Web hosting is web hosting, right? How different can different types of web hosting really be? Well, the answer is a resounding “VERY”. And in today’s technologically-advanced world, there’s really one question that stands out above the rest: what’s better, cloud hosting vs traditional hosting?
It’s quite a subjective thing, so there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. But if you’re considering what kind of web hosting provider you need for your next business launch, it’s something you definitely need to spend some time on.
Here’s an overview of the two and their biggest differences, so you can make an informed, confident decision about which one you want to build your website on.
Understanding Traditional Hosting
Traditional hosting is split into three separate sections: shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated hosting. These have been around for ages, so the large majority of websites on the internet use one of these three options.
Each has its pros and cons, and each is better suited to certain types of businesses or websites. Shared hosting is great for personal blogs or websites that don’t need a lot of resources. Dedicated hosting is an excellent option for those who want more stability and don’t want to share server resources. VPS is a good middle ground.
While most of the websites online today use one of the traditional web hosting options, cloud hosting is the next big thing.
What Is Cloud Hosting?
Cloud hosting is the latest web hosting technology. Instead of hosting your website on a physical server, like traditional hosting, it hosts your site on the cloud. That means it hosts it on a number of different virtual servers across the world, rather than a single physical one.
This makes a huge difference to almost everything—storage space, performance, scalability, and so on. Because it’s newish, not a lot of websites are using it yet.
Cloud Hosting vs Traditional Hosting: The Key Differences
Thinking about changing to a new website hosting provider? Consider cloud hosting vs traditional hosting carefully; your choice can make a bigger difference to your website’s performance than you realize!
Infrastructure and Resource Allocation
The most notable difference in physical terms is the lack of physical servers with cloud hosting. Traditional hosting options all use a physical server somewhere in the world to hold your website’s data and send it out to visitors.
But cloud hosting uses virtual servers. There’s no physical thing that holds your website’s information—it’s all stored on the cloud, on virtual servers across the world. That means that, unlike traditional hosting, which has a set amount of resources for your site, cloud hosting offers almost unlimited resources as they’re not bound to a single physical server.
Performance
Traditional hosting’s performance really depends on the type of hosting you go for. Shared hosting is usually quite up and down, VPS is generally better, and dedicated is the best of the lot, but can also be iffy depending on what’s happening with the server.
Cloud hosting way outstrips traditional hosting in terms of performance. Because your website data is distributed across multiple different servers, your website is always available and ready for visitors.
Choosing cloud hosting makes your website immune to problems that traditional hosting faces often, like traffic spikes stealing resources, instability based on the weather, and a range of other things. In short, your site always performs well when it’s based in the cloud.
Scalability and Elasticity
Traditional hosting can be tricky when it comes to scalability. If you’re going to go with a traditional option and you expect your business to grow, you need to be with a web host that can grow with you—in other words, they need to have a better hosting plan with extra resources for you to move up to when you’re getting more traffic.
Cloud hosting covers all of this much more easily than traditional does. There’s no need for extra server space to accommodate a growing website, and so on. You get exactly the amount of space, bandwidth, etc that you need—no more, no less.
Reliability and High Availability
Traditional options are varied. Shared hosting is notoriously unreliable, as it hosts so many sites on the same server. VPS hosting is slightly more reliable but doesn’t quite get you out of the danger zone. Dedicated hosting is the most reliable of the lot, but can still fall prey to hardware failure, overheating, and so on.
On the other hand, cloud hosting doesn’t have any of those problems. There’s no competition for resources, no risk of hardware failure or damage, and no risk of crashing if there’s a traffic spike, making it a much more stable and reliable option.
Security
Dedicated hosting is fairly secure, but can still be toppled if the server gets damaged or someone manages to hack into it. VPS and shared hosting is much less secure, as you’re sharing a server with other sites, which means there’s a lot of data being moved and a lot of activity by various people on the server.
If the server fails and your website isn’t properly backed up, getting your site back up and running can be a nightmare.
Cloud hosting, on the other hand, is impressively secure. Your data is hosted in multiple secure data centers and encrypted, so if one virtual server fails, the others still hold your data, making it extremely secure and safe.
Cost
This is the only area in which traditional hosting might seem like a better option than cloud hosting. Shared hosting is the most affordable option on the market, but it’s the least stable. VPS is decently priced, but it’s far less flexible. Dedicated hosting is the most expensive, but it’s still limited in comparison.
Cloud hosting is expensive. There’s no denying it! But there is good news—you never pay for what you don’t need. You pay for the exact amount of resources you need for your site to run as it needs to. If you can afford it, it’s the best by far.
Conclusion
When it comes to your website’s performance, you can’t beat cloud hosting. It might be expensive, but it’s by far the best investment you can make in your website. Remember, web hosting affects everything from your web page loading speed to your web design, so it’s in your business’s best interest to not skimp on it!
About the Author
Paul Wheeler runs a web design agency that helps small businesses optimize their websites for business success. He aims to educate business owners on all things website-related, at his own website, Reviews for Website Hosting.