One billion plus websites are live and running on the internet.
Over 576,000 new websites are launched daily according to websitesetup.org. But do you know where these websites are or how are they running?
Web hosting has these questions’ answered.
Allow yourself some time to read this article and by the end of it you will know:
Web hosting means to put up a website online. It is as simple as that.
To make it more clear, I would like to begin this article by defining a website.
What is a Website?
A website is a set of web pages and in web pages web codes are written.
Web codes help to write text, attach document files, media files, and set links (hyperlinks) on a web page.
You are reading this article on a web page. If you go to the top of it, you will find the title “sTechalon”. It is set with a hyperlink that is connected to another web page.
The collection of these connected web pages are called a website.
Note: It does not mean a website should have multiple web pages.
A website can also have a single web page.
Every page you visit on the browser is a website.
What is Web Hosting?
In simpler terms, uploading a website on the internet is web hosting.
It is similar to uploading a video on YouTube or creating a post on social media.
But how is a website uploaded on the internet?
Websites are uploaded on the servers.
Server is a high specification computer connected to the internet that runs all the time. Its major job is to serve the requests of users like us.
Every website you visit is hosted on a server.
Where can we get these servers?
The companies that sell such servers are called web hosts or host providers.
They provide web hosting, email hosting, domain registration, and other different types of internet hosting services.
Hostinger, Bluehost are some of the well known web hosts you can find on the internet.
Therefore, web hosting can be defined as buying a server, uploading a website onto it, and making it accessible to everyone.
How does Web Hosting Work?
Working mechanism of web hosting is really simple.
Host provider configures their server in such a way that your website gets online as soon as you upload it.
These servers come with the storage and an IP address.
Storage is for uploading a website and an IP address defines a path to that website.
How to upload a website on a server?
There are different methods to upload a website on a server.
You can simply drag and drop your website files on a server using a browser, select and upload it using an application or transfer it using commands through terminal.
These methods vary on the web host you choose.
After a website is uploaded, it gets hosted on the servers’ IP address.
To make it professional and meaningful, users use a domain name instead of IP address for their website.
The main role of domain name is to cover the IP address of the server.
So that, whenever the domain name is entered it will take you to that covered IP address of the server i.e where the website is hosted.
How to Host a Website?
As mentioned earlier, we need a server to host a website and there are different types of hosting server available in web host market.
For example, a startup website or a fresh blog website will likely have less visitors, so they require less specs(resources) server. Similarly, a big ecommerce website will have huge visitors, so they require a high spec server.
Therefore, you should know your website type before buying a server. Otherwise, web hosting can be an expensive and awful experience for you.
Web host provider categories different types of servers into different web hosting services and they are:
- Shared Hosting : This is for low traffic websites.
- VPS Hosting : Perfect for medium traffic websites.
- Dedicated Hosting : Business oriented high traffic websites.
- Cloud Hosting: Users who want flexibility.
To figure out the perfect hosting type, you may want to read:
Now, it’s time to pick a web host provider.
There are an excessive number of web host providers you can find on the internet. However, all of them might not be reliable and reliable are those who provide great service and support.
If you are clueless about picking the right web host provider, then you can choose any of them mentioned in the list below.
They are the most trusted and renowned ones. Additionally, Hostinger is the most affordable and top pick for most of the users.
Finally, We’ve come to the end of this article and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.
Please feel free to write to me if you have any concerns related to this post.