Comparison of Publicized Web Hosting Features

Each of the web hosts evaluated offer several different packages such that your hosting provider can grow along with you.  These hosts offer shared hosting, hosting on a virtual private server, dedicated servers, and managed WordPress hosting.  Shared hosting provides you (and others) with the access to a physical server that is capable of serving pages for multiple websites, each having its own Internet domain name.  This is the least expensive option as the server costs are shared by several individuals.  A virtual private server package provides you (and others) with your own instance of an operating system hosted on a physical server.  You have full access to the operating system;  however, the server’s resources (CPU, RAM, HD, etc) are shared between your virtual operating system instance and others that are hosted on the same physical server.  This is the mid grade option as the server costs are still shared by several individuals; however, the physical server resources can only be divided fewer ways due to the increased overhead of each operating system hosted on the physical server.    The most expensive option is the dedicated server as you are the only one who can access that physical server.  As your website or application demand increases you might progress from shared hosting to a virtual private server to a dedicated server (or servers).  The managed WordPress hosting package is something relatively new being marketed by web hosting providers.  This seems to be marketed towards an audience that wants to have a WordPress blog or website, but are intimidated by the process of installing it within web hosting packages.  The managed WorPress hosting packages are more expensive than the shared hosting packages.

If you’ve made it this far in my post, then you are likely relatively new to web hosting but are savvy enough to manage your own hosting.  The remainder of this article focuses on the shared hosting packages available from HostGator, BlueHost, DreamHost, and IONOS Hosting.  The shared hosting packages are versatile enough for most users needs.

The table below shows the cost of several packages from the web host providers.  The package pricing tiers available from the web hosting providers is fairly comparable between them an range between $6.99 to $23.99 per month.  The only exception is DreamHost that only offers one shared hosting package.  All web hosting providers included a free domain registration in their hosting package with the exception of HostGator.  At the time this article was posted each provider had several introductory offers available ranging from $0.99 to $14.95 per month.  I currently use the IONOS Hosting unlimited package that currently has an introductory offer of $0.99 per month for the first year and have been very happy with it.  If your interested in beginning a blog or website, but are unsure whether you will enjoy it or stick with it this is the package I recommend.  The IONOS Hosting unlimited package introductory offer gives you a year of hosting and your own domain name for $12 for the first year!

NOTE:  The prices provided within this article are subject to change by the web hosting providers are no guarantee of availability.

Many of the web hosting providers offer unlimited webspace, websites, and bandwidth within their packages.  Of course there is no such thing as unlimited hard drive space or bandwidth as each of the providers has hardware limitations and are governed by the laws of physics. Hosting providers are marketing the fact that they do not restrict your use of the hard drive space or bandwidth available and you may host as many websites as you’d like within your shared hosting plan.

Each of these hosting providers offers 24/7 support and some offer an option of operating system.  You likely recognize the Windows operating system, but you may not recognize Linux. Well whether you know it or not you have probably used a version of Linux (or Unix) and not known it.  The Linux operating system core is utilized in many things you may use very day from your Android cell phone, Chromebook, Tivo / DVR, to your Google searches.  Each of the web hosts provide dashboards for administering your shared hosting package, so it’s likely that you won’t even be aware that you’re using it.

Hosting would be of little use if you couldn’t get files to and from the server, manage the server, and send and receive emails.  Files can be uploaded via the Secure Shell (SSH) or through the control panel dashboards provided by the web hosting providers;  however, the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is the most convenient ways to upload / download files to / from the server in bulk.  I recommend the Filezilla FTP client for uploading / downloading files in bulk. The SSH can be used to manage the server;  however the control panel dashboards are so versatile and feature rich that it’s unlikely that you will use the SSH. The dashboard offered by the various web hosting providers are either the open source cPanel or a proprietary solutions.  Both solutions are very robust and easy to use.  They have to be otherwise there would be a lot of unhappy calls to tech support and a lot of cancelled services.  Several of the packages offered limit the number of FTP & email accounts and email storage (per account).  It’s unlikely that you will need more than a few email or FTP accounts unless you are operating multiple sites or have multiple people supporting it. Email storage may be limited in some of the web hosting packages;  however it’s unlikely that you will be using it as your primary account.  If you do intent to use it as your primary email account, I recommend managing it through a Gmail account that has a bit more storage.

Summary

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