If you are a new business looking for a website or in the past have let your web designer look after everything for you web hosting is probably something you have never heard about. To help understanding we cover the basics of web hosting and break down the options you have and need.
JKE Web Design provides the first year of web hosting half price with all our new websites and we can provide very competitive managed hosting. To find out more visit our Web Hosting page.
What is Web Hosting?
A website is a collection of web pages which contains text, content, images, videos etc. Website hosting simply allows a website to be available to the public over the Internet. To place your website on the Internet, you need to store it on web server. Web hosting is where you rent or buy some space on a web server. In 2016 we set up our own web hosting company Chip Hosting.
A web server is a computer where you buy some space and store your web pages. It serves your website over the Internet to the users. These servers are provided by Web hosts or web hosting companies.
Included in hosting packages are some common features provided By Web Hosts, to help understand these we explain below:
Disk Space
Disk space refers to amount of storage space provided by the web hosting company. Disk space will be used to store website files, images, video, content etc. The Web hosting company provides the disk space for all sizes of businesses according to their needs.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth refers to the amount of data and traffic allowed to travel and transfer between your site, users and the Internet. Web hosting companies provide a particular level of bandwidth. The more bandwidth your site has, the faster it will be able to load. If your website has lots of graphics or heavy pages, then you will need higher bandwidth and higher storage.
Programming Languages
Web hosting packages includes programming languages such as HTML, PHP, ASP, Python, perl and scripts with MySQL, MSSQL databases. Your web developer will use these build your website.
Up time
This is the amount of time that a web server has stayed up and running. If a web host has high uptime percentage then it means their servers stay running and good for any site. Most hosting providers offer 99.99% up time.
With any service you should expect a certain level of support and all at a competitive price.
Support
This is one of the most important features, you should take care while choosing your web host. Make sure your web host provides quick customer support via chat, phone, tickets & email for your problems related to your website.
Pricing
Make sure that your web hosting company does not charge extra money for basic features and check that there are no hidden charges in your hosting plan. There is a lot of competition in the hosting market so do some homework to make sure you are getting value for money.
Types of Web Hosting
Web hosting companies offer different types of web hosting services according to needs of the website. Generally, there are four types of web hosting options: Shared Hosting, Virtual Private Server(VPS), Dedicated Hosting and Cloud Hosting. You can migrate to any plan when you want.
Shared Hosting
In this hosting, multiple websites share space on a single server. This is cost effective hosting solution. This hosting is best for personal websites, small businesses, low traffic websites etc. This is economical hosting option because server cost is shared in multiple users. In shared hosting, websites share server resources such as processor, RAM, disk space & bandwidth.
Virtual Private Server(VPS)
VPS hosting divides a server into multiple virtual servers. VPS offers you a physical server with dedicated IP address and resources. Users have root access to their virtual server. This solution provides features the same as a dedicated server at lower cost. So this is also called virtual dedicated server. VPS hosting is very popular for large size businesses.
Dedicated Server Hosting
In dedicated hosting, you will get your own server and only your websites are stored on the server. You have full control over the server. This hosting is best for large websites because large websites need more resources such as bandwidth, disk space and processing. In dedicated hosting processing speed is high rather than other hosting options. In this hosting, traffic of other websites can’t affect your website, so you don’t need to worry about downtime. Dedicated server is most secure and reliable but also the most expensive.
Cloud Hosting
In the cloud hosting technique, multiple servers are connected to each other. This is based on “Service on Demand”. You can use only resources which are required for your website. You can add more resources at any time when you expect higher traffic. This is a very cost effective way. It means the hosting provider can charge you only for what computing resources you use. It also offers great ability to handle high traffic.
Linux & Windows Web Hosting
Windows and Linux are most popular operating system on which a web server runs. Linux is an open source operating system. Linux OS supports scripting languages like perl, python, PHP and MySQL database. While windows OS supports scripting languages such as ASP, ASP.NET and MSSQL database. Linux hosting is very popular among different sizes of businesses because its cost is less than windows hosting. Windows hosting is more user friendly than linux hosting. Websites which are designed to be hosted on linux server can be hosted on windows server. But linux hosting is not compatible with Microsoft technology.
Both windows and linux offer equal security for your website. You can choose windows or linux hosting according to your web site’s need. If a website needs windows applications, then you have to choose windows hosting.
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