Getting The Most Out Of Your Money As A Designer By Choosing The Best Hosting

• October 7th, 2010
• Articles

As a web designer, you probably spend a good portion of your life on the internet. It’s the nature of the job, and it’s why you’re a professional. That’s why you also need professional web hosting services that meet your needs.

With the overwhelming number of choices available, you can spend way too much time searching for business web hosting. Of course, what’s the alternative? You can’t just randomly choose some cheap web hosting services and plan to switch later. That’s because migrating your site to a new host is one of the most difficult tasks you can imagine.

So, you’re going to need some research. However, you can do it quickly with these tips:
First, you’ve got four options: shared hosting, reseller hosting, dedicated server hosting, and virtual private server (VPS) hosting. Shared and reseller hosting should be the first two you research because they’re a web designer’s best choices. VPS and dedicated hosting might work for you, but you should check them out only when you’ve ruled out the first two.

Shared Hosting – The Cheapest Option

This is a very popular form of web hosting because sharing keeps the price down. Typically, the monthly fee is somewhere between $3 to $5 dollars per month. Other types of shared hosting may offer more features, but they tend to also keep the price in the single-digit range. There really is no other form of hosting which can offer such a low price.

Another significant benefit of shared hosting is the level of support available. It is a relatively hands-off experience because it is designed for novice users. Dedicated server hosting and reseller hosting requires you to be the administrator of your server. That means you are responsible for setting up all the software to run the machine. However, shared hosting is already set up for you, so you only need to concentrate on administering your own account and website.

The last important advantage to consider is the breadth of services shared hosting gives you. Just because it’s cheap, you shouldn’t assume it’s missing anything. In fact, shared hosting usually offers all the technical features you could want if you had your own server. The main difference is usually the space and bandwidth you are allowed each month.

Virtual Private Server Hosting (VPS)

It’s important to mention virtual private server hosting at this point. That’s because VPS is very similar to shared hosting. Once again, you share the same services, on one machine, with other people. However, you tend to share much more of the machine. Typically, virtual private server hosting limits users to two to four people per machine. VPS is not recommended for designers because the price tends to be very expensive compared to options such as reseller hosting. In fact, some of the monthly prices equal the cost of purchasing a brand new server.

Reseller Hosting vs Dedicated Server Hosting

Reseller hosting is basically the same thing as dedicated server hosting. The idea is to have only one person or user account for each server. This is really the best form of business web hosting if you’re serious.

The difference between dedicated and reseller hosting is simply a matter of resale rights. With reseller hosting, a web designer can produce web sites for clients and then sell hosting services to those clients. The advantage comes as an extra means of added income. Now, the designer can combine profit from designing web sites plus a monthly income from the resale of hosting. It is as if the designer is offering the hosting directly.

Reseller hosting offers the opportunity to let your hosting pay for itself. Instead of an expense, you’ve gained an income. This really means it’s the cheapest form of web hosting if you’re able to pass it on to enough clients. The profit made from one machine may only account for $100 to $200 dollars a month, but it can help fund other expenses such as purchasing domain names.

Another significant advantage, from a web design point of view, is that you can administer all your clients’ sites on your own machine. This relieves you from having to deal with third-party web hosts. You maintain full control of the system.

For web designers, reseller hosting should be your first choice for your business hosting. However, it’s important to consider your client base. You should be sure you have enough clients or potential clients willing to accept hosting from you. If you don’t, then you could end up with a huge monthly expense that you can’t afford. So, be certain you have experience offering web hosting to clients. If you are already referring clients to other hosts, then it’s in your best interest to get reseller hosting and keep those clients with you.

Images used within the post where supplied by shutterstock