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What is web hosting?
Web hosting provides storage for and access to a website or digital project. Your web host gives your data a place to live and lets visitors (or authorized users) see it. Web hosts often do more, but as the term suggests, hosting is their main bread and butter.
How does web hosting work?
With web hosting, your site and all the files that make it up live on a server set up by a host. When people go to your site, they’re requesting to see files from that server. The server then sends that information over to the visitor, and what they see is your website.
Why do I need a web host?
You can technically host your website yourself, but it’s extremely technical. You’ll have to invest your own server technology to meet the needs of visitors as your traffic begins to grow. A web host will provide the servers and technology for you.
What to look for in a web hosting service
Exceptional web hosting can be a game-changer. As you look for web hosting services, consider these key factors.
Storage
When starting out, you probably don’t need too much storage, and even the most restrictive of shared hosting services will probably suffice. Still, if you have big growth plans, you want to make sure you have room to grow.
Keep in mind that even though many hosting services offer unlimited storage, there can be drawbacks.
Bandwidth
When you’re choosing your hosting service, make sure you understand their bandwidth limitations. Bandwidth determines the amount of traffic your site can handle.
Initially, you probably don’t need to worry about this, but as your audience grows, bandwidth could quickly become a concern. Know what your options are once this happens.
Reliability
When your business is web-based, there’s really nothing worse than downtime. Every moment your site isn’t up adds up to potential revenue loss.
Do some research to better understand the reliability of your potential web hosting service. Find customer feedback, expert reviews, and stats when possible.
Security
Site security is a big deal with everything internet-related these days. Web hosting services know this, and all of them make it a point to focus on security at least a little bit in their marketing materials.
Make sure security is as important to your web host as it is to you.
Management
As we said earlier, most website hosting companies offer managed hosting. Check with your potential hosts to learn just what they’re offering to manage and for how much.
You’ll want to see if they handle things like updates, backups, hardware maintenance, software setup, support, and more.
Lower price
If you’re just starting out, and on a budget, shared hosting is all you’ll need to get your site up. Of course, with a lower price, you can face some issues.
Slowdown risks
Shared hosting is not ideal for websites that get a lot of traffic, as that can bog things down for every other site or application on the server, including your own.
Helpful tools
With shared web hosting, you’re also likely to get helpful tools like email support and website builders. This can be a great fit if you’re starting a small business or building small, static sites on WordPress.
Hidden fees
Shared hosting offers lower-than-low starting prices, but after months or years, you’re usually paying more than double what you committed to.
Better performance
With a VPS, you aren’t sharing RAM and CPU with other sites. That means your resources are going to your projects—all day, every day.
More scalable
VPS hosting is much more scalable than shared hosting, making it a better option for those who want to go bigger when the time is right.
Elevated cost
Virtual private servers are typically more expensive than shared hosting but should be able to handle a bit more traffic and more customizations.
Higher price
As you might expect, dedicated hosting is one of the most expensive web hosting options. But it’s often worth every penny.
Extensive customization
While you pay more per month, you get an extremely high level of customization, and you don’t have to worry about other sites’ traffic impacting your site’s performance.
Technical expertise
It also requires a certain amount of technical know-how, as you’re responsible for things like security and maintenance. But there are managed dedicated server hosts that can help with that.
Scalability
Because resources are seemingly endless, cloud hosting is extremely scalable. This is because the cloud uses a virtualized network, instead of relying on a physical server like standard web hosting.
Usage-based pricing
With cloud hosting, you only need to pay for what you use. While this is a nice feature, it does make costs unpredictable.
Pre-optimized
Many providers offer pre-configured cloud hosting, complete with a high-performance stack and easy-to-manage technical details.
Optimized for WordPress
The server-level optimizations for WordPress hosting ensure websites remain fast and don’t quite suffer from slowness often associated with standard web hosting.
WordPress pre-installed
Many WordPress hosting platforms install WordPress for you, allowing you to get up and running as soon as possible. With standard web hosting, you’ll have to set up WordPress yourself.
Platform enhancements
Managed WordPress hosting is a type of hosting that includes a special platform with features that make WordPress hosting easier, such as automatic plugin updates, advanced caching, and specialized WordPress support.
Profit potential
Unlike standard web hosting, reseller hosting allows businesses to generate revenue by selling hosting at a markup. Resellers can set their own pricing, packaging, and features at the root level, allowing them to create profitable business models tailored to their target market.
Incentives
Many hosts offer reseller hosting solutions as part of a partner program. In this program, the reseller can get discounts on products and special incentives for selling more.
White labeling
Resellers can buy hosting and brand it as their own. This allows resellers to offer web hosting, email hosting, and other services without the need for infrastructure investment or technical expertise.
Technical support
In managed hosting, technical support is more comprehensive and proactive compared to standard web hosting. This includes assistance with server setup, configuration, software updates, optimization, security, and troubleshooting.
Server management
In managed hosting, the provider handles tasks such as server setup, configuration, security updates, monitoring, backups, and technical support.
Peace of mind
Managed hosting offers peace of mind, as technical responsibilities fall to the hosting provider, allowing clients to focus on their core business activities.