Building your online presence requires an understanding of web hosting and how it works. If you are looking for an answer to “what is a web hosting?” you are certainly trying to start your own website, blog, or online store, or you just want to understand how they operate.
Read on to learn more about web hosting and how it works.
What is web hosting?
Web hosting is an online service provided by hosting services companies who are called “web hosting providers” or simply “hosting provider”. These companies provide a secure place to store online content (code, images, audio/video files, etc.) which allows you to publish your website onto the web.
How does web hosting work?
Web hosting providers rent out their resources and technologies to host websites on the web and make them online and accessible.
In other words, web hosting occurs when you upload your files such as web pages, images, and audio/video files from your local computer to a web server.
The resources of the server (RAM, CPUs, hard drive space, and bandwidth) are allocated to the websites using it.
What are the types of web hosting and which one is best for your business?
There are different web hosting services available because every website has different needs. The best type for your company will rely on a number of factors, including the nature of your business, the amount of traffic, and the number of files you have. We’ll discuss four of the most popular web hosting services.
Shared hosting
Shared hosting consists of allowing many websites (which can sometimes be thousands in very cheap web hosting) to share the resources of a single server. Since the server is occupied simultaneously by numerous websites, the costs related to this option are considerably reduced.
Although economically this choice presents a certain advantage, it presents a very frustrating problem. Indeed, if one of the websites is very busy, it will use up more of the memory and will hinder the functioning of the other websites whose loading speed will be reduced.
However, if loading speed is not a particularly important factor in your case, shared hosting may be a good idea. This is especially valid for websites that are in development, websites that do not have a high degree of complexity in their configuration, and websites that have a low or medium level of traffic.
VPS hosting
VPS hosting, also called virtual private server, works in much the same way as shared hosting. The first difference is that the server is only shared with a few websites, which is much less than the previous option.
Secondly, this type of hosting avoids having the loading speed of a website slowed down because of too much traffic on another website, because all the websites that are hosted on the server benefit from the same share of memory.
Regarding the configuration of a website, the possibilities are also much wider with a VPS hosting, which is a great advantage.
Cloud hosting
Cloud hosting is a relatively new form of hosting, and is essentially an improved version of the VPS. Cloud hosting refers to a scalable VPS setup on multiple servers; that way, if your website had a sudden spike in traffic, the system would be able to provide more resources and handle things smoothly. As a result, cloud hosting could have a more variable pricing model and fluid specifications.
Nevertheless, cloud hosting is sometimes criticized in terms of data protection. When the hosting provider does not take any corresponding security measures, sensitive data can easily end up in the hands of the wrong people.
Dedicated hosting
Dedicated hosting, sometimes referred to as managed hosting or a dedicated server, is the preferred option for sites that receive high volumes of traffic. As the name suggests, it is a single server that hosts a single website.
Effectively, you rent a physical web server installed at your web hosting provider. You also get professional support and expertise when needed. However, technical and server management knowledge is required.
Dedicated hosting is essential for websites that require greater operational flexibility, scalability, and have highly secure data storage needs.