In order for your website to be online, you need to have a web hosting provider. There are literally hundreds or thousands of web hosting companies that will store your site files and allow them to be viewed over the Internet. These companies range from small one-person operations to fairly large companies. However, unless you are somewhat technical or familiar with web hosting terminology, it can be difficult to decide on 1) what type of hosting account you need, and 2) what web hosting company you should use. The purpose of this article is to help narrow the choices of what type of hosting account that you need.

In a simple sense, the types of web hosting accounts can be broken into 3 broad types:

1. Shared hosting
2. Virtual dedicated hosting
3. Dedicated hosting

For most small businesses, shared hosting is usually appropriate. Shared hosting basically means that your website is on the same machine (server) as a number of other sites. The actual number of sites on a server can range from a few to a couple thousand. Shared hosting is usually affordable and can range from about $40 - $100 a year. Shared hosting accounts usually have all of the features that you need along with an administrative control panel to manage your site. If your site does not get that much traffic, then this type of setup is probably a good choice. However, as your site grows in traffic, size, and complexity, you may need to consider a virtual dedicated hosting or dedicated hosting plan.

A virtual dedicated hosting plan is similar to a shared hosting account in that you share the server with other customers. However, in most cases, there are fewer customers on the server which means that you have more storage space and resources available to your website. You will also be able to host multiple sites with your virtual dedicated plan instead of just a single site, which is the norm on a shared hosting account. Another difference between virtual dedicated hosting is that you can usually get greater access to the server itself via SSH access, which is used to remotely login directly to the server and access the installed operating system. This is also a feature available in a dedicated hosting plan.

A dedicated hosting plan means that you have a server entirely to yourself. There are no other customers using the same server. Like a virtual dedicated plan, you will have SSH access to be able to login directly to the server. This will allow your website developer to make more sophisticated changes to the server configuration and also set up additional software that you might need. In most cases, you can set up multiple websites and domains. You may even be able to set up your own email server to handle your email accounts. The main drawback to a dedicated hosting plan is the price. Dedicated hosting plans usually cost at least $80/month.