What flavor of web server do you need?
To run a website you typically need to use three different services. You most likely already have internet services provided by an internet service provider (ISP). Your ISP connects you to the internet so you can send and receive email, visit web pages and move files to an from different computers. Your ISP may be your phone company, cable company or a third party.
To actually serve web pages you need a web hosting service, or web host. A web host provides the computers and internet connections that make it possible to serve web pages to a specific portion of the internet, the world wide web. To provide your site with a name, like www.google.com or www.amazon.com you also need a domain name server (DNS). Without that your website can only be accessed by its IP address, which consists of a string of numbers like 127.0.0.1, which is not the easiest address to remember.
It is possible for any computer connected to the internet to act as a web server. However there are a large number of good reasons for not hosting your own web site. Web servers need a high level of security in today’s environment of hackers, crackers and viruses. Unless you are very knowledgeable and vigilant you don’t want to go there. In addition to the security concerns, you probably can’t provide the connection speed, bandwidth, or reliability of a good hosting company. I can go on listing reasons for not hosting your own web site, however, the bottom line is that most of us should not even consider hosting out own web sites, especially considering the low cost of professional web hosting services. The only exceptions involve organizations large enough to have a dedicated information technology or services (IT or IS) staff.
So you need a web hosting company, what should you look for? I wish there were a simple answer. A simple search of web hosts yields thousands upon thousands of people willing to take your money in exchange for hosting your website.
Budget vs. Full Service Web Hosts
While there is no formal categorization of web hosting companies there are some distinctions that my clients have found helpful. The first I make is between budget web hosts and full service ones. If you visit a few web hosting company’s websites you will see long lists of services with terms like storage, bandwidth, media, databases and so on. My simple method of separating full service from budget hosts ignores all that. Does the host provide phone support? If it does then I consider it full service, if it doesn’t I don’t. To be really picky, I would add that the phone support person, the individual that you talk to, should be by someone who can personally fix problems and who speaks English that I can easily understand. You want to be speaking directly to the technical support staff. Having a phone support person who simply fills out a help ticket that includes problems that he or she may not understand and pass that on to the network technicians that perform the actual work is not particularly helpful.
The truth is that I have seldom needed to use telephone support services but in the few instances that I have it has been invaluable, saving hours or days of time spent getting things running properly. When my clients ask for the “best” hosting company I point them to two hosts that do offer excellent and fast support.
Does this level of support cost more? Absolutely. How much more? Not that much, a bit more than $10, at the most $20 per month. So we’re only talking $16 to $30 a month, total, for reliable and full service web hosting that will easily handle the needs of a small to medium business or organization. If you have specialized needs such as e-commerce or secure intranet connections you may have extra fees. The total monthly bill is still remarkably low for what was very expensive ten years ago and impossible just twenty years past.
That said, I do use budget hosting companies that don’t provide real time phone service. My criterion for choosing revolves around how critical is it that he site be always available and fully functional. A non-profit club that posts its monthly minutes or photos of the last field trip can save $100-$200 a year with a budget host. A blogger who is not trying to make money from the blog, a person with a hobby or family site, or similar other non-commercial or semi-commercial sites would usually be just fine using a budget hosting provider.
Microsoft vs. Apache Web Servers
For the great majority of people it won’t matter what brand of web server your host uses, at least from a reliability perspective. The two major players in the field the Microsoft Web Server and the Apache Web server can both be made highly reliable. Because of their licensing fees, Microsoft Web Server hosted sites tend to run a few dollars a month more than those served on Apache web servers. Proponents in either camp may claim certain advantages for their choice. They both work. What’s more important is the reliability of the company running the servers. If they provide backup servers, have a competent staff and a good physical plant then their servers will be up and running when you need them.
In general, very large companies that have their own internal servers and IT staff use Microsoft Web Servers. Most independent web hosts and the small to medium firms that use their services use Apache Web Servers. As of early 2008 a bit over 2/3 of web sites in the world are served by Apache.
Where the differences between the web servers become important come to the front has more to do with the skills of your web designer/developer. A person skilled with the technologies based in either environment will not be very knowledgeable in the other. So changing web people requires that you find new designers familiar with the technology you originally used. That isn’t really a technology issue but something to be aware of when interviewing prospective web workers.
The one gotcha you might run into is that some people who develop for Microsoft Servers only design sites that work reliably in the Microsoft web browser, Internet Explorer. At the turn of the century that attitude might have somewhat valid reasoning behind it. Now days it is just plain blind. Since the arrival of the web browser, Firefox and the upturn in Mac sales, Internet Explorer’s market share has dropped from almost 95% to about 75%. That’s still a huge percentage but I wouldn’t want to lose a quarter of my potential customers because some web developer was too lazy to make the website work in multiple web browsers.
A somewhat less common problem is that some part time web designers use something called Front Page Extensions. Again, these only work in Internet Explorer and are no longer supported by Microsoft. In short avoid them and anybody who wants to use them like the plague. There are some other Microsoft specific web technologies that should also be avoided. The easiest way to insure that your site is universally accessible it to include in your site specifications that it needs to work in all browsers and on all platforms. Firefox is the most popular non-Microsoft web browser but Opera and Safari are also important. You should also specify that the site be tested on at least a Mac and preferably also a Linux based computer. If your developer tells you that it can’t be done get someone else. There is no technical reason why a commercial website cannot work in all modern web browsers on all modern operating systems. If your developer tells you otherwise he is really saying that he isn’t good enough to do what you want.
On the other side of the equation are a few people who dislike Microsoft and its products so much that they ignore the fact that Internet Explorer has problems displaying some theoretically standard web technologies. Their rationale is that it is not their fault that your site won’t quite display properly in the most popular web browser, it’s Microsoft’s fault for making a faulty product. While the Front Page extension people are clueless, the Web Standards true believers are zealots. Both ignore the fact that a business site needs to work well for the largest possible number of visitors.
Microsoft vs. ‘Nix Operating Systems
Another red herring some developers will throw your way is the suitability of Windows versus other operating systems , which pretty much all belong to a family of Unix or Unix like systems like Linux, as web servers. What about Macintosh? At its core a Mac is also a Unix system, so there’s no distinction there. You may hear names like Solaris, BSD, Red Hat and so on. If you don’t know what those mean then they don’t matter. Unix like, sometimes referred to as ‘Nix systems all run the Apache Web Server and can pretty much be administered by someone trained on any flavor ‘Nix. For serving websites Windows vs. ‘Nix os about as important as arguing whether strawberry jam or chocolate syrup is a better ice cream topping.
‘Nix systems have proponents that argue passionately for or against one flavor or another. But you can also argue whether milk chocolate is better than white chocolate or dark chocolate, or semi-sweet chocolate or bittersweet chocolate and so on and so on. They all make a good ice cream topping as does strawberry jam. In this case I’m considering Microsoft Web Server as the strawberry jam. There is really only on web server. You can buy different licenses that let you serve different numbers of simultaneous users but that’s like saying you can choose which size jar you like. With ‘Nix systems there are a lot of flavors but they all do a fine job of topping your sundae. And arguing whether strawberry is better than chocolate may stir passionate debate, in the end it’s pointless.
The Bottom Line
In the end, the reliability of your web host and the particular skills of your chosen web developer matter far more than the kind of web server you end up using. A web developer or designer will have a favorite hosting company or two. Sometimes they chose one that will give them a fee for referrals. There’s nothing wrong with that as long as the web person is answers your questions honestly. However, referral fees are not the best reason to choose a web host. Time in business, server uptime, and technical support speed are much more important. Do ask.
Another practice common among web designers is to resell web hosting. They buy blocks of server space and bandwidth at bulk rates then sell individual hosting accounts to their clients. Again there’s nothing wrong with that but you should still ask who the real host is and if they meet the same criteria. You should also ask how you might get control of your site if you choose to work with another web person and what happens if they have an accident or other unexpected problem that makes them unavailable. Be especially careful with one person design shops, as there may be no backup plan. In such cases I always recommend that your web hosting account be registered directly with you and that you have full access to it and your billing information.