A web hosting company is responsible for providing server space, web services and maintenance of servers. These web hosting companies host websites, which are owned or controlled by people and companies. There are two different types of web hosting and most companies will provide either kind. The first type of web hosting is called shared hosting. It can also be called virtual hosting or mass hosting.

The way it works is an individual will create content and applications that are placed on a server. This server also holds many other individual's content and applications. These other individuals are also customers of the same web hosting company. The equipment and server that the content is placed on are owned and managed by the web host provider.

These companies have technicians available to manage and monitor the servers. Shared hosting is often used by companies due to the fact that it is extremely efficient, it works very well, and it's inexpensive. However, shared hosting does come with it's own limitations. Some scripts and applications cannot be used but the user is often able to customize it. A user may be able to add a shopping cart feature or an online catalogue.

It is extremely important to understand the control panel the web hosting company will provide you with. When finding a web hosting company, it may be important to find out if there are shared hosting management tools, which will allow the user to use shared hosting but will also hold the benefits of dedicated hosting. Dedicated hosting is a much more complex form of web hosting. This type of hosting will rent out a server to an individual or company. That individual or company will have full access to the server to host a number of different websites. Whether the individual or the web hosting company will own the equipment depends on a number of different things and this will depend on the web hosting company.

With this type of web hosting, the business processes, strategic direction, and debugging applications are in the customer's care and control. The web host is only responsible for hosting operations. There are many advantages to dedicated hosting.

The customer will receive a top quality, physical infrastructure with a high-speed connection to the Internet. The customer will also receive a hosting package that is customized to fit their needs in terms of bandwidth, memory and storage space. Because only the individual who bought it owns the server, it allows for CPU-intensive applications to run smoothly. Because of this it will also prevent the service from being interrupted by other users. This type of plan will be a more suitable service for customers who have heavy traffic website as it gives them complete control over the hosting environment. While there are different types of web hosting other than shared or dedicated hosting, these are the main two types.

Most other types are also branches of these types. One must really examine the advantages and disadvantages of both before making a decision on which will be the best option for them.

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