How to Host a Website – The Complete Beginner’s Guide 2019


Learn How to Host a Website

Finally, you are at the door of hosting your website. Congratulation! Now you are one step away from establishing your presence online. If you have domain and website is ready (or you will build after buying a hosting) then you are ready to rock.

But, at this point of time, some people face some difficulty. The major query is how to host a website. This is obvious to ask such type of question.

Don’t worry, I will explain each and everything and steps to host a website. So let’s take a deep dive into it.

Steps to Host a Website

These are some steps you can follow to host a website

Step 1 : What Type of Website You Have?

Your journey to host a website should start from here. The first and most important thing is what type of website you have? You may wonder what does it mean what type?

There is basically two type of website are there. One is static or basic and another one is dynamic.

Static or Basic Website

As the name suggests, static or basic websites are simple websites having one or more web pages. These websites are basically designed in HTML. You can build a page using your computer with code editor software like Dreamweaver. Then you have to upload the pages that you have designed, to your host’s server using any FTP software like FileZilla. But when you want to make some changes you’ll have to edit the files on your computer and have to upload them again. They cannot be modified dynamically. These type of websites are called static websites. These websites are cheaper to build and have no option for advance e-commerce or interactivity.

Dynamic Websites

Dynamic websites have the capability change contains depending on the viewer time of day, and other factors. They use both client-side and server-side scripts to create and update content. To say simply, client-side scripts are runs on a user’s computer. This also increases the interactive nature of the website. Server-side scripts run on a server. Every E-commerce and social networking sites are the examples of dynamic websites which provides a customized response for each user. Some more examples of dynamic websites are blogs, forums, online wallet etc.

The dynamic websites can be managed using CMS. Many web hosting providers prove support for CMS platforms which make the whole process easier. Some popular CMS are WordPress, Joomla, Magento.

Step 2: Choose a Hosting Server

If your website is static then you may ignore this step. But if it is a web application, there are basically two types of hosting platforms.

Linux Hosting: – It allows to run a garden of scripts like PHP, Python, Perl, and other Unix-originated languages. It also supports MySQL databases and PostgreSQL. Most people recommend this platform because it supports many programming languages.

Windows Hosting:- It allows to run ASP scripts .NET and other Microsoft related technologies. It supports Microsoft SQL Server and Access database. This a rarely use the platform.

As per your requirement, you can go with any platform. But the Linux hosting is more cost effective and flexible as compared to Windows hosting.

Step 3: Choose Your Web Hosting Plan

This is one of the most important steps if we see this from a money point of view. If you have less knowledge in web hosting you can check my previous beginner guide to web hosting (Link my previous article).

There is a wide range of hosting plans available in the market. Among them, 4 plans are well known.

  • Shared Hosting: – It is the cheapest hosting plan. Because one physical server is shared with other website owners.
  • VPS Hosting (Virtual Private Server Hosting) : –  It is next to shared hosting. VPS divides one physical server into multiple, separate virtual machines. It often called as a budget dedicated server.
  • Dedicated Server Hosting: – If you have a large business and your website will get thousands of views per day then you should go for this hosting. It costs some handy amount of money.
  • Cloud hosting: – Cloud hosting is considered the most advanced hosting. Because it uses the server power dynamically. It is very costly and currently used by the big e-commerce companies.

If you are in a fumble and can’t decide which hosting plan is good for you, then I have something special for you.

You can get a free domain and host is $1.99 per month through an ongoing offer on iPage. Have you heard this type of lightning deal? Check the deal.

Step 4: – Change the DNS Address

At this point of time, I assume that you have brought the hosting plan as per your need.

With each hosting plan, you will get Name Servers. The Name Servers are commonly known as Domain Name Servers or DNS. You can compare this with a phone book that contains IP Addresses.

There is also some default name server associated with the domain name. To connect your hosting with the domain name, you should change the name server of your domain.

Follow the below steps

  • Log in to your domain Control Panel
  • Choose the domain name you want to change the name server.
  • Find the Name Server option.
  • Replace the existing nameservers with the new one that was provided by the web host.
  • Then click on the Update Name Servers button.

After updating the name server it will take 24-48 hour to show the effect.

Step 5: Upload Your Website

This is the final step. If your website is ready, then simply log in to your cPanel upload it to the File Manager.

This is quite a tricky process and needs tiny technical skill. This process varies from web host to web host.

You can simply do one thing. Contact your hosting provider and aware they know about this. If you can’t upload and set up your files on the cPanel, their tech support executive will do all these things for you.

If you have not developed your site yet and want to install a CMS on it, then hosting providers also have a dedicated a section for this. You can install a CMS and manage the whole site in a few clicks. There a garden of CMS platform available there.

Final thoughts

I think all your queries regarding how to host a website has been resolved. Follow all the above steps and after successful completion, your website will be live.

So, why are you waiting for? Grab the free domain and hosting is $1.99 per month deal and live your website today.


Whenever someone enters in the online world, he must come through some terms like “web hosting” “domain”. After hearing these words a lot of questions arises in mind. To answer those questions here is a detail beginner web hosting guide.

What is web hosting?

It is the physical destination of your website on the Internet. You may consider it as a house for your website. It is an online storage center that stores information like images, video, and other content that comprises your website.

Web hosting service providers always maintain the servers where the data of your website stores. They also manage the technology inside the server that makes your website connect to the Internet.

Means all your file is stored and runs on a server for 24*7. So that your website can run continuously.

How do web hosting works?

To say clearly, your actual website is nothing but a bunch of files. The file includes HTML files, CSS files (stylesheets), images, Audio, Videos etc. All of these files need to be stored in a location so that it always connected to the Internet.

That storing place is known as “server”. As the name suggests it serves up your website files when someone comes to visit your website. When you pay to a company to host your files on their web server, you’re just buying hosting. The company server will host your website on their servers.

So now, we have it all set up. Whenever someone types the domain name into the web browser the server serves the hosted file to the user.

Web hosting vs data centre: Are they the same?

Many people consider the web hosting and data centre is the same thing. Do you think so?

Actually, they are different things.

The term “web hosting” actually refers to the server that hosts your website. You have paid the hosting company to rent their server space.

The data centre is a different thing from web hosting. It is a house of servers facility. A data centre could be a house or a very large building. One data centre may contain hundreds of servers. It is a very sophisticated place.

Types of web hosting

There are many types of hosting are there. The most common type of hosting is shared, VPS, dedicated and cloud hosting.

types of web hosting

Shared hosting

Shared hosting is exactly what it sounds like. In a shared hosting package, your website is located on the same server with a bunch of other websites.

It is extremely cheap compared to another type of hosting. So it is widely accepted among the entry-level website owners.

VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting

VPS server is considered as the next level of shared hosting. A VPS server is still in a shared environment, but the server set up is very dissimilar.

VPS divides one physical server into multiple, separate virtual machines.

This is something like a shared hosting and dedicated server. Website owners who can’t afford a real dedicated server, they may go with this hosting.

Dedicated server hosting

AS the name already suggests, dedicated hosting simply means you have a server all for yourself. You need to rent an entire server. Your website will run in a full server.

It is expensive and who need maximum control on the server and maximum performance can go with this hosting.

Cloud hosting

Cloud hosting is more or less the same as VPS hosting in that you also have your website on a virtual machine.

However, instead of one physical server, your website is part of a whole network of computers. It can pull all the necessary power dynamically.

The biggest advantage in this type of hosting is, your site will never run down for serer. In other hosting, if your server down for any resign, then your website will down. But in cloud hosting your website will host dynamically in different servers. If one server downs then it pulls the resources from other servers.

Understanding domain names and extensions

Domain names are some easy-to-remember words which can use to communicate to a DNS server the website we want to visit. The Domain Name System (DNS) is what translates the friendly name to an IP address.

The domain name system gives every server a memorable and easy-to-spell address, such as It is very difficult to remember the IP address of each website.

what is a domain name


A domain extension provides some additional information about the domain name. This list of Internet top-level domain (TLD) extensions always contains top-level domains.

Examples of some TLD include .com, .org, .info, .uk, .ws,,, .tv, .edu, .co,, .mobi etc. The most famous and widely known domain extension is .com.

TLD is the domains are considered as the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet.

The official list of all the top-level domains is maintained and regulated by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) at the Root Zone Database. You can find all the top-level domains in the Root Zone Database.

Domain vs sub-domain

Domain names are unique throughout the internet and must be registered with a domain registrar (Ex. GoDaddy). Subdomains are an add-on to the existing domain as long as your web host provides the service. These are the simple “subfolders” under the main domain root directory. The website uses this sub-domain for different languages contents or for different regions.

Why a domain name costs money?

Many people have this doubt. First, you have to clear your thoughts that you pay money as a rent of domain. You can’t buy the domain. If you will stop paying for the services for a long time, then it will be not in your control and possible to take another user.

Domain names are like an online real estate. If you want to own a domain name of your own, then you need to register it with an ICANN accredited registrar.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers commonly known as ICANN is a non-profit organization. It is responsible for coordinating the procedures and maintenance of several databases related to the namespaces and numerical spaces of the Internet. This organization always ensures the network’s stable and secure operation.

They claim a registration fee which includes very high TLD registration price to registrar along with ICANN fees. The ICANN fee is $0.18 per year. The registrar has to pay taxes to the Government for running a business on the Internet.

So mixing these things, we have to pay for the domain name.

How to choose a good domain name?

To say in the one-word domain name is your identity online. People will know you through your domain name. So before giving any name to your domain just think about this point.

What makes a good hosting company?

There is no single factor that can make a hosting company as the best. Consider these factors when you are going to choose a web host.

Price, features, server performance, customer support, and server physical locations are some key factors.

Final thoughts

So that’s it. This is a basic web hosting guide for beginners. I think you have got all the answers to your queries.