What is Hosting? A Simple Guide for Beginners

Hosting is like the backbone of the Internet, crucial for its development and expansion. A hosting service provider creates a special computer system in the background that supports websites.

Website owners or developers then use this system to store and run their websites by uploading their code. Each website has its own unique domain name and space on the web. When you type a domain name in a web browser, it uses this system to find and show you the website.

In this article, you will learn the basics of hosting, like — what is hosting (definition), how it works, and the various types of hosting services out there. Plus we will talk about the features of hosting. Let’s start the article.

What is Hosting?

Web hosting is like renting a space on the internet for your website or web application and makes it easily accessible across different devices such as desktops, mobile, and tablets. Any Website or web application has various files like images, videos, text, and code.

These files need a place to be stored, and that’s where servers come in. A web hosting service provides these servers, which you can rent. The hosting service takes care of server maintenance, setup, and running, allowing you to focus on your website. They also offer support for things like security, backups, and performance, making it easier for you to manage your site.

Define Hosting in simpler terms, Web hosting is a service that lets you put your website online, and it takes care of important things about your website from security to performance, so you can focus on what your website does best.

It makes your website or blog visible to anyone with an internet connection.

You can also call it website hosting or web hosting — it’s all about getting your stuff on the web!

Now you have a clear idea about what is hosting, let’s talk about why hosting Is important and the advantages and disadvantages of hosting. But before that, let’s cover how hosting works.

How Does Hosting Work when you put your website on the Internet?

A website is like a collection of various items – files, images, applications, and databases, that are stored on a special place called a server. This server is always connected to the internet and powered on.

The hosting plan you choose decides how much and what kind of server power your website gets from the hosting company. This includes things like how fast data can go in and out (bandwidth), the computer’s short-term memory (RAM), and the space for storing your files (disk space). Most hosting companies have different plans you can pick from, like shared plans where you share resources with others, or dedicated plans where you get all the resources just for your website.

Once you sign up for a plan, get access to the web hosting provider’s server via a cPanel dashboard to easily upload and manage your website files. Some people also use a content management system (CMS) like WordPress to build their website.

The server, that hosts your website, is basically a powerful computer that stays on all the time so people can visit your site whenever they want. Instead of buying and managing your own server, you pay a hosting provider to take care of it for you.

When you want to check out a website that’s stored on a hosting provider’s web server, here’s what happens:

• A person types the website’s address (URL) or Domain name into a web browser.
• The browser changes the website’s domain name into a special number (IP address) and asks the server (the computer hosting the website) for the web page by sending a request using either regular Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or HTTPS secure (HTTPS).
• In response to the request, the web server finds the resources and transfers needed the files to your web browser so the web page can show up on your screen.

In simple terms, when someone types your domain name in their browser, the hosting server sends all the files needed to show your website.

Do you know You can host a website on your own? But it’s quite tricky. Doing it yourself means you have to set up everything for the website, like the computer it’s stored on, the system it runs on, and all the software it needs.

Plus, you’ll be responsible for keeping everything working smoothly over time. It’s a lot of technical work!

A web hosting company makes sure your website runs well and with better security protocols. It also makes hosting a website easier by handling tricky stuff like setting up software and providing technical support when you need it.

How to host a hosting?

• Pick a company to host your website. There are different ones available, so choose based on what you need.
• Choose the hosting plan. After picking the company you want to work with, decide what kind of hosting you need: shared, VPS, or dedicated.
• Switch the DNS. It’s important to change the DNS of the domain to make the website work.
• Put the website online. Use cPanel or FileZilla to send your website to the hosting server.

Why Hosting Is Important?

Hosting your business website on an internal server inside your company can be time-consuming and expensive. Web hosting companies have some advantages to offer, like:

Performance / Speed

When a web hosting company takes care of lots of websites, it can buy really good equipment. They invest in cutting-edge technology to make sure that you get high-performing web servers with processing power, internal memory, and other computing resources. This means your website performs faster, and people can see your pages quickly.

Reliability

When you use web hosting services, you don’t have to worry about constantly taking care of the server. The hosting providers regularly update and improve the system to keep it super secure. This way, your IT team can concentrate on delivering applications instead of always dealing with server tasks.

Technical support

Most web hosting services offer complete support for troubleshooting performance issues of your website. They also make it easier to keep an eye on your website, analyze things, and back up and recover data, all to help your website run better.

Security

Web hosting services use an end-to-end approach to make sure everything is secure. This includes the physical stuff, operations and software they use. It’s all done to meet the rules and standards that everyone needs to follow.

Types of Hosting Services

Choosing the right web hosting for your website can be tricky with so many options out there.

Different people and businesses need different things for their websites. That’s why web hosting companies have various packages for various customers, like business owners and bloggers.

Apart from just giving you space on their services, these hosting companies also offer extras like taking care of the server, keeping your website safe from viruses, making backups, and helping you out with technical issues.

It’s best to begin with the basic hosting option. As your website gets more traffic you can switch to an advanced plan.

But do you know the advantages and disadvantages of hosting?

Well, here we will cover the advantages and disadvantages of various types of hosting services.

Here are the main kinds of web hosting services:

1. Shared Hosting

Just like sharing a house with roommates, shared hosting means many people use the same server resources, like memory and storage. The websites also use the same parts of the server, like RAM and a processor. Shared hosting is the cheapest option and is good for small businesses, beginners, and hobbyists.

It often comes with User-friendly website-building tools, like drag-and-drop builders and WordPress hosting, which are usually included with a shared hosting service plan. Because it’s simple and affordable, shared hosting is great for small businesses and personal websites that don’t need advanced settings or higher bandwidth.

Shared hosting has a downside because website owners can’t manage how much of the server they use, which might make their site slower. However, some hosting companies give options to protect resources, ensuring your website stays steady, even if other sites use the same server.

If you’re a beginner and want affordable hosting, shared hosting is a great option.

Advantages:

• Saves money, great for small websites
• You don’t need to be a tech expert
• Server options are ready to go
• No worries about fixing or managing the server

Disadvantages:

• Limited ability to adjust server settings
• If other websites get more visitors, your website might slow down.

2. Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting

Virtual private server (VPS) hosting works by using a special kind of server that gives you more personal access to its resources. Instead of one big server, VPS divides it into smaller virtual servers that you can rent. This means you get your own space and computer power, like memory and processing ability, on that main server. You can even choose and control the operating system on your virtual server, giving you more say over how your hosting server works.

In simpler terms, when you use this type of web hosting, your website is on the same physical server as other users. However, the web host sets up a virtual wall for each user. This means that a website on a virtual private server gets its own set amount of resources.

VPS web hosting works well for medium-sized websites, online stores, and big blogs that are getting more and more visitors.

Advantages:

• Dedicated server space
• More people visiting other websites doesn’t slow down your site
• Full control over the server
• Can make lots of changes to suit your needs

Disadvantages:

• People need to know tech stuff to handle it.
• While it’s not too expensive, some folks might have to pay someone to take care of the virtual server, making the total cost higher.

Yet, VPS hosting works well for small business owners because it allows them to change things and install special software with root access.

3. Cloud hosting

Cloud hosting companies save money and make websites work better by sharing resources and using a bunch of servers. They copy your website files to many servers. If one server is too busy, your visitors are sent to another one. This makes your website faster without making you pay more all the time.

Because cloud-based web hosting uses a bunch of web servers working together, it’s great for businesses with many websites or big sites like online shops. This way, there’s hardly any time when the websites are not available.

You can pick shared hosting, VPS hosting, or dedicated cloud hosting for your website. The main difference is how the actual server is taken care of.

Cloud hosting works well for all kinds of businesses because it gives you various options, including the following:

• Small and medium-sized businesses.
• Online stores and complicated websites.
• Government and non-government groups.
• Big companies with many different website names.

Advantages:

• Less chance of your website being down or the computer it’s on having problems.
• Grows or shrinks on its own when you need more or less space.
• Share the workload to manage lots of visitors and stop attacks.
• Can handle more and more visitors without being stuck on one computer.
• High flexibility — You only pay for what you actually use.
• Your information gets saved and it will backup automatically.

Disadvantages:

• You might not always get full control over everything.
• It can cost more than VPS and shared hosting.

4. WordPress Hosting

This special CMS web hosting service is made just for WordPress. It sets up the server in a way that makes your website load quickly and avoids problems. While many shared hosting plans include a basic WordPress setup, a dedicated WordPress hosting plan gives you extra stuff like ready-to-use designs, tools to build your site, fancy design options, and automatic updates for WordPress.

Plus, you get plugins for important things like speeding up your site and keeping it secure. These plans usually come with customer support to help you out.

Yet, different kinds of web hosting can still be used for websites that use this popular content management system (CMS).

Advantages:

• Affordable and easy for beginners
• Works well for WordPress websites
• The support team knows a lot about WordPress
• Comes with pre-installed WordPress tools and designs

Disadvantages:

• This hosting isn’t the best choice for non-WordPress websites

5. Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated hosting means each website gets a physical special server. With dedicated hosting, you get to set up the server how you want, pick the operating system and software you like, and customize the entire hosting setup just the way you want it.

This hosting gives the website owner total control. They get special access to the web server, so they can install their own security tools and operating system. But it costs more than other choices, and you need to know technical stuff because you’re in charge of managing the servers.

Renting a dedicated server is like having your very own powerful server, but the cool part is you also get help from the pros at the web hosting company. So, big online businesses that have lots of visitors find dedicated hosting really helpful.

A dedicated hosting plan is a good choice for these situations:

• Big companies and businesses.
• Owners of businesses with many domain names.
• Complicated web programs that need a lot of computing power.

Advantages:

• You have complete control over the server’s configuration.
• You can make the server work better for your needs.
• It’s really reliable and safe.
• You get the main access to the server.

Disadvantages:

• It can be expensive, especially for big businesses.
• You need to know a lot about technical stuff and managing servers.

6. Reseller hosting

With this option, you can buy many web hosting plans together from experienced companies at lower prices. People who buy these bundles often sell them to others to make a profit. The main hosting company provides all the things needed, like computer equipment, programs, and systems, to store and run the websites.

Many web designers and developers like this hosting because they can use it to host their clients’ websites. Resellers can make their own hosting plans and prices, and they can even show their own brand instead of the hosting company’s brand to their clients.

Before choosing any web hosting, it’s important to do complete research about the advantages and disadvantages of hosting.

Features of Hosting

We understand what is hosting, but do we know the features of hosting? That’s why I’m here to guide you.

Before choosing a hosting service, it’s important to know what features the provider offers you, and you need to be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of the hosting provider you are using.

Hosting companies usually offer various plans for hosting your website. These plans can be free or paid, depending on things like how big your website is, how many people visit it, the features you want, and the number of visitors you get each day.

Let’s check out different things to help you figure out which server is the best fit for your website. in simple terms, let’s figure out the features of hosting services:

1. Disk Space:

When you’re figuring out how much storage you need for your emails, pictures, website files, and databases, think about your future website visitors and growth. If you don’t have enough space, it can affect how people experience your site. So, when picking a hosting service for your website, make sure they provide enough disk space.

2. Emails:

Connect your email to your website’s name. Some web hosting services let you do this. The different types of email accounts are:

– Mail Forward

Forwarding mail accounts send emails to different email addresses. It can be a service that handles your website emails or your own personal email account.

– FTP Access

FTP Access is like a way to move and share files on a website. Some websites have things to download, like pictures or PDFs. Web hosting services use FTP access to make it possible for people to get these files.

– Post Office Protocol 3

POP3, or Post Office Protocol 3, is like having your own space on a server to keep your emails. You can get to them either by going straight to the server or by using email programs on your computer.

– Email Aliases

Certain web hosts offer email plans where you can make email accounts or different nickname addresses without making a whole new POP3 account. For example, if you want to show only sales@, orders@, or support@ on different parts of your website, instead of dealing with many POP3 accounts, you can send everything to just one inbox.

3. Data Transfer and Bandwidth:

People sometimes mix up the words “data transfer” and “bandwidth” when talking about web hosting. But they mean different things. Bandwidth is about how much information your website can send to visitors all at once. On the other hand, data transfer is the actual amount of information it sends.

Imagine, bandwidth as a water pipe. If the pipe is larger, more water can flow through it. However, for different reasons, you might not use the entire capacity of the water pipe. On the flip side, data transfer is like the actual amount of water that goes through the pipe within a certain time.

Choosing the right web hosting service might seem tricky, but if you look at the features each hosting provider offers, it’ll help you figure out which one is best for your website.

Now you know the features of hosting services, let’s cover what is required for current web hosting.

What Do You Need For Modern Web Hosting?

Today, people expect web and mobile apps to work everywhere. Businesses want to update their web apps for these reasons:

• Make applications with lots of features that give users great experiences. These apps can be for different things, like simple websites, mobile app pages, or advanced apps that keep getting better.
• Make sure apps respond quickly for users all over the world.
• Be ready for busy times and lots of people using the app.
• Make apps that work on many types of computers and phones.
• Keep an eye on apps all the time to find issues before they affect how customers use them.
• Be flexible, think of new ideas, and release apps quickly.
• Avoid dealing with physical servers.
• Lower total cost of ownership (TCO).
• Make apps that are safe and secure.

What is the Difference Between Domain Name and Hosting

A domain name and hosting are both crucial for making a website. A domain name is like your website’s name tag, making it simple for people to find and visit. On the other hand, web hosting is where your website’s information is kept.

A website address usually has a name and an ending like .com, .net, or .org. There are different kinds of these endings, and you have many options to pick from when making a good website address.

You can buy a website name and a place to keep your website from different companies, or you can get both from one place. Many companies provide both services – they help you get your website name and give you a space to keep your site.

The cheapest option for you is to buy a hosting plan that comes with a free domain name. You can also move your website to a different hosting service, just make sure the new company can handle how your site is set up.

How to Choose the Best Hosting Service Provider?

As your website gets bigger, you might need more space, data capacity, and other things. If that happens, you could think about moving to a better hosting option like cloud hosting or VPS.

After reading about the types of hosting services, you gain some knowledge of the advantages and disadvantages of hosting. So, be sure to pick the best hosting company that gives you many options. This way, you can upgrade whenever you want. Also, consider a few things when choosing between different hosting providers.

Control Panel:

A hosting control panel lets you handle your hosting without needing to log in directly to the web server. So, it’s a good idea to choose web hosts that give you a user-friendly interface that anyone, no matter their skill level, can use easily.

Web Host’s Uptime:

Make sure the hosting service you choose is reliable and doesn’t have a lot of downtime. If the servers are not well-maintained or stable, it could hurt your business and make customers lose trust in your website.

When hosting companies promise to keep their systems working well and have fair rules, it shows they’re committed to making sure everything runs smoothly.

Technical Specifications:

What do other people say about the hosting provider? Check reviews.

In addition to picking a hosting service that has lots of space, power, and data capacity, you should also check for other features that make sure your website works well.

Online Reviews:

Check out websites that review the features of hosting services in detail. These reviews usually cover how often the hosting service is available, how fast it is and the advantages and disadvantages of hosting (which you want to buy), giving you insights into the performance of the provider’s servers.

Security:

Make sure the company that hosts your website has strong security features to keep your site safe from viruses and cyber-attacks.

They might involve controlling who can access things, finding and stopping harmful software, automatic copies of stuff, and keeping things up to date.

Customer Support:

Having customer or technical support available 24/7 is helpful if your website has issues like slowing down, crashing, or facing security problems. Also, see if the hosting service offers tutorials and information that can help you.

Some Additional Services:

A hosting plan is considered a good deal when it comes with extra stuff for free, like an SSL certificate, a business email account, or a content delivery network (CDN).

The benefits of paid hosting

When considering the advantages and disadvantages of hosting, Free hosting doesn’t match up to the advantages that paid hosting provides.

Uptime and Speed

How fast a website loads and how often it’s available are important. In a study from 2022 by a company called Portent, they found that 86% of websites for businesses that sell directly to customers load in 5 seconds or quicker. If a website is hosted on a good platform, it will probably load faster and be available more often. This is good for the people using the website.

Domain-Based Email

A custom email address that matches your website’s domain looks more professional and helps with your brand. Many hosting companies give their customers free email accounts with the domain name. However, the number of email addresses you get depends on the hosting provider. Some may give you only one, while others might offer unlimited. With these services, you can manage, send, and receive emails related to your website, and also set up email forwarding if needed.

Tech Support

Getting tech help is a big advantage of using a hosted service, especially when things go wrong. If a website crashes, it’s important to fix it quickly to avoid losing visitors and sales. Good hosting companies provide round-the-clock technical support as part of their packages. This speedy assistance helps reduce the time it takes to get things back on track when there’s a problem.

Security

Safety is important. Good web hosting companies make sure that the websites they host are safe from outside threats. Some providers have well-protected data centers that watch for potential dangers 24/7.

SEO Optimize

Making your website show up higher on search engines is called SEO optimization. Search engines don’t care which company hosts your site, but they do care about things like how fast and reliable your site is. So, if your website is on a platform that is good at these things, it will automatically appear higher in the search results.

You may read -: What is a Domain Name? A Simple Guide

Short Domain Name

If you use free hosting, your website’s name will include the hosting provider’s name. But with paid hosting, you can buy a short and custom domain name, and you get to choose the ending part of the web address.

For example, Free hosting gives you a website address like www.yoursitename.subdomainname.com. But if you pay for hosting, you can have a shorter and cleaner address like www.yoursitename.com.

I hope after reading this complete blog you will be able to understand what is hosting, the types of hosting, the features of hosting, the advantages and disadvantages of hosting services and also why hosting is important.

If you still have any doubt or questions in your mind then don’t forget to ask your doubts in the comment section. Thanks for reading this blog.