Introduction
Why are you building a website? Chances are somebody said you need one, so you may be completely green regarding the subject. Let’s start with the basics. You need a domain. That’s your .com or your .co.za. Think of it this way: when someone wants to visit your house, you give them directions, a street name, and a house number or apartment number. That’s what your domain is – it’s the web address that helps people find your digital house. Following that analogy, your house needs water, electricity, gas, and other amenities. In your digital house, this is called web hosting, and just like other utilities, you pay it once a month.
Finding the right package
Your hosting options include VPS, cloud, dedicated, or shared servers, and you buy a certain amount of bandwidth, depending on your needs. Think of it as specifying the number of power units, kilos of gas, or litres of water you need in a month. Each hosting package comes with an upper limit of GB you can use over that period.
Picking your hosting option
VPS means Virtual Private Server, and it means your entire website is located on that single server (or a portion of it). If it crashes, you’re done, though you do have more autonomy. Cloud hosting – on the other hand – has a sort of piggy-back system called redundancy. Your cloud is essentially linked to multiple servers, so if one fails, your systems jump to a different one uninterrupted. It needs less hands-on maintenance, so it’s preferable for website beginners. It’s also more scalable than VPS, and you get better traffic management. There are pros and cons to both:
- VPS is great for heavy customisation, but compromises scalability.
- Cloud hosting allows for high uptime and scalability, but it may limit the customisation options.
- VPS hosting is incredibly secure as it operates individually.
- Cloud hosting may be more vulnerable as it is entirely web-based.
Basically, it all comes down to scale – you need to decide whether you require lots of flexibility in your hosting plan or if you simply want to launch quickly. For more assistance on choosing which option benefits you more, give Cloud.co.za a call today.
