Database Web Hosting
When choosing a web hosting service that you will be able to host your website and domains on, one of the most important factors that you are likely to consider are the database hosting services that are available for use with your web hosting package. The database services that you have available for use will depend on the web hosting platform that you have chosen to use. If you have purchased a Linux web hosting service then MySQL is likely to be the main database server that you have available to use; however, depending on your chosen web hosting provider you may also be able to make use of PostgreSQL databases with your web applications. If you purchase a Windows web hosting package for your requirements then similarly you will be able to use MySQL databases in conjunction with your web scripts; however, you will also have Microsoft specific database applications available for use such as Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Access, both of which are best used in conjunction with classic ASP and ASP.NET based websites. The database system that you choose to use in conjunction with your PHP or ASP based website will depend on several factors such as your experience with database server hosting services and how much you are expecting from your database.
If your website is going to be relatively low-traffic then you may wish to consider a desktop database application such as Microsoft Access since this will reduce the complexity of setting a database up for your website and will make management easier; if you wish to use a database application that can provide you with a scalable database hosting solution to meet the requirements of your growing website then SQL based database servers such as Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL Server may be more suitable for your requirements. In the case of SQL based database servers you are normally limited as to the number of SQL databases that you are able to create using a single web hosting account; however with desktop database applications such as Microsoft Access most web hosting services won’t have any limit on the number of such databases that can be hosted under a single web hosting account. It is important to remember that the size of any databases that you are hosting will count towards your overall resource usage; this means that if you are sure that your databases will be taking up quite a bit of disk space then you may wish to consider a dedicated server for your database server hosting requirements.
What are the advantages of using a database for my website?
Using a database for your website will allow you to create one central location in which you can store all the information that is required to power your website; you can then develop your own web scripts using dynamic scripting languages such as PHP or ASP that will then be able to access the information stored within your database. One of the main advantages of using a database for your website is that you can create a much more interactive website that your visitors can do a lot more with, i.e. you can setup forms on your website for your visitors to fill out – the information from such forms can then be processed and inserted into your database; you can increase the number of features on offer to your visitors as well, for example you can setup a password protected ‘members only’ area on your website for certain visitors to use. A database will also allow your website to be much more scalable and means that you will be able to cope with a higher visitor load since you can easily spread the load that may be put on a database by hosting your database on an external server, although for this to be effective you should be using high specification servers; even though standard HTML websites will never put much load on their hosting servers, websites created using server side scripting languages can put a high load on servers even when they’re not connecting to databases. A database will also allow you to serve dynamic content to your visitors, allowing you to manage your website much more easily if you are able to use a CMS (content management system) in one way or another; if you are running a large website then this means that you can have multiple users contributing content to your website at the same time, or you can provide a large number of people with access to your site to edit it. In summary, the main advantages of using a database for your website include:
- Interactive website – when using a database you essentially have one central location in which you can store all the information that is relevant to the content of your website, and this will allow you to create a much more interactive website for your visitors – if you are going to be using a database then you can add forms and other popular features to your website that your visitors can then make the most of – one of the most popular features which you can add to your website using a database is a search engine meaning that if you have a large index of content, your visitors will be able to search through this to find the content that suits their needs without having to go through individual web pages
- Scalability – a database will also allow you to create a website which is much more scalable and can cope with larger visitor numbers since it will allow you to store all of your website’s content in one central location – if you choose to use a CMS in conjunction with your database then you will also be able to add content to your website on a more constant basis allowing you to get on with more important things whilst your visitors view the content that you have added to your website – a database can also be beneficial when transferring your website over for hosting in a distributed environment that can provide you with a higher level of reliability since it means that you can keep your database on a separate server from your website
- Dynamic content – you can use a database to serve dynamic content to your website, and this will be regardless of the scripting language and database server pairing that you have chosen to create your dynamic website – this on its own can provide you with many more advantages since it means that you can manage your website much more easily if you choose to use a CMS system as the basis for your website – as well as using a database for dynamic content, you can also use dynamic scripts to pull content from other websites where appropriate for display on your own website which will allow you to build up a content-rich website.
The advantages of using a database as the basis of your website provide an insight into how inconvenient it can be to use static HTML pages in some cases. Although creating a dynamic website may seem hard to begin with, there are many third-party CMS systems available for you to use; there are both ASP and PHP CMS systems available meaning that there is guaranteed to be one available that will work with your web hosting package.
What are the disadvantages of using a database as part of my website?
Using a database as part of your website isn’t as simple to setup as you may think it is and in some situations you may find that a static HTML website will be able to meet your requirements much more effectively than a dynamic website. One of the main disadvantages of using any database with your website is the fact that you will need to develop a complex CMS system using your own code so that your website can interact with the database that you have setup, and this will either cost you your own time or quite a bit of money if you choose to pay someone else to do it for you; the most popular scripting languages around include ASP and PHP and it is recommended that you use one of these to develop your website if you wish to create a dynamic setup. Database server hosting can be rather costly in some cases since there are a number of factors that you will need to take into consideration – if you are going to be using a shared web hosting service then you won’t need to worry about any additional costs that may be incurred, but if you are going to purchase a separate database server then you will need to consider certain costs; the database server that you choose to use will have an affect on how much it costs you since all premium versions of Microsoft SQL Server cost money, whereas MySQL Server is open source meaning that it is free to use. Setting up a database can be either fairly simple or fairly hard depending on how large your database needs to be in terms of the number of tables and rows you are going to be using as well as the type of database system that you have chosen; for example, SQL based databases are going to be harder to setup than databases created using a desktop application since there are many different data types to choose from whereas with a desktop application you are normally provided with a much narrower choice. In summary, the main disadvantages of using a database as part of your website include:
- Development – in order for a database to be of any use to you a website will first need to be developed using a server side scripting language that will function correctly with your chosen database server or application – if you have chosen to use MySQL Server then you will want to be developing your website using PHP, whereas if you have decided to use Microsoft SQL Server or Microsoft Access as your database backend you will need to use either classic ASP or ASP.NET to develop your website – the development of a dynamic website can take a long time and this means it will either cost you your own time or if you decide to hire a third-party developer to do it for you it will cost you quite a bit of money
- Cost – depending on the type of web hosting service that you choose to go for, you may find database server hosting to be expensive in some cases meaning that it is important for you to choose the right database hosting setup for your needs – if you are only going to be running a small website then a shared hosting service is going to be more than enough for your requirements and most shared web hosting packages come with at least one SQL database for you to make use of – if your requirements are more complex then you may wish to consider a dedicated database server since this will provide you with a higher level of reliability and security – in any case you will find MySQL database solutions to be the cheapest around since the database server is open source, whilst the higher end editions of Microsoft SQL Server can set you back hundreds or even thousands of pounds depending on the number of licenses that you will require
- Setup – you need to ensure that you are able to setup your database properly if it is going to function correctly and handle the data that you are going to be storing in it properly, although how easy this is for you will depend on your experience as well your chosen database system – most database desktop applications allow you to setup a database within a few minutes since they provide you with instructions on how to do so during the setup process, although they aren’t as feature rich as more complex database servers – SQL database systems such as MySQL Server and Microsoft SQL Server on the other hand can be harder to configure since there are more factors that you will need to take into consideration such as the different data types available to use as well as any other database users you may need to setup.
The disadvantages of using a database in conjunction with your website are unlikely to affect you if your website is big enough to require a database backend. However, for your database to be of any use to you it is important to make sure that it is setup correctly and that you are using a system that will be able to cope with the load put on your database.
In conclusion, database server hosting is a common feature of most web hosting packages with databases being available with even the most basic of shared web hosting packages. All web hosting providers are able to provide you with database hosting services, and larger web hosting providers can offer large, distributed dedicated database server hosting services for businesses who require a highly reliable database hosting platform.
