What is web hosting and how does it work?

What is web hosting?

Web hosting (in layman’s terms) is the service of providing storage space for a website or application on a server on the internet. Once your website is made available on the internet, it can be accessed by other computers connected to the internet.

How web hosting works:

Web hosts are companies that rent out their services and technologies to host websites on the internet. Once the hosting company hosts your website, users can access it by typing in your web address (domain name) in their web browser. When they do this, their computer connects to the server your website is hosted on. The server in turn serves (sends the files you have stored on the storage to display) the website to your web visitor in their web browser.

How to choose the right web hosting package:

There are several web hosting options available. To know which one would be right for your business, ask yourself the following questions:

What kind of website do you plan to host online- a blog, an ecommerce portal, a news website, etc as this will determine how much web traffic you expect and how robust the infrastructure required to host your website, should be.

◈ What are the goals of your website? How fast do you see yourself expanding online business?

◈ How much hand-holding do you need?

Your answers will determine how much you need of the following:

◈ Storage space

◈ Bandwidth

◈ Control–is it important that you have root control of your server?

◈ Cost–how much are you either willing to spend or need to spend?

How to know which web hosting provider to partner with?

Investigate their performance or claims in the following area:

1. Uptime - Do they guarantee at least a 99% uptime? Where are their servers located?

2. Years in the industry - One way to determine their credibility

3. Customers - How many customers do they serve? In what locations do they have a presence?

4. Online reviews and testimonials - These should give you a more factual idea of the company’s reputation

5. Support - Does the company offer 24X7 support with trained personnel to assist you?

6. Related products - Select a web hosting company that offers you other related web service products such as security, email and backup services. Getting it all in one place could reduce the time coordinating with different providers

7. Security considerations

8. Backup services

9. Mobile Access – Can you access your control panel from a device on the go?

What are the web hosting options available?

There are several ways to host your website:

1. Shared Hosting:

If you have a blog or a small business that is just starting out, Shared Hosting is a good option to start with. It’s the most affordable hosting option available as your server space is shared by other websites. It’s simple and easy-to-use. On the other hand, because you share space and resources with multiple other websites on the same server, an overload with another website will cause your website to slow down. You have minimal control over the server.

2. WordPress Hosting:

If you have a WordPress blog or website, it is recommended that you purchase a WordPress hosting package as it is specifically optimized to cater to your WordPress website.

3. Reseller Hosting:

If you want to get into the hosting business, purchasing Reseller Hosting enables you to rent out or re-sell the same hosting services provided by the parent hosting company. With Reseller Hosting, you can also upsell every other web service offered by the parent web host.

4. Dedicated Hosting:

Dedicated hosting gives you complete/administrative control of your server with full root access. You can choose to install any software you wish to.

5. VPS hosting:

You can think of VPS hosting as a higher, stronger more advanced form of shared hosting. While you do share a server with other websites, you are assigned resources that are not shared with the other properties. If you cannot afford a dedicated server, VPS is the way to go.