Selecting the perfect webhosting plan can be a confusing experience. Once you understand the four basic types of plans that are available, the process – and your ultimate decision – can prove to be remarkably easier.

There are 4 different types of web hosting plans, each with different options depending on your individual needs. If your aim is to sell goods directly from your website, as you explore the individual plans you should also take a look at their hosted shopping cart options

Shared hosting

As the name implies, shared hosting involves groups of websites all sharing the same server. Sharing means that all resources are divided among the group, those resources being things such as web space and data transfer. Likewise, customers are also sharing expenses such as server maintenance and upgrades. Because of the sheer volume of people sharing these resources, the shared hosting plans are the most affordable.

Shared hosting is most applicable for people who do not operate huge, complicated websites. On the other hand, shared hosting does allow secondary sites. Simply put, if you want more than one website, it is easy to add the additional domains via the shared hosting plans.

VPS – Virtual Private Server

Similar to shared hosting, VPS customers are also sharing a server, its resources, and related expenses. There is a major distinction, however. In the case of VPS, the webhost divides one server into individual, private portions. Each of these portions possesses its own bandwidth and its own individual disk space. In addition, these server segments can manage their own operating systems, and can be rebooted without any disruption to other portions of the server.

Because of the individual segmentation offered by the VPS server, hosting plans are more costly than with purely shared plans. Despite the added cost, VPS is clearly far more cost effective than having to purchase your own individual server.

Dedicated managed hosting

Unlike either of the previous options, dedicated managed hosting enables the customer to lease a complete server from a hosting company. By leasing the equipment, the client relies on the owner – the hosting company – for maintenance, upgrades, and technical support.

Clearly the advantage of dedicated managed hosting is its offering of private access to immense server resources, coupled with the technical expertise needed to operate and maintain it.

Dedicated unmanaged hosting

As the name implies, unmanaged hosting means just that – no independent management or support for technical or maintenance issues.

This form of webhosting is ideal for companies who possess the expertise to manage and operate their own server. In a situation where technical personnel are available, this can represent a cost advantage over managed options.

As with the unmanaged plans, the managed hosting plans also involve leasing the server equipment. But in the case of unmanaged hosting, the equipment owner’s only technical obligation is to the initial set-up.