Should I use Cloud Hosting in 2025?

Opening Sidenote/Distraction

Interesting tidbit; the keywords "web hosting" have a search volume of 10k+ per month, and is difficult to break into, according to ahrefs.com. However, the term "how to start a web hosting business" has a search volume of 100+ per month, and should be "easy." I tell you what, starting a web hosting service from scratch with no customers is difficult! I am starting to wonder if Ron Paul's idea that learning public speaking as part of your education is truly something I should have done!

The Real Opening

Part of my vocation is to share the the understanding of web hosting with others. When it comes to web hosting, there is more than a few ways to skin the cat. As for cloud hosting, that is simply just one of the ways. A small business or personal blog could benefit from knowing what options exist!

We'll talk about a few hosting solutions:

• Cloud Hosting - For the Price Denier
• Shared Hosting - For the Simple Yet Cheap
• Dedicated Hosting - For the Expensive All-in Mentality
• VPS Hosting - For the Sensible
• Self Hosting - For the Freedom Lover

I think you can see where this is going. Which web hosting service do you choose, and why? Let's dive in!

Cloud Hosting

I am versed in AWS and have used their service for different clients for some time. I am impressed with the 8 9's of uptime (99.999999%) supposedly available for S3. The technical aspects and engineering is impressive.

Cloud hosting can be as complex as you can or can't handle. The pricing can be as expensive as a new car. But there are ways to keep the cost low. What's the trick to keeping the costs low? Self control. Do not add more servers if not needed, because there is a chance you'll forget to terminate them. Or you might begin feeling attached, that you might lose something valuable should you terminate them. As a result, extra servers could hang around for years and years.

Don't just pick the top cloud providers just because they "the top cloud providers." If you simply must do it, be wise. Ensure that you choose a provider that is a good fit for your situation. I have been recommending Vultr, due to the fact that they are privately owned, and have great prices.

There is some cool stuff when it comes to Cloud hosting. Namely:

• Microservice concept
• Terraform / Ansible
• Forced budgeting skills

Cloud hosting is probably not a consumer-friendly option. If you have a developer or some type of server or cloud tech, then cloud options can work for you. Typically you would deploy a custom web app or some type of microservice.

Shared Hosting

If you just need a simple website, or if you are using WordPress, then a shared hosting account may be the right choice for you. Getting a cPanel account through Bluehost or one if its sister companies, or Dreamhost, Namecheap, etc, that may be the way to go. There is not much to configure. The pricing is straightforward. There is typically a DNS server with a simple zone editor. You can learn the cPanel in a short time. And email services are provided.

We saw the rise of stuff like WordPress.com and other blogging platforms, so needing to "host" your own site on a shared hosting account may have seen it's hayday already. But, maybe not.

For a basic site, this is most likely the way to go. This would be the most consumer-friendly option.

You could also consider other PHP based platforms, such as Joomla or Drupal.

Dedicated Hosting

For me, if I am going to do a dedicated server, I just purchase my own hardware, fill up the RAM slots, and get redundant SSD drives. This way you don't have any lock-in nor monthly rental fees.

Going to a dedicated hosting provider is among my least favorite options. Depending on the provider, you may or may not need to setup the web hosting and email service software.

However, if you need the computing power, then this option can work well. I suspect that most customers are moving to "the cloud" though for computing power.

Depending on the setup, a dedicated server may or may not be consumer friendly. The tech support from your service provider should help you determine that. If the service provides a cPanel, then you can use this similarly as you would a shared hosting account. If there is no cPanel, then you may need a developer or technician to help you get things rolling.

VPS Hosting

VPS hosting is like dedicated hosting, but instead of getting the whole bare-metal server, you get a virtual slice of it. I don't know that "VPS" is a popular term any longer, as providers such as Digital Ocean call them "droplets," and AWS calls them "EC2's." They are essentially the same concept as a VPS, just updated names.

I think that brings up an interesting point, you basically just have to know the industry to really see what's going on.

In any case, using a Digital Ocean droplet or an equivalent service from Vultr is a good option. I use Vultr for a couple VPS servers, and I've been happy with them so far.

If you want to this route, you may want to get a developer or server admin to help you out, as these are minimal deployments that require additional software installed and configured.

Self Hosting

Alas, self hosting. If you just scrolled down to this section, then I'll just tell you this: give FreeBSD with ZFS a try.

If you are self hosting, then I would enjoy checking out your setup, even if you just describe it over email. I've been self hosting for quite a while now, with the help of Vultr for public IP's, and I've had some good success. Using FreeBSD, I am able to separate my services into different jails, and I automate the backups using ZFS snapshots.

If you mirror your storage drives, then a ZFS scrub can ensure your data integrity.

Need Help?

If you need help choosing a hosting service, or if you have a DNS situation that you can't figure out, or an email hosting situation that is tricky, or a website issue that you can't figure out, reach out to me. I can help you start figuring out the solution.

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