We all know the importance of web hosting on a website, but only a few understand how to choose the perfect hosting plan for their business or portfolio. Selecting the right web hosting plan is as crucial as choosing the perfect tie for your suit; wearing the wrong tie can ruin your entire outfit. Similarly, choosing the wrong hosting plan can negatively affect your website’s performance. In this article, we shall be looking into the four major types of web hosting and each of them can significantly impact your business in Nigeria.
What is Web Hosting?
Web hosting is that service that keeps your website active and easily accessible. It is like renting a space (a powerful server) to store your goods (your website files). Web hosting is crucial for every business that wants to succeed. In our previous article, we explained what web hosting truly is and how it effects businesses that wish to move online mostly in Nigeria.
Types of Web Hosting
Web hosting serves as a storage for website files, but each differs in storage, speed, security, control, technical knowledge requirement, and scalability. So it is important to choose what suits your business. So let’s get delve into it.
- Shared web hosting
- VPS web hosting
- Dedicated web hosting
- Cloud web hosting
1. Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is when a single server is being shared by many websites, which includes storage, CPU, and memory. This is mainly used by beginners, bloggers and small businesses.
Shared hosting is like a building (server) with many apartments (websites) where they all share the resources of the building like electricity, parking space, water, and others.
That being said, we can say that shared hosting is when 2 or more websites use one server and share equal resources with each other.
Key Points
- Affordable cost: the cost of shared hosting is lower because the server is shared among many users. It is like tenants that split the rent among themselves.
- Limited resources: here a particular website can use more or less than the others. For example, if a server has a storage space of 50 GB and is shared between 5 websites, one website can use more because it has more traffic and is always in use. Just like one tenant that uses more light and water than others.
- Maintenance: the hosting providers take care of the maintenance of the server. Just like the landlord takes care of buildings
Who Should use Shared Hosting?
- A new or small website with low traffic
- An average blogger
- Small business owners looking for cost-effective ideas.
- People with little or no technical knowledge on managing their servers.
Pros of Shared Hosting
The benefits of shared hosting and why it is used among beginners.
- Easy-to-use : They have control panels like Cpanel that help manage your website easily.
- Managed services: the hosting providers help in update, security, and maintenance.
- Cost-effective: this is perfect for beginners because it is very affordable.
Cons of Shared Hosting
- Scalability: this is not for websites that are expecting large traffic.
- Limited customization: modifying server settings while using this can be limited.
- Performance issues: when a particular website uses more resources than the others, it might slow down others.
2. VPS Hosting (Virtual Private Servers)
VPS is the bridge between shared and dedicated hosting. With the use of virtual technology, a single server is divided into several virtual servers that still have independent resources like storage, memory, and CPU as dedicated servers. Unlike shared hosting, you are given some amount of resource for your VPS.
VPS is just like booking a VIP room in a bar, where you get to have your own space and tables rather than sitting in the main hall. Here you can control the type of menu you want, the cuisines, and arrangements, but you still share the same kitchen, staff, and properties with the other people.
Key points
- Dedicated space: each virtual server has its own dedicated resources separately. So VPS users are accustomed to the resources they pay for alone. There is no case of someone using your resources more than you because no one can use them.
- Customization: just as you can personally arrange your tables in the VIP section, you can configure your server to your liking.
- Shared structure: Even as you book a VIP space, you still share the building, kitchen, and staff. Even as a VPS user, you still share some resources of the physical server.
How VPS Works
- Virtualization technology: this is where the physical server is divided into multiple virtual servers, using special software like hyper-V and MVware.
- Dedicated resources: with the division, each virtual server has its own CPU, storage, and RAM.
- Isolation: this ensures that each of them is independently functioning on their own. I.e., other website activities won’t affect your website.
Who Should use VPS Hosting?
This type of hosting is good for:
- Growing websites: websites with medium and high traffic that can’t use shared hosting anymore.
- Online stores: E-commerce needs more storage and security.
- Developers and Tech-Savy Users: People who need more control over their hosting.
Pros of VPS Hosting
- Scalability: You can easily upgrade your resources as your website grows.
- Better performance: with the good resources provided, fast loading times are assured.
- Customization: your can install software and configure server to suit your needs
- Improved security: with your server isolated from others, it is more secured compared to shared hosting
Cons of VPS Hosting
- Cost: VPS is more expensive than shared, but cheaper than dedicated hosting.
- Technical know-how required: managing a VPS requires server expertise to an extent unless you are going for managed VPS.
3. Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting, as the name sounds, means one server is dedicated to your website. You have full control over your server, and this means all the server resources, such as CPU, storage, and memory, are all dedicated to your website, ensuring the highest level of performance, control, and security.
A dedicated hosting is like renting the whole restaurant to host a party, where you can hire caterers, bouncers, and decorations of your choice. Everything is in your control to modify to your taste and needs. With dedicated hosting, you have more control over your resources.
Who Should use Dedicated Hosting?
This is ideal for the following:
- High traffic website
- Large e-commerce platform
- Businesses that need custom server configuration.
- Applications that need advanced security
Pros of Dedicated Hosting
- Exclusive resources: no other website shares your server with you, unlike the shared and VPS hosting; with this optimal performance is assured.
- Full customization: you have full control over your server configuration, including the operating system, software, and security system.
- Enhanced security: with dedicated hosting, you’re assured of handling sensitive data. It offers good security, with an advanced firewall and monitoring.
- High reliability: with no shared resource, having downtime due to other people’s websites is close to impossible.
- Scalability: it is good for big websites and applications that use large resources.
- Better support: many dedicated hosting users have access to premium support; they are often given direct access to server experts for their issues.
Cons of Dedicated Hosting
- High cost: this is more expensive to manage and handle than shared and VPS hosting. It is less affordable and ideal for small business owners and personal websites.
- Technical know-how required: managing a dedicated server requires a certain level of technical knowledge because you are in charge of updating, configuring, and maintaining the server.
- Not ideal for small websites: the resources of a dedicated server can not be utilized well by a small website or low-traffic website.
- Time-consuming: maintaining a dedicated server can take up time, especially if you are the one handling the updating, maintaining, and configuration of the server.
- No built-in redundancy (not being useful or needed): Unlike cloud hosting, a dedicated server can not afford to stay inactive, because if it does, the whole website will shut down.
4. Cloud Hosting
Most often, cloud hosting is not even referred to as web hosting, but it still does the work of web hosting but in a more innovative and advanced way. Cloud hosting literally spreads your content across many virtual servers to make sure that your website is always active; even when one server is down, another server automatically takes up the website. With this effective scalability, performance, and reliability are ensured.
Imagine your house water system connected to multiple reservoirs, and when one runs dry, another automatically supplies water to your house to meet your needs. Likewise, in cloud housing, your website is connected to a network of servers to ensure that it is always active, even if one server is down.
How does cloud hosting work?
1.Resources distribution across a network
- In cloud hosting, your website is hosted on a network of servers (cloud) instead of being attached to one single server.
- If one server in the network is down, the other server automatically takes up the work to avoid interruption in performance
2. Dynamic resource allocation
- Resources like CPU, storage and RAM are dynamically allocated according to your website’s needs
- This makes cloud hosting perfect for websites that have a traffic spike or very fluctuating demand.
3. Virtualization technology
- This infrastructure is developed on virtualization, which divides a single physical server into multiple virtual servers.
- Then these virtual servers work together to create a cloud environment.
Who Should use Cloud Hosting?
- E-commerce platforms: handle fluctuating traffic during sales or promotional events.
- Media Websites: Stream videos or deliver large files seamlessly.
- Growing Startups: Easily scale as your business expands.
- Enterprises: Maintain high uptime and reliability for mission-critical applications.
Pros of Cloud Hosting
- Scalability : You can easily scale resources up or down according to your website needs, traffic, or demand fluctuation. The flexibility this brings to businesses makes it cost-efficient for both small and big businesses.
- Reliability: With the network of servers connected to your website, it is assured to be active 24/7.
- Performance: Data is delivered faster through the content delivery network (CDN) and multiple data center locations.
- Pay-as-You-Go Pricing: In cloud hosting, you pay for the resources you use at the moment. So if you have low traffic today, you pay low, and if you have high demand or traffic tomorrow, you pay higher. So it makes it budget-friendly for businesses with fluctuating demands.
- Global accessibility: Cloud hosting makes your website easily accessible to anywhere in the world with minimal latency.
Cons of Cloud Hosting
Cloud web hosting has many benefits, but it still has its limitations.
- Cost variability: As the pay-as-you-go pricing model can be good, it can be at a disadvantage if there is an unexpected traffic spike, which can bring unanticipated bills. Businesses on tight budgets can find it challenging to keep up with the unexpected changes.
- Complexity: Managing a cloud server can be challenging if you do not have the technical knowledge to handle the updates, maintenance, and security. This will be of more cost to small businesses because they need to hire an IT expert to help with it.
- Latency issue: This is rare in cloud hosting, but latency can occur when trying to fetch data from a distant data center, depending on the provider’s infrastructure.
- Dependency on internet connection: Cloud hosting requires a fast and stable internet connection from both the website owner and the users. Places with very slow internet connections might find it challenging to access the website.
- Security concerns: Cloud hosting provides robust security measures, but if mismanaged by the provider or faces severe attack, data stored in the cloud can be vulnerable.
- Limited control: Unlike dedicated and VPS, cloud hosting is limited to having direct access to the physical server or server configurations. Businesses that require full customization might find it challenging.
- Potential downtime: Cloud hosting is generally reliable and efficient, but downtime can occur if the provider has issues with updates or maintenance.
- Data migration challenges: Migrating data from a cloud provider to another or from a physical server to a cloud server can be time-consuming and complex.
How to Choose the Right Web Hosting Type for Your Nigerian Business
There are various types of hosting, and choosing one for your business is very important. Any wrong choice, and you suffer for it. So I am here to guide you in choosing the right web hosting plan for your needs. Firstly, you have to know the kind of business you run and know where it falls, as I explain further.
1.Understand your business
- Website type : what type of website do you have, a blog, e-commerce platform, or portfolio? Because this is the first step to determining the type of hosting you need. Each type of hosting is designed to cater to specific types of websites based on their complexity. For example, a hosting plan for a simple blog might not be used for a large e-commerce site.
- Traffic Expectation: draw a table on how much traffic you are expecting. A startup is able to handle fewer traffic compared to a large business.
2. Assess your budget
- Cost consideration: you have to consider how much you are willing to spend monthly on hosting. Shared hosting is more affordable, while VPS, dedicated, and cloud hosting are on the high end.
- Scalability: as your business grows, you would have to upscale your hosting to suit your current needs.
Tip: It will be better to go for a Nigerian-based web hosting provider that offers payments with our local currency and no hidden charges and avoid fluctuating foreign rates.
3. Evaluate performance needs
- Speed and uptime: these are crucial for every web hosting, so when choosing, make sure your hosting providers can provide fast-loading times and 99% uptime, especially if your users are mainly mobile users and are majorly in Nigeria.
- Location of servers: try to make sure there providers are nearby to improve performance.
4. Check out security requirement
- SSL certificate: make sure they provide SSL certificate; it is essential, especially for an e-commerce site.
- Backup and recovery: ensure they have automated backups and updates in case of data loss.
- DDos (distributed denial-of-service) protection: this is to protect hosting from attack.
5. Compare web hosting types
- Shared hosting: this is for blogs and small websites with low traffic. It is affordable but has limited resources.
- VPS hosting: this is suitable for growing businesses and sites with medium traffic. It needs dedicated resources and has good performance, a little bit on the high end.
- Dedicated hosting: best for large-scale businesses and websites with high traffic. It needs full server control.
- Cloud hosting: this is perfect for scalable sites that often have traffic spikes. Like event ticketing platforms.
6. Customer support and local adaptability
- Support channels: make sure to know if they offer 24/7 support on live chat, emails, and calls.
- Local payment options: go for providers that accept Nigerian payment methods like bank transfer or Paystack.
7. Check reviews and ratings
- Read user reviews on support, uptime, scalability, and reliability.
- Compared hosting providers through sites like Trustpilot or a Nigerian tech forum.
Comparison Between Shared, VPS, Dedicated, and Cloud Web Hosting
| Feature | Shared Hosting | VPS Hosting | Dedicated Hosting | Cloud Hosting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resource Allocation | Shared with other users | Virtually partitioned; dedicated | Fully dedicated | Distributed across multiple servers |
| Performance | Limited; depends on other users | Moderate to high | Very high | Highly scalable and reliable |
| Security | Moderate (shared vulnerabilities) | Higher with isolated environments | Extremely high; full control | High, with multiple redundancies |
| Customizability | Minimal | Moderate | Complete | Moderate to high |
| Technical Expertise | None required | Some required | Advanced required | Some required |
| Scalability | Limited | Moderate | High, with hardware upgrades | Very high; scalable on demand |
| Cost | Lowest | Medium | Highest | Flexible; pay-as-you-go |
| Ideal For | Small blogs, starter websites | Growing businesses, e-commerce | High-traffic, resource-heavy sites | Websites with variable or high traffic |
FAQs About Web Hosting in Nigeria
Q: Can I pay for web hosting in Naira?
A: Yes, most Nigerian hosting providers offer payment options in Naira via bank transfer or online payment platforms.
Q: Which web hosting is best for e-commerce?
A: VPS, dedicated, or cloud hosting is ideal for e-commerce sites due to their security and scalability features.
Q: How do I transfer my website to a new host?
A: Most hosting providers offer free migration services or detailed guides to help you transfer your website seamlessly.
Q: What is the difference between shared and cloud web hosting?
A: Shared hosting shares resources among multiple users, while cloud hosting uses multiple servers to balance load and improve reliability.
