The term 'hosting' generally refers to the disk space that you get on a hosting company's server and to a number of other services that may come with it - emails, databases, etc. Depending on the hosting type, you may get just some disk space, or you may get a lot more services. There are two groups of hosting services, which depend on the type and on the purpose of the particular service. As you will see below, since the two groups are defined on the basis of different criteria, an entry from the first group may overlap with an entry from the second group, depending on the particular hosting plan offered by the hosting provider.
A classification of the hosting services depending on their purpose:
The website hosting service - this generally involves hosting a website. When you register a domain name, you need a hosting account for it. All website files will be uploaded in the account; you can also create email addresses in the account, add databases, install various scripts, etc. Some hosting providers also offer an online website builder. With a web hosting account, you get all the services that you need to have a fully functional website.
The file hosting service - also called file storage. This service is offered by some hosting providers to make file sharing easier. It is usually used for large files, so a regular web hosting account will normally not have the resources that the file hosting companies offer. Usually you would upload a file on the hosting provider's server and get a download link that you can share with the people whom you want to give the file to. Since all files receive randomly generated links using the provider's domain name, there is no way to upload a website on a file storage server.
The image hosting service - used for sharing single pictures or whole galleries. Similar to the file storage service, the image hosting service lets you upload pictures or full galleries that are later accessible via a randomly generated link. As with the previous hosting service type, the image hosting service does not allow you to upload a website and all image links share the domain name of the provider.
The email hosting service - a hosting service offered by some providers whereby you can create email addresses using your domain name and create and use your own SMTP server to send out your emails. This service does not include the features offered by a regular website hosting account, but rather gives you the opportunity to have your own email accounts while the website is hosted somewhere else or there is no website using the domain name at all. In general, however, the email service is included in the given website hosting package.
A classification of the hosting services depending on their type:
The shared hosting service - this is one of the most popular hosting service types. A number of accounts using a fraction of the resources are created on a single server, decreasing the costs both for the hosting provider and for the clients. Depending on the particular hosting plan and the company, the number of domain names (websites) that you can have may vary between one and unlimited. The same is valid for the disk space and monthly traffic - you may have or may not have a limit, but since a number of other people share the server with you, there may be other limitations, for example a CPU load limit. The latter ensures that no account will overload the server to such an extent that the other clients' websites will go offline due to the fact that this particular account is using their resources. Since you do not have root access to the server, you may not be able to install certain applications. The shared hosting plans are a good choice for personal and small-to-medium corporate websites because of their low cost and good service quality.
The semi-dedicated hosting service - similar to the shared web hosting solution, but only a few people have an account on the server. This means much fewer limitations in terms of the server resources, so you may consider this option if you have a large number of visitors but still do not need a server of your very own.
VPS - the Virtual Private Server is a powerful solution if you need a lot of system resources and root access. A few people share the machine, but since it is a private server, you have full root access - you can change any setting, install any software and reboot the server at any time. Your resources are guaranteed and rebooting one VPS or changing its settings does not affect the other ones in any way. The VPS plans are a good idea if you have a popular website or heavy scripts that would overload a shared hosting account.
The dedicated server hosting service - as the name suggests, you have a whole machine just for you. While the costs are significantly higher compared to the other hosting solutions, the dedicated server gives you the freedom to host any content, install any software, order CPU or RAM upgrades, add additional hard drives and so on. If you have a large corporate website, a video sharing or social network website, or even an online game, a dedicated server would provide the resources that you need.
The collocated hosting service - this hosting type basically involves having your own web server, but instead of having it at home, you take it to a datacenter for a certain fee and the datacenter support staff takes care of its stability and provides the proper environment for its optimal performance.
If you wonder what hosting service would suit your needs best, you can have a look at NTCHosting.com as they are offering shared web hosting accounts, semi-dedicated and dedicated servers and VPS packages. The large variety of plans and prices gives you the opportunity to select the optimal resources at an acceptable price and you have the option to upgrade your hosting plan easily if you need more resources in the future.
