Choosing the type of hosting that is most appropriate for your website affects the performance and stability of your website in general, especially in the long run, so you must allocate enough time to search for the best hosting that suits your website.
One of the options that will appear before you is cloud hosting, which is one of the best types of hosting that is recommended for all websites in general.
This is because cloud hosting provides you with great advantages compared to other types of hosting, especially since you can rely on it for your website from the beginning of construction until expansion and spread over a wide range, due to the ease of controlling server resources in a flexible manner, and at the same time you will find its cost relatively average compared to other types of hosting. The other.
In today’s article, we will provide you with a comprehensive guide to cloud hosting, starting with getting to know it in detail and clarifying the most important advantages and common disadvantages of it, as well as clarifying all the basic criteria that can help you determine the best cloud hosting for your website, so continue reading with us.
What is Cloud Hosting?
Hosting, in general, is a server with specific resources such as storage, RAM, CPU, etc., on which the website files are stored, and when the visitor needs to access the site, the files are downloaded from that hosting.
Now let us assume that you rely on a server in the United States of America and your website targets the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. When a visitor enters your site, files are downloaded from a server that travels a very long distance, thus increasing the server response time and site loading.
Hence, cloud hosting appears, where your website files are uploaded to a network of interconnected servers in different centers around the world, and when the visitor enters your site, the site is downloaded from the nearest server to him, thus reducing the server’s response time and increasing the site’s loading speed for the visitor.
The importance of an interconnected network of servers is reflected in the ease and flexibility of controlling server resources, whether they increase or decrease, because they are not linked to a separate server, and the same applies to the stability of servers compared to other types of hosting.
The word cloud hosting is reflected in all other types of hosting, for example, there is shared cloud hosting, there is VPS cloud hosting, etc., and this certainly affects the cost and features of hosting in general.
Now that we know the meaning of cloud hosting and how it works, let us delve deeper into the details associated with it in terms of common advantages and disadvantages, so continue reading with us.
Cloud Hosting features
Cloud hosting is one of the suitable hosting options that website owners can rely on for their projects, whether small, medium, or large companies, due to the flexibility of hosting, security, and many other features that we will explain in the following paragraphs:
Server uptime means the time during which the server is available to receive visitors at full efficiency, and you will find most cloud hosting companies offering a server uptime guarantee of more than 99.99%.
Therefore, because the cloud hosting servers are linked to each other, if any problem occurs in the server, the download is done on the other server, and thus the rate of stopping the site is very low unless a problem occurs in all servers, and that rarely happens, and thus your reliance on cloud hosting guarantees the stability of your site in front of visitors. In the long term without problems.
2- Improving the website loading speed
The interconnected servers in cloud hosting are reflected in the speed of loading your site on WordPress , and in most hosting companies, the servers are distributed in most parts of the world.
Therefore, when a visitor accesses your site, the site is loaded from the closest server available to him, and thus the server response time and overall download speed are significantly better compared to other hosting plans.
3- Distribution of traffic to servers
Traffic means the pressure that results on the server as a result of visits, and when the number of visits increases, it leads to increased pressure on the server, which can affect other sites linked to the same server, because all servers are connected to each other via a cloud network, and this is the biggest problem with shared hosting.
But the matter is different in cloud hosting, where traffic is distributed to the servers, and therefore, if traffic increases on one server, other sites are loaded on the rest of the servers, and thus the pressure on all servers is balanced, which also reflects on the stability factors of the site’s performance and speed.
4- Flexibility in controlling server resources
The ability to control server resources is one of the best features of cloud hosting that makes it suitable for all different categories of sites, as you can increase or decrease server resources in terms of traffic bandwidth, storage space, RAM, etc.
You can also allocate server resources as you wish, as cloud hosting companies do not offer ready-made packages for you to choose from, but they allow you to specify server resources to suit the needs of your website.
Therefore, you can rely on it for your emerging website with minimal server resources, and it gradually increases server resources as the spread of your website increases and expands without the need to move to another plan or hosting company.
5- Payment for consumption
The feature of paying for consumption is one of the most important features of cloud hosting that distinguishes it from other types of hosting, as in other types of hosting a fixed cost is calculated for hosting whether the server resources are consumed or not!
Unlike cloud hosting, you will find that most companies do not provide a fixed hosting cost, but rather the cost is determined for each minute of server resource consumption. Therefore, if the server resources are not consumed in a month or at daily intervals, only the cost of the consumption period is paid, and that is… One of the points that makes cloud hosting suitable for all websites as well.
6- Server security
Hosting companies care about the degree of security of cloud hosting servers relatively more than other types of hosting, and therefore because all servers are interconnected via a cloud network, if one of the servers is exposed to a problem due to one of the websites, the rest of the sites on the cloud network may be affected.
Therefore, cloud hosting companies work to completely isolate sites on the servers and thus no site affects other sites, in addition to securing servers from hacking attacks, malfunctions, or DDoS attacks, activating a firewall to secure all traffic, and much more, under the supervision of the hosting company’s technical support. In order to provide the maximum possible security for servers.
Most hosting companies also provide backup copies of all website files on servers external to the cloud. If your site encounters a problem, you can return to those backup copies, but some companies provide this service on a relatively limited basis or for a fee.
Disadvantages of cloud hosting
Cloud Hosting has a group of common disadvantages that can affect your use, just as it has a list of advantages, and we will present to you the most important of these disadvantages during the following paragraphs:
1- Limited resources
Cloud hosting companies assign specific resources to each site: traffic, storage space, RAM, and other resources.
This may not be suitable for website owners who are looking for hosting that provides them with unlimited resources, at least in terms of traffic, so that they can spread the site to the largest extent without worrying about hosting limits.
But in reality, resources are also limited in companies that advertise unlimited hosting services according to fair use, as if one site affects the rest of the sites on the server, the site owner is informed of the necessity of upgrading to a higher hosting plan.
2- Difficulty dealing with cloud hosting
Some cloud hosting companies need some programming experience in order to deal with and control the server, but some companies, for example Digital Ocean, provide the ability to install different operating systems, for example, WordPress and others, with one click, but you may also need some simple programming experience in Linking a domain, SSL certificate, etc.
The ideal solution for those who do not have sufficient technical experience in dealing with the server is to rely on managed cloud hosting services, which are relatively more expensive than traditional cloud hosting services.
Or you can rely on a programmer with sufficient technical experience to install and prepare the server for you with all the required settings through freelancing websites, for example, the Khamsat website or the Independent website.
You can review the article: How do you hire a professional freelancer?
In this way, you can compare the common disadvantages with the advantages that we presented in the previous paragraph and determine whether cloud hosting is suitable for your website or not? And if you make the decision to rely on cloud hosting, we will present to you in the following paragraph the most important criteria that can help you determine the best hosting services provider. Cloud
How do we choose the best cloud hosting company?
Cloud hosting offers many advantages, as we mentioned in the previous paragraphs, but it is possible to choose a bad cloud hosting service provider that reflects the advantages or does not make you get the maximum possible benefit from them.
Therefore, we will present to you a set of criteria that you should look for in a cloud hosting service provider before relying on it for your website. The most important of these criteria are the following:
- Hosting speed : Hosting speed is one of the most important features of cloud hosting, so you must review the hosting speed before relying on it. You can do this by installing a trial site on the temporary version of hosting and relying on the article on the best tools to test site speed and solve problems resulting from the test so that you can measure Speed and understanding apparent issues, or you can determine your hosting speed based on Pingdom reports .
- Uptime : You must also review the server uptime for at least the last 12 months to ensure that the hosting servers are stable and provide you with the best performance in the long run. You will find uptime statistics on the main hosting pages and you can also review the Pingdom tool reports . It is also preferable to rely on hosting companies. Which provides a guarantee on server uptime because it reflects the company’s confidence in its servers.
- Expandability : It is preferable to rely on cloud hosting that allows the ability to reduce or increase server resources flexibly and without restrictions, so that you can modify the server to suit the needs of your site.
- Payment for consumption : There are some hosting companies that provide you with cloud hosting services in the form of packages. Here we do not recommend relying on these companies completely, as they are mostly shared cloud hosting. The most famous of these companies are Bluehost, Hostgator, and many others.
- Security standards : Hosting security standards are one of the most important points to look for in hosting companies, and you must choose a cloud hosting provider that clearly presents security standards on its official website, and you must ensure that the security standards are compatible with the ISO27001 certificate, which indicates the maximum degree of security for the servers, as well as IPS certification, which indicates the application of data encryption and security standards, and IDS certification, which indicates preventing unauthorized access to data with the help of multi-factor authentication, in addition to an advanced firewall to combat intrusions, DDoS attacks, and more.
- Additional services : The additional services provided to you by the cloud hosting provider affect the total cost of hosting, for example, a free domain name, a separate IP address for the site on the server, backup services, free site transfer services, or a free advertising credit coupon on Google or social media. And much more.
- Technical support : It is preferable to choose a cloud hosting provider that provides technical support via live chat in addition to other secondary communication methods, for example, email and phone call. The technical support service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and you will find many hosting companies that provide these features.
- Cost : The last point after all the previous technical points is the cost, as you compare the cost you pay against the value or services you get and determine whether it is appropriate for the budget of your electronic project or not?
You can rely on the previous points to prepare a comparison table between different cloud hosting companies in order to choose the best for your website. Since there are many options available, we will also provide you with recommendations for the best of these companies in the following paragraph, so continue reading the article with us.
The best cloud hosting companies
We will present to you a group of the best cloud hosting companies that you can rely on for your electronic project in order to limit the options available to you, and it is worth noting that most of these companies comply with the previous standards.
Hosted by Digital Ocean
Digital Ocean is considered one of the leading companies specialized in cloud hosting services and is distinguished by the speed of its servers, which does not exceed 290 milliseconds on the main pages, as well as the server stability rate is high, not falling below 99.99% in the last 3 years, according to the Pingdom website report . Rather, you will find that the server stability reaches 100 % in most months, except for one or two months only, as shown in the following image:
Digital Ocean provides 8 different data centers around the world, with three data centers in North America in New York City, San Francisco, and Toronto, as well as three data centers in Europe in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and London, as well as two data centers in Asia in Bangalore and Singapore.
It is worth noting that Digital Ocean also provides a free credit of up to $200 that you can rely on to purchase all cloud hosting services for a period of up to two months. Thus, you can try the hosting practically and test it completely without any costs or banking information, but you need to verify the phone number and email.
As for the cost of cloud hosting services at Digital Ocean, it is considered one of the cheapest options that you can rely on and compete with Vultr, as the cost of hosting starts from $4 per month, or a rate of 0.00595 per hour of use, with a server with 0.5 GB random storage memory and 10 GB storage memory. And a data transfer rate of 500 GB and a single CPU.
You can view my participation in the Arab WordPress community, which explains my experience in moving to Digital Ocean hosting and the most important features that were reflected on my website. You can also participate in the community with your own experience or inquire about all technical matters related to the WordPress system in general, and you will find a list of specialized experts. They will provide you with sufficient assistance, God willing.
Read also: Steps to create and activate an account on Digital Ocean hosting
Amazon AWS services
The second and leading company in the field of cloud services in general is Amazon, which offers many cloud hosting options for websites, and the best of these services is Amazon EC2.
This is because the Amazon EC2 service is easier to install for beginners and supports multiple operating options, the most important of which is WordPress sites. It also offers a free option of up to 750 hours of use of server resources.
It is worth noting that you will find that the largest global platforms rely on Amazon cloud hosting as the main hosting company for their websites, for example the Netflix platform or the Apple platform, which receive a large number of visitors daily and you find the stability rate of their sites is wonderful, so we are talking about global hosting services that represent more than 50 % of Amazon’s entire income .
But the main drawback of Amazon cloud hosting is that it requires some technical expertise in the steps of preparing the server, installing WordPress, connecting the domain, installing the SSL security certificate, and many other technical matters, so you may need to search relatively or rely on a specialized programmer from service sites, for example. Independent or five-star.
As for the cost of Amazon cloud hosting, it depends on the payment-for-consumption system with the ability to allocate server resources in detail, so the server capabilities must be determined accurately so that you do not pay additional costs without needing them, for example 2 GB random storage memory with a single central processing unit. With data transfer of up to 1TB, it costs $18.67 per month.
Read also: How to install WordPress on Amazon servers easily through the lightsail application
Google Cloud hosting
Google Cloud hosting is the biggest competitor to the hosting services provided by Amazon, but it can be said that the security standards provided by Google Cloud hosting are the greatest in some advanced technical points, but the difference is not large in small and medium projects.
Google Cloud also provides a set of additional services that can be included in cloud hosting, for example, business email hosting, API services, and much more.
Google Cloud also gives you the ability to control all server resources more precisely, up to the processor frequency, type of processing unit model, etc. It also offers ready-made plans for WordPress. You can choose from them to prepare a server and adjust all settings automatically to suit WordPress, but You’ll still need some programming experience as well to adjust all the server settings to suit your website.
It is also worth noting that Google Cloud provides you with a free balance of up to $300 with your first registration. You can rely on them without conditions in all Google services (20 services), with the possibility of increasing the balance by authenticating an official business email. This will be a good opportunity to test hosting services. for a long time.
This is because the cost of dedicated WordPress cloud hosting services starts from $13.17 with resources consisting of 20 GB storage space, a single CPU, and 2 GB RAM, so it can be relatively cheaper than Amazon EC2.
Vultr Hosting
Vultr is one of the companies specialized in cloud services only, and the most important basic services it provides are cloud hosting services, which provide servers with an excellent stability rate of up to 99.9%, which is a very excellent rate, with a guarantee of compensation if the rate drops below this rate in any month.
One of the most important features of Vultr is that it is considered the easiest of all the previous options and requires the least programming experience because it provides a main control panel that you can rely on to install WordPress and many different operating systems with one click, but you may need some programming knowledge in installing the SSL certificate or modifying the Server.
Vultr also provides multiple operating system options, such as CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu, Windows, and many others.
The number of data centers available at Vultr reaches more than 16 data centers distributed around the world to provide the best response speed to website visitors.
It also provides a good technical support team even when direct chat is not provided, as the average response speed to internal tickets is 10-15 minutes, which is an excellent rate given the lack of direct chat service.
As for the cost of cloud hosting services, it offers many available options, for example, traditional servers and enhanced servers. The cost of traditional servers starts from $2.5 per month, or a rate of 0.004 per hour of use, with a random storage memory of 0.5 GB and a data transfer rate of up to 500 GB, as well as a central processing unit. Single and 10 GB storage space.
Cloudways company
Cloudways is not a company that provides hosting services directly, but rather an intermediary company that rents servers from external hosting companies, for example, Amazon AWS hosting, Google Cloud hosting, Digital Ocean hosting, and many other companies, which may change from time to time depending on Cloudways company standards.
After that, Cloudways manages the server and prepares all its basic settings, while providing a direct control panel that you can rely on to install WordPress with one click, connect a domain, attach an SSL certificate, and much more.
In addition to providing an integrated technical support team available 24 hours a day throughout the year, with the ability to communicate with them via live chat and many other ways to help you with all the problems you may encounter or modify the server to suit your website’s requirements.
Cloudways provides all the privileges of the subsidiaries that it relies on to the customer, for example the flexibility of modifying the server, or the speed, stability, and security of the server, etc., in addition to additional features, for example, providing backup services on its servers, a free SSL certificate, and transferring the site from another hosting company in a free manner. Free and more.
You can rely on Cloudways if you do not have sufficient technical experience in dealing with previous companies, or if you want to rely on an advanced technical support team to manage and inspect the server and adjust all settings periodically on your behalf.
But all the previous features certainly come at an additional cost, and this cost reaches an additional rate ranging from 80-100% over the cost of the basic package from the sub-hosting company, and this is a relatively high cost, for example cloud hosting from Digital Ocean with 1 GB random storage memory and space. 25GB storage and a single CPU plus 1TB data transfer rate costs $14 per month.
Read also: What is Cloudways hosting and how to install WordPress on it
Conclusion
Cloud hosting is one of the most important options available to website owners that they can rely on to establish their website.
This is due to the flexibility of hosting and its suitability for all different electronic projects, whether small, medium or large, especially as it offers a large list of features that help improve the performance, stability and speed of the site compared to other hosting options, and most of the defects that appear can be overcome.
Thus, in today’s article, we have provided you with a comprehensive guide as a basic reference for you about cloud hosting in terms of advantages, disadvantages, and standards that help you choose the best cloud hosting services provider while providing the best available options that you can rely on.
We have also answered the most frequently asked questions related to cloud hosting. If you still have a question or a special inquiry, you can comment below the article, and technical support will respond to you as soon as available, God willing.
