LEVELS OF WEB HOSTING SERVICE - FURTHER DISTINCTIONS

While practically all Shared Web Hosting plans imply some level of support from the web hosting provider, the situation with Virtual Dedicated Web Hosting and, especially, Dedicated Web Hosting and Colocation Web Hosting services is more complex. Generally, these services can come either as "managed" or "unmanaged".

"Managed" service, generally speaking, means that the provider supports the configuration. The support may take the form of "Graphical Interface" (control panel) or, for more advanced plans, it may involve the provider's engineers configuring and upgrading all installed software (e.g. databases, web server packages, kernel, etc).
"Unmanaged" service, in simple terms, means that you are on your own in terms of configuring and maintaining the server. That may be just what you need if you have experienced engineers on staff. "Umanaged" services typically still allow you to call on the hosting provider's engineer staff, but at a steep hourly rate (we haven't seen anything below $150/hr for high-end server work).

Needless to say, "managed" services cost more than "unmanaged". When selecting your ideal web hosting plan, make sure you understand who is going to be responsible for managing the different components of your service.

COOL EXTRAS

Your provider may offer advantages that are not normally considered part of "web hosting" service, but may nevertheless be important. For example, some large web hosts located in urban/sub-urban areas rent out conference rooms for meetings with clients.