TL;DR
Hosting is the foundation of every website. Choosing the right hosting, CDN, backup and monitoring are key elements of reliable infrastructure. Here's how to build solid infrastructure in 2026.
Who this is for
- Website owners
- Developers managing infrastructure
- Companies planning hosting
Keyword (SEO)
website hosting, hosting selection, cdn, website backup, performance monitoring
Hosting types
1. Shared hosting
What it is:
- Many sites on one server
- Shared resources (CPU, RAM)
- Cheapest hosting type
Advantages:
- Low costs ($5-25/month)
- Simple configuration
- Technical support
Disadvantages:
- Limited resources
- Slower performance
- Security issues (neighbors)
For whom:
- Small sites
- Blogs
- Business card sites
2. VPS (Virtual Private Server)
What it is:
- Virtual dedicated server
- Own resources (CPU, RAM, disk)
- Full control
Advantages:
- More resources
- Better performance
- Full control
- Scalability
Disadvantages:
- Requires technical knowledge
- Higher costs ($25-125/month)
- Own configuration
For whom:
- Medium sites
- Web applications
- Online stores
3. Cloud hosting
What it is:
- Cloud hosting
- Scalable resources
- Pay per use
Advantages:
- High scalability
- Flexibility
- High availability
- Global infrastructure
Disadvantages:
- Higher costs (can be expensive with high traffic)
- Requires technical knowledge
- Complex configuration
For whom:
- Large sites
- Apps with high traffic
- Scalable projects
4. Managed hosting
What it is:
- Hosting managed by provider
- Automatic updates
- Technical support
Advantages:
- No server management
- Automatic updates
- 24/7 support
- Optimization for specific technologies
Disadvantages:
- Higher costs ($50-250/month)
- Less control
- Dependency on provider
For whom:
- Companies without IT team
- Projects requiring support
- Enterprise applications
CDN (Content Delivery Network)
What is CDN?
CDN is a network of geographically distributed servers that:
- Store copies of site
- Serve content from nearest server
- Reduce latency
- Increase availability
CDN advantages
Performance:
- Faster loading (shorter distance)
- Lower latency
- Better Core Web Vitals
Availability:
- Redundancy (multiple servers)
- DDoS protection
- Load balancing
Costs:
- Less load on main server
- Transfer savings
- Free plans available (Cloudflare)
Popular CDN
Cloudflare:
- Free plan
- Good security features
- Easy configuration
AWS CloudFront:
- AWS integration
- High performance
- Pay per use
Fastly:
- Fast edge computing
- Good for large projects
- Higher costs
Backup
What to backup?
Files:
- Site code
- Images and media
- Configuration
Database:
- All tables
- User data
- Configuration
How often?
Daily:
- For active sites
- Before major changes
- Automatically (cron jobs)
Before changes:
- System updates
- Code changes
- Migrations
Where to store?
External server:
- Separate backup server
- Cloud storage (AWS S3, Google Cloud)
- Locally (as additional copy)
Best practice:
- 3-2-1 rule: 3 copies, 2 different media, 1 offsite
- Automatic backups
- Test restoration
Monitoring
What to monitor?
Availability (Uptime):
- Is site working?
- Response time
- Status codes (200, 404, 500)
Performance:
- Loading time
- Core Web Vitals
- Server response time
Errors:
- Server errors (500, 502, 503)
- Application errors
- Database errors
Resources:
- CPU usage
- RAM usage
- Disk space
- Network traffic
Monitoring tools
Uptime monitoring:
- UptimeRobot (free)
- Pingdom
- StatusCake
Performance monitoring:
- Google Analytics
- Lighthouse
- WebPageTest
Application monitoring:
- Sentry (errors)
- LogRocket (session replay)
- New Relic (APM)
Server monitoring:
- Datadog
- Grafana
- Prometheus
Infrastructure optimization
1. Caching
Browser caching:
- Cache-Control headers
- ETags
- Expires headers
Server caching:
- Redis
- Memcached
- Varnish
CDN caching:
- Cache static assets
- Cache HTML (optional)
- Cache invalidation
2. Compression
Gzip/Brotli:
- HTML, CSS, JS compression
- Smaller files
- Faster transfers
Image optimization:
- WebP/AVIF format
- Lazy loading
- Responsive images
3. Database optimization
Indexes:
- Indexes on frequently used columns
- Query optimization
- Connection pooling
Backup:
- Regular backups
- Point-in-time recovery
- Replication (for large projects)
Infrastructure costs
Hosting
- Shared: $5-25/month
- VPS: $25-125/month
- Cloud: $15-125+/month (depends on usage)
- Managed: $50-250/month
CDN
- Cloudflare: free plan available
- AWS CloudFront: ~$0.085/GB
- Fastly: from $50/month
Backup
- Cloud storage: $1-5/month
- Backup service: $3-12/month
Monitoring
- UptimeRobot: free plan available
- Sentry: free plan available
- Datadog: from $15/host/month
Best practices
1. Redundancy
- Multiple servers
- Load balancing
- Failover
2. Security
- SSL/HTTPS
- Firewall
- DDoS protection
- Regular updates
3. Scalability
- Horizontal scaling
- Auto-scaling
- Load balancing
4. Documentation
- Document configuration
- Disaster recovery procedures
- Contacts in case of problems
Summary
Hosting and infrastructure are the foundation of reliable site. Choose appropriate hosting type (shared, VPS, cloud, managed), implement CDN for performance, configure automatic backups and monitoring. Optimize infrastructure (caching, compression, database) and document everything. Investment in good infrastructure pays off with reliability and performance.
Want to configure hosting and infrastructure?
- Contact – tell us about your project
- See our implementations – examples of infrastructure
- Check our care – hosting and support