If you are thinking of setting up your own website, you must have heard the term "web hosting". But do you really know what this means?
If the answer is no, then in order to make this concept completely digestible for you, we have created an article that touches on the basis of web hosting, lists its types and explains the criteria to consider when choosing a hosting service.
What is Web Hosting?
In simple terms, web hostingis the technical setup that makes it possible for your website to be “on the web”. Web hosting or web server runs on a seemingly normal computer. What's different about these computers than your desktop is the hardware used inside. Servers consist of components optimized to run websites and make them available to visitors around the clock.
Every website needs to be hosted on a server, and yours is no exception. Although you can run your own server, most website owners prefer to enlist the help of a provider company. These companies provide the hardware, software, internet connection and other services needed to power your site and make it available to visitors.
Web hosting makes use of servers like the ones we mentioned. These servers store information about a website. They then make it available to those who want to access it via a web browser. Since most people and even businesses do not have their own servers, they rent server space from a third-party web hosting company.
A server is a physical computer that runs 7/24 so your site's files are always accessible without interruption in service. These servers are loaded with the hardware and software (hosting control panels) your website needs to run.
Your web hosting provider is responsible for things like server maintenance, security, and running the right software so that files on the server can be easily accessed by a website browser such as Google Chrome or Firefox.
Difference Between Domain Name and Hosting
Many people think that domain name and hosting are terms used interchangeably. Although they may not realize the difference between domain name and web hosting, they are actually two different things.
A domain name is an address that allows a user to find your website on the internet; Web hosting is a large virtual warehouse that holds all the data of your website. A currently usable website needs both a domain name and hosting.
To put it simply, web hosting is the physical space of your apartment and domain is its address.
In order for people to come to your home, they need to know your exact address. Once inside, they become your guests and become part of the physical space of your apartment.
Technically speaking, when someone types a URL into their web browser's address bar to reach your site, they are using your domain name. Therefore, a domain name provides a practical way for individuals to access websites.
Without your own domain name, people have to use an IP address to find you.
An IP address is a numerical identifier given to every website and server on the internet.
At this point, it is important to know that each domain name is unique. This prevents multiple websites from having the same name.
How Does Web Hosting Work?
Your website is just a collection of different files. When you create a website, you need a place to store all those files. This place is your hosting company's server.
On this server you store your website's media, files, databases, and everything else needed to properly build your website. Exactly how much storage you have will depend on the hosting plan you choose.
If you're just getting online, you probably rent part of a server that you share with other websites. As your storage and traffic needs increase, you may need to rent an entire physical server or at least use the resources of a cloud or VPS server.
When you sign up for a web hosting package, you typically get access to the server through a solution like cPanel. This makes it easier to upload your files to the server. Or you can install a CMS like WordPress to easily create your site.
To have a fully functional website, you also need to register a domain name. Once you purchase your domain name, you point it to your server, which lets the web browser know that's where your files are located.
Then, when a person types your domain name or clicks a link to your site, the web browser retrieves the files from the server and displays them to the viewer. All this happens in a few seconds or less. If this process takes too long, you need to either speed up your website or change your hosting service.
Web Hosting Types
The hosting options available today are quite diverse and different from each other. If you are building your own website, you need to research all types of web hosting plans to find the most reliable web hosting service.
- shared hosting
When multiple users share the same server resources such as memory, processing power, and storage space, it is called shared hosting. By allocating server space to multiple users, server maintenance costs are significantly reduced. Therefore, shared hosting is the easiest and most affordable way to take your business online.
So how does it work?
Simply put, when you enter a website URL into your browser, it searches for the server where the website is hosted. Then, after identifying the server, the browser sends an HTTP request message to the server and requests the necessary data and information to make the website visually accessible.
Shared hosting can host hundreds of websites with little to medium traffic. Shared hosting plans can also be the go-to web hosting service for small businesses just starting out.
- Virtual Private Servers (VPS)
Virtual Private Servers (VPS) allow you to share a physical server with other users, but unlike shared web hosting, VPS divides server resources into virtual partitions for each user. This makes VPS much more secure compared to shared hosting services.
VPS hosting is a great choice for large blogs, medium-sized websites, and e-commerce stores with lots of visitors.
In conclusion, when a website exceeds the limits of shared hosting, VPS web hosting is the next level.
- Dedicated Hosting
If you choose to publish your website on a dedicated hosting environment, you will be given your own server. You basically rent an entire dedicated server and use it entirely yourself. So, a single server hosts a single website. You do not have to share any of the resources that the dedicated hosting provider offers you.
Choosing a dedicated server allows you to configure the server, choose the software and operating system you want, and tailor the entire web hosting process to your needs. This is great when it comes to security measures because dedicated hosting allows you to completely control your setup and server settings and use solutions specific to the security needs of your web operations.
Dedicated hosting is perfect for large web businesses and organizations that deal with high traffic. The higher speed and reliability of dedicated servers ensure that your website runs without any hurdles.
- Cloud Hosting
This web hosting system hosts one or more websites through a virtual server. As a result, if one server receives high traffic or encounters an issue, other servers take over and keep the website up and running.
The main advantages of cloud hosting are the capacity to create applications, websites and other services with greater flexibility and cost-effective terms. Users pay only for the services they use and are not charged for unused capacity. This is what makes cloud hosting much more affordable.
However, cloud hosting services also have some disadvantages. As cloud usage increases, companies have become more vulnerable to security threats. This often becomes a reason for many companies to purchase their own servers.
Businesses with large-scale sites, such as multiple websites and e-commerce stores, can greatly benefit from cloud hosting. This is because cloud hosting services offer little to no downtime because they depend on a cluster of web servers.
How to Choose a Hosting Provider?
There are a number of criteria you need to consider when choosing a web hosting service provider. Not only are web hosting providers a vital component of building any website, they can also have a huge impact on your SEO strategies. This is due to the fact that the web hosting provider greatly affects the functionality, security, and many other aspects of your site.
A good starting point is to list your needs. You can then prioritize your choices based on what each potential hosting provider offers and the price they charge for their services. Buy hostingIt is very important to determine your own needs and check whether the hosting package you will purchase meets them.
To avoid making the wrong investment, you can initially check whether the hosting provider has a refund policy and additional guarantees. Chances are, things may come up during the website development process that will require you to change your hosting provider. Therefore, it is a smart idea to be prepared for such scenarios.
You also need to check what your upgrade options are before purchasing a hosting plan from a web hosting provider. Let's say you don't want to make a big initial investment and the minimum web hosting features of the service in question are useful to you. However, this does not mean that your business will stagnate and not progress. Next, you'll probably want to scale. Therefore, you should make a rough estimate of the traffic you expect on your website.
What Should I Pay Attention to in a Hosting Plan?
Many hosting providers offer multiple plans for each hosting type. These often contain different amounts of storage and resources such as disk space and bandwidth.
When choosing a hosting plan, you need to consider the amount of traffic you expect to receive and the type of content you will publish. For example, if you host large video files or high-resolution images, you will need more disk space and bandwidth compared to text-only content.
You also need to consider both the short and long term needs of your website. For example, you may not have a lot of content or site traffic right now. However, if you are looking to expand your operations significantly in the future and don't want to bother upgrading your hosting, you can choose a plan that leaves you plenty of room for growth.
You can also choose between managed and unmanaged plans. With unmanaged hosting, your provider is responsible for maintaining and securing the server, but you handle website-related tasks such as installing updates and creating backups. Unmanaged hosting plans tend to be more budget-friendly.
With a managed plan, your provider handles most of the maintenance for you.
Although this type of hosting is more expensive, you'll spend less time keeping your site up to date and running smoothly. Plus, you can expect strong performance and security since these tasks will be in the hands of experts.
As a result, choosing the right hosting service for your site can be difficult. However, once you take the time to familiarize yourself with the options available, you should have no problem finding a provider and plan that has everything your website needs.
Here's a summary of the five web hosting categories you can choose from:
- Shared hosting for small, startup sites that don't get a lot of traffic.
- Virtual Private Server (VPS) is the next step up from shared plans.
- Dedicated hosting for large, corporate sites that require high levels of security and storage.
- Cloud hosting allows you to spread your data across multiple servers.
- WordPress hosting is typically available in managed and unmanaged plans.