It’s impossible to own or maintain a website without web hosting. No matter what kind of work you put into your website, no one would be able to get wind of it unless you make it go live (or publish it) using a web hosting service. The concept might seem confusing, but in the simplest of terms, web hosting is the fuel behind all the websites that exist on the World Wide Web.

Untitled

How Does Web Hosting Work?

The web hosting process is not complicated. Nevertheless, for it to work you (the website owner) need to have a domain name (ex. www.google.com), which allows your website to be found on the Internet. Finding a web host is easy – you can easily search the Internet for one.

A web hosting service uses web servers to store files for your website. These web servers are actually high-powered computers that connect to a very fast network and are able to hold large quantities of data. Assuming someone types in your web address, the Internet will connect to the web server that stores all your files. Then, your website’s information is transferred through the network.

Types of Web Hosting

There are various web-hosting options for you to choose from. Your choice would depend on the following:

The service your website needs

The server required for your website’s needs

Your budget

The different types of services offered by the web host

Now what are the different types of web hosting? There are four main types – free, shared, dedicated, and collocated.

Free Hosting

Most bloggers, or those who build non-critical websites as a hobby, use free web hosting services. One of the downsides to free hosting is the poor connection speed. That’s because of the number of other websites availing the service. Moreover, there’s a big possibility that your site would be down frequently. Annoying advertising banners are also part of the package.

Shared Hosting

This means you share one server with other website owners. In a shared hosting environment, everything, from the physical server to the software applications within it are shared among users. This is the most affordable paid web hosting service since operating costs are divided between all users. Like free hosting, this type is slow.

Dedicated Hosting

This type is so much faster since you’ll be the only one using the web server. Everything within the server is yours. Nevertheless, you would have to shoulder the costs yourself since you won’t be sharing the host with other website users. If you require full use of system resources or need your website to be secured, this is the choice for you.

VPS Hosting

The concept of a virtual private server or VPS is the same as that of a dedicated server, except the server is installed on a computer that serves multiple websites. Small businesses that need a customized website but find dedicated hosting too expensive opt for this one. It also now comes in a new version called wordpress optimized hosting  where the server itself is optimized to host a word press blog/website

Hope this article has given you all the information you need  to get started on your website building journey.Good luck!