What is Web Hosting?
Web hosting enables users to host a website on the internet, this is how website hosting work. The web host provides use of the latest technology and services required for users to view your website on the internet. It stores websites on servers which run 24*7 to provide 100% uptime to your website. When a user enters your domain on their web browser, their computer gets connected to the server which stores your website and the server displays the website or a web page to the users.
Important Essentials for Website Creation: Hosting & Domain
How Website Hosting Work?
The web hosting service provider like Hostinger host millions of websites on their platform the user’s access which after entering the domain name of their website in the web browser. Hosting Providers store the websites in servers. When the users enter a domain name, their computer connects to the server which hosts your website. The server in-return display your website information which it has stored in its database. They provide the website to the web visitor in a structured manner as chosen by you.
The web hosting services provide you their Service and Technology on rent with help of which you host your website on their server. Nowadays, Web hosting plays a crucial role in most business startups. Most of the organizations or individuals owning their business are now opting for a website to promote their business.
Choosing a web hosting service for you has always been one of the most difficult tasks. Always keep below points handy while picking your hosting provider:
- You need to check the WordPress support of the web hosting that you are opting for your website.
- Check whether the web hosting provider is giving you the facility to make a Domain email account. The domain email accounts are more preferable for business purposes.
- You should check the proper FTP access. The FTP enables you to upload from your local computer directly. If you develop your website using your own HTML files, you can directly transfer the files to the server.
This is how website hosting work, let's read its types!
Types of web hosting
There are many hosting options available on the internet out of which you have to choose which suits the best for you. We have explained a variety of web hosting types below, which will help you understand which type of hosting is the right choice for you.
Shared web hosting
Shared hosting is a hosting in which you share the server with several other users. It means there are various websites housed in a single server. Shared hosting is one of the most preferred types of hosting for business startups. Most of the new startups do not receive a lot of traffic on their website so shared web hosting is the right choice for them. Hosting provider divides the server cost among several website owners hence making it economical and affordable.
Being in a shared server sometimes costs you some problems like the ‘slow loading of website’ and the ‘server not able to reach your website’. The problems in shared web hosting are because of the traffic on the server and its several websites. The shared web hosting has the easiest setup which proves to be a key point for the beginners.
Website Traffic: 1K – 2K Shared Web Hosting will work
VPS hosting
The VPS hosting stands for virtual private server hosting which is the form of shared web hosting but a lot more advanced than it. VPS hosting work in such a way that all the websites share a physical server but separated by Small virtual machines. It is like getting a dedicated space in a shared server. It has more stability as compared to the shared web hosting as we limit the number of websites on a server. All the resources and technologies of the server split evenly among the websites and no website, in any case, is allowed to extend its usage apart from the allotted resources. To use the VPS hosting you should have a little knowledge about the resources and software as it is a little complicated to set up as compared to the shared web hosting.
Dedicated hosting
Dedicated web hosting provides you a dedicated server to host your website. Mostly used by the websites that experience a lot of traffic because of which they want their website to load quickly, hence avoiding any low-speed issue. You do not have any bad neighbor issues as you are the only one website present on the server. You may need a specialized person to monitor your server activity. The dedicated hosting costs much more than shared hosting as the cost of the server does not get divided amongst users hence whole Bandwidth is allocated to your website.
Cloud hosting
Cloud hosting is also a form of VPS hosting but instead of sharing a server it makes your website a part of a computer network where it can use the resources dynamically. It enables you to use more resources as compared to the VPS hosting as you can draw resources from the network directly. Cloud hosting rarely has a fixed price as the hosting providers charge you as per the go. The more traffic you experience on your website the provider can increase the hosting price.
Reseller hosting
It enables you to resell the server to various other customers. This hosting account allows you to share and divide your server for use by various other customers. You have the power to decide the price, space, and resources you want to be available for your customers. You basically buy web hosting server in bulk and then resell it to customers. Reseller hosting mostly used by developers who have sufficient knowledge in this field and would like to make some income out from it
Windows Hosting:
Professional hosting platform run on Microsoft technologies like MSSQL powered by programming languages like ASP.net which guarantees 99% uptime comes under the category of Windows Hosting.
Linux hosting
Linux is a free open source system which means we can modify it as per the requirements. The mentioned hosting such as shared, VPS fall under Linus Hosting. Most people use Linux hosting because it does not require a license. Linux hosting is preferred by the users which use the file types like My SQL, PHP, Perl, and Python, etc. Linus Hosting is much more pocket-friendly than Window Hosting.
Linux hosting vs Windows hosting
S. No. | Parameter | Linux Web Hosting | Windows Web Hosting |
1. | Scalability | Much more secure than windows server | They are good in terms of security |
2. | Uptime | Good | Better |
3. | User-Friendly | Less | More |
4. | Software | CMS | Windows Server |
5. | Preference | Blogging Platform | Microsoft Technologies like MSSQL |
6. | Pricing | Cheaper | Costlier |
Top 10 essential features of hosting
Before picking a web hosting service, check the essential features that the web hosting service is providing. We have listed some of the most essential features that every web hosting service should have for the ease of their customers.
Technical Support:
The web hosting service should have 24/7 technical support. It does not matter if you are a beginner or expert every user at some point or other needs technical supervision for the problems faced by them. Make sure the web hosting service you are choosing has technical support
Backup:
Web hosting service should provide backup to the users in case of any emergency. Backup is one of the most important features of a web hosting service provider as it enables the users to back up their data, emails, records, etc. In case of an emergency if the user loses the data we can recover them from the backup server.
Uptime:
Web hosting service that provides guaranteed uptime of a minimum of 99% should be chosen over the others as it reduces the chances of your website going offline. If your website goes down, it harms the reputation of your business so make sure that your service provider had a cold uptime guarantee.
Management:
A good web hosting service provides you with managed services. The hosting provider takes care of all the management needed for the server like the software update and patching, etc.
Security Patches:
Web hosting service providers should have good security features. The hosting provider should possess a secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate and an Arsenal of tools that will help you against getting hacked. The hackers find vulnerabilities on various websites and attack them in case they one. Web hosting should have strong firewalls and an impactful spam removal system.
CMS Support:
Web hosting service providers should have support for WordPress as WordPress is one of the easiest ways to start your website. You can customize your website as per your needs. WordPress ease to use makes it a Centre of attraction for the beginners who want to get their website hosted.
Scalability:
A good web hosting service should have scalability and compatibility. If you are a cloud computing user and you need extra resources during the time of hikes, then the web hosting service provider should have a good skill ability to make resources available for you. The hosting provider should be compatible in case you need to change the host so make sure the software you use is supported in another hosting.
Pricing
The web hosting provider should have affordable pricing. The beginners are tight in the budget at the start of their online business so the web hosting provider should have affordable prices that the beginners can pay without getting a huge cut on their budget.
Advancement:
The web hosting service provider should provide the capacity for the long-term growth of your business. The web host should have all the resources that are necessary to make your business grow.
C-Panel:
The web host should have an easy-to-use control panel for its users. If you want to change the back-end of your website the user-friendly control panel will help you do the right of administering. Two of the most user-friendly control panels are C-panel and Plesk control panel.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this article helps you to understand about web hosting and its types. Based on your interest you can select the quality of the features which you want and decide which web hosting is the best for you. We wish you all the best for starting a new website and choosing a suitable web hosting for you.