How much does a web server costs to run?

Hi guys, this is one of the most useful sites ever visited, so hope you guys can help me with this question...

My question is regarding (Web Server / Web Hosting / Dedicated Servers)

How much does each one of these costs, for example; how much it costs to run your own web server, and what are the requirements for that, like what do we need to setup a web server from scratch? If you know what I mean...!

The second one is web hosting, how much does that costs to hire a good reputation hosting, please consider the security and backups?

And thirdly, how much it costs to hire dedicated servers, if you know any good ones, please refer them...!

Please reply me ASAP, I need to run a website within a day or two, so must know the advantages, disadvantages and costs of each?

Please reply, I really need help on this.
Thanks in advance, hope you would all understand what I have written above.
Regards, Daz, London

The costs of hosting depend on what you are trying to to. For instance, my portfolio site got less than 100 unique visitors a month so it required cheap hosting (I used Liquidweb's $15/mo plan). But on the other end, TalkFreelance is hosted on a dedicated server with Theplanet, I do not know the costs of that, but would assume it is one of their lesser unmanaged dedicated. Bigger sites require bigger servers and smaller sites don't need anything past shared hosting. So there is no definitive "best" host for you to go with.

If you don't know anything about webhosting or web servers, I don't think you will be able to pull this together in a few days. Take some time and do your homework on google, both on the hosting industry and the company you wish to go with.

ps. moved to Web Hosting and Domain Chat.

First of all sorry for posting in wrong section.
Secondly, thanks for the reply.

The website will be build to provide educational materials on Maths and Science to mainly students, schools and colleges also use the materials.
The website will have videos, tests, quizzes and PDF document for each of its posts.

The website will be managed by lectures and qualified volunteers. So lets say the site will have about 1000 unique visits a week...

So can somebody suggest which one to choose form and why!
Thanks to those who participate.
Regards,

Originally Posted by dazraf First of all sorry for posting in wrong section. Secondly, thanks for the reply. The website will be build to provide educational materials on Maths and Science to mainly students, schools and colleges also use the materials. The website will have videos, tests, quizzes and PDF document for each of its posts. The website will be managed by lectures and qualified volunteers. So lets say the site will have about 1000 unique visits a week... So can somebody suggest which one to choose form and why! Thanks to those who participate. Regards,

Where are you getting the 1,000 uniques a week from? That is a lot of unique visitors. If you do have research behind 1,000 uniques a week, you are talking a high bandwidth site so you will want to go straight for dedicated. Liquidweb has my recommendations, they are more pricey than others in their industry, but I have never seen service like they provide before. They own their owns server locations and their own bandwidth, meaning that they are in control and not at the mercy of whoever they are reselling (almost all cheap hosts resell someone else's services).

Your next question is Windows or Linux. What is the site you are doing written in?

Thanks, obviously the secure one, I have been always recommended to go for Linux, but people never provide sensible reasons...
Can you suggest which one of the two and why?
Is it because of its security, usability or cost...?
Thanks,

From a security standpoint there really isn't too much of a difference. More viruses do come around for Windows servers, but keep your inputs secure and don't ever ever surf the web on your server and you will be fine.

Windows
Windows costs more but in my opinion is easier to use because Microsoft is a consumer driven business making paid products that come with support. This means that applications that are guaranteed to work right. You must have it if you want to use things such as .NET or MSSQL. It does not work too well with MySQL or PHP so read on for linux if you are using that. I am a professional .net developer so I have a fair amount of experience with Windows servers (and quite possibly a bit of a bias).

Linux
Linux if a free operating system, the distribution you are using was created by a team of volunteers unless you are using redhat (which costs money). So needless to say, Linux is cheaper. My one gripe with linux is that they don't owe you anything since you did not pay, lack of support can be very bad in a small business setting. However, Linux is much faster with PHP and MySQL so if you are using those, use Linux.

I'd probably just go for a shared hosting plan to start and upgrade as you build. You wont get 1000's of uniques over night. If you hosted the videos on youtube or something you'd save a lot of money, bandwidth and space.

Thanks for the heads up Kewl. Cheers.

Originally Posted by dazraf Thanks, obviously the secure one, I have been always recommended to go for Linux, but people never provide sensible reasons... Can you suggest which one of the two and why? Is it because of its security, usability or cost...? Thanks,

One very good but oft overlooked reason is cost. You don't have to pay for an MSWindows license, but that's not the only place you save money.

For example if you were buying a Xen virtual hosting account, Windows hosting costs more because Linux has been modified to let it do in software what needs to be done in hardware for closed source applications. This is the difference between PV (paravirtualized) and HVM (hardware virtualized) Xen. Windows capable HVM plans often cost 30% more than Linux friendly PV plans.

And then of course there's all the free software that is so easy to install on Linux.

Linux is superior to microsoft products in every conceivable way. Almost all of the critical servers on the net, are running some distribution of linux.

If it has to work = linux.
If it has to have a bunch of downtime, be expensive and be maintenance intensive = Windows.

All that aside though, agree with whoever said do your research. It can be a really complicated thing. Dont know why the people behind your project would assign responsibility for that. To a person who doesnt know anything about the subject.

But if you're a net research competent person ... with a decent memory etc. You can know 1000 times more, about just about anything, after 24hrs of internet reading.

Im now going to hit you with one of my favorite quotes.

A wise man knows .... what he doesnt know.

Would consider pushing back the start date and asking either, they give you adequate time to get prepared on the subject, ... or elect somebody better qualified to handle that aspect of whatever you ( your group ) has in mind.