A lot of businesses have been making use of online platforms to expand their reach. With online platforms such as websites and social media, brands can start working 24/7 through an online store, or earn a passive income through Google AdSense.
This applies to all types of businesses, not only corporations and startups. If you are a freelancer, you can appear more professional with a website and gain more clients. If you are looking for a more creative outlet, you can consider blogging, which will eventually let you earn through affiliate marketing and other methods.
But first, you will need a website. You also need to make sure that users on the Internet can access your website.
This is where web hosting comes in handy. Keep reading as I will explain what you need to know about web hosting and how it works.
What Exactly Is Web Hosting
Web hosting is a service that allows you to publish a website on the Internet. Without web hosting, your website won’t be accessible to visitors.
This is all done with a server, a particular computer designed to host and store a websites’ data. A server runs without interruption so that your website will be available for visitors to access at any time.
When someone types your website’s domain name into the search bar of their browser, your host will transfer your website’s necessary information from the server to the client (browser).
There are lots of web hosting companies, such as Hostinger, that provide various hosting plans that all have their specific uses. Be sure to choose one that best suits your website’s needs as each plan comes with different benefits and costs.
How Domain Names Work
It’s important to remember that web hosting services are closely tied to the Domain Name System (DNS).
If a website were a house, then the domain name would be its address, and web hosting would provide the land on which the house is located. Although they are two different services, a website wouldn’t be possible without both of them.
Every website’s files and databases are placed on a server, and each server is associated with a numerical address called an IP address. It would be hard to remember these numbers every time we want to access a website, so we use domain names containing words that are more easily remembered.
The Different Types of Hosting
Web hosting companies typically offer various hosting plans to accommodate their clients’ different needs, whether it’s a personal or small business website or a large online business.
It’s essential to find out more about each type of hosting to know which one is more suitable for your website.
Below I will cover the most popular types of hosting that are available.
Shared Hosting
This is a type of hosting where multiple sites are hosted on the same server. Maintenance and server administration are all taken care of by the host – there is no need for specific technical knowledge for shared hosting.
It’s an excellent choice for small businesses and personal websites, mainly because it’s low cost. But since one server hosts multiple sites, a website’s heavy traffic can slow down other websites on the same server.
VPS Hosting
In VPS or Virtual Private Server, multiple websites are also hosted on the same server. The difference is that with VPS, each website is allocated a certain amount of server space that is dedicated to it. This means that the heavy traffic of other websites on the same server won’t affect yours.
This is a great choice for medium-sized businesses. VPS hosting grants you root access to your website’s server partition, although this requires technical and server management knowledge. It’s also more costly than other types of hosting.
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting means that you have your own server that is dedicated solely to hosting your website. With dedicated hosting, you receive full access to the server and its configurations, and you can freely modify it to fit your website’s needs.
This type of hosting is perfect for large online businesses that deal with heavy traffic on their website, although it’s quite expensive. It also requires high technical and server management knowledge.
Cloud Hosting
When using cloud hosting, your host provides a cluster of servers that function as one, called the cloud where your website’s data is replicated and stored in each of these servers.
When one of the servers is down or busy, your website’s traffic will be redirected to another server on the cloud. This minimizes the chances of your website encountering downtime.
It’s a great solution for websites with heavy traffic but for a more affordable price tag.
Specialized Hosting
This type of hosting is made for a specific use, typically for content management systems or CMS. One of the most popular types of specialized hosting is WordPress Hosting.
WordPress hosting is a type of shared hosting is used for WordPress websites. In this case, the server is configured specifically for WordPress websites and usually comes with additional WordPress-related features. It’s low cost and very beginner-friendly.
Now You Know
A website’s presence will always go hand in hand with web hosting. Without it, users on the Internet won’t be able to access your website.
Now that you’ve learned the basics of web hosting and its types, you should be ready to make your own website. Remember that each web hosting service provides different plans, so be sure to choose one that best suits your website’s needs.
