A site is only secure as you make it. Use a good ssl certificate.
So would godaddy be good ?
I think godaddy is a great option. When looking for a host you want to look at value per gb and bandwidth, make sure it is scalable, does it offer ssl which makes a site secure, and is it someone I trust
Okay thanks
There are two types of hosting:
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Web hosting. You share servers with other customers. Most decent hosting companies will allow you to have multiple domain names, unlimited subdomains. You generally get access to the webserver and databases, but you can’t run your own servers. You will get Apache for the web server. You get the PHP version they have installed and will have limited configuration ability. Usually they give unlimited data storage, pretty high limits on bandwidth and you’re not measured by CPU usage since you’re sharing servers. These providers run in the $5-$15 USD per month in most cases. GoDaddy’s services fall into this category.
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Virtual Dedicated hosting. With this you get a server and you’re handed the keys to the full admin of it. This means you can choose to use the database of your choosing, the web server of your choosing and if you need to run a dedicated service you can. You generally have to setup your own web server, manage your domains and such yourself. These tend to bill more by how much CPU you use and how much data you transfer. But they can be affordable. But you need to have some understanding of server management before you go here. Many web hosts also offer virtual dedicated hosting.
2b. A variant of Virtual Dedciated hosting has Cloud services built in. The servers can scale as your needs grow. They take advantage of multiple servers around the world and caching to make your files deliver quicker and so on. Scott’s references to Digital Ocean and Amazon’s AWS service are examples of this.
You may or may not get free SSL certificates with some hosts. Normally its a lot of paper work and $300 per domain name per year to get an SSL certificate. There is a new group with some serious big names behind it that believe all websites should be secure. The project is called “LetsEncrypt” (https://letsencrypt.org/). With LE, SSL Certificates are free, and its easy to install and you don’t have the huge identification restrictions.
I was hosting at a hosting provider and they wanted expensive fees to setup and maintain SSL and for me where I have a dozen websites and even more sub-domains, it would be very cost prohibitive. So I found a new hosting company that would transfer my whole site to their site and they supported letsencrypt. There were some hiccups in getting my site transferred because the original site wasn’t following standards. But now that I’m up, every site is https: capable and I’m saving $6 a month.
As for cloud/virtual hosting, I do like Digital Ocean.
Rob
So would 'web hosting ’ be good for hosting a social app ?
You could use either
It all depends on how successful you are, but generally I would say not. For a social app to be successful, you have to have a volume of users and that would probably overwhelm a typical low-cost web host. You need to be able to scale to do this.
So web hosting or VDH ?
Have you created a specification for what all this social network will do? What data are you tracking? What information is important to the user? Do you need fast notifications like facebook where you see comments popup on the screen as they happen?
Until you know your server needs, that question will be very hard to answer.
Rob
I will keep track of comments, messages ,user accounts and posts
Let me start off by saying it is absolutely possible to setup a social network with a web hosting. But I think you are going to run into walls and it is going to be harder to scale. On the other hand vdh are more scalable and open. Vdh are harder to setup but are more customizable. I also don’t think you can sent push notifications from a web service( if you want to do that)
Okay so you recommend VDH ?
Yes that is my recommendation, once you go vdh you don’t go back.
okay thanks