are two key words to note in this type of hosting: private and virtual. Contextually, private means you are allocated dedicated hosting resources, including RAM, CPU, and bandwidth, while virtual implies that your server is part of a parent server, not an independent physical machine.
With VPS hosting, you bypass the problem of having other websites bringing down the performance of your website while avoiding the costs of dedicated server hosting. The only shortcoming is that your plan can’t handle incredibly high traffic levels or spikes in usage.
A good Virtual Private Server can handle an average of 20,000 visitors daily, which roughly translates to around 600,000 traffic a month. Although it is not at the high end, it is still great value for money.
Pros
- Root access to a dedicated server space
- Stable hosting that allows for scalability
- Relatively cheap
- You have control over your virtual server
Cons
- Some technical knowledge is required to manage serve.
- It has some configuration and control limits
Dedicated Server
As the name suggests, dedicated hosting is where you rent a physical server from your hosting provider. Buying a dedicated server hosting plan gives you full root and admin access over the server – you control everything from security to the operating system.
Unlike shared hosting plans, dedicated servers offer incredible performance. Although the control and unparalleled performance come at a premium price, dedicated server hosting can handle massive traffic without any lags.
That said, having dedicated server hosting makes sense if you own multiple websites that receive over 30,000 visitors daily.
Dedicated server hosting from reputable providers comes with guaranteed security, faster page loading speeds, and promises to handle up to 30 times increase in spikes.
As long as you have the required server technology expertise and keep your server well-maintained, you will find the hosting plan worth it.
Pros
- Full access and control over your server
- No configuration or customization limits
- Guaranteed privacy and top-notch security
- Guaranteed stability and predictable website performance
- Guaranteed resources availability
Cons
- Requires technical knowledge
- You are responsible for maintaining your server
- The plan is expensive – the most expensive type of web hosting.
Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting is a new buzzword in the technology industry. In the web hosting environment, cloud hosting refers to a network of individual servers working together to provide an ultimately superior hosting solution.
Cloud hosting can be viewed as a hybrid version of a VPS where your files and data are replicated throughout a cluster of servers.
If one cloud server is busy or in the event of traffic spikes, traffic is automatically rerouted to the next available server. This automatic rerouting ensures little or no downtime, which makes cloud storage a reliable option and more appealing than traditional web hosting.
The scalability of cloud web hosting provides a happy middle ground for busy websites by letting them upgrade when there are traffic spikes.
Although there is no straight answer to how much traffic cloud hosting can handle, you can expect a reputable provider to ensure a safe environment for at least 10,000 visitors a day.
Pros
- Higher uptime
- Access to the latest hardware
- Allows for instant scalability
- Top-notch security
- Little or no downtime
- Pay-per-use pricing
- Access to value-added services
Cons
- Limited customization
- Requires cloud expertise
- Security responsibilities are shared
Managed Hosting
Managed hosting is a type of hosting where your hosting provider takes care of technical services. That includes hardware management and replacement, software setup and configuration, infrastructure support, patching, monitoring, and updating.
In a nutshell, managed hosting is a type of hosting where the web hosting provider manages hardware, operating systems, and standard applications.
Considering that there are many managed hosting options, both small businesses and conglomerates can benefit from managed hosting. The appeal of this type of hosting is that you always have someone looking after your website.
Pros
- Many options to choose from
- Your provider handles the technical part
- Enhances security
Cons
- Limited flexibility and control
- Updates may not be smooth
Co-location
If you own personal servers, co-location is an excellent alternative to hosting an in-house data center. Essentially, it means renting rack space from a data center where you bring your server hardware.
In Return the center provides physical security, power, IP address, bandwidth, and cooling systems required by the server.
Although colocation gives you access to higher levels of bandwidth at a low cost, you are total responsible for your server. At the bare minimum, you need to take care of everything from hardware and software to services and backups.
Pros
- Cheaper relative to in-house data centers
- Full control
- Very compliant
Cons
- Requires technical know-how
- It can be expensive for small businesses
- It requires a long-term commitment
Conclusion
Web hosting is an essential service for all existing websites to handle visitors. While there are many types from which you can choose, there is always one plan that perfectly fits your needs at any given time. Now that you understand the available web hosting options, you can use this knowledge to choose a hosting solution and upgrade accordingly.