Any live website must have some form of hosting – this is a fundamental aspect of the web. However, the actual choice of hosting can be confusing at times, especially for beginners who have little or no knowledge about this topic.

Are you currently wondering what the different terms such as cloud hosting vs web hosting mean?

One of the things you should understand is that the unique needs of your website will help you choose the most appropriate hosting style. As such, the very first thing you must do is to identify your needs as clearly as possible. Upon identifying what you hope to achieve, familiarize yourself with the different types of hosting.

If you are reading this post, because you are at a crossroad between cloud hosting vs web hosting, you can breathe easy.  This complete guide explains the details and the significant differences between cloud hosting and web hosting.

Definitions

Web hosting is more of a general term that explains how and where you will host the files on your website.

In the simplest terms, your web host is the storage area of your website files. Standard hosting allows you to store your files on a single server.

The nature of the server environment you select will be dependent on the size of your website, the anticipated traffic, as well as your level of technical expertise. The most common types of web hosting you might interact with include managed, VPS, shared, and dedicated hosting.

Cloud hosting is a more recent form of hosting. It has gained in popularity during the last few years.

Cloud hosting is built upon the concept of Divide and Rule. It entails spreading the resources needed for website maintenance across multiple web servers. These resources are made available on a per need basis.

Cloud hosting takes away the need to rent space on one server. All your server hardware becomes virtual.

A good number of large organizations have been using it for many years. Unfortunately, till recently, the cost factor has been a major hindrance for small businesses who would wish to embrace cloud hosting.

However, with providers such as Cloudways working on making the price affordable, more and more companies will shift to cloud hosting in the near future.

If you want to learn more about Cloudways, there is an excellent article which explains all you need to know: A Complete Cloudways Hosting Review – is this cloud hosting service worth your time and money?.

Following on with other major differences include the topics we discuss below.

1. Cloud Security

Unlike traditional web hosting, cloud hosting guarantees the availability of your data. Your data is always ready to be supplied to an end-user, even amidst the worst circumstances.

The distribution of data across multiple servers in different physical locations (as opposed to the single server associated with web hosting) safeguards your data against location-associated issues such as earthquakes or power outages, and possible failures of one machine.

This ability allows on-prem data center security as well as the physical lock and key access to every server rack round the clock all year round.

2. Public Versus Private Deployment

Conventional web hosting is based on the public environment model. As such, the data of multiple users are hosted on one local machine. Sadly, if one of the user’s data negatively interferes with the server, the data of the other users also suffer.

The situation is a bit different in the world of cloud hosting. Cloud hosting utilizes both the private and cloud models. Today, there is no need to allocate a single machine multiple resources to build a secure private infrastructure.

3. Computer Resources Scalability

Web sites that use cloud hosting are not restricted to the physical resources of one machine. This feature permits added scalability of virtual resources to meet the needs of the site or a given application.

A good example is when an app or website receives more traffic during a particular time than other times of the day. A cloud-hosted atmosphere automatically scales up the transfer speeds to cater for the increased traffic. It also scales down automatically in case of decreased traffic to avoid overcharging the customers for resources they don’t need.

4. Hosting Tools

A lot of work goes into web hosting. The process entails a lot of set up and heavy maintenance on the part of the developer. Some of the tasks include the installation and updates of operating systems, template downloads, installations of my SQL as well as the deployment of WordPress, and so on.

On the other hand, the providers of cloud hosting provide a cloud platform under the Platform as a Service (PaaS). These platforms are accompanied by pre-made tools that make it easy for developers to spin up many virtual machines in record time.

They also provide pre-made solutions like built-in WordPress templates, MySQL servers, and OS LAMP stacks, and many others. These solutions come with all the resources and are ready for deployment with a simple click of a button.

5. Affordability

Business owners are usually very particular about their spending on hosting. A firm will not adopt a hosting style that costs too much – especially if it is still getting off the ground. This explains why the majority of businesses that have embraced cloud hosting are large organizations who don’t have to worry about the money they spend on hosting.

Perhaps the most considerable downside of cloud hosting is the pricing.

In as much as it has been around for quite some time, many small businesses still find it highly-priced and therefore, choose to stay with the traditional web hosting. However, this situation is bound to change soon as the prices keep going down. In any case, compared to when it started, the prices have come down significantly.

So, Which One Is Better?

When considering cloud hosting vs web hosting, the final decision is purely personal. Whatever suits, you may not work for someone else. Again, your website needs should determine your ultimate choice. If you run a small business and therefore looking for a cost-friendly option, one of the conventional types of web hosting should do. On the other hand, if your website experiences traffic spikes particular times of the day, or you are in search of top-notch security features, and don’t mind digging deeper into your pockets, cloud hosting will come in handy.

 

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