Web hosting is a kind of service that provides webmasters with servers to place their websites. You can store your data on the server of chosen web hosting provider (a company that owns a server) and thus present your online presence on the Web.

Web hosting service is divided into several types which vary according to price and hosting terms. Your choice depends on the purposes you pursue and on your requirements towards the website.

The most general division includes free and paid web hosting. Free web hosting is known as the most simply organized one and requires no fees from the user. But it will suit probably only personal websites that do not need special facilities and tools as it has a lot of limitations and disadvantages. On the contrary paid web hosting will suit e-commerce websites and is known for providing webmasters with a number of useful applications. The only disadvantage is the prices that sometimes may appear quite high but still there are companies that offer some affordable paid web hosting nowadays.

Paid hosting in its turn includes another division of services into shared, dedicated, managed, reseller and co-location.

Shared web hosting is considered as the most common one and implies sharing the server of the hosting provider with other customers. It may have some limitation concerning applications and scripts you may use which are set by the very hosting provider. Also you cant implement full control of your account as it is mostly managed by the hosting company including software installation, updates etc. Shared web hosting is known as the most affordable service but it has its disadvantages. The main drawback is that you share the server and thus your activity is influenced by other users work. For example, if one of the customers causes problem you may be affected as well so in this case shared hosting appears unreliable.

Unlike shared service dedicated web hosting means full control of the account by the very customer and implies individual server for each user. You can have multiple websites and total access to all the facilities of the server. Dedicated web hosting gives much more storage space and bandwidth which widens your possibilities. It is known by high uptime guarantee and helpful customer support system. But dedicated web hosting is also considered to be quite expensive and complex service. It requires some special knowledge from you to administrate and operate your account. Of course the hosting company will provide you with necessary help concerning problems with software, but in general you are the only one to deal with set up. Another type of web hosting is managed. As a dedicated service it provides with complete control of your account and necessary facilities. But it is known to be easier in operating and setup configuration as it has a lot of useful tools to simplify your website administration. With managed web hosting service you will always get all necessary support concerning software and hardware. Though you may be required some fees for additional setup service and this tends to be the disadvantage.

Reseller web hosting may be aimed at those webmasters who decided to create their own small hosting business as it implies the right to resell space on the server to other web users. Reseller web hosting also gives the possibility of managing multiple websites on the server. Talking about the cost of the service it should be said that it's not cheap but quite affordable. Dealing with reseller service to earn some money you should mind that it requires time and certain responsibility as you are to work with your clients. In order to get good reputation as are seller you should provide your customers with helpful support and answer their questions whenever they may need it.

There is another type of web hosting which is called co-location. It means that you purchase a server and then get necessary service from another hosting company which is not the owner of this server. This kind of service is known to be complex and expensive. Purchasing of the very service is not cheap but then you may be required some additional fee for system management support and related matters. But if you have enough skills you may control and manage your account on your own by means of number of special tools and facilities provided by the hosting company.

No matter what kind of service you will choose it is very important to learn the terms and conditions of the hosting company you want to collaborate with. There is a number of key factors you should mind:

• - company's reputation which you can learn from the feedbacks of the customers - uptime guarantee should be not less than 99% .You must be sure that the server is running properly that's why pay attention to this factor
• - disc space/traffic limitations - find out how much space are you given to store your data and what is the traffic amount to decide whether it will be enough for your work
• - tools and facilities (FTP access, CGI bin access etc) the company provides
• - customer support you may rely on during the collaboration. It is very important to know that you will receive timely support and get your questions answered properly.