Every time a site visitor browses through a website and loads pages, the files are accessed from a remote computer also known as the Web server. If this remote computer is fast, then the page will load faster.
This remote computer executes code, runs queries on the database and sends files on receipt of every request. Hence, web hosting plays a crucial part in determining website speed.
Types Of Web Hosting
Some common types of Web Hosting plans are:
- Shared Web Hosting
- Reseller Web Hosting
- Cloud-based Web Hosting
- Virtual Private Server (VPS)
- Dedicated Web Server
- Managed WordPress Hosting
Each hosting type may be ideal for different website requirements, business situations and priorities. In this article, we will be comparing shared and cloud hosting with respect to speed.
Shared Hosting
As the name suggests, a shared hosting plan is one in which your website is hosted on a server which is shared by several other websites. The biggest advantage of shared hosting is that it is cheap.
The hosting cost goes down when you share the server with more websites and is certainly lower than other hosting plans. The disadvantage is that the resources of the web servers are shared, as well.
So, if a website with whom you are sharing the server suddenly starts receiving heavy traffic, the server resources get strained which may negatively impact the speed of your website.
Cloud Hosting
Cloud-based hosting uses multiple servers to work in tandem like one gigantic server. It is easily scalable and your site’s performance is not dependent on any other site’s traffic.
Although the primary advantages of cloud hosting would be its scalability and cost effectiveness, cloud hosting also has a positive impact on the overall website speed. Features of cloud hosting that increase website speed:
Resources Are Pooled In
In cloud hosting there are multiple servers involved that bring a lot more hosting resources like CPU and RAM. If one server is unable to handle the load, it is offloaded seamlessly by other servers on the cloud which is why latency issues are mitigated.
The Cloud Hosting Ecosystem Is At Times, Distributed Across Geographies
This works out better because depending upon the area from where the request is made, the closest server steps in to serve the request making the request-response faster.
Cloud Storage Architecture Such As Ceph Storage
Highly efficient in handling the I/O and CPU requests which helps improve the overall performance and speed.
Although the primary advantage of Ceph is the reliability it brings to the table, the impact Ceph has on overall speed cannot be ignored.
Speed
This also depends on the configuration and applications the cloud hosting provider applies to cloud hosting. For instance, Varnish Caching when integrated with cloud hosting has the potential to improve the speed by 1000%.
Remember, your website is your brand’s identity in the digital world. A slow website usually creates an impression of a brand that does not think about its customers as much as a faster website does. Value your customers’ time and they will value your products/services.
