What is Web Hosting?

Web hosting is a service that provides by company or any individual provider to upload a website or web pages onto the Internet.  Basically they provide some spaces on rent to store your files, images or data to run your website. And the space where you put all your website related files to run smoothly is known as web server.

As the web servers are connected globally, when an internet user types your domain name or website address on web browser address bar it display your website on the web browser.

There is lots of web hosting or web server providers available on internet. You need to choose hosting provider as per your requirement.

Top 10 web hosting service provider

One thing you need to keep in your main that you are not purchasing the web space, you are taking the space on rent. So you need to renew before the rent period is over otherwise your visitor can’t view your website.

Types of Web Hosting

On the basis of technology or programming we can divide web hosting type as follow:

1. Windows Hosting
2. Linux Hosting
3. WordPress Hosting
4. Website Builders

And on the basis of server size, speed and configuration we can divide as follows:

1. Shared Hosting
2. VPS Hosting
3. Dedicated Server Hosting
4. Cloud Hosting

Windows Hosting: Generally it costs more than Linux host. And allows to run APS or .NET and other Microsoft technologies. It supports MS SQL Server and MS Access databases.

Linux Hosting: It is chipper than windows host and allows to run PHP, Perl, CGI, Python and other Unix-originated languages. It supports MySQL and PostgreSQL databases

WordPress Hosting: This host is created for the WordPress Site owners. The server is configure to run WordPress sites, and is chipper than other severs.

Website Builders: This is the service provided by some of the host for those who lack the technical skills and knowledge to build a website. So this service provides browser based interface to create your website. Like WIX

Shared Hosting: Shared hosting is the most common type of web hosting for small businesses and blogs where multiple owners shared one server. Here the host provides you limited/ unlimited space to upload your website data.

VPS Hosting: Virtual Private Server hosting is the advance type of share hosting. Where the host provides you a separate partition to make your own configuration. It needs more technical knowledge to configuration this server. But it is more faster and better than share hosting.

Dedicated Hosting: Without sharing with other website owners it provides a dedicated hosting environment to you. Here you can manage your won server install any applications and configure as per your requirement. It required good technical knowledge to handle the server and also it costs more.

Cloud Hosting: Cloud hosting is currently the most reliable hosting solution with no downtime. With cloud hosting, your host provides you with a cluster of servers, when one of the cloud servers is busy or has any problems, your traffic is automatically routed to another server in the cluster.

What you get form your web host?

The basic features of a hosting plan include:

Disk Space: As per your chosen plan the host provides you certain amount of disk space where you can store your web files. Now a day the host provides space in GB which is enough for a small or medium business website. If you have a big website or you have lots of images, Audio or videos then you can calculate the size and plan accordingly. Some web host also providing unlimited plan on share web hosting.

Email Accounts: Email accounts are a common feature of hosting, especially if you are hosting a domain.

FTP Access: After your website completed and ready to go live, you need to transfer those files to your web server. The files are transferred to the server by use of FTP (File Transfer Protocol).

What is the difference between Web Hosting and Domain Names

Apart from purchasing a webhost you also need to purchase a domain name. As we discuss webhost is the space rented to upload your website files, but it always required a name to access that space. So it is you domain name or website name which is connected to that space through DNS ( Domain Name System). So when a user enter your website name or Domain name on web browser address bar it opens your website.