Is it possible to do without hosting?

Hosting is needed in any case if you want your site to be available around the clock for other users. Without hosting, the site cannot work in principle.

You can also deploy hosting on a home computer, but such a solution will have low efficiency, because in an apartment it is very difficult to ensure the uninterrupted operation of the north: there may be power outages, emergency situations in the home network and other problems.

Most often, hosting means only placing your files on a server computer. But each provider has its own rules regarding additional services. One provider has DNS and mail hosting, the other provider has these services already included in the basic package and you don’t need to pay extra for them.

Registering hosting services is the same for all providers

In general, the process of registering hosting services is the same for all providers. First, you register an account on the hosting provider's website and provide it with the necessary data set: login / password, domain address. And when registering a domain - full name, postal address, passport data. Then you pay for the required hosting option with the required service package: in fact, this is just a tariff plan. Hosting provides you with a disk quota on the server, and then you can start VPS hosting your site.

All types of hosting can be conditionally divided into five types (in descending order of rental cost)

Simple, or virtual hosting.

• Virtual server.
• Dedicated server.
• Cloud server.
• Placement of equipment.

Among all the options listed, only three types are actively used: virtual hosting, virtual server and regular server. Free hosting cannot be recommended even for simple projects due to its very low performance, so we will not consider it in detail.

Shared web hosting

This option provides the standard features:

• Relatively small disk space;
• Ability to connect from 1 to 7 domains and install a security certificate;
• Mail hosting;
• DB.

Shared hosting is ideal for small content sites: blogs, landing pages, business card sites. The cost of initial tariffs for shared hosting from most providers starts from 150 rubles per month.

Shared hosting is the most budget solution for hosting a website in all cases where you do not need to administer a server. This is an ideal option for launching the first project, experimenting and getting started with the site.

Shared hosting provides for the calculation of the static load for each account. You cannot exceed these limits, otherwise the site may be disabled.

A virtual dedicated server is sometimes called a VDS (Virtual Dedicated Server) or VPS (Virtual Private Server)

This option differs from virtual hosting by the ability to customize the server: you yourself determine the required amount of RAM, the frequency of the processor and the number of its cores. You can adjust not only the disk quota, but also configure the type of drive. A virtual server is equivalent to a real physical server: it allows you to configure the operating system, install any software, and customize it in the way you need.

In addition, this is a certain amount of physical server resources. On each physical machine in the data center, several "sites" are reserved, which are later given over to the use of virtual servers.

A virtual server is a universal option for most sites, especially if there is a need to customize the server with the ability to select specific equipment.

When choosing it, pay attention to the possibility of unlimited backups (it's good if the backups are free), root access (full rights, including changing system settings), support for the technologies you need.

Dedicated server is an option for large-scale projects 

A dedicated server, also known as a dedicated server, is an option for large-scale projects - sites and applications with very high traffic. It is used when it is necessary to guarantee the highest hosting security and eliminate vulnerabilities as much as possible, including intrusions from outside.

The advantage of a dedicated server is that you yourself select the required number of cores and threads, the type of drive and its size, the number and size of RAM modules. Administration can be entrusted to the provider itself, or you can take it under your control.

It would seem that everything is the same as in the case of a virtual server. However, the latter has one fundamental difference: the physical machine is assigned exclusively to you. You become its full owner and do not share it with anyone.

A dedicated server requires special treatment in terms of customization and maintenance. Your company must have full-time employees with relevant knowledge, or you will have to entrust the administration to the hosting itself.f

"Cloud" is often confused with a virtual server

They are actually similar on the surface, and a cloud server can be seen as a full-fledged replacement for a virtual one.

But in practice this is not the case. The cloud server differs from the virtual server in no way limited by performance. This is a scalable group of several high-performance servers at once. Its computing resources are practically unlimited, which cannot be said about a virtual server, where resources are limited by the capabilities of a physical machine.

The difference between a cloud and a virtual server comes into play when it comes to paying for services.

As we already understood, payment for a virtual server is strictly according to the tariff that the user chooses in advance. The cloud server is paid exclusively for the computing resources that the user has used.

This type of hosting will be relevant for sites and applications with an irregular, but serious load. For example, your company sells seasonal goods and your website receives especially high traffic, say, in the summer.

All in all

In winter, traffic is minimal, and so far you have more than enough options for shared hosting. But under peak loads, the server can stop serving your site, because the initial shared hosting tariff is simply not designed for such a load.

To ensure that the site is always available and it is not turned off, it is better to think about the peak load in advance. In the described case, the cloud server may be the best option. In idle time, you save the budget, and when traffic starts, you pay only for the load that is actually created.

Source: hostens.com