: Windows hosting - Shared | VPS | Cloud I'll begin with stating what I require for a new website project: ASP.NET (probably 4+) SQL Server (not fussy, probably 2008+) IIS 7 SSL Not a huge list

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I'll begin with stating what I require for a new website project:

ASP.NET (probably 4+)
SQL Server (not fussy, probably 2008+)
IIS 7
SSL

Not a huge list which is nice. However, the behaviour of the site and its will likely impact things. We are expecting to see quite large peaks and troughs, some spontaneous (eg. new ad), but generally predictable increases in traffic around Xmas (large spike on boxing day) and Easter.

I've previously only ever used shared hosting (freelance) or dedicated (at a company) so I have never used VPS or Cloud. I have ruled out dedicated due to cost. Shared I am not so sure about, I have looked at shared hosting on Azure but wasn't entirely sure between Shared or Reserved. Further, how do these differ from cloud services? From some articles on the web, it seems that cloud services mean that you definitely get the resources you are paying for, rather than possibly sharing it with other customers on a shared service:

Since each customer gets his or her own virtual server "instance", there is almost no contention for resources since the hypervisor manages these partitions.
www.smallnetbuilder.com/cloud/cloud-services-apps/395-cloud-vs-shared-hosting-whats-the-difference?start=1

Additionally, because there is not one server, if more resources are required then there is the ability to quickly boost numbers and later reduce them when traffic spikes are over.

So lastly is VPS, which seems to be similar to shared hosting in terms of hardware (a single server rack) but with the appearance of a dedicated server. However, this introduces maintenance requirements but, certainly with regards to SSL, might be the only way to get what I want (currently no SSL on shared sites, not sure about cloud).

Hopefully I've got my understanding of the technologies correct. Can anyone advise which solution would be best for me? While money is obviously tricky as it depends on host, but our starting fee would ideally be no more than £50/month, but certainly to begin with we only need the most simple of hardware requirements. Oh, also we're solely UK based which possibly affects the decision to choose cloud hosting.