Which hosting option you choose is simply based on how large you can envisage your website getting and how many hits or visitors you predict per month.

Linux/Unix Hosting

Linux/Unix based hosting purely refers to the type of operating system your server is running. From a user perspective it doesn’t really matter other than the fact that Linux is a case sensitive operating system. So if you name a file myfile.htm then you always need to make links go to myfile.htm – MyFile.htm or Myfile.htm will not work! Linux tends to be the most popular option for hosting, and as a result the cheapest, it’s also very reliable.

Windows Platform

This is simply web hosting built on Windows 2000 or 2003 servers. In general Windows hosting is generally more expensive than Linux.
Shared Hosting Shared hosting means that your hosting account is on a server along with multiple other users and their hosting account, so you’re basically sharing the server. This is the most common type of hosting and the most cost effective. You’ll be given a bandwidth allocation (which We’ll explain shortly) and an amount of disk space you’re allowed to use.

Dedicated Server Hosting

As the name implies, this is where you have a whole server allocated for your use. It’s basically your server and you pay for it on a month to month basis. In general, you’re responsible for it, so if you are hacked, infected by a virus or abused by spammers, then you’re on your own for the most part. The advantage is that no one else is using the server so all the resources are yours, as is the disk space and bandwidth. Dedicated servers start at around $99 per month.

Managed Hosting Similar to dedicated hosting, managed comes with a higher price tag but less responsibility. Again you have your own server to use, but you also have a team of support staff on hand maintaining the server, adding updates, patches and generally dealing with any technical issues or intruders.

Co-Location Hosting

Co-Location hosting is becoming less and less common these days as dedicated hosting grows in popularity. This is where you would install your own server at a datacenter and simply rent shelf space and a bandwidth allowance from the datacenter. For the purpose of this e-book, we’ll assume you’re going to use Shared Hosting because you’re just starting out with your sites, they’re probably mini sites and we’re trying to keep costs to a minimum.

Source:http://hagency.com/ebook/Hosting_Tips_for_Affiliates.pdf

These are classified on the basis of the amount of control the user wants to have and degree of the responsibility that the user must share for the smooth and consistent running of their website. Now, strictly talking of Shared server hosting and dedicated server hosting.

Shared Web Hosting
As the name suggest, in shared web hosting many small users upload their website on and run them on same shared server. This is mainly opted by beginners, individuals, and small business and even by organizations. All have very little or low requirement of bandwidth and disk space. This is used when user don’t expect much traffic to flow inn.

In shared web server hosting the whole, maintenance of server and organization of server, software installation, security updates etc is managed by website host provider and they are accountable for this too. They use software like Direct Admin, Helm etc as control panels for the overall governance of the server. Most of the shared web server work for Linux OS only as it has got maximum compatible control panels in the market.

Few web host providers also provide FreeBSD or Microsoft Windows platform too. The best part of this type of service is that it is in great number and so is cheaper too. Not many web hosting service providers are able to provide full facilities of windows web hosting. It can be carried out in either of the two methods i.e. name based or IP based hosting. In name based hosting, many names can be used under single IP whereas, in IP based there is dedicated IP for each website.

Dedicated Web Hosting
As the name suggest, in dedicated web hosting each website is given dedicated web server, no other website can share this under any case. It is used when a user expects to get huge traffic. It has much greater bandwidth then the shared one so is able to handle traffic with much ease. This is also required if you need to have complex app, secure information and customized option in your website.

The dedicated server type hosting allows the user to have 100% control with 100% responsibility to run their website smooth and consistent performance of their website. Due to this reason this type of web hosting requires proper management to monitor and rectify any problem immediately. This type of hosting can be chosen by a professional who needs to have a full control, by big organizations or by the user having commercial website to upload.