Internet has grown to be a social and commercial hub for people all over the world. The vast increase in the number of people who are using Internet for different reasons is an indicator of how popular this medium has become. The nature of this growth has been inclusive which has resulted in a simultaneous trend in other areas too. The rise in the number of web hosts offering web hosting capabilities has seen an upward jump. This has further prompted the service providers to provide quality service to their clients. With the development of latest technologies, the types of services provided by the web hosts have further diversified.

Types of Web Hosting

With the evolvement of web technologies, webhosting providers are providing many different platforms on which sites can now be hosted. Among the popular webhosting services, Sharing Webhosting service has enjoyed good popularity. In Sharing Webhosting Service, websites of multiple clients are running on a single server, thus sharing the same space on the hard disk. The server resources are distributed among different sites. Though the websites running on the server may not exclusively get resources on server, still this type of webhosting service is good enough for websites which do not need dedicated resources. Some of the popular webs hosting services that are being provided by the service providers are

• Dedicated Server

• Shared Web Hosting

• Co-location Server Hosting

• Grid Hosting

• Virtual Dedicated Server

• Business Email Hosting

• Managed Web Hosting

• Exchange Hosting

Virtual Dedicated server, or VDS, is another popular option among the types of Web Hosting options. VDS is being preferred by small and medium business websites. In VDS, the resources of a server are optimally distributed in such a way that websites are able to use them in a manner as if the server resources were exclusively dedicated to them. Though the level of performance may not match dedicated servers but are still comparable to them. The advantage to customers is that by paying just a little extra, customers are able to enjoy a service that is comparable to Dedicated servers.

Linux Hosting

Linux servers have enjoyed popularity ever since they came into being. Even now when the web hosting market has server side suites from many companies, Linux servers are still a formidable rival. The popularity of Linux is due to number of reasons.

• Unmatched cost quality ratio- Linux servers are not only cheap, they provide a superior quality in terms of performance.

• Security- Linux server is still the safest server in the market as it less prone to virus attacks.

• Down time- The downtime is very less for Linux servers, which means they are running relatively more than other servers. This is possible because the design of Linux is simple and easy enabling administrators to debug a Linux server faster than other servers.

• The control panels available with Linux are of superior quality.

These are some of the reasons why Linux hosting servers are still the most preferred servers by webmasters.

Top Web Hosts

Webhosting service providers are rated based upon quality parameters like Tech support, customer support, Software, Space, Traffic, Price, User friendliness, Reliability & Uptime, etc. These ratings are provided in various categories like Best windows Hosting, Best PHP hosting, Best Price hosting, etc. The ratings further help the customers in selecting a service provider. Ratings are available on Internet on websites that regularly feature webhosting articles. "www.phphost.org" is among the top web hosts that provide PHP enabled web hosting on their servers.