What Is Web Hosting?

Web hosting, in simple English, is just a service that leases you a web server for you to put the files of your web site on. Web hosts usually own the computers that run the web servers and lease partial or full control of their web servers to you. It is also possible to get a web hosting service from web hosting resellers, who resell the web hosting services they got from web hosts that own their own web servers. Web host usually offer a number of different services that include email, databases, web domains and bandwidth for your web site. The kind of hosting you need will depend on your available budget and requirements. There are a lot of different types of web hosting out there, some of which are better for particular applications.

Dedicated Web Hosting

This one of the most expensive web hosting services because a web host loans a web server exclusively to you. Hence, the name dedicated server because no one but you has access to the web server. Dedicated hosts are recommended for very larger web sites that receive a lot of traffic and activity on their web site. If you know what you are doing, you may request to manage the web server yourself, which is usually done online instead of the real physical maintenance. Otherwise, you will have to pay the web host additional fees for them to maintain the web server by making sure the hardware and software is working in tip top condition.

Virtual Private Server (VPS) or Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS) Web Hosting

VPS servers usually have multiple users using the same web server. A VPS server will appear to each user as though they were using a dedicated server but they won’t be able to use 100% of the server resources as each VPS user has a specific amount of server resources allocated to their account. VPS services usually come with managed web hosting and 24/7 technical support. VPS web hosts are great for web sites that have exceeded their limits on a shared hosting environment. I host my web page on a VPS server because I need my sites to be up and running as much as possible but I do not need the features of a dedicated server at the moment.

Co-Location Web Hosting

Co-location is a type of full service hosting where you provide your own server to a company that sets it up in their co-location centre and allows you to use their bandwidth for a fee. You’re responsible for server maintenance and must update it and keep it running yourself. This is a great way of hosting your own web site if you’re tech savvy enough to have your own server, but it is too hard for most of us. Some businesses use a co-location centre for backup purposes and also to save costs.

Shared Web Hosting

Shared web hosts are usually shared among a lot of users on the same web server. This is recommended for small web sites without a lot of traffic. Shared hosting is usually very cheap compared to the VPS and dedicated hosting. The downside is you cannot expect to host big web sites on a shared web server. Web hosts usually “oversell” their web server’s resources by promising each customer more server resources than they can possibly allocate to all of the users on the web server. What happens is they will either politely ask you to upgrade your web hosting plan or simple suspend your web hosting account for using too much resources. I have experienced this a couple of times and it was not a pleasant experience.

Reseller Web Hosting

Reseller web hosts are allowed to resell their allocated resources on a web server to other customers. This is somewhat equivalent to hosting web sites on a shared web host. New and small web hosting companies do this as well as web design studios. This is also great for webmasters who have a lot of web sites. The disadvantage of reseller web hosting is that they have the same weaknesses as shared web hosting.

Free Web Hosting

Free hosting, for instance, usually restricts the user to a small amount of space or bandwidth and requires him or her to allow ads to be placed on the site in exchange for the hosting. Sites like Yahoo! Geocities work on this model.

Blog Hosting

Blogging hosts like WordPress.com and Blogger.com are like free web hosts but they only allow you to use their blogging platform. Blogger even allows you to use their blogging system on your own domain name. However, most blog hosts only let you create a sub domain on their domain name.

Image Hosting

You may make use of image hosting services like Flickr, Photobucket or Tinypic to upload your pictures. Although they have some restrictions on the image size and bandwidth, they are usually enough for most users.

Video Hosting

Sometimes uploading a video onto your own web server isn’t a good idea due to the bandwidth constraints. It is better to upload a video to video sharing web sites like Youtube or Google Video to get more exposure for your videos and save on your bandwidth usage.

Which Web Hosting Service Should You Get?

For personal bloggers, you should be able to get by with free blog hosts, image hosts and video hosts for a while. Once your blog becomes very popular, you might consider getting a domain name and a shared web host at the minimum.

For businesses expecting light traffic, a shared web host or reseller host should be sufficient. Once you start getting a lot of down times or warnings from your web host, it might be necessary to upgrade to a VPS server. Again, once you are starting to max out the resources of your VPS server, you might have to upgrade to a dedicated web server.

It is best to learn how to use a web host and perform basic tasks like adding email addresses, creating databases, adding cron jobs and other functions a web site requires. If you do not have the time or inclination to do this yourself, you could always buy web hosting from us and we can help you manage your web host for a small fee.