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Web Hosting Services vs. In-House Hosting
Question:
"I am involved with starting a new company. What are the benefits of using a web hosting service with me designing the website? Or should we put the website on our own in-house server?"I've nearly always recommended to my small business clients that they have their website on a web hosting service, especially when they first put up a website. Hosting services provide a great variety of add-ons and utilities, many free, and take care of nearly all the problems.
The costs of running an in-house server are considerable:
- Internet connection. A fast website requires at least a T1 or fractional T1 connection to the Internet. This connection can cost several hundred dollars to more than $1,000 per month.
- Hardware. Most smaller websites run on PCs, so this one-time cost isn't exorbitant, probably under $1,000.
- Software. Software costs are minimal, since you're likely to use a free or nearly free Linux operating system and a free-ware Apache server. If you use Windows NT or Windows 2000 system, your software costs begin to increase substantially.
- Personnel. By far the largest cost of an in-house server is for the trained (and expensive) personnel you need on your staff to install the software, maintain the server, keep out hackers, and troubleshoot when anything goes wrong.
If your website needs to interface with live corporate databases, you'll find distinct advantages in using an in-house server. Otherwise, don't bother -- unless your existing IT department needs more work. :-)
I don't recommend "free" hosting for a commercial website. You get what you pay for. Be careful of smaller, local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who "also" provide website hosting. Some are excellent, but most concentrate on their main business, dial-up Internet access, and don't offer hosting customers as many services as do the hosting-only services.
