Tag Archives: web hosting tips

How to Add Google Fonts to Your WordPress Website

Posted on April 16, 2018 by Hosting

The post How to Add Google Fonts to Your WordPress Website appeared first on HostGator Blog . Is Your Site Using the Right Font? Thanks to the growing number of mobile internet users, finding the right font has become a big project for site designers, publishers, and retailers. The BBC and the Guardian have recently debuted new bespoke fonts designed to be easier to read on phones—and save the companies money on licenses for commercial fonts. Even if you don’t have a flagship-media budget, there are ways you can update your site fonts for better readability, a more consistent appearance across browsers and devices, and faster page-load times to help your SEO. What Fonts Are Best for Your Site? Whether you’re a design fan or someone who likes to consider all the options, it’s really easy to fall down a rabbit hole of fonts. There are thousands of open-source fonts that anyone can download and use, and thousands more available for purchase. Because you want fonts that make your website easier to use and faster, it’s probably best to limit yourself to Google Fonts , a repository of open-source fonts that are easy to read on small screens and which cache quickly to speed up page load times. At this writing, Google Fonts offers a mere 848 font families, 823 of which work for English-language copy. To narrow down your 800-plus choices, you’ll need to apply some basic font choice principles , like those described by Janie Kliever at Canva. Two to three fonts is the ideal number for most sites. If you stick with only one, your site may look sterile and visitors may have a hard time figuring out which text is a headline and which is your main copy. More than two or three fonts can make the site look chaotic and amateurish. Choose fonts that have some contrast so that they create a visual hierarchy. For example, you could use a bold or serif font for your headlines so they stand out and a simple sans serif font for body copy so it’s easy to scan, even on a smartphone. Google Design gives a broader overview of typography, fonts, and how to find the best fonts for your site in their Choosing Web Fonts: A Beginner’s Guide . Among the things the authors say you should consider are: Are you designing your site for the long-term or short-term? Long-term projects often need font families with many style options. How long will your text blocks be? Even on-screen, serif fonts are a good idea if you’ll feature five or more paragraphs at a time. What size will your type be? Simpler fonts are easier to read at small sizes, but they may not stand out enough in headlines. Will your visitors translate your site into other languages? If so, you’ll need to choose a font family that supports multiscript characters so those translations display properly. The guide recommends a few fonts for specific situations to help you get started. You can also browse the entire Google Fonts library here .   Finding Google Fonts for Your Site When you’re ready to explore Google Fonts, it can be a bit of a challenge to navigate the somewhat clunky directory to find the right typefaces. As an example, let’s walk through looking for a serif font to use for headlines on a site for a petsitting business—something bold and businesslike but a bit playful. In the Google Fonts search filter sidebar, you can select the serif category and decide how you want the results presented—by age, popularity, or alphabetized by name. Under languages, you can narrow your results to typefaces that support English by selecting ‘Latin’ (confusing, but we do use the Latin alphabet). Next, you can check the boxes to open slider menus and fine-tune your options for number of styles (variations on the font, like lighter, bolder, or italic), thickness, slant, and width. By choosing ‘serif’ and ‘Latin,’ you get 174 options for your petsitting website headline font. Bree Serif looks like it could work. To see how your copy will look, you can replace the dummy copy with your text by inserting the cursor, clearing out the dummy text, and entering ‘Our Petsitting Service Menu.’ (You can also click ‘apply to all fonts’ so we don’t have to retype it.) You can use the slider menu to resize the text anywhere from 8 to 112 points. You can also use the dropdown menu on the left to see how your copy looks in a sentence or paragraph or the alphabet and numerals in that font. Clicking the + button adds Bree Serif to a tray at the bottom, where you can collect all the fonts you want to use. When you’re ready to install them, click the black tray bar and you’ll see HTML and CSS code to embed the font in your site. (More on this below.) You can download as many fonts as you like, but Google recommends that you don’t download everything “just in case,” because of the time and space it would take. How Can You Use Google Fonts On Your Site? If you’re comfortable adding code to your site, you can use the Get Started with Google Fonts API guide to using stylesheets to specify the font families and styles you want on your site. You’ll also find out how to drastically reduce the font file size for headings and logos by optimizing font requests. For anyone who’s not comfortable editing their own site code, there are several plugins for WordPress that can install and manage Google Fonts for you. One of the most popular options, with more than 300,000 installations, is Easy Google Fonts . With this plugin, you can avoid editing the code for your site’s theme and you get a menu of all Google Fonts without having to manually select and download any of them. The plugin adds a typography menu in the WordPress Customize section of the dashboard, where you can select font families, styles, color, and other text elements for each type of header and text in your site theme. You can see a realtime preview of what each change you make will look like; visitors to your site will only see your changes if you save and publish them. To change text elements that aren’t part of your theme’s default controls, Easy Google Fonts allows you to create your own font controls that will show up in the Typography menu. After you choose the Google Fonts you want to use and make sure they look right in the preview, you’re ready to save and publish to update your site.   Update Your Fonts, Upgrade Your Site By updating your site’s fonts, you’re not only giving it an updated look, you’re also building a better user experience. Faster-loading fonts that are designed for on-screen readability are the key to keeping visitors coming back, especially as more people do their browsing on their phones. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

Posted in HostGator, Hosting, VodaHost | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on How to Add Google Fonts to Your WordPress Website

Your Web Hosting Checklist: How To Choose the Right Plan and Host

Posted on April 3, 2018 by Hosting

The post Your Web Hosting Checklist: How To Choose the Right Plan and Host appeared first on HostGator Blog . Review This Checklist Before Choosing Your New Web Hosting Provider Whether you’re launching a new website or thinking about switching to a new plan for the one you already have, browsing web hosting packages can be overwhelming. There are so many different types of packages and features that it’s hard to truly understand what makes them all different and pinpoint which one makes the most sense for you. To help you navigate the process of choosing a web hosting provider, we’ve compiled a list of the main questions you should ask and things you need to know. 10 Questions to Ask to Understand Your Needs Before we get into the specifics of what different web hosting packages offer, you should take some time to define your particular needs.   1. How big is my website? Websites can vary from a few simple pages to huge sites with hundreds of pages and a complicated infrastructure to keep it all organized. Larger, more complicated websites will have different hosting needs than smaller, simpler ones. Think carefully about how large and involved your website is now, and what reasonable expectations you have for growth in the coming years.   2. How secure does it need to be? You don’t want to get hacked; so all websites will need some security. But any website that collects information from visitors needs to be extra secure, especially if you plan to make sales through the site. If customers will be trusting you with credit card information, you need to earn that trust by making sure your website provides adequate security .   3. Will I be selling products through the website? An e-commerce website needs to include the functionality for people to select products and make purchases. If achieving sales will be a goal of your website, then look for a web hosting provider that provides the right level of functionality and security to accomplish that, and that’s compatible with the e-commerce software you intend to use.   4. How much traffic do I expect to get? While guessing at potential traffic isn’t an exact science, you can probably make some informed assumptions. If you’re building an entirely new website, then you should expect to only get a little bit of traffic early on, unless you have a sizeable brand reputation already. If you have an already existing website, then you can look at your analytics so far to make an educated guess at what to expect moving forward.   5. How fast do I want it to load? Visitors expect websites to load fast. If they have to wait to see what you have to offer, they probably won’t bother. For that reason, you’ll want web hosting that enables your website to work quickly. Larger websites that receive more traffic will need a different level of hosting power to provide that than new websites with a limited audience.   6. How experienced am I at running a website? Are you figuring it out as you go along, or have you been building and running websites for years? If you’ll need a lot of help and handholding, then a web hosting company with strong customer support and beginner’s resources will be worth it. If you know the ropes already, then you may want to prioritize factors like software compatibility, customization options, and scalability over ease of use and support.   7. Will I be hiring a designer or putting it together myself? If you’re throwing together a basic site on your own, then you’ll be glad to have access to templates or a website builder to make the process easier. If you’ll be hiring a professional designer to put the website together for you , then you’ll want to check with them about any compatibility issues to be aware of when choosing your web hosting platform.   8. Will I have a blog? If your website will include a blog, or primarily consist of a blog, then you’ll want to consider which blogging platform you want to go with and make sure your hosting package is well suited to work with it.   9. How much customization do I want? With many more affordable shared plans, there are some limitations on what you can do with your website. For most website owners, it won’t be anything that affects what you want to be able to create and accomplish, but for some who want to be able to do website development entirely on their own terms (and have the skills to do so), considering VPS plans or a dedicated server will make that possible.   10. Will I need more than one domain? A lot of website owners have an array of business or website ideas they want to explore at some point. If that sounds like you, then getting a web hosting plan that covers more than one domain will pay off. In addition, if you want to make sure your register all the domains someone looking for your brand name might try (so you can direct them all back to your website), you’ll need a plan that allows multiple parked domains (all HostGator Baby and Business plans come with unlimited domains, by the way).   5 Things Any Web Hosting Plan You Consider Should Offer No matter what your unique needs are, there are five things every website owner should insist on in a web hosting package.   1. A reliable server You want to know with confidence that anytime someone tries to navigate to your website, they’ll see the site you designed. Otherwise, what are you paying for? Good web hosting providers promise high levels of uptime (the amount of time your website is live). If a provider you’re considering doesn’t promise at least 99% uptime, then you’ll be better off looking elsewhere. Note: All HostGator plans provide 99.9% uptime – even independent reviewers have confirmed how consistent the performance is. If you want to make sure people see your site every time they go looking for it, our plans are worth a look.   2. Compatibility with your web design needs Whether you need an easy way to design a website yourself, or your developer is pushing for something that works with WordPress, PHP, Ruby on Rails, or some other specific website software, your web hosting package needs to work with what you’re using.   3. Ability to handle the amount of traffic you receive For most new websites, this part isn’t hard – it takes some time to build up traffic and shared hosting accounts can manage in the realm of 30,000-40,000 monthly visitors without much issue. But if you anticipate more traffic than that, you’ll need to consider splurging for a higher-level plan that can accommodate those higher numbers.   4. Cost you can afford You can only invest in what you can afford. Have a general idea of your budget going into your search. Shared hosting plans are good enough for a lot of website needs and are typically very affordable – just a few bucks a month. More expensive plans offer more features, more customization options, or better bandwidth and speed for higher levels of traffic. There’s no need to pay for all that if you don’t need it, but if you do, the extra cost will be worth it. You can keep an eye out for good signup deals, but make sure you know what the ongoing costs will be. You must be able to afford the monthly or yearly fee once the signup deal has worn off.   5. Q uality, accessible customer service Whether you’re a newbie who could use the help of a human to walk you through the basic processes of setting up your website or you’re a veteran web designer who just needs to be able to get someone on the phone immediately when there’s a problem, you want to know the customer support will be there when you need it. No matter the type of website you launch or hosting package you go with, research the reputation the provider has for customer service.   Match Your Needs to Your Options Now that you’ve identified some of the main things you should look for in a web hosting package, here’s a basic rundown of some of your main options to help you match what you need to what’s out there.   The Different Types of Hosting Want to share our web hosting infographic? Click to enlarge. You can get a more detailed explanation of how different web hosting plans work here , but here are the main categories to be aware of and who they’re usually for.   Shared Hosting Shared hosting is the best option for new website owners that are just starting out. If you want an easy, affordable plan that will work for a smaller website with moderate traffic, shared hosting will do the trick. And if you choose a web hosting provider that offers some of the other types of plans on the list, upgrading down the line if or when your website grows will be easy.   Cloud Hosting Cloud hosting is another affordable option, but one that offers impressive speed. If you want to be extra sure that people who visit your site will see fast load times – particularly if you have a lot on your site that could slow the load time, like high res images or videos – then this is a good option. The main reason to go with cloud hosting is for affordable speed, but it also offers easier maintenance and better response to sudden spikes in traffic.   VPS Hosting For websites that are getting bigger and growing their visitor numbers, VPS hosting is a step up from shared hosting in terms of the amount of traffic and storage it can handle. You’re not sharing a server with as many other websites, so your website can take advantage of a bigger share of the bandwidth. And for web developers looking for more customization options, VPS puts those possibilities into your hands.   WordP ress Hosting Many websites that include blogs are built on WordPress, as the platform is designed specifically for blogging and has an intuitive back-end that makes it easy for website owners of all skill levels to make changes. For any website built on WordPress, a managed WordPress hosting plan can supply you with all the features you need for your website to run smoothly.   Dedicated Server For websites that anticipate having lots of traffic and needing a significant amount of storage space, your safest bet is to go with a dedicated server . This option ensures your website will keep going strong no matter how many unique visitors you get or how many gigabytes of storage you load to the site. It also allows for any customization options your developer could need. It does cost the most, but it also offers the most.   Additional Features To Consider Deciding on the type of hosting you need is a big step, but there are a number of additional features to consider based on the needs you defined: Website builder – Some web hosting packages either include a website builder as part of the package, or as an extra add-on you can buy. If you’re building your first website and want to save money on hiring a designer, this offers an easy way to do it yourself without having to learn to code. E-commerce features – If you’ll be selling products on your website, then you’ll need the functionality to allow people to add items to a shopping cart, check out, and ensure the whole process is secure. You need a web hosting platform that offers e-commerce features or is compatible with e-commerce software that does. Software compatibility – In general, you need to make sure that any web hosting package you consider will be compatible with the software you’ll be using for web design and e-commerce. SSL – E-commerce websites or any other type of site that will collect personal information from visitors should have SSL for protection. This feature encrypts all sensitive information you share through your website. It comes with many web hosting packages and can be bought as an add-on for many others. Easy migration – If you’re moving your website from one provider to another, you want the process to be simple. Web hosting providers that make the migration process easy and offer any support you need to get it done will make your life easier. Tutorials and other educational materials – If you’re new to running a website, access to educational resources will make a big difference to finding your way around the process. Many web hosting platforms will offer helpful tutorials and articles as well as customer support to help you get set up. Easy to use control panel – While those resources are good to have, not needing them is even better. An intuitive control panel can cut down on how much you need to learn in order to work with your website effectively.   Site backup – Nobody wants to lose everything they’ve worked on in a moment. Just like you backup your work, you should backup your website. Some web hosting packages include automatic backups so you never have to worry about losing everything. Others let you purchase automatic backup services on top of the cost of your plan. This option can give you peace of mind and save you in a pinch.   Conclusion There’s a lot to consider when choosing your web hosting plan. Knowing the basics of what to look for will make your selection easier. If you could still use more information to help you make a decision, our hosting experts are on hand to answer any questions . Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

Posted in HostGator, Hosting, php, VodaHost, vps | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Your Web Hosting Checklist: How To Choose the Right Plan and Host

What Is Private Cloud Hosting?

Posted on February 28, 2018 by Hosting

The post What Is Private Cloud Hosting? appeared first on HostGator Blog . What Is Private Cloud Hosting? More and more businesses are turning to cloud-based solutions for their hosting needs. Two of the main types of cloud hosting include public cloud and private cloud hosting. Public cloud is the most common form of cloud hosting , however, private cloud hosting does have a specific purpose, which you’ll learn about below. Below we explore what private cloud hosting is, along with the advantages and disadvantages of going private, so you can make the best hosting decision for your business.   What is Private Cloud Hosting? At its core, private cloud hosting offers the same level of flexibility, scalability, and performance of the public cloud, but it also offers you greater levels of control and security. The two main methods of private cloud hosting are in-house or hosted at a provider’s data center. Most businesses will end up opting for the second option as it’s more cost-effective and won’t require you to maintain a full-time IT staff just to manage your servers. Typically the server network for private cloud hosting won’t be as vast as the public server network. This is especially true if you’re running your own private cloud network in-house. Often, a private cloud hosting network will instead operate in clusters. You’ll have multiple different servers that are running simultaneous versions of your website, and resources can be drawn from various sources as they are needed. Advantages of Private Cloud Hosting Private cloud hosting will offer you most of the benefits of public cloud hosting , but on top of that, it’ll give you much more control and security. Private clouds can be created in a myriad of ways to help support large-scale businesses that require higher levels of security. Going in-house with your private cloud hosting will offer you the highest levels of security. However, if you decide to utilize a hosting provider for your private cloud hosting you’ll still end up with higher levels of control and security than going with the public cloud. Private cloud hosting is essentially an upgraded version of public cloud hosting and offers you benefits like: Heightened levels of security. Unlike public shared hosting you won’t be sharing the physical server environments with anyone else. This creates an incredibly secure network on multiple levels. Improved customization options. Since you’re the only user on your server setup you’ll be able to completely customize it to your liking, including server hardware, software, operating system, and more. Extremely reliable. Cloud hosting networks are already very reliable. With a private cloud hosting network there’s no chance of your site being brought down by other sites on the network.   Disadvantages of Private Cloud Hosting Private cloud hosting can be a great hosting choice for a variety of business owners, but it’s not perfect for everyone. For starters, it’ll be much more expensive for the initial setup, particularly if you’re going in-house with your private servers. Plus, if you’re outsourcing to a third-party provider then you’ll essentially be paying for the use of multiple dedicated servers to run your cloud network on top of. Beyond the initial setup, you might have higher fees related to server maintenance, upgrades, and management as well. This is especially true if you’re going to be purchasing and managing your own servers, instead of relying on a cloud hosting provider. Finally, with the heightened levels of security that a private cloud host offers, this can create some issues with remote access and mobile users accessing your server environment. But if you require very high security standards, then this is a trade off you’ll have to make.   What Kind of Business Will Benefit From Private Cloud Hosting? Private cloud hosting will be much more time-, money-, and resource-intensive to setup and manage. However, you’ll also be getting very high performance, security, customization and flexibility that is hard to get with other types of hosting. The biggest determining factor in choosing public vs. private cloud hosting is your overall budget and hosting goals. Even sites that receive a high volume of traffic might not need the improved levels of control and security offered by private cloud hosting. If your site deals with sensitive customer and user information, then you could probably benefit from a private cloud hosting setup. Not only will you have higher levels of security, but also you’ll be able to easily manage all your data as you see fit. Overall, if you’ve been thinking about using a dedicated server, but want increased flexibility, then going with a private cloud hosting environment can be the solution you’ve been looking for. Private cloud hosting can be a great solution for high-level businesses that need a scalable and reliable hosting choice, and have the cash flow to support such a high-level network. Hopefully you have a greater understanding of how private and public cloud networks differ, so you can choose the right option for your business. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

Posted in HostGator, Hosting, VodaHost | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on What Is Private Cloud Hosting?

Understanding Cloud Hosting Security

Posted on February 27, 2018 by Hosting

The post Understanding Cloud Hosting Security appeared first on HostGator Blog . Understanding Cloud Hosting Security Cloud hosting is just as secure as any other style of hosting. However, it’s gotten a bad rap due to the criticism of virtualized technologies in the past. When things started moving towards the cloud there was a lot of fear related to this new technology, as businesses couldn’t part with the idea of not having their data and storage in-house. However, now that the cloud has gone mainstream those critiques have become nothing but a thing of the past. Today we rely on several different technologies that live in the cloud, and our hosting is no different. Below we explore the main issues surrounding cloud hosting security and highlight the security advantages of hosting your website in the cloud. So you can finally answer the question: is cloud hosting safe and secure?   Understanding Cloud Hosting Security Much of the concern related to the security of cloud hosting and other cloud platforms had to do with the initial skepticism over changing technology and not the technology itself. Time has shown us that the cloud has matured and with that technology, maturation has come improved levels of security. When looking at a traditional server environment your website’s files are stored in a specified physical server location. With cloud hosting your site’s files are distributed and take up multiple virtual server locations that are associated with physical servers. In terms of overall security, cloud hosting actually has an additional layer of security. You have your physical security measures to protect the physical datacenter from being hacked, or harmed. Next, you have a layer of security on the physical server itself. Finally, with cloud hosting you have an additional layer of security that protects the virtual network and isolates your cloud hosting environment. However, not all cloud hosts are created equal in their security measures. The overall security of any cloud platform has to do with how certain security protocols are implemented. For example, you can have a very insecure cloud server in the same way you could have an insecure dedicated server. It’s not the underlying technology, but how it’s implemented. Is Cloud Hosting Secure? There are a few different objections to the overall security of cloud hosting. We examine those below and illustrate how cloud hosting actually overcomes these security hurdles.   1. The Bad Neighbor Effect One common security issue revolves around the issue of multi-tenant cloud hosting. This is when multiple different virtual machines are using the same dedicated physical server space. These virtual machine networks are what make up your cloud hosting environment. The idea is that a single insecure or overloaded site on the network, could compromise the other sites. However, there are numerous enhanced security protocols in place like VM isolation, which completely isolates your virtual network from others on the same machine. This means that your data is safe, protected, and can’t be accessed by anyone except you.   2. Overall Loss of Data Control The seeming loss of control over the location of your data seems to be a big objection to cloud hosting. The outsourcing of your information storage to a third-party cloud system can seem a little scary. However, most of today’s cloud hosting providers operate with this understanding and have built their system around providing transparency and security around the user data. This allows you to maintain responsibility over your data, while not having to manage everything yourself.   3. Main Cloud Hosting Security Vulnerabilities Just like other forms of hosting there are certain vulnerabilities you’ll need to be aware of. Security is never going to be perfect. When compared to traditional hosting the cloud offers a universal access point, which means that security protocols need to be even stricter. Still, vulnerabilities do exist. Below you’ll find the main types of security issues that threaten cloud hosting environments. You’ll notice they’re very similar to traditional hosting environments as well: DDoS attacks. It’s difficult to stop DDoS attacks, but you can do your best to protect your site with a solution like SiteLock, or other security add-ons. Data breaches. Data breaches can occur due to the lack of two-factor authentication. By improving passwords and improving your user authentication process, this can be avoided. Malware. Malware scripts can be injected into your cloud hosting and can be quite destructive in regards to sensitive data. However, using software like SiteLock will help protect you against this as well. Data loss. Since data is stored across long distances you can run into the risk of a datacenter being taken out, or going offline, due to natural causes. Typically, this risk can be mitigated through regular backups stored in different locations.   Security Benefits of Cloud Servers Using cloud hosting can actually end up offering you some security advantages . By taking your website’s hosting up into the cloud you may be protecting your website even more than using a standard host. Hardware problems are a non-issue . With cloud hosting, if there’s an issue with the physical server, or you need to add more memory or make improvements, you can do this without any downtime by running your site from a different virtual server. An infected server won’t bring down your site. On the same line of thinking if a physical server becomes compromised this won’t bring down your site. Your site will simply be loaded from a different source and isolated from the issue. Instant website data mirroring. Website mirroring will have simultaneous versions of your site present on different servers. This helps to improve the overall safety of your site and its redundancy. Hopefully, this post has given you a better picture of the main issues surrounding cloud hosting security. Today’s cloud hosts are very different from the insecure cloud environments of the past, and instead offer you a flexible and highly secure hosting solution . Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

Posted in HostGator, Hosting, VodaHost | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Understanding Cloud Hosting Security

Cloud Hosting vs Web Hosting

Posted on February 27, 2018 by Hosting

The post Cloud Hosting vs Web Hosting appeared first on HostGator Blog . Cloud Hosting vs Web Hosting – Which Is Best? In order to have a functioning website, you’re going to need some kind of hosting. The hosting you choose will depend on your unique needs as a website owner. You’re probably wondering what style of hosting is right for you and have been considering cloud hosting vs. web hosting. The goal of this post is to clear up the confusion between these two types of hosting. Below we look at the differences between cloud hosting and web hosting, so you can decide what style of hosting is going to be best for your website.   What Is Web Hosting? Web hosting is a more general term that refers to where and how you’ll host your website’s files. Essentially, your web host is where all of your website’s files will be stored. At the core, your website is a bundle of files that are sitting on a host somewhere. When a user types in your domain name the browser downloads those files from your web host and displays them. With standard web hosting, you’ll be storing your site’s files on a single server. The type of server environment you choose will depend upon the size of your website, how much traffic you receive, and your level of technical expertise. The most common types of hosting you’ll come across are: Shared: This is the most popular style of hosting and also the cheapest. With shared hosting, a single server is partitioned and you’re renting a slice of that server along with dozens or hundreds of other sites. Shared hosting is best suited for beginners who want to get their first sites online as fast as possible. Dedicated: With this style of hosting you have an entire server allotted to your website. This gives you complete control over your server environment along with great performance. However, dedicated hosting is much more expensive and will require some technical knowledge to setup and maintain properly. VPS: With a VPS server, you’re still utilizing a shared server environment, but you’re running a virtualized server on top of it. You’ll have an allotted amount of space, CPU usage, memory and more, which can lead to improved loading times and site performance. VPS is a great step up from a shared hosting environment. Managed: With managed hosting, you get access to a higher performing server that’s managed and optimized for you. Typically, it’ll be optimized for a certain type of website, like WordPress managed hosting. Managed hosting can be more expensive, but you’re essentially letting a team of experts to run and manage your server for you. The final type of hosting you’ll come across in your search is cloud hosting , which we’ll get into below.  As you’ll soon learn cloud hosting is an entirely different type of hosting that blends both shared and dedicated hosting together.   What Is Cloud Hosting? With cloud hosting , you aren’t renting space on a single physical server. Essentially, all of your server hardware is virtual. It’s a fairly new style of hosting that’s been growing in popularity in recent years. Cloud hosting offers you unlimited resource expansion, which is great to have if you have a fast-growing site. Your site will also be shielded from malfunctioning servers, as your site can be switched to another server if it’s underperforming. Cloud hosting rocks for a few different reasons: The pricing is flexible and you only pay for what you use. So, if you’re having a very high traffic month you can quickly scale up your resources. Then, if traffic drops again you just scale your needs down again. With cloud hosting, you’re never stuck paying for server resources you don’t use. It’s super scalable. If your site’s traffic is up and down, then you need a host that can work with you. If a shared host won’t cut it, but a dedicated or managed host provides too high of server resources, then cloud hosting can be the right fit for your needs. It has incredible uptime and performance. If you’re experiencing issues causing sluggish performance and loading speeds, then your site will just be switched to a higher performing server.   How to Choose the Best Hosting Option for Your Needs With all of the hosting types available it can be difficult to make the right decision. When you’re trying to decide between cloud vs. web hosting, think about what kind of things you’ll want from your host. For example, if you’re a complete beginner who wants their site online as fast as possible, then shared hosting could work for you. But, if you have a very high traffic website and you don’t want to think twice about managing your own server, then consider a managed host. But, if you want something more flexible that’s cost-effective and can grow with your site, then cloud hosting is an option worth considering . Hopefully, the breakdown above will help you decide if going with traditional web hosting or cloud hosting is going to be the best fit for your website. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

Posted in HostGator, Hosting, VodaHost, vps | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Cloud Hosting vs Web Hosting