When you choose the home for your site, you usually do a web hosting search and pick a provider. With so many web hosting providers, there is a lot of choices. In addition to a provider, you also need to choose a web hosting package. Depending on what you need, you should go with a different web hosting package. The two most common types of web hosting packages are shared hosting and a dedicated server but there are also middle grounds, such as a virtual private server and reseller hosting.

o What Cheap Web Hosting Can Offer You

When you are looking for a cheap web hosting, basically your choice is limited to shared hosting. This is not that bad because in reality shared hosting offers quite a lot. When you share the same server with many other users, here is what you typically get:

• Low price – $4-5 a month is the average price for a cheap web hosting account but you can find even cheaper web hosting offers

• Some storage space – though the exact amount varies, you can get from 50-100MB to 5GB or more
• A decent amount of bandwidth – as with storage, the exact amount differs and it could be from as low as 1GB a month to 20GB or more
• Free email – generally free email accounts are included in the price and it is up to you to configure them
• PHP and MySQL – almost any shared hosting offer includes PHP and MySQL but if you know you need them, you need to ask explicitly before you sign up for that particular offer just to make sure you will get PHP and MySQL
• Free application installers – for example Fantastico.

+ What Dedicated Servers Can Offer You

Dedicated servers are the Mercedes in web hosting and if you can afford a dedicated server, it has many advantages, such as:

• + The whole server is yours
• + You can choose the operating system and the other applications
• + Usually you have times more bandwidth than with shared hosting
• + Very often you can choose the hardware for the dedicated server
• + You can administer the dedicated server the way you like

Of course, all this comes at a price. Dedicated servers cost times more than shared cheap web hosting – i.e. a dedicated server can cost from $50 or so a month up to over $200 a month. Additionally, the decision whether you need a dedicated server or a shared cheap web hosting will do is taken not only based on if you can afford it but also depending on whether you need a dedicated server or not.

# When Is the Right Time to Move From Cheap Hosting to a Dedicated Server?

Cheap web hosting is for starters. This is why if you are in the beginning of starting up a small website, shared web hosting is a safe bet.

However, if your business grows as planned, sooner or later you will notice that the limitations of shared cheap web hosting are pulling your business down. Nobody can tell you exactly when you should move from shared cheap hosting to a dedicated server but if you feel that you need more bandwidth than what shared hosting offers or if you are getting so much traffic that the shared server can barely handle it, this is a sign that you should consider a dedicated server.

It is wise if you plan in advance. This is why it is better if you make the decision to move to a dedicated server early so that you have the time to react to all the twists and turns. If your business grows faster than what you expect, it is quite possible that the shared cheap web host becomes the bottleneck. In this case you will be pressured to act fast and move to a dedicated server as soon as possible, which isn’t exactly the best approach.