A QUICK GUIDE TO WEB HOSTING
If you’re looking into creating your own website from scratch, or maybe refreshing your memory before hiring a designer/developer to do some work, you may be wondering about website hosting and the best ways you can do it.
HERE’S OUR QUICK GUIDE TO WEB HOSTING TO GET YOU STARTED.
SO, WHAT IS WEB HOSTING?
Web hosting is a service provided by a company which allows businesses or individuals to post their websites on the internet. This company (the hosting provider) stores or ‘hosts’ these websites on their servers. When you visit a website through your browser, your computer connects to the server which the website is stored on, allowing you to see the website on your computer. Most hosting providers will usually offer a number of different web hosting packages.
Okay, so now we’ve got the basics down let’s move on to the different types of web hosting you can expect.
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF WEB HOSTING?
FREE HOSTING
There are lots of free web hosting sites you can find. While this sounds like a great option (and can be if you need something to show off a small project). Nothing is ever truly ‘free’, which often means it comes with additional costs, bandwidth limitations and advertisements to name a few! For this reason we would personally not recommend using one of these services.
When you run a business, random advertisements and bandwidth limits can interfere with your brands identity and distract from your services, making your business seem unprofessional. Don’t forget, your website needs to engage your audience and many other hosting packages are cost effective whilst providing a better aesthetic for your website.
SHARED HOSTING
This is when the hosting provider stores pages for multiple websites on a single server, each with its own domain name. This is a great choice for many website owners because these types of packages are very inexpensive, however, it is worth noting that there may be issues with speed and connectivity as the other users sites may start to take up storage.
You want your business to be quick and responsive so keep that in mind if you opt for a shared package.
CO-LOCATION
This is mainly used by small businesses who want the benefits of an IT department without the cost. Co-location allows you to purchase your own server to keep, while the host will provide power, bandwidth, the IP and general maintenance.
DEDICATED HOSTING
This package does exactly as it says, your website is hosted on its own dedicated server. A great option for large websites that require lots of resources to run, however, it does mean it is much more expensive.
ALTERNATIVE HOSTING OPTIONS
PERSONAL HOSTING
A lot of people may be asking if they can host a website on their own computer. The answer is yes, however, while this is possible you would need the knowledge of setting up a web server, a fast internet connection & your computer would need to be active 24/7 otherwise it may not be accessible for other web users.
PLATFORM HOSTING
A good thing to remember is that if you have a website with Squarespace, Wix, Blogspot or some of the other platforms you won’t need to purchase web hosting! This allows you to be free of the worry about security, updates or hosting costs as it is all included with your platform package.
This is a great option for those wanting to operate a simple website that does its job and requires very little effort to upkeep on your part.