Over the last decade it has become much easier for a less technical person to set up and maintain a website. With companies like WordPress and Drupal providing easy to use website building tools, no coding skills are required for a standard website. So the actual set up part of building a website has become considerably easier for a basic site.
However, one aspect of setting a website up that does seem to throw a spanner in the works, is getting to understand the role of a web host and how to choose the right one. This is an area that newbie website owners get confused with, so they often need some guidance in this process.
Here are some of the basics to help you out if you are in that position:
What is a web host?
A web host is a service that ‘hosts’ your website on a server and enables your website to be online and for people to be able to search for it. It gives you a unique IP address that an internet user can locate your site with.
There are many different web hosting companies out there, so deciding on one can be one of the biggest challenges. You could spend the next week researching them all without covering them all.
So your time might be better spent just checking out web host reviews instead and let the experts do the hard work for you. Some of the most famous hosting brands include GoDaddy, SiteGround and iPage.
As well as having a huge selection of hosts, there is also a wide range of different hosting types that each company offer.
What types of hosting are there?
Free hosting:
If you need to keep your costs at an absolute minimum then some companies provide a hosting service with no cost. Sounds too good to be true? In many cases it is. Free hosts make their money by people choosing to upgrade to a premium package, displaying ad banners on your website or the free advertising they get by you using their domain.
The reason people often need to upgrade is because there will be a lot of restrictions such as limited storage and bandwidth. Plus, the performance of the website will not generally be as good as paid hosting plans.
Shared hosting:
If you need a bit more out of a web host than the free hosting plans provide then you might like the idea of shared hosting. The costs stay relatively cheap because you are sharing the costs of the server with others.
The performance, storage and bandwidth allowance etc. is much better than with free hosting. Also, you own the website so you have control over how it is used by your host.
Dedicated hosting:
Whilst shared hosting can be a great solution for small businesses with lower volumes of online traffic, if you are a large business with a lot of online visitors then you probably need something more. Dedicated hosting provides a server that is for your use only, so you have the full bandwidth capacity rather than sharing it with other websites.
It also offers a higher level of security as you won’t be sharing your server with other websites that could possibly pick up a virus. However, all of these added benefits come at a cost, so you will need a pretty big budget if you go for dedicated hosting.
There are a few other different types of hosting but these are the three you will probably be deciding between when you start off with your first website.
Nisha Pandey
Latest posts by Nisha Pandey (see all)
- Trucking Business In California – What You Should Know Before Starting It - October 11, 2021
- Top Reasons to Practice Mindfulness - September 29, 2021
A very important article and thank yo for writing it. Deciding on the right Web Host can be a major factor when starting a new website and often people are unaware of everything they need to be taking care of. I personally believe that dedicated hosting is the best as it provides with all the benefits of hosting including support. However, for someone like a blogger just entering the field
a free host can be advisable to test the waters.
Very informative blog… will surely pass it to my Team