Hosting your own web server may seem like the way to go for your website, there are a number of things that may make you want to host your own server, you’re sick of hosting fees, downtime or poor customer service from your web host.

If you strike out on your own and go with hosting your own web server, there are a number of things to consider. I will set out some of these things in a pro and con format, allowing you to make the decision that is best for you.

Pros

– No Shared Hosting
This is potentially one of the biggest pros of hosting your own web server, on a web host you will most likely be on a server with thousands and thousands of other sites also being hosted on the same server. If one of them sites receives a traffic spike then your website can slow to a crawl which can look unprofessional for your customers or even cost you a sale. If you move to hosting your own web server then you will become the only website on your server thus eliminating all of these issues.

– Truly Unlimited Hosting
We’ve all seen the adverts with hosts, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited space etc. But in reality if you ever use a huge amount of bandwidth or a huge amount of space they will cut you off and you will discover that your hosting is not truly unlimited, however with your own web hosting that will never be an issue, you can host as much as you want on your own server and you will never be cut off for using ‘too much bandwidth’ in the eyes of the host.

Cons

– No Technical Support
This is probably the largest issue that you will encounter when hosting your own web server. When using one of the large hosts they have teams of technical support staff that are experts in their field and can help you with your technical problems. However if you go it alone you are on your own, responsible for diagnosing and solving any technical issues that arise, of course if you are an expert on server technical issues this wouldn’t be a problem but if you are not then you could run into issues.

– If The Server Goes Down, You Are Offline
When you are with one of the large web hosts they generally will have your website on a number of different servers, so if one goes down they can redirect to another one with minimal downtime for your website. However if you are hosting a single server on your own then if that server goes down for whatever reason, be it technical issue or power cut then your website is offline, gone from the internet until you can get that server backup which could take some time.

Overall there are many different things to consider when hosting your own web server as you can see, in the end you must way up the pros and cons and come to your own decision on what is best for you and your website.

Denis is a freelance writer that loves to share tips pertaining to mobile phones. You can visit his site on Reverse Cell Phone Lookup if you want to learn more on him.