If you or your business is thinking about starting a website but don't know where to begin, the first step is choosing a hosting plan. These are the basic types to consider:
Free Hosting: Not a viable business plan, typically. Free hosts will put burdensome limits on how you can use your websites, they will probably force you onto a pre-existing domain, and you can virtually count on down-time, slow loading speeds, and general technical problems or limitations. This website is hosted with free hosting on Blogspot - definitely not a bad deal for a quick blog, but it lacks some of the functionality and customization that prevents me from turning this into a full-blown website.
Shared Hosting: The lowest cost level of service that is viable for a business. Shared hosting operates by placing several domains and user accounts on the same computer server. Users "share" the resources for a nominal monthly fee - typically $5-$9 per month. If you're a novice to website building, make sure this has an auto-installation script for online software like Wordpress and Blogger. This will allow you to set up a site like this one in just a few clicks, on your own domain, with better reliability and fewer restrictions on how you can monetize the pages.
Dedicated Hosting: Dedicated hosting is one user account matched up to one computer server. The advantage is speed, reliability, and improved customer service from the provider company. The downside: cost! Dedicated servers are extremely expensive compared to the other choices: they can cost hundreds, even thousands a month depending on traffic volume (of course, if you have enough traffic to spend >$1,000 a month in server costs, its probably worth the cost to keep that web site online.
Host Re-selling: The entrepreneurial take on shared hosting. A user buys hosting, and then turns around and sells some of his or her resources to the end-client. This is usually cheaper than shared hosting, but its possible that someone could lease 50% of a dedicated server - so the price fluctuated in a wide range depending on the specific offer at hand. This could be a great deal if you're using a professional web designer. A point of negotiation could be to ask for free hosting through an existing account of the web designer. Dreamhost is one well-known web host that provides an option for re-selling, and they also offer steep discounts in the form of coupons and promotional codes.
It is important to consider these pros and cons before signing a contract, paying the bill, and committing your new websites to a certain server. Changing servers after establishing a site is a time-consuming and somewhat risky process.
