Beginner Web Hosting That’s As Easy As It Gets

Shopping for web hosting can be frustrating for a beginner.  I used to be in that same position, so I know.  My needs at the time were simple: I wanted cheap web hosting that can run PHP and MySQL with good customer support.   Little did I know how difficult it would be to wade through pages upon pages of reviews and offers before I finally figured it all out.

Here’s a brief guide to some of the things that confused me.  Maybe, it can make things a bit easier for you.

Shared Hosting. At its most basic, it means you’ll be “sharing” server resources with other people.  Depending on the web host and their business strategy, those “other people” can mean 100 other people, 500 other people or thousands of other people.  As such, shared hosting is usually for webmasters with small sites that do not require intensive resources yet.

Dedicated Hosting. Instead of sharing your server with many people, you pay the company to let you use an entire one all by your lonesome.  As you might expect, it will cost you.

VPS Hosting. Between those who can make do with shared hosting and those that require an extensive amount of resources are plenty of webmasters whose needs range somewhere in between.  VPS Hosting basically refers to a “shared” hosting plan where only a few people share a server’s resources (typically ten or less.)

Since you’re a beginner with nothing in terms of an audience or a service to offer, you will likely be leaning towards getting a shared hosting account.   Unless you’re intent on working with ASP or .NET systems, we highly recommend that you book a Linux web hosting plan that offers PHP, MySQL and Fantastico, among its suite of features.  That, on its own, should give you plenty of room to play with.  If you want further advise on which hosting to get, we highly recommend going with the beginner plans of one of our tried and tested hosts, namely Lunarpages, Hostgator and Dreamhost, then seeing where you need to go from there.  Remember, you can always upgrade to a better plan when your requirements demand it.