How to choose the best hosting for your website? A complete guide for beginners

Foundations of web hosting

Every website needs a digital "home." Reliable hosting services include ongoing backups, management software like cPanel, customer support, climate-controlled server environments, and round-the-clock technical assistance to prevent failures and unauthorized access. Replicating such services independently would be costly.

Varieties of web hosting

Reseller hosting

Reseller hosting, a variation of shared hosting, is well-suited for web designers and developers who manage their clients' websites long-term.

Reseller hosting packages are essentially shared hosting accounts with additional tools facilitating the resale of hosting space to clients. They offer greater control, including a Web Host Manager (WHM) control panel for creating multiple cPanel accounts with individual login details. As the package owner, you can grant clients access to their resold accounts without compromising access to the main account. Additionally, you can utilize Web Host Manager Complete Solution (WHMCS), billing software for invoicing clients.

Although you can also sell accounts under a VPS or dedicated server arrangement, reseller hosting is more cost-effective, making it ideal for web developers catering to small business clients.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is an excellent choice for beginners in website management, offering affordability and ease of setup and maintenance. Ideal for blogs, personal websites, and small business sites with low traffic and bandwidth needs, users have access to the cPanel for various tasks like database installation, email management, and file transfers via FTP.

In shared hosting, multiple accounts share one server, and at Namecheap, users benefit from a user-friendly cPanel for website management without requiring expertise in MySQL or coding languages. Server maintenance is handled by the provider, reducing the need for user intervention once the site is operational.

However, shared hosting may impose limitations on traffic, bandwidth, and certain installations or modifications due to server resource sharing. Namecheap offers three shared hosting tiers:

Stellar Business: Offering more server space with fewer limitations, making it suitable for e-commerce sites and those requiring more resources.

• Stellar: Suitable for beginners, accommodating up to three domains/websites.
• Stellar business: Offering more server space with fewer limitations, making it suitable for e-commerce sites and those requiring more resources.
• Stellar plus: Ideal for users needing additional resources or multiple websites, allowing unlimited domains.

Dedicated server hosting

A dedicated server represents the pinnacle of hosting options, catering to the most demanding websites. However, it entails more setup and maintenance responsibilities compared to VPS or shared hosting.

With a dedicated server, your website occupies the entire server, offering unparalleled resources. It's typically the hosting level required for online businesses experiencing high website traffic.

On a dedicated server, you have full control, allowing for any necessary modifications, making it ideal for running specialized software. However, managing a dedicated server demands significant technical expertise or hiring a server management administrator.

VPS Hosting

Virtual Private Servers (VPS) offer greater flexibility compared to shared hosting, making them suitable for developers, webmasters, and resellers managing resource-intensive websites.

In a VPS environment, although it remains shared, server resources are allocated differently. Instead of all websites sharing the same resources as in shared hosting, a VPS partitions a single physical server into multiple separate servers.

To illustrate the distinction between shared and VPS hosting: Imagine camping at a lake. Shared hosting is like one side of the lake, where campsites vary in size and location. On the other side, VPS hosting delineates each campsite equally, ensuring everyone has consistent space and access.

In a VPS setup, your account operates within a virtual machine acting as an independent server. This allows for more customization without impacting others. In the camping analogy, you can have a campfire and play music without disturbing neighbors. Conversely, shared hosting limits modifications since changes affect all users.

EasyWP: Managed WordPress hosting

EasyWP, a variant of shared hosting, provides a streamlined entry into website hosting, particularly for WordPress users. Exclusively available to Namecheap customers and hosted on their servers, EasyWP simplifies the WordPress setup process, eliminating the need for manual installation or cPanel navigation. It's an excellent choice for business owners seeking quick website deployment. However, EasyWP lacks FTP or cPanel access, restricting certain customization options like modifying WordPress code or accessing databases.

Utilizing one provider for hosting and domain services

If you already own a domain through Namecheap, you might be contemplating whether to also subscribe to their hosting services. Rest assured, it's a question we're happy to address.

In the early days of the internet, there was a common caution against entrusting both your hosting and domain management to a single company. This advice stemmed from the proliferation of new domain sellers in the 1990s, where trustworthiness was a concern. Often, companies offering hosting services alongside domains didn't prioritize investment in hosting infrastructure, resulting in unreliable services.

Today, this concern is largely outdated, despite lingering myths. When considering where to host your website, there are several advantages to selecting the same company for both hosting and domain registration. Dealing with a single provider streamlines support and account management. Managing your DNS, such as pointing your domain to your hosting, becomes easier, and you avoid the hassle of navigating between different company websites to oversee your site.