Web hosting services are type of online services that allow companies and private customers to make their sites accesible to other Intenet users. Web hosting is based on renting out space on a server for a monthly fee. As you might expect, this service is essential for any company that has or wants to establish an online presence.

However, different applications require different hosting platforms. For example, a single page hosting service is often enough for a personal web site or blog. But a larger company website that has dozens of pages will need a more sophisticated platform, especially if the website has many visitors.

Usually personal web hosting services are free or charged with a token fee, but in case of more serious and complex business sites monthly fees are involved. Why is it so? For more complex sites database support and application platforms are often required. These services provide clients with the ability to write and install popular and important applications like website forums.

In this article we are going to discuss two of the most popular web hosting platforms, Xen and OpenVZ.

Which to choose?

That’s not an easy question to answer. Both platforms have forever changed the hosting industry by offering a viable alternative to dedicated servers, by creating systems where a single server can be devided into servreral virtual servers with reduced cost, full root access, choice of multiple operating systems, and full file compartmentalization for private servers.

Xen

Xen is a popular paravirtualization platform that has familiar hardware emulation. For your information, paravirtualization operates by establishing an interface between the operating system and its hardware, which then responds to requests from other operating systems that have access and can interact with a paravirtualization interface.

One of Xen’s main advantages is that systems administrators are allowed to modify kernel modules and take advantage of unused swap space for more memory.

Open VZ

OpenVz is a platform built on a Linux kernel, which has been altered to allow the operating system virtualization platform to support multiple linux vps. Administrators are given full root access and all executive powers usually available on a dedicated server.

Which to choose?

Naturally, each platform has its pros and cons. When it comes to Xen, the hosting platform is recommended for websites that require more memory. Additional memory is especially important for those who plan to do a lot of one-off tasks like encoding video, compiling applications or Java development. But Xen is not a good choice for users who require swap space on a daily basis instead of installing the appropriate amount of RAM. The reason for it is that there are performance penalties for users who constantly swap space. Actually, Xen quite often overloads when swap space is used too often, which makes it useless.
Therefore, OpenVZ seems to be a better option for many. It deals faster with average operations and additionally rarely overloads, which proves higher reliability. The platform is especially effective for private users who need consistent service and require more memory overhead.