Web hosting is a service that is provided by tech companies, typically called web hosts. A computer server is what serves as a host for its clients. Where hundreds of websites are stored. It is your website paying rent to the house itself on the World Wide Web.
Once your website has been uploaded to a hosting site and is linked with a domain name, it will be accessible for all to see. If you’re planning on having a web presence, a reliable web hosting service is essential.
What is web hosting?
Web hosting is a service provided to people who wish to create a website and publish it on the Web. When you sign up for web hosting, you are allocated a certain amount of space on a server, depending on your plan.
This space is used to store your website files. Then the server takes care of the connections required for users to access your website files. When these files are read by a browser, a web page is rendered to the user’s screen.
Servers are located all around the world, and it is the job of your web host to distribute your content across all servers, via a Content Delivery Network (CDN).
How does web hosting work?
Web hosting companies have servers scattered across the globe. They manage things such as RAM, Hard Drive space, and of course, bandwidth. RAM is essential for a website to exist, it provides volatile memory for the processor to work with while it serves your webpage.
Hard drive space is even more important, depending on the size of your website you may need to rent more, typically however web hosts provide more than sufficient space for most websites.
Finally, bandwidth is the amount of data that can travel through the channel that your server communicates on. This is an important feature to always consider, having a high bandwidth is more suitable for websites with very high monthly traffic.
Not having enough is also an issue, as there will be some people unable to connect to your website until others have left.
What are the types of web hosting?
There are indeed different types of web hosting, they are the following:
Shared hosting
As the name suggests, you are hosted on a server with other websites. The benefits of this are low costs, but you must share resources including CPU processing power.
VPS Hosting
Virtual Private Servers, as the name suggests once more, is a server dedicated to only hosting your website. You don’t have to share resources, but the price will increase. A VPS is not physical, but a partitioned piece of a “parent” server that hosts other Virtual Machines.
Dedicated hosting
As the name implies, this type of hosting gives you exclusive rights over a web server. You have total control of the server space, avoiding some noisy neighbors.
These types of servers can be a bit more difficult to configure as you are responsible for installing the operating system, installing additional tools for running operations, as well as securing your perimeter with your security infrastructure. Pricing is also significantly increased.
Managed hosting
A hosting plan suitable for enterprise solutions. Usually, a company will hire a managed hosting plan for benefits such as extending an on-premise data center, expanding data storage, latency reduction in certain regions, setting up a disaster recovery plan, or consolidating legacy server resources.
Cloud hosting
Cloud hosting is the solution to needing instant scalability, or when you need higher uptimes. It also gives you access to the latest hardware thus greater security.
It differs from traditional web hosting in that you rent a “slice” of a data center hosted on the cloud. So it is not linked to one server, but many. If your server happens to serve an error, the other linked servers will take its place.
Why do I need web hosting?
Without web hosting, it is not possible for others except you to see your website. Web hosting adds many more capabilities to your website such as allowing others to see it and communicating with other servers.
If you want your site to be exposed globally, it must be stored on a server available 24/7. It would be unconventional for you to host it on your laptop unless you have technical knowledge of hosting a web server.
Even then, the bandwidth would become an issue. Web hosting companies have dedicated many resources to maintaining good bandwidth on all their hosted sites. These are only two benefits you gain from web hosting.
Is web hosting the same as a website?
No, a website is actual content that will be served by a web host. Think of the web host as an apartment, and the website as the tenant. A web host would rent you a server and allocate resources for your website to consume as it is being accessed by the public.
Which web hosting is best for beginners?
If you are looking to host your website for low costs, up to $2.99/monthy with access to features such as Premium Google Cloud integration, Ultrafast server setup, Top WordPress speed, and the latest technologies integrated into your server, visit SiteGround at siteground.com.
You will enjoy the benefits of their top-rated hosting support as well as 24/7 customer help. 98% of users reported satisfaction with their interactions.
If you aren’t convinced yet, another great option to try is wpx.com. WPX is known for offering extremely fast connection speed and even has support for WordPress websites. Just contact an expert online and let them handle the heavy work.
What is the difference between a web server and web hosting?
A web server is a physical piece of hardware, a computer, capable of processing and storing data. Web hosting is the service provided to people who wish to “rent” a web server. Doing this will allow you to store your files on the Web. If you decide to do so, it will be possible for people to visit your website!
How much does web hosting cost?
Depending on your needs, web hosting can vary in pricing. It may cost around 2-15 dollars for basic hosting and basic web features. But plans can go up to 300 dollars monthly.
These plans are usually reserved for big businesses. Then they offer plans for every price in between. Two of the most affordable and fast web hosting services are SiteGround.com and WPX.com. We recommend checking out these awesome web hosting services.
