Whether you’re a home office, small to large business, or just want your own web presence, maintaining a website can be extremely beneficial. The most difficult task, however, is trying to weed through the hundreds of thousands of places to host your website with all of the technical jargon they provide you.

Hosting is simply where you physically house your virtual real-estate. While many times hosting is something a business might do internally, outsourcing to a vendor is ideal simply because it moves the risk outside of the company while providing ultimate control. Especially as viruses, spyware, and SPAM become more rampant, it’s easier to justify a small monthly fee compared to an internal full-time IT position.

Three bucks to somewhere around six hundred; hosting costs are very inconsistent as you shop around. To find the main reason why, you need to look closely at the hosting plans these companies offer. Nearly every hosting company is based upon three basic plans: Shared IP Address, Dedicated IP Address, and Dedicated Server.

The shared IP address also know as the shared server plan is how hosting companies are able to cut costs because they lump a majority of websites onto one machine all of which are under one single IP address. All of the websites on the machine are constantly fighting for processor and memory usage which can slow access down especially if any of the websites have any server side functionality to them. Being only a single IP address is being used, what affects one site will ultimately affect the rest; this includes downtime. Though this plan is very inexpensive, it’s really optimized for the home or home office user simply trying to create a web presence. Businesses currently on the shared IP/server hosting plans should definitely renegotiate their hosting needs to ensure maximum performance and uptime of their website.

With the dedicated IP hosting plan, companies are ensured that their website receives its own IP address. This becomes extremely important if the company requires a secure connection for online purchasing. Secure server certificates which provides the https:// secure connection can only be installed on websites with their own dedicated IP address. Even though your website has an IP address, it still shares the server with other websites and suffers from many of the same weaknesses from the shared IP plan. Even if the hosting company has the biggest fastest server, your website could still suffer from some other website’s shopping cart or database functionality.

As the name implies, a dedicated server not only offers a dedicated IP Address, but an entire machine for your website. This plan is typically the most expensive, however, is the most cost effective solution for the business owner. Not only are all of the machine’s resources at the command of the website, the business has full root control of the server as if it was located within the business. Dedicated hosting provides the utmost flexibility and the least amount of risk for the cost even when compared to the other plans.

Another thing to keep in mind is that some hosting companies actually charge more for Windows based hosting because there is more overhead involved than with other operating systems like Linux. Windows servers are also typically less secure but offer greater compatibility with other software.

Some hosts also provide special functionality like off-site redundancy and control panels. In case anything catastrophic was to occur, another hosting location would instantly take over. Control panels provide easy management of websites and email through a simple web based application. Special functionality is usually only offered on higher priced hosting plans but is usually justified because of the cost savings it provides the business.

Shopping for hosting should not solely depend on disk space, but more with the actual needs of your website. Look for hosts that provide the most control and flexibility for your business. Once you find a good host, see if they provide any discounts for longer term contracts because chances are, you won’t need to switch again.