How to choose the best hosting service: analysis of hosting services and main selection criteria
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Types of hosting services
- General criteria for choosing a hosting service
- Conclusions
Types of hosting services
Hosting providers provide several services:
shared hosting service;
personal virtual server;
dedicated physical server;
cloud hosting service;
placement of the client's equipment in the provider's data center.
Let's find out how they differ and what they are suitable for.
Shared hosting)
Shared hosting is the most popular choice among users. This service is used by most sites on the Internet. Shared hosting is the server that hosts many sites. Server capacities are divided between them.
How to choose a shared hosting service
In some cases, there may be up to a thousand sites hosted on the same server. The load is distributed evenly to everyone. Some hosting providers offer VIP rates-they host fewer sites than regular ones, which means better performance.
The problem with shared hosting usually occurs when there is a lot of traffic. To determine which hosting provider to choose, pay attention to the following metrics::
permitted daily CPU load (CP);
permitted daily load on a MySQL database;
maximum memory size per process;
a maximum number of processes.
The higher these indicators, the more productive they are. To increase the capacity, you need to either switch to VIP rates, or to VPS / VDS hosting, where such restrictions are not available.
The virtual hosting service already has the software installed and certain settings configured. You can't change them, or you can only change the hosting provider that uses a different technology stack. But usually, all well-known providers support PHP, MySQL, Perl, Python, and the most popular CMS systems. So for most sites, this is not a problem.
To increase security, they usually buy an additional dedicated IP address. This will help to avoid accidental blocking due to" neighbors " on the server, which, for example, can be blocked by Roskomnadzor.
What sites do they host?
Virtual hosting hosts websites of any format: a blog, forum, corporate website, landing page, or online store. The main thing is that hosting supports the CMS you need (some, for example, Magento and Drupal are more demanding than WordPress, and they make separate tariffs for them).
As a rule, shared hosting services can handle a load of 1500-3000 users per day and withstand a peak load of up to 10 users per second. To make the site "fall", you need more, but it will start to" slow down".
VPS/VDS (virtual dedicated)
VDS / VPS hosting is a dedicated VM on a single physical server. You are assigned the characteristics according to the tariff plan.
How to choose a VPS hosting service
If shared hosting rates differ only in the number of sites and disk space, then VPS differs in processor power, RAM, and even Internet connection speed.
To choose the right pricing plan for large-loaded projects, professionals calculate the load before renting a VPS hosting service. But today, many hosting providers provide test periods. If you already have a working project and need to move from Shared to a VPS, but you don't have enough knowledge for calculations, then contact technical support.
So, first, you will check the speed of feedback, which is very important, and secondly, you will receive a specialist's response. Many hosting providers provide test periods, so take the tariff that suits you for the price, and test it. In case of a bad response, you will have to switch to a more expensive one. As a rule, VPS hosting companies have a separate tariff-a feature Configurator. In this method, you can "create a server" for your own needs.
If you look at the technical specifications, then everything is just like in a regular computer:
the more RAM, processor cores and their frequency, the better performance;
SSD drives are faster than HDD. And connectivity is faster than SATA.
It is worth noting that there are managed and unmanaged VPS hosting services. In the first case, the hosting provider monitors the server's performance and maintains its health. In the second case, all responsibility and configuration fall on you. If you don't have any experience with VPS hosting, it's better to pay extra and choose a managed one.
What sites do they host?
They switch to VPS / VDS hosting services when the number of users on the site exceeds 3000 users per day, or they use it immediately when you need to install certain SOFTWARE that is not available on Shared hosting services.
Cloud hosting)
The difference between cloud hosting and a classic VPS is that resources are allocated not from a single parent server, but from a group of servers running in a cluster. It is considered that this technology is more reliable since the resource will work even if one of the servers fails. But do not immediately "fly to the cloud". Good hosting providers have backup VPS servers and, as a rule, your site will be available 24/7.
Which cloud hosting service to choose
Another difference is the ability to use more resources, which means higher performance. Usually, tariffs are calculated based on the direct volume of capacity consumption – the user pays for what they used. In other words, if several thousand visitors come to the site today and several hundred tomorrow, then the payment for using resources will be different – it is proportional to the capacity consumed.
Automatic load balancing is another advantage of cloud hosting services: when changes occur, the allocated resources increase or decrease. In other words, you don't need to calculate the possible load and the capacity required for it to choose a tariff.
What sites do they host?
Usually, cloud hosting is used by sites with variable load, large online stores, and forums with high traffic. The flexibility of settings does not differ from VPS/VDS.
Dedicated physical server)
A separate physical server is allocated for the user in the data center. This is the most expensive technology and the most difficult to set up. It is used for large online stores and aggregators that use product selections based on multiple filters, adjust prices in real-time, and change stock availability. This technology is still used, for example, for online games and high-load portals.
If you need a dedicated server, then you probably know very well what to pay attention to and how to choose it=) So I won't write anything about it.
Conclusions on choosing hosting services
In most cases, a shared hosting service is suitable for you. They are usually configured to work with popular CMS systems. If earlier there were hosting services only for PHP, today there are even hosting services for Python. Provider specialists understand what technologies are needed for an ordinary site, and provide them with their hosting services. But if you use technologies that are not provided on shared hosting, then take VPS hosting.
General criteria for choosing a hosting service
We figured out which service to choose. Now let's look at the General criteria for all hosters and types of services.
Reviews on thematic resources
The first thing I would pay attention to when deciding how to choose to host is user reviews. Several thematic resources collect information about hosters and their services:
https://ru.hostings.info;
http://hosting101.ru;
https://hosting-ninja.ru.
I would not choose those who are not in the top 10 on these resources, because the cost differs minimally, and the quality of services (technical support, access time, and additional chips) may differ significantly.
Here's what the tops look like at the time of writing:
Our resource is located at Timeweb.com, and for a year of work, there were no complaints. The site is available 99.9% of the time, technical support responds almost instantly and solves all problems that arise, and flexible tariffs allow you to choose the right one and not overpay.
You can also view provider statistics on the number of hosted sites in the zone.RU on the site statonline.ru:
These are statistics on shared hosting services.
And this is statistics on VPS hosting and dedicated servers.
We can conclude that the more sites are hosted, the more users trust them. Choose top hosting providers and you won't have any problems.
Paid or free
Free hosting is only suitable for test or demo projects. As a rule, the free version has no or very slow technical support, extremely limited functionality, and allocated capacity. Previously, free hosting was not very stable, but today it is an option to get acquainted with the hoster. Therefore, the uptime is quite high.
But even to get acquainted with the hoster, it is better to use the free test period of the technology and tariff that you are going to use in the future. The market offers from 7 to 30 days. This is enough to evaluate performance, stability, response speed, and technical support.
Another problem is the third-level domain name. Usually, you can't connect your own domain to a free hosting service. The address of your site will look like " your site name. hoster. RF".
To recoup a little bit of hosting your site yourself, hosters can place ads. For the test and demo version-nothing terrible, but for the working resource – trouble. Therefore, take a paid hosting service. For example, y Timeweb.com tariffs are starting from 119 rubles a month-cheaper than a Cup of coffee =)
Disk space
Data from the site firstvds.ru
HDD – the slowest, but the cheapest drive, found in some hosters on VPS/VDS;
SDD – dozens of times faster than HDD, but slightly more expensive;
NVMe – the same SDD connected via a different connector, faster than the previous SATA connection by 1.5-2 times.
The type of disk drive does not play a role when choosing shared hosting, because their resources are limited according to a different principle.
Technical support level
Crashes and emergency situations are common in site construction and programming in General. They can happen both on your part and on the part of the hoster.
A set of technical tools
In addition to the allocated capacities, providers offer various add-ons. They should include:
unlimited traffic;
daily backup (backups);
protection against DDoS attacks and hacks;
checking your website and email for viruses and spam;
possibility of a free transfer to another pricing plan or server;
enabling free SSL certificates;
SSH access;
free transfer of the site to hosting.
Also, look at and support the technologies and scripts you need. If you use a CMS (WordPress, Bitrix, Joomla!, Drupal, etc.), then look at the requirements for their work. For example, WordPress doesn't have a lot of requirements, but not all hosting providers have the latest version of PHP.
The physical location of the hosting service
A few years ago, the physical location of servers played a big role due to ping. Ping is the speed of the server's response. The formula is simple – the closer the hosting service is to its audience, the faster the response. Today, the bandwidth of Internet access has increased many times, and the difference in the loading speed of a site located in Germany or located in Russia is insignificant. It still exists, but it is no longer a criterion for choosing a hosting service based on the" speed " attribute. But it's still better to take it closer.
There is a legal problem with the location. If you process personal data of citizens of the Russian Federation, you must also store it in Russia (Federal law 152 "on personal data"). Otherwise, access to the site may be restricted by Roskomnadzor.
What applies to personal data? Any information that can be used to identify a person: full name, date of birth, education, income, and even marital status. But these data must be combined with each other. For example, just "Ivanov Ivan Ivanovich" – impersonal personal data and can be stored anywhere. But if you add a phone number, you can already identify the person. Here is a more detailed analysis of Federal law No. 152 "on personal data".
Belarus has made it much easier: if you provide any services or sell goods on the territory of the country, then your site must be physically located in Belarus (Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus No. 60).
Conclusions
If you are just learning web development and want to learn how everything works, then free hosting is your choice. But if you are counting on some traffic to the site and decide which hosting to choose, then be sure to take even the cheapest, but paid the tariff. This gives you stability guarantees.
If you use standard web development tools (popular CMS and scripts), then shared hosting is suitable for you. Choose the hosting providers that will help you move your site to a VPS hosting or dedicated server if necessary.
At the stage of choosing a hosting provider, contact technical support. Tell us about your plans and ask for help choosing a pricing plan. This way you can check the quality of the services provided.
Do not make the choice of hosting a difficult task for yourself. You can switch to a different pricing plan or change your provider at any time. This happens within a few hours. The main thing is that the provider allows you to do this for free, and does not ask you to pay for help.
Choosing the right hosting service is only the first step to making your site work effectively. As a rule, the next step is to choose the platform on which the site itself is created. If you decide to create a website yourself using one of the most popular site designers,