Cloud Hosting vs Traditional Web Hosting! What’s Your Best Option?

What’s the difference between Cloud Hosting vs Traditional Web Hosting ?

Web Hosting, is a general term that describes a service that provides web server access for website owners to “host” their website on so visitors can access them on the internet. While Cloud Hosting, websites are hosted on multiple interconnected web servers. Their website files and other data like images, media etc. is stored and gathered from different servers located in different data centers throughout the same country or even throughout the world.

Therefore, visitors can access their website, theoretically from the closest server to their particular location. This provides faster access and downloads as well as a better user experience.

Here are the differences between Traditional Web Hosting vs Cloud Hosting:

• Traditional Web Hosting is a common all encompassing term that generally refers to where and how a website’s files are stored and hosted on the internet. 
• Basically, your website is a bundle of files that are sitting on a server or servers somewhere. 
• When a user enters in your domain name or clicks on the link from a search results page, the browser downloads those files from your web hosts servers and displays them on their screen.
• In essence with Traditional Web Hosting, your site’s files are stored on a single server. 
• The type of web server plan you choose will depend upon the size of your website, how much traffic your website gets or expects to receive and the level of technical expertise and support you need from your Web Hosting Provider.

The most common type of Traditional Web Hosting are:

• Shared Hosting. 

This is the most popular type of web hosting plan offered today as well as the cheapest. 

In a Shared Hosting plan, a single server is divided up and pieces of it are rented out to dozens or most likely, hundreds of websites. 

So you’re basically “sharing” one physical server with hundreds of other websites. 

Shared Hosting is best for those just starting out with new websites.

• Dedicated Hosting. 

Dedicated Hosting plans give you an entire server allotted to your website or websites. You basically have complete control over your entire server environment. 

This generally ensures the highest levels of performance. 

However, Dedicated Hosting is much more expensive and will require much more technical knowledge on your end to not only to set up, but to also maintain in order to guarantee peak performance as well as security. It’s definitely the most hands-on approach.

• VPS Hosting. 

With VPS Hosting, you’re still technically using a shared server environment, but you’re running a virtualized server on top of it. 

The main difference is that although you’re still sharing a physical server with other users, you’ll have an allotted amount of space, CPU usage, memory, more control and access to your allotted space on that server. 

This will allow you for example, to upload tools and other software that you otherwise wouldn’t be allowed to with a Shared Hosting plan. 

Also, since all users are allocated a certain amount of space with room to scale if needed. 

Web Hosts can’t literally pack a Shared Hosting server with hundreds of other websites, unlike an assigned VPS server. 

All of these combined makes a huge difference which can lead to improved loading times and website performance. 

• Managed Web Hosting. 

In Managed Web Hosting, you get access to a higher performing server that’s managed and optimized for you by your Web Host. 

Typically, it’ll be optimized for a certain type of CMS, WordPress being the most common. That’s why you’ll often find Web Hosts offering “WordPress Managed Hosting”. 

You’re basically letting a team of “WordPress” ‘experts” run and manage your server for you.

However, WordPress Managed Hosting can be more expensive than typical Shared Hosting.

The final type of “Web Hosting” is “Cloud Hosting”.

• Cloud Hosting.

First of all, In Cloud Hosting, you aren’t merely renting space on a single physical server. Basically, all of your server hardware is virtual. 

Your website’s files can be duplicated and served from various servers located in Data Centers throughout the world. 

Web Hosts have contracts with huge Data Center Companies like Google and Amazon which leases them space, allowing them to host their clients’ websites on their servers.

Cloud Hosting offers you unlimited resource expansion to scale, which is ideal if you have, or expect to have, a fast-growing website. 

Your website will also be protected from the risks of say a single malfunctioning server, since your website can be switched to another server if the one it’s currently using goes down or is underperforming.

Here’s why Cloud Hosting is better than most Traditional Web Hosting Plans?

You’ll now see how Cloud Hosting can be an entirely different type of “Web Hosting” which, when done right, can give you the best of all “Traditional Web Hosting” plans. 

Cloud Hosting has a whole host of other benefits as well, including:

• Flexible Pricing. 

You only pay for the resources you use. 

For example, if your website is experiencing very high traffic one month, you can quickly scale up the extra resources you need to handle it. 

However, if or when your traffic drops you can just scale down once again. So with Cloud Hosting, you’re never stuck paying for server resources you’re not using.

• Scalability. 

If your website’s traffic is up and down, perhaps you’re adding additional files like video which consumes a lot of resources, then you need a Cloud Hosting Provider you can work with. 

For example, if you’re on a Shared Hosting plan and it’s constantly down and not keeping up with the growth of your website and you need to upgrade, but a Dedicated or VPS Hosting provides too many server resources, which you don’t need nor want to be stuck paying for every month, then Cloud Hosting can be exactly what you need.

If your website is experiencing issues causing excess downtime, poor performance and slow loading speeds, then your website can be seamlessly switched over to a higher performing server.

Cloud Hosting vs Traditional Web Hosting, conclusions.

Cloud Hosting when compared to other forms of Traditional Web Hosting is definitely unique. Whether or not you choose Cloud Hosting vs other types of Traditional Web Hosting depends on your needs. 

If you’re just starting out for example, the best course of action would be to take a Shared Web Hosting plan. 

They usually give you enough hosting space, speed but most importantly, the lowest priced hosting when compared to other forms of Traditional Web Hosting including Cloud Hosting. 

When choosing a Shared Web Hosting provider and plan, it’s always best to go with a reliable partner. 

This may seem obvious, but you would be surprised at how many people choose price over reliability and quality of service even when choosing a Shared Web Hosting Provider. 

If you have a Shared Hosting plan with a good Web Host, you can safely assume that your website should be able to handle 10,000 to 20,000 users a day. I know that’s hard to believe, but it is certainly possible with a good Web Host. 

However, if you find that your increased traffic levels and other additions you make to your website are causing your website to experience poor performance, then instead of upgrading to a VPS or even Dedicated Server Hosting, Cloud Hosting is your best option. Why? 

Well, VPS and Dedicated Server Hosting might be a bit overkill. Not only do you have to have a certain level of knowledge to set up and manage the server environment on both, but you actually may have too many resources at your disposal. Most of which you won’t even need. But you will be paying for them all the same. 

Therefore, Cloud Hosting offers you the best of both worlds, the ability to scale, and to be able to control your server hosting costs. 

In addition, loading speeds and down time issues become literally a thing of the past once you upgrade from your Shared Hosting plan to a Cloud Hosting plan. 

So in the Cloud Hosting vs Traditional Shared, VPS and Dedicated Hosting, in my opinion, Cloud Hosting wins.