How to choose a webhost.
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
ReapMoneyOnline’s past server issues have forced us to take a closer look at webhosts and web hosting. We did research on the popular web hosting companies for nearly 2 weeks and came out better informed. Web hosting companies usually offer the following packages: shared web hosting, reseller web hosting, Virtual Private Server (VPS), and stand alone servers (managed or unmanaged).
1. Shared Web Hosting.
Shared web hosting is the entry level kind of hosting. Overselling is the norm among popular web hosts, they sell space and bandwidth their servers cannot sustain. This is where we see promos like unlimited space and bandwidth.
We found out that it is not the space or bandwidth that matters but CPU resources. Once our sites or blogs start putting “loads” on the servers (meaning the CPU), which normally happens when traffic starts to pick-up, we will be required to upgrade to a “better” and more costly account. This can happen even if we only consume a quarter of that huge space and bandwidth.
Of course, there are web hosts that do not oversell. Consequently, they are more expensive as they try to limit the users within a server. Expect to pay upwards of $20.00 per month and the space and bandwidth are not unlimited even at that price.
Before committing to a shared web hosting account, we can inquire on the percentage of CPU resources we are allowed to use.
RMO’s take on it…
We started on the cheapest shared web hosting we could find too. Download frequent back-ups of both our databases and website files because sooner or later, we will hit that limit on CPU resources and, poof! we will be locked out of our Cpanel.
2. Reseller Hosting.
Resellers are so called because we can retail the space and bandwidth we have leased to others. Sort of like a web hosting company. A lot of web hosts we believed to be independent companies are actually resellers of large hosting corporations.
Resellers are popular with experienced webmasters because they offer more resources than shared hosting dollar for dollar and most come with the familiar Cpanel. Reseller accounts usually starts at $25.00 per month and we don’t need to share or sell them to others. Surprisingly, some reseller packages starts at $5.00.
RMO’s take on it…
We are currently on a starter reseller hosting. Period.
3. Virtual Private Server.
Virtual servers are independent and non-physical servers units within a physical server hardware (do that make sense?). One of our friends hates the Matrix trilogy because she can’t connect the virtual and real world in the movies. A VPS is sort of like that, we tried it and got confused too (Ours came with WebMin, Plesk might be different).
It’s like having our own server. Total control but a lot of work and responsibility. Virtual Private Servers usually cost $25 and up per month although some basic packages are available for $10.00.
RMO’s take on it…
A VPS is too fancy and complicated for simple webtrepreneurs like us. We wan tto develop sites and try to make money online, not tinker around with a server.
4. Real Servers.
The real McCoy. A server hardware dedicated to our needs. Most hosting companies offer both managed and unmanaged servers. Managed server means they run the server and we run our business. Unmanaged means we run our business and the server runs us. 
We’ve seen prices starting at $175.00 per month for managed but premium servers usually starts at $300.00.
RMO’s take on it…
Managed servers, here we come!
In the end, we should choose a web host depending on our present needs and with an eye for future developments. The less hassle we have upgrading our accounts, the better.
No. 1 — August 19th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
I moved over to a VPS as I was annoyed that the would randomly restart the server on the shared hosting and it would be down for some time without warning.
The VPS is good as you can have multiple domains on it and you have more control but I still find my host still randomly restarts the server without warning! Maybe its just my host!
No. 2 — August 20th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
I have my blog runing on a cheap sharing hoster, and it was never a problem for me.
No. 3 — August 21st, 2008 at 10:44 am
I have all my sites at Prohosters and I’m absolutely satisfied.
No. 4 — August 23rd, 2008 at 12:58 pm
i choose shared hosting ones. i don’t know much about hosting features but my hosting so far so good for me.
with tight budget i think worth to choose shared hosting
ramalan bintangs last blog post..Impian yang terlalu sederhana
No. 5 — August 23rd, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Seems a lot easier to install wp-supercache for free than pay triple the monthly cost. Cached pages have almost zero CPU usage. So have the cache refresh once every 1000 pageviews, and you reduce your cpu usage to 1/1000th what it was before.
Turnips last blog post..Adding Yahoo Buzz To WordPress With URL Fix
No. 6 — August 25th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Hi all!
Shared hosting is fine and we’d have no problem with it for 8 months. Still, it’s best to have backups just in case.
@ Turnip
We’re not really technical people so we don’t know how caching plugins work with server settings but we think that database crash was triggered by supercache. It was only right after we activated it that our web host shut RMO down (and our other sites) because of a sudden increase in server requests.
Wed have learned since then that server settings differs from host to host. But we’re sure to try supercache again in a test WP install.
Rigth now, we’re on an affordable reseller and are quite happy with it.
No. 7 — August 30th, 2008 at 10:55 am
I’m using a shared server…have been for a few months and have had few problems.
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No. 8 — September 14th, 2008 at 12:10 am
@ Sonya
That’s great. Reseller hostings don’t guarantee that we won’t have any problems. So stick with them but it won’t hurt to have back-ups.
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