What is ''budget web hosting''?

While there are ''budget'' plans available in every type of web hosting service, ''budget web hosting'' usually refers to a webhosting service priced below $10 per month, as compared to totally ''free'' web hosting services or ''premium'' hosting services. Customers typically pay for only what they absolutely need, and the plans are designed for clients that don't necessarily desire, or wish to pay for, enhanced offerings, such as expansive bandwidth, e-commerce support, or web site development and maintenance for their website.

Some types of budget web hosting include:

Shared Web Hosting. The most common type of hosting service, (it is sometimes also called ''virtual hosting''). ''Shared web hosting''' means that one server (CPU time, memory, OS, applications, bandwidth) is used by a number of customers of the chosen hosting company. The web host manages the server to ensure uptime, upgrading the hardware and software as needed. The client has no control over the server, but maintians full access and control over the web site, through a control panel. Since all of the resources are shared, it is important to ensure that no one customer is monopolizing the resources. In addition, it is important to check the terms of service for any scripts or types of software not allowed by the host, to avoid any technical inconsistencies. Sharing means just that: ''sharing'' - as certain software and situations may affect other users. Most companies in the budget web hosting category offer both monthly and annual hosting plans. A monthly plan may afford the webmaster more flexibility, in the case that a less than suitable situation arises, and one is not locked in to a long-term situation. Most budget web hosting companies will quote the monthly fee to be paid, as well as any set-up fees.

Virtual Private Server. Virtual Private Servers (VPS), also referred to as Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS), is often also mentioned when discussing budget web hosting. Although the price tag for a VPS account may run anywhere from $30-$75, this is still a great price advantage when compared to a fully dedicated server, or managed server. a Virtual Private Server usually offers the features of a dedicated server, for multiple web hosting customers in the form of ''virtual computers''. While a Virtual Private Server shares system resources, such as the CPU and RAM, the resources are allocated so that no one can tell that the system has anyone else on it, similar to a dedicated server. This is known as ''root level access''. Therefore, resources are usually arranged so that each client is allocated a certain percentage, to ensure that resources assigned are always available to each customer. Each ''virtual server'' generally resembles a ''dedicated server''.

Web host plan specifications vary greatly, from company to company. An example of a typical shared budget plan, from Host Gator, at $6.95 per month (paid annually), includes 3.5 GB disk space, 50 GB data transfer (bandwidth), 20 subdomains, 20 FTP accounts, unlimited MySQL, CGI, Perl, PHP, SSI, FrontPage extensions, 20 POP3 accounts, email aliases, auto responders, Spam Assassin spam filtering, a control panel, various preinstalled scripts to use (including blogs, forums, chat rooms), web statistics, raw web logs, and shared SSL. For a few dollars more, at $9.95 a month, unlimited domains are offered, among other perks.

Another budget web hosting vendor is uplinkearth. The company offers its ''micro'' budget web hosting plan which costs $4.95 per month. The account includes 10 GB of network transfer (bandwidth), 150 MB of disk space, and 100 email accounts with autoresponders. The company also charges a one-time setup fee of $9.95.

Copyright © by WebSite Hosting Directory All Right Reserved.

Published on: 2006-09-11 (2489 reads)