Shared or dedicated hosting?

That’s a popular and extremely important question to answer for any web project. Choosing the right hosting plan depends on your needs, your budget and your technical expertise in managing a server. Here are a few pointers to get you started:

Shared Hosting
Recommended usage :

• Traffic : Low to moderate (under 100 simultaneous users)
• Budget : Low (under 10$/month)
• Technical expertise needed to run : Mimimum

Virtual Private Server (VPS)
Recommended usage :

• Traffic : Moderate to high (under 1000 simultaneous users)
• Budget : Low to intermediate (under 100$/month)
• Technical expertise needed to run : Intermediate to high (depending on level of management by the host)

Dedicated Server
Recommended usage :

• Traffic : Moderate to high (over 1000 simultaneous users)
• Budget : Low to intermediate (over 100$/month)
• Technical expertise needed to run : Intermediate to high (depending on level of management by the host)

I would say that most people will never need anything more than a good shared hosting plan. It is, in my opinion, the simplest and cheapest way to get started. However, if you require more power, a VPS or dedicated server might be a solution. If this fits your profile, the biggest question after that is whether or not you have access to the technical expertise required to run and manage your web server. Some hosts will offer ‘managed’ plans in which there is a certain level of support. Carefully choose your host and do read the fine prints.