Acquiring reliable web hosting is a necessary step to getting your website live and functional. However, for those who are new to the world of web hosting, the sheer variety of options out there can be daunting. Why are there so many web hosting packages, and what is the difference between them? Is it worth cutting costs and going for a cheaper plan? If you have ever wondered which web hosting plan is right for you, read on to find out more.
Free Hosting
Many believe that it is necessary to invest in web hosting to get a website online, but this is not exactly true. Yes, free web hosting does exist – although it often comes with a few drawbacks. For one, web hosts typically allocate fewer resources to their free hosting servers, so uptime may not be guaranteed and things can run quite slowly. There will be limits placed on the amount of resources a free user can occupy, which may not be enough for some websites. It can also be more difficult to get help from web hosts’ support teams as their priority would be paying customers. When something goes wrong with your website, fast support is vital.
Despite its decreased performance compared to paid hosting plans, the good news is you have nothing to lose when trying a free hosting plan. Most free hosting plans are not meant to be used long-term for a company website, but they can be great starters for those who would like to try their hand at websites before purchasing anything. It is worth noting that free hosting plans typically suffer from lower reliability, speed and uptime compared to paid hosting plans, so don’t expect too much on this aspect if you are evaluating a new web host.
Shared Hosting in Thailand
Shared hosting, as its name suggests, is for users who do not mind hosting their website on a common server that is shared with other users. Most shared hosting plans are priced economically, sometimes starting from as little as less than two or three dollars. Of course, shared hosting may offer fewer services than premium hosting plans since all the users on a server are sharing from the same pool of resources. For instance, there may be a limit to the maximum number of databases, subdomains, email inboxes, bandwidth and storage space on a shared account, among other resources. For casual hobbyists or smaller-companies, this limit should be more than enough for things to work well, making shared hosting a good deal.
With shared hosting in Thailand you also normally have access to a support team to help fix any problems or explain how to do things within your hosting plan, which means you don’t have to deal with all issues yourself (other than reporting any problems). For many, having this support is a major attraction for shared hosting.
Thai Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting
In VPS hosting, multiple users still share a server, except that they have their own limits on resources based on their individual plans. If a website happens to require more resources than its current limit, the server will then lend it some of the unused resources from other websites, as long as they are not up to their limits as well. There are typically fewer users on a Thai VPS than on a shared server, making it more stable and reliable in exchange for a slightly higher price. The cost of VPS hosting is only a step up from shared hosting, making it still affordable while providing improved performance.
However, it is best that a member of your team understands how to setup and run a server, or that you are willing to pay a server management company to do the job. This is because VPSs and dedicated servers are often provided “as is”. They come with a system and resources as are ordered, support if any problems, but not normally with a full setup or easy to use control systems such as cPanel.
Thai Dedicated Hosting
Think of the ultimate hosting plan, where you pay for an entire server instead of sharing one with other users – that’s what dedicated hosting is about. This naturally comes with several benefits, including the option to customize your server’s operating system and hardware, Secure Shell (SSH) access, more resources, and overall stability. Most importantly, your website will be free from being vulnerable to the actions of other users, and neither will your configurations affect any other users. Increasing performance with a dedicated server is the favorable option for businesses, where time is money – and every second of downtime can mean lost customers, and thus also lost revenue.
Dedicated hosting is most commonly used by medium to large businesses that need full access to all the customization options and resources they can get. However, the recurring dedicated plans are often pricey for a good reason, making it a tough call if you are unsure whether your website will require that amount of investment. We hope that this article has shed some light on the most suitable web hosting plan for your needs. In summary, choosing a web hosting plan is a highly subjective decision that depends on what you are hosting, the amount of traffic you are expecting, the storage capacity you need, the services you require and performance factors such as reliability, uptime, support and speed. A good rule of thumb is that you generally get what you pay for, so consider each Thai dedicated hosting plan carefully before deciding on one. Often the ‘extremely cheap’ offers with ‘unlimited everything’ and up costing you a lot more in time and headaches later.
