Comparative analysis of image hosting services. Large review of photo hosting sites

A hosting provider solves many of his problems. Unix hosting differs from Windows hosting in the degree of software compatibility and a suitable operating system.

Windows hosting supports ASP and MSSQL. Unix supports PERL, PHP, MySQL.

Web servers

Apache is a free server that ensures optimal performance of PHP and Perl Php.ini allows you to set additional parameters and configure the operation of scripts. Apache, being cross-platform software, is most often used on unix hosting. Today this server is the most popular.

IIS is proprietary software developed by Microsoft to run on Windows. This server is used for sites using ASP.

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The Windows operating system is used when it is necessary to host a website created using ASP.NET on a VPS. This service allows you to design multifunctional projects of increased complexity.

Despite the fact that Windows hosting supports PHP, sites created with its help work more productively on the Unix platform.

Database

MSSQL was developed for Windows. Used in projects requiring high reliability.

Hosting operating rules

Agave hosting developed for Windows is equipped with the Plesk control panel. ISPmanager and cPanel are developed for Unix. Here the user can use not only FTP, but also the prohibited SSH protocol. At the same time, Windows only allows access via FTP.

• MySQL – MSSQL,
• Apache-IIS
• PHP hosting - NET Framework,
• Perl - ASP.NET,
• WordPress hosting, Drupal, Joomla hosting.

The choice of platform should be based on the list of applications, programming languages ​​and other tools used. Each platform has its own tariffs, administration systems, technical support, and server monitoring.

Price as a selection criterion

The UNIX platform has the following advantages:

1. most of the products developed for this hosting are distributed free of charge;
2. greater reliability and efficiency of hosting compared to Windows.

Convenience

The providers have simplified the administration of both hosting sites by developing a special set of measures. There is no difference in ease of use between the Windows and UNIX platforms. Beginners are recommended to use Windows, experienced users - Unix.

Functional

The functionality of UNIX and Windows hosting is significantly different. Some tasks are implemented on one platform and not on another. The main difference between the systems is the method of achieving results.

The site used as a database uses PHP/MySQL for Unix hosting or ASP/MS SQL for Windows hosting. Microsoft FrontPage, for example, is supported on both platforms.

As a result, each hosting has its own advantages and disadvantages. Each user must decide for himself which platform best suits his wishes. The Ukrainian hosting rating will help you make the right choice.

Today I have prepared for you a comparative review of three well-known hosting providers, thanks to which you can decide for yourself which one is the best option for you.

I felt the need to find a new hosting relatively recently, when “ Timeweb“He let me down once again, and rewarded me with his new problems for new sites.

Victims of the review

And so, today I will try to compare three well-known hosting sites as objectively as possible:

As you can see, I will not be considering some wretched hosting companies, but well-known projects that host their clients’ websites on modern equipment.

I had the opportunity to work with each of these hosting sites, some more and some less, but I’ve definitely already made my choice. It's time for you to do it too.

What services does a good hosting offer?

First, let's figure out what services a really good hosting should offer!

1. Availability and speed

Without a doubt, the main factor of good hosting is its constant availability and speed.

Slow or weak hosting will have a very negative impact on the success and promotion of the site. I am generally silent about interruptions in the availability of the site, they are simply unacceptable. By the way, you can track the availability of your sites using the convenient service Loaddy.com.

2. SSD and speed

Modern realities are such that a really good hosting should host sites at high speed SSD drives, thanks to which the speed of the site after the transfer reaches an increase of 2-10 times in comparison with hosting using simple disks.

3. Data safety and backups

A really good hosting is one that ensures the safety of its client’s data by making daily automatic backups on additional servers.

4. All characteristics

And finally, a good hosting cannot be defective, which means it must support such characteristics as: PHP 5+, MySQL, Zend Optimizer, IonCube loader, SSL and others.

Characteristics of famous hosting sites

All of the hosts we reviewed have roughly the same functionality offerings, with a few important exceptions.

1. MCP

• Only MCP uses SSD drives in Germany, so they boldly claim that their hosting and VPS servers are very fast. And they say this rightfully. Tested from my own experience.
• Also, MCP has all the capabilities that its rivals in this review also have. In addition, this hosting offers everyone’s favorite ISPmanager panel and weekly anti-virus scanning, which opponents do not offer.
• In addition, MCP is the only one on the list that provides the ability to host servers in different countries (Russia, Germany, USA, France, the Netherlands), which is a rather convenient advantage.

2. Beget

• Beget is also holding up well, and although it does not offer anti-virus options and ISPmanager, its offer nevertheless has higher processor load limits - 65 cp with a maximum of 50 cp for its rivals.
• In addition, Beget offers its own file manager, which is somewhat different in its functionality and speed, but is not always pleased with its stability, especially if there are any problems with the Internet.

3. Timeweb

• In this list, Timeweb clearly loses, which cannot boast of any unique features that its opponents in the review did not have; therefore, MCP becomes the leader in terms of functions.

Comparison of hosting plans

Let's first look at the tariff plans for simple website hosting.

Outsider?

Of course, the outsider in this list is again Timeweb hosting, which at the minimum rate asks for $4, while its competitors only charge $3. It's worth noting that it offers 2 GB of free space for websites, while its rivals offer only 1 GB.

Unlimited MySQL

Beget stands out among its competitors only because of its unlimited number of MySQL databases and low cost of its tariff plan. Now think about why you need no limit on MySQL if the minimum tariff plan allows you to host only 2 sites?

In the lead

And yet, the minimum tariff plan is intended for beginner webmasters, and therefore MCP is still more adapted to beginners, offering optimal conditions at such a low cost of the tariff plan.

Maximum tariff

In terms of maximum hosting tariff, Beget and MCP are relatively equal, the first offers 10 GB of free space and unlimited MySQL, and the second offers 30 sites and 8 GB, which is a lower ratio than its rival.

Clear outsider

The maximum Timeweb hosting plan is not inferior to MCP in terms of the number of sites, and in terms of free space it is twice as much, although its cost is also twice as much. Timeweb is an outsider again.

Comparison of VDS tariffs

Now let's look at the tariff plans for VDS, which I think will pleasantly surprise you.

1. Only two opponents?

Did you notice Beget on this list? This is because this hosting company does not provide VDS services - only hosting and servers!

2. Powerful and pointless VDS

This time Timeweb is definitely in the lead, offering probably the most powerful and pointless VDS! The maximum tariff can accommodate 16 cores of 2700 mhz, 32 GB of RAM and 100 GB of free hard drive space. True, you won’t get a single megabyte of backup storage, and you’ll also have to pay separately for the panel and dedicated IP.

As for me, for projects that need such a vds, you need to buy your own server. By the way, such a VDS pleasure costs just like a pumped-up server - $925.

3. Give way

At the minimum tariff, Timeweb is clearly inferior to MCP in the higher cost of VDS, as well as the lack of a dedicated IP, backup storage and ISPmanager panel.

4. We get a leader

In fact, whatever one may say, MCP is still the best option for purchasing VDS, although you can order much more advanced and expensive hardware from Timeweb.

Pros and cons of hosting from my readers

To everything written above, I would also like to add information taken from my readers’ comments to this review.

Timeweb

pros:

• Bonus period (10 days)

Minuses:

• Relatively high prices - there are analogues with the same or better service and equipment that cost less.
• The support service is slow - I didn’t experience any major delays; of course, the wait lasted up to several hours, but this is not significant for the minor problems that I had. There are hosting companies from which you need to wait 12 hours or more for a response. Note: Slow service seems to only apply to customers on low-cost plans.
• Slow operation of sites compared to analogues that have SSD drives
• From time to time there are hosting glitches, some problems, either with equipment or with software. In my case this happens very rarely.

Beget

pros:

• The bonus period (30 days) is the longest bonus period of any hosting I have ever encountered.
• Possibility to pay the subscription fee in installments, depositing any amount
• Long period of existence of the hosting company
• Relatively low prices for hosting and servers
• An interesting file editor - it has its own characteristics and disadvantages, but in my opinion it has more advantages.
• Increased load limit on hosting (65 cp)

Minuses:

• Not a complete set of offers (no VDS)
• Very frequent technical work during which sites are unavailable or have performance problems. A dubious minus, since all work is aimed only at improving the performance of sites.

MCP

pros:

• Full set of offers (hosting, vds, servers)
• Bonus period (7 days)
• High-speed equipment - sites work faster than on hostings that do not have SSD drives
• Relatively low prices, considering high-speed equipment

Minuses:

• There is no option to pay the subscription fee in installments - an invoice is issued, which you need to pay using one of the proposed payment methods.

Let's summarize. Which hosting and vds to choose?

Let's summarize the characteristics and tariff plans of the presented hosting providers.

Outsider

The outsider, whatever one may say, is Timeweb, which is inferior to its opponents in terms of characteristics, prices, and offers for hosting and VDS. The only exception is the maximum tariff for VDS, which is many times superior to its opponents in terms of characteristics, but at the same time in terms of prices.

Leading

The leader, of course, is the MCP company, which surpasses its opponents in terms of hosting characteristics, although Beget’s maximum hosting load is 15 cp higher.

In terms of hosting tariff plans, both projects are approximately equal, although the maximum tariff from MCP in the “site/free space” ratio is inferior to the tariff from Beget, at the same time, for other tariffs it is optimal and more profitable.

VDS Timeweb vs VDS MCP

In the VDS duel, only Timeweb and MCP remained, since Beget does not provide VDS services. And the leader among them, of course, is MCP, although you can order more powerful and expensive equipment from Timeweb.

And so, if you recognized MCP as the optimal solution for yourself, then our opinion coincides with you.

Why is MCP better?

Perhaps because the characteristics of the hosting and vds they offer are not inferior, or even superior, to their competitors, but this does not in any way affect their prices.

MCP, of course, has the best conditions for this type of service, but this is not all of their merits!

• Two years ago I was looking for hosting for my startup that would suit me with characteristics, price, and quality, and it’s a pity that I didn’t find MCP then, since they offer a vital service for this kind of resources - free hosting for startups for the whole year!
• In addition, the MCP company sponsors related projects, such as loaddy.com, which is how I learned about this hosting.

Loaddy.com is a load testing and site availability monitoring service, thanks to which you can track downtime of the site or server as a whole, as well as determine their peak load values.

Promotion from MCP

To write an honest review, a representative of MCP contacted me and offered cooperation. Why not? Another advantage of this hosting company is that they are ready to accommodate and encourage promotions and competitions. And now they have agreed to reward all new users with a bonus of 150 rubles. Reworking the pages of blog sections or improving internal linking on the site

Often when communicating with colleagues, questions arise about the pros and cons of various photo hosting services. The other day I once again asked myself this question, thinking about what to replace Google Picasa with.

Today I have accumulated quite a lot of information on this topic, and I decided to make a large post in the format of a reference book. And so that you can figure it out more clearly, and so that your thoughts don’t get lost, and so that it’s easy to find if you suddenly need to advise someone. Perhaps, after looking at this review, you will decide to change your hosting?

What is photo hosting?
Photo hosting is a place for storing photos. To display pictures in LiveJournal or forums, you need to store them somewhere. Finding a reliable and convenient place to store photos is not a very simple task, especially if you approach it with high demands.

For the first time, I began seriously testing various hosting sites for convenience more than three years ago. At the time, I was developing a wildlife photography club, and it was important for me to choose the best hosting for it. The main characteristics that I paid attention to:

1. Free service. There are many good free services on the Internet, so I didn’t want to pay just for posting pictures. If you’re going to pay money to store photos for your blog, then it’s better to do it on regular hosting (more details at the end of the article).

2. Possibility to place a large number of frames. I didn’t want to face the fact that in a year I would need to either buy additional space for money or look for a new hosting.

3. Reliability. I tried to monitor various services for about six months, and during this time some of them turned out to be unavailable. This is not acceptable for me, so I immediately removed such resources from the list.

4. Ease of loading, interface quality. It's nice to make uploading photos as simple, fast and comfortable as possible.

As a result, on the Internet, I found about 20 more or less adequate services, and about five of them have ceased to exist today. As you can see, this is a fairly large percentage of closed services. Posting photos on any of them would mean losing the photos completely. And even if copies were saved on your computer, re-uploading hundreds of frames is a huge thankless job. So, a few words about the main free hosting services, in descending order of attractiveness for me:

Hosting from the largest Internet company in Russia. More precisely, it is not only hosting, but also a photo site, with comments, ratings, choice of photo day, etc. Yandex has a lot of resources, high reliability, and the number of photos is unlimited. These are huge advantages. But the design let us down, despite the fact that the design was made by the famous Lebedev studio. Copying links is inconvenient, and your eyes dazzle from the abundance of large colorful buttons, unnecessary graphics and highlights... But, in hosting, the main thing is not the design, but the safety of the photos, and anyone can get used to the design, it can be worse, especially since there is no advertising, for which, of course, respect to Yandex.
Yandex has one feature that must be taken into account - photographs can accidentally end up in the “photo day”, even if ratings and comments are prohibited. The other day I received a funny letter with claims that I was acting ugly by getting into the local top =)). Although I’ve only uploaded a couple of frames there so far... I’m just starting to learn the service, I’ll study the privacy settings.

Reliability ★★★★★
Interface ★★★★☆
Number of photos ★★★★★
No advertising ★★★★★

A very old hosting that has been gradually improved over the years. Its main feature is a convenient program for uploading photos to the network. It greatly simplifies and speeds up loading images. It's really incredibly convenient! Using this program, you can download, view and quickly copy links to photos. Those. You won't even see advertising. I have never seen such convenience anywhere else!
There are a lot of advertisements directly on the site, and viewing pictures is not particularly convenient, but from the point of view of photo hosting, it is quite normal. Everything is simple and clear, without unnecessary graphics and without unnecessary buttons. I like.
There are also disadvantages. I heard that the traffic limit for one photo is 300 mb per hour. Those. if a photo weighs 300 kb, no more than 1000 people per hour can view it. I didn’t find this in the rules, but apparently they just hid it deep. In some situations, they like to show their frog instead of a photo, struggling with additional traffic. For the risk that there will be a frog instead of a photo, I am removing the star from reliability. By the way, all the screenshots in the review are located on this service. If something is wrong, please write it in the comments.

This service also has a convenient application for iOS devices - iPhone & iPad, which can also be useful. Here's a review of this app :)

Reliability ★★★★☆
Interface ★★★★★
Number of photos ★★★★★
No advertising ★★☆☆☆

At first, I chose Picassa from google as my main hosting, because... It is very unlikely that such a giant will ever “die” or “abandon” its users... However, Google disappointed me. The big company decided that it could just give up on its users. All my old pictures suddenly shrunk to 512 pixels on the long side. As a result, half of the blog was simply ruined, and restoration required an incredible amount of hours of pointless work. So, the large number of posts with small pictures on my blog is the “merit” of Google. I do not advise anyone to store anything there.
In addition, I don’t like their design at all, and the logic of the product in general. They have a huge amount of money, great service capabilities, but they managed it simply badly. The same goes for their photo program of the same name.

Reliability ★★☆☆☆
Interface ★★★☆☆
Number of photos ★★★★★
No advertising ★★★★★

This is one of the most famous services in the West. It definitely didn’t suit me, since there is a limit on displaying the latest 200 photos. This means that if you downloaded 250, you will no longer find the first 50. More - only for money. This is immediately repulsive...
And the interface there, although stylish in its own way, is outdated and therefore not particularly convenient. Previously, registration was not convenient, only through Yahoo mail (now it’s easier). This service has become very popular because... was one of the first to appear. Currently, it holds its position, it seems to me, mainly due to inertia and its social orientation - a kind of photographic social network.

Reliability ★★★★★
Interface ★★★★☆
Number of photos ★★☆☆☆
No advertising ★★☆☆☆

This is hosting from the site www.ixbt.com. The hosting, it seems to me, fully matches the style of the ixbt site. Very simple. Very minimalistic. It seems to me that there is a certain “technical” bias in his spirit. There is little advertising, it is not distracting. According to the rules, there is a maximum of 50MB of photos, which is very little by today's standards. In order to increase the volume, you need to write to the administration. They really increase it on demand (and sometimes even 20 times), but this seems inconvenient to me. I rate the reliability as a 4, because... This hosting is not very large and there is a possibility of closing sooner or later.

Reliability ★★★★☆
Interface ★★★★☆
Number of photos ★★☆☆☆
No advertising ★★★★☆

Perhaps the most incomprehensible service for me of all. There are a lot of possibilities, but they are not realized at all. I really need so little convenience for hosting, and even then the interface let me down. Somehow everything is not ergonomic, it’s crooked. From everything that I loaded, mainly for the forum, it turned out to be a huge dump in which it is difficult to find anything.
They also generate links like album.foto.ru:8080, which are not available to everyone, especially at work. At the same time, everything is unlimited and quite reliable, and, at first glance, it looks good. Obviously, this service cost a lot of money, but it was inconvenient to use.

Reliability ★★★★☆
Interface ★★★☆☆
Number of photos ★★★★★
No advertising ★★★★☆

A good service with an unlimited number of photos. The only limitation is that each image must be no larger than 5mb or 2048*1536px. Quite suitable for my purposes. This is a very socially oriented service. It has good integration with Facebook and was originally created for MySpace users. You don’t need to register there, you can log in via Twitter or the same Facebook. I don’t really like the design, but there are several interesting features that are not available in other services, for example, convenient link copying. There is a free application for smartphones. The interface is spoiled by a large number of advertisements, but if you upload photos there just like on a photo hosting site, then this is not a big problem. There is even integration with LiveJournal, but I didn’t really like it.
There are many complaints that they turn off the display of popular photos (if you have a large flow of visitors), so the reliability here is not high.

Reliability ★★★☆☆
Interface ★★★☆☆
Number of photos ★★★★★
No advertising ★★☆☆☆

This service has several advantages. For example, an unlimited number of photos for users from Russia and a small but very convenient program that automatically uploads photos to the site. However, there are also disadvantages. The main disadvantage is that the photos on the link become smaller over time. Those. You post a picture of 900*600 pixels on your blog, make a link, and after a couple of months there are already 600*400 frames on the site. This is very inconvenient, just like in Google Picasse. Can you imagine what it’s like to redo photos in half a year after you find out about it? Their design is also bad, in my opinion, uncomfortable. In general, I don't recommend it.

Reliability ★★★☆☆
Interface ★★☆☆☆
Number of photos ★★★★★
No advertising ★★★★★

Addition:

If you upload large pictures and use automatic compression on your hosting, I recommend looking at an excellent comparison of the quality of pictures after automatic compression. Thank you sastanin:

Other hosting...

I don’t even know how to evaluate photo hosting directly from LiveJournal. I tried to upload several pictures, but I didn’t really like the loading speed, I don’t know why... How do you feel about it? There is also hosting from LJ+, but I have not tried it.

In the comments they recommended a good article on how to use LiveJournal hosting. I only recently got to this point, I recommend: http://roman-samokhin.livejournal.com/7788.html

I didn’t talk in detail about several powerful hosting providers from mail.ru or qip.ru, but for some reason I can’t seriously consider them as contenders. Either I don’t really believe in reliability or there is no design at all... But I didn’t look at all hosting sites, because analyzing each one takes a crazy amount of time. So maybe I missed some, add them in the comments!

Photo sites, galleries

www.500px.com
www.photosight.ru
www.club.foto.ru
and so on.

Photo sites are more likely to fall under the definition than photo hosting sites. There are serious restrictions on the number of photos, and the general atmosphere is not at all conducive to simply posting photos. Photos are posted here rather for communication with photographers, ratings, comments and other things. But there is a fine line here, everyone can have their own preferences as to what is classified as a photo site and what is classified as a hosting.

Paid photo hosting sites

There are also exclusively paid hosting sites, a good example is www.smugmug.com. But paid photo hosting sites, it seems to me, are most effective to use if you need to post a lot of large photographs. Unlimited traffic and unlimited space for a small fee - you won't find this anywhere else. And if you need to store small images for viewing on the web, then it is better to invest in regular hosting on your own website.

Hosting photos on your website

Many users prefer to store photos on their own websites. It is convenient, comfortable and very reliable, but it costs some money (about 60 bucks per year ~1 GB of space, with your own domain name). Those. To do this, you need to rent space on the server, buy a domain name, after which you can easily upload photos via ftp to a separate folder.
This is the only tool that, if used correctly, can guarantee the safety of all images. After all, even if the company providing hosting services suddenly closes, you can easily upload photos to a new hosting (for reliability, it makes sense to store a copy of the folder with photos on your computer). An important role here is played by the name of the site, which will remain with you (if you remember to pay for it), regardless of hosting, so all photos can be easily fully restored in any situation.
Perhaps this is the only way to gain complete independence and 100% reliability, when everything is in your hands, everything depends on you. But in this case you will have to pay constantly, annually, if you want the photographs to be available. As soon as you stop paying, all pictures will immediately stop being shown, including on the blog.

I would be glad if you add the pros and cons of the services I wrote about above, or write about your favorite photo hosting sites, maybe I’ll add them to the review, because I haven't been able to find the perfect hosting yet. :)

Update: Yandex stopped showing the originals, and instead started writing “Photo is not available.” I haven’t figured out how scary it is yet, but I absolutely didn’t want to post pictures there.

Update2: Google Picassa changed the code of all pictures - now all my pictures are shown not 900 pixels, but 512. Just tough. It’s not clear what to do with old posts. Therefore, I do not advise anyone to store anything important there. To be honest, I really hoped that this hosting would not let me down. I thought Google valued its reputation...

Update3: An attempt to post photos directly on LiveJournal failed: The photos are visible to me, but not to other users. And there is no way to check until you send it...

!Update4: Be sure to check out my new article on this topic. Let's dot the i's. -

In English, the word host has several meanings: master, main device, main computer, innkeeper. From all these meanings, we can put together the following concept: the main device that “takes over” your site. This device is called hosting. Those. you host your website somewhere on someone else's computer. But at the same time, you remain the owner of the site. Hosting provides the ability to edit and manage a website. In addition, most hosting providers provide interactive pages (forums, chats), allow the user and visitors (if provided by the site owner) to replenish the database, register and make financial transactions directly from the site. A set of programs that provide all these capabilities is also called hosting.

There are a lot of hosting services on the Internet now. And they all provide very different sets of services at very different prices. There are free hostings. Those. on these servers you will be charged for services not in money, but by placing advertisements on your site. When registering on such a free server, you should keep this in mind. In addition, free hosting has a number of other disadvantages. Due to the lack of fees, such servers have a lot of clients, i.e. they are often overloaded and, as a result, work slowly. Your website hosted on free hosting will load slowly and sometimes even freeze. This may deprive you of such welcome visitors. Free hosting often lacks some programs necessary for interactive pages to work. Therefore, for commercial websites it is better to choose paid hosting.

How to choose hosting?

The reputation of a site largely depends on the quality of the server on which it is hosted. Imagine that a simple website loads slowly and at times is completely unavailable. This is how they lose visitors. Everyone prefers to deal with sites that have no failures and go to competitors’ sites, which are better only because they managed to choose the best hosting. With an unstable server, it is impossible to create a high-quality chat; changes in stock prices will not be reflected on the site in a timely manner. Regular news, and it will appear late. This state of affairs can ruin the reputation of even a home page.

Server interruptions are inevitable. Everyone needs preventive maintenance and maintenance. Common problems are also possible. No one is immune from problems, but these are force majeure circumstances that rarely occur. But the server can organize scheduled work so that it does not interfere with clients. As a last resort, the server administration will warn that, say, from 5-00 to 5-10 daily (or monthly) - prevention. Accordingly, website owners will structure their work taking this break into account. High-quality, powerful hosting services manage to avoid such interruptions in their work, but they also cost more. But they promise to compensate for downtime. As a guarantee, it is worth keeping copies of contracts that state this compensation in order to actually receive it if something happens.

To choose the best one among the companies offering the same services, it is recommended to find out the opinions of those who have already dealt with these companies. In the case of hosting, everything is a little more complicated. Nevertheless, you should chat on the forums, find out who is a hack and who conscientiously fulfills everything promised. But there is a subtlety here. If the hosting violates the contracts, there is, of course, nothing to talk about. You shouldn't mess with someone like that. But there cannot be such a clear opinion about the operation of websites. The fact is that on a hosting that is suitable for one site, another site may not work well. And if such a problem happens, then it’s better to look for another hosting.

To avoid this, you must first decide for yourself what, in fact, is needed for the site, what you should find out about before purchasing hosting.

Here is an approximate set of good hosting services:
• Number of domains on one account
• Domain name registration
• At least 20 MB of disk space
• Sufficiently large throughput
• Free technical support
• Email addresses (E-Mail) using the POP3 protocol
• Redirecting emails
• Autoresponders for emails
• Email aliases
• FTP access
• Ability to use your own CGI scripts
• Free use of Perl, PHP
  When developing a project, you need to build on the technical capabilities of the hosting. One friend created a website in JSP, but a year later he gave up on this idea and rewrote it in PHP. Now he works calmly and does not have hemorrhoids with finding a site and moving.
• Server side inserts ( Server Side Includes (SSI)) is a mechanism that allows you to reference environment variables and perform some actions "from within" HTML documents without programming.
• Automatic backup
• Availability of pre-installed CMS(site engines)
• Price, form of payment
• Password protection
• Affiliate program
• 30 day money back guarantee
• Geography of the audience for which the site is designed.
  If the main audience of your site is Russian-speaking visitors, you ideally need to host your site in Russia. If you are tailoring a project for the bourgeoisie, then you are better off looking for hosting in the States or Germany. This way sites will work faster, and more geotargeting should not be forgotten.
• Reputation and quality of hosting provider services.
  And, of course, if you choose hosting, then you need to choose it for something, and not just because it is cheaper than others. And here reviews on webmaster forums and blogs, plus personal impressions from communication with staff, play an important role. It’s not good when the support snaps at even the smallest request in the style of “for your 5 bucks, we’re too lazy to print even a couple of lines, you’ll outbid.”

Once several suitable hosting providers have been selected, you should approach them in more detail. Many people fall for the bait of the word “unlimited.” But nothing is unlimited. And those who put too much emphasis on their unlimited capabilities are likely to overestimate themselves, if not just cheating. Therefore, you should decide how much space the site takes up on your computer along with databases, mail, and log files. Now you can find out what exactly hosters mean by “disk space” and what types of files are included in the quota. Many servers include mail and log files in the quota, which makes it difficult to estimate the required disk space, because... The size of these files is constantly changing. If statistical information is required, additional space will be needed to collect and process this data. It would be nice if it was possible to download and delete log files daily. If they are to be removed monthly, they will take up too much space by the end of the month.

The site loading speed depends on the bandwidth of the server channels. The larger it is, the better the site will work.

Growing problems should also be taken care of. After all, the site will develop. The database will increase and traffic will grow. Will the chosen hosting handle this? For your own peace of mind, it is not harmful to find out which large well-known companies use the services of this hosting. New hosting companies may be very good in all respects, but, unfortunately, they may disappear one day. Together with the entire database accumulated on the site. Such a disaster can be compared to a fire. Therefore, it is better to choose those who have been on the market for a long time.

When you start corresponding with the hosting administration, pay attention to the speed and completeness of the responses. How attentive they are to clients, do they answer questions clearly and in detail? If the answers are delayed, it means that the problems that arise will be treated with the same indifference. However, when asking questions, do not repeat those in the Frequently Asked Questions section. Perhaps all the answers you need are already there. And if you are satisfied with everything, you can register.

• Fast response
• Reliability and stability
• No “bad” neighbors
• Different IPs for different sites (for working via HTTPS this is a must!)
• High-quality 24/7 support
• Regular backups

To monitor response time, you can use services such as host-tracker.com And siteuptime.com.

You can test the site’s resistance to loads using services loadimpact.com And loadstorm.com.

Checking the quality of hosting technical support is very simple: send them an email describing the problem at about 2-3 am. In most cases, you will receive a standard reply, and the problem itself will be resolved no earlier than 10–11 am. We can only talk about good technical support if there is a quick, specific response at any time of the day.

Dynamic page technologies.

Web pages can be static or dynamic. Static pages are created using the simplest html and CSS languages. Java scripts are used quite often. Most often these are the main pages of sites or small sites with a limited amount of information. In essence, these are not programming languages, but a way of marking up text: font, background, columns. Scripts are already small programs that are executed when you hover the mouse over a certain object (drop-down menu, for example). All these languages ​​are understood by the computer browser; they do not require any special software. But their possibilities are small.

Imagine a site search form. Let's say this is a site about restaurants, cafes, and clubs in the city. With addresses, phone numbers, menus and entertainment programs for today. One user wants to find the nearest restaurant that serves nightingale tongues today, another is looking for an inexpensive cafe with jazz music, and a third wants to order dinner at home. For the three of them, you just need to create three different static pages that they will see upon their request. How many more users will want to find something else? It’s like creating a page for everyone. If only we knew in advance who would be looking for what, otherwise you would have to go through all possible combinations based on all these parameters (address, menu, price, program). And for tomorrow, make updates, redo all these pages. The amount of work for static pages is simply impossible. Therefore, it is much more convenient to use dynamic pages that will be generated for each request. Simple tools are not suitable for this; you need special software and a special programming language.

The way such languages ​​work is simple. The web server hosts databases (in our case, a list of restaurants with menus, addresses, prices), and programs (scenarios or scripts) for processing this data based on user requests. The request from the computer is sent to the server, where the data is processed by the appropriate program. The result is a web page that is transmitted back to the user's computer. All this is done using the CGI protocol - Common Gateway Interface (which in Russian sounds like “common gateway interface”). CGI is a set of rules by which the server passes a request to a program.

To work with databases located on the server, PHP, ASP, and Perl languages ​​are used. Perl was the first language to be created to run simple programs. He needs a correctly configured and debugged interpreter on the server. The PHP language is currently developing most actively in combination with the MySQL database. PHP and MySQL technologies are supported by most hosting providers. They are compatible with almost all operating systems, easy to install, configure, operate and have wide functionality. Moreover, hosting with PHP and MySQL on UNIX/Linux operating systems is the cheapest hosting. For comparison, hosting with support for ASP and SQL technologies running the Windows operating system costs 50%-70% more. Moreover, the reliability of such technologies is somewhat less. Windows is a convenient operating system for a personal computer, but does not work well as a server operating system. It is for this reason that the website of Microsoft itself, a Windows developer, is hosted on a Linux operating system. Technology with ASP, SQL is a commercial technology with closed source. PHP and MySQL technologies are free to use, so they are used and developed by programmers all over the world. However, if a failure does occur on the PHP page, there will be no one to file a claim against. Therefore, many people prefer to use ASP, SQL.

ASP, or Active Server Pages, is a scripting language. It allows you to generate HTML from various databases interactively at the request of users. It is compatible with page objects such as Active X or Java components. ASP can be combined with regular web pages to create powerful applications that can be developed and modified. The ASP page is created on the server before it is sent to the user's computer. Hosting services that support ASP are worthy of all respect. But you should find out which version the hosting supports: ASP or ASP.NET. In addition, the server must support database applications such as Access and SQL. ASP.NET is a new technology. Microsoft is working on it. The developers believe that this will soon be the most widely used language.

Where can server-side scripting languages ​​come in handy? These are guest books, forums, chats, all kinds of registration forms. It is very convenient to use them for online stores with the ability to pay for purchases directly from the site.

Free hosting

When deciding on which hosting to host a new website, there is always a temptation to use the services of a free server. Well, really, why pay more if you can not pay at all? Such thoughts are especially common among novice businessmen and authors of non-profit projects. And free hosting can indeed provide many useful services. Let’s figure out what’s good, what’s bad, and where the mousetrap is in which free hosting lies.

A very serious drawback is the large load on free servers, and, as a result, slow speed. You will immediately have to come to terms with this as an inevitable evil. You can only try to choose the least slow hosting. This can be done by going to the main hosting page. If it loads not just slowly, but very slowly, don’t go there anymore. Look for something else.

First, you need to carefully read the rules of the server with which you decide to establish a strong relationship. Each hosting has its own rules. And you need to either adapt your website to these requirements, or look for another place.

First, look at the sites' prohibited topics. Not all companies agree to host, for example, porn sites or freebies. Next, the size of the disk space provided is important. Well, as a rule, there are no problems here. The smallest space on hosting for a website is 5MB. But now they usually don’t give anything less than 200MB anywhere. There is definitely enough space for a home page or business card website on any hosting. But still, look how much space the site takes up. Just in case. What if you have a photo album with large photographs or MP3s?

The next limitation imposed by free hosting is the size of the files. Any ordinary page will certainly fit, but archives, pictures and music may not fit. It may even happen that the hosting does not want to deal with certain types of files at all. Most often, files with the extension *.mp3, *.mpeg, *.zip, *.rar, *.arj fall into the category of unwanted files. Or they may not be available for your visitors to download from your site.

An important question is how you can upload a site to the server. Modern providers usually provide access via FTP (this is a protocol that allows you to upload a large amount of information). Simple and convenient. It is much worse if a form in the browser is offered for downloading, which must be filled out for each individual file. Try to find a hosting with FTP access. The ability to administer the site is also very important. A good hosting will certainly have a site control panel, with which it is easy to make any changes.

Free hosting usually provides free mailboxes, forums, and guest books. A very useful thing. Especially if it is possible to change the design of the forum and book, make them the same type as the site (choose a background, font, logo). For people who themselves cannot cope with programming such complex scripts (programs that generate pages), this is an irreplaceable thing. But the entire database with the addresses of those who visited your forum or book will not be available to you. It will remain on the server.

Hosting, even free, needs to live on something. And he lives off the advertising that he places on his clients’ websites. This is unpleasant, but if you provide space for the banner on the site, it can turn out quite nice. Only here there are underwater stones. Firstly, each hosting has chosen its own place for its banners. And the banners themselves are different on different hosting sites. This could be a large banner measuring 468x60 located at the bottom of the page, or 100x100 in the upper right corner, or even a pop-up one. This means that before designing the page, you need to figure out where you will be hosted and reserve space for advertising that you don’t need. And the second problem is if the hosting allows advertising on some “slippery” topic. Then such bad advertising may appear on your website, for which you will be excluded from some promotion program with stricter rules. And the third disadvantage: some hosting sites impose restrictions on the presence of other people’s banners on the pages. They may, for example, prohibit the placement of someone else’s banner next to theirs or even require that it be removed from the page.

Before registering with a hosting, you need to see what scripting languages ​​the hosting supports. Everyone has seen clickable buttons, drop-down menus, etc. These are simple scripts, they are executed by the browser when loading the code of an html page without any participation from the server. But there are server scripts. To perform them, you need software or a database installed on the server. In this case, the browser receives an already generated, ready-made page. This could be a site search, database processing, for example, an online store, chat or forum. If the site uses server-side languages, see if the hosting supports them. If not, look for another place.

And the most important drawback is that serious people and companies have a biased attitude towards sites located on free hosting. A self-respecting company will never be tempted by freebies. Many services on the Internet refuse to work with freeloaders. Coupled with slow loading and periodic interruptions in communication with the server, all this does not inspire confidence in sites with free hosting. Therefore, if you want to do serious work on the Internet, move to a paid server as soon as possible.