So you want to learn about web hosting and what it has to offer or maybe you don't know much about web hosting?
It is no shame to know this information. Everyone must start at a certain point in time. In that regard, let's start learning about web hosting.
First, what is web hosting and how does it work?
Web hosting is the practice where space and bandwidth are offered on a powerful computer server that is connected to the internet at very high speeds. Hosting companies maintain large networks of powerful web server computers at a physical location called a data centre. These computer servers are connected with a very fast and usually redundant internet connection. The data centres have primary and backup power, a fast connection to the internet and security staff.
The web hosting companies offer a share of disk space and available bandwidth to a customer for a monthly fee. Once the customer is logged in, they can upload files to their personal space on the webserver and the information is then visible to anyone interested on the internet. The monthly fee that the web hosting company charges is much less than what it would cost to run a server from your own home or data centre. This is the reason that these companies exist. They take care of all hardware, software and other technical needs for you.
Types of web hosting
There are many different types of web hosting offers, but the most important three are shared, reseller and dedicated. Each type of hosting is for a different purpose.
Shared Web Hosting
Shared web hosting is the most popular form of hosting. Shared hosting is part of the disk space and bandwidth that is delivered to you on a powerful server by the web hosting company. There are many other websites hosted on this server, and the hosting company probably has quite a few of these servers in a large data center. The resources of the server are shared by as many other websites as are assigned to that computer.
Shared web hosting is the best form of web hosting if you are looking for a great price and have no more than a few thousand daily visitors to your site.
Reseller Web Hosting
Reseller web hosting is a popular, inexpensive solution for starting your own web hosting company. There are two types of reseller hosting, private-label and a reseller of services.
The private label is the best type of reseller plan because you can retain complete control over your customer's websites. With a private-label plan, the reseller can retain the full monthly payment from the web hosting customer, but the reseller must pay a monthly fee to the larger hosting company for the reseller space. The more hosting accounts a private-label reseller can sell, the higher the profit for them. Private-label hosting allows you to host many more websites than if you used shared hosting for each. This is a great solution for someone who has many sites that he needs to host in one location to save money.
The reseller of service plans sells the regular web hosting plans of a larger web hosting company, but you get a reduced price for delivering the customer and you earn a monthly fee as long as this customer stays. This plan does not allow control of customer websites and you retain only part of the potential monthly income.
Dedicated Web Hosting
Dedicated web hosting is the most powerful and cost-effective solution for hosting a busy website without having to buy your own equipment and paying hundreds of dollars per month for a fast internet connection. Dedicated hosting consists of a single server and no one else is hosting on that computer. This provides the largest configuration options. Everyone who has a busy website believes that dedicated hosting is the necessary choice.
Considerations for web hosting
Curious about all other information that is mentioned in web hosting plans? In this section, I explain the most important considerations when choosing a good web host.
Price
The price of web hosting services is one of the most important. There are many hosting companies with cheap hosting packages, but they may be missing in other areas. Don't be fooled by the price of a hosting package. There are a number of hosting companies that have great prices and the other functions are just as good. Price is perhaps one of the most important decisions of a web hosting plan, but there is much more to consider when choosing a quality web host.
Disk space/storage space
Disk space is the amount of physical storage space that a web host gives you to store your web files. Hosting companies today have plans where disk space is usually measured
Bandwidth / data transfer
The amount of available bandwidth can make a big difference when choosing a high-quality hosting package. In general, the more bandwidth a hosting company makes available to you, the better. This means that you can support more traffic to your website as your business grows. Be wary of web hosting companies that offer unlimited or non-measured bandwidth. Although many of these are legitimate offers, there are some who overload their bandwidth in the hope that the average user will not use much.
Customer service
In every company, it is very important to offer customer service. Web hosting is no exception. Many of the hosting companies are available all day and night in case you have a problem with your website, but some are only available at specific hours of the day. If your website fails in the middle of the night when it is not available, this means a loss of income for a company. Ensure that the selected web host is always available for support.
Money-back guarantee
Most web hosting companies offer a money-back guarantee of thirty days. Some will even provide a long one, but be wary of those who do not offer a money-back guarantee. I would not buy web hosting services from a company that does not offer at least a 30-day money-back guarantee unless they have proven to be a leader in the industry and have an excellent reputation.
Operating system
An operating system is a piece of software that controls the interaction between the computer user and the physical hardware of the machine. The vast majority of all websites on the internet run on the Linux operating system. Linux is generally much more stable than Windows. Stability is crucial when running a website. For this reason, I prefer to host my websites on the Linux operating system. Some sites have specific requirements that only the Windows operating system can meet, but there are always alternatives to those requirements.
Backup
A good web hosting company has a regular schedule for backing up the data on all web servers. The more often the data is backed up, the better. At the very least, a web hosting company must back up website files daily.
Control panel
The control panel is the contact point that the website administrator will have between the host server and their own machine that is connected via the Internet. It is essential to have a well-organized and easy-to-use interface of the control panel. My favorite control panel is cPanel, which is one of the leading web hosting control panels today. Plesk is another good one, and many companies will make their own control panel that you can use. Most web hosting companies offer a link to a demo of the control panel that they use with their hosting plans. The control panel used is a matter of preference, but it must be user-friendly.
Email is an essential part of communication on the internet. Most web hosting companies give you more e-mail addresses and more space to store e-mail messages than you will ever need. What you should pay attention to are the companies that have decided to be a bit strict in their email accounts and only offer a small number or a small amount of message space.
Uptime
Uptime is a term used to describe how often the average website hosted by a company is available online. No exact uptime of 100% can be expected from any company. This is impossible due to issues such as hardware, software and power outages. The vast majority of companies are very good with uptime and they guarantee that. It is still a good idea to be aware of the uptimes of the company. If it is not at least 99.5%, it is probably not worthwhile hosting with that company.
Statistics
As a webmaster, it is nice to know how many visitors you have had, where they come from, how long they stay on your site and how much bandwidth they have used. This information is collected by the web server and placed in a log file. A statistical software package can read this data and provide meaningful information to the webmaster. The information collected from these logs can be very valuable in improved services for viewers of the website.
FTP
FTP stands for file transfer protocol. It is a way to quickly upload or download many files to and from a web server. Most web hosting companies give their customers access to their web hosting accounts via FTP. FTP is very handy and a great feature to have when paying for a web hosting account.
Scripting
Since the start of the World Wide Web, many scripting languages have been created that have evolved into the dynamic and interactive environment that we enjoy today. A scripting language is a way to add functionality to a website, whether it's about calculating numbers or loading information from an external database. Script languages have made electronic commerce possible. Some of these languages are PHP, ASP, JSP, Coldfusion, VBscript, Javascript and Perl. I will not go into detail in this article because of the complexity. If you know how to use these languages, you must know what to look for in a web server.
Databases
A database is a place to store data that can be used in various ways. Databases are used on the internet for applications such as shopping carts, notice boards and product catalogues. The more databases you can create with the web hosting provider, the more applications you can implement on your web server. Databases are used by the more advanced webmaster, but the information is available online for free if you are interested.
Conclusions
Web hosting can be a very difficult decision with the many thousands of hosting companies out there. It is crucial to find a plan that meets your needs and to have a good hosting company. I hope this article was useful in making your decision about which company to host. Happy Hosting!