What You Need to Know About Web Hosting

Technician working on main racks of servers in a computer server room.

Finding the appropriate web host provider is essential to the success of any company website, whether that means starting fresh or expanding upon existing one. A great web hosting provider ensures customers can access your website 24/7 while providing infrastructure necessary to run it successfully as well as customer support in case any technical glitch arises. In this article we explore what constitutes an excellent hosting service so that you can make an informed decision when selecting one for your business website.

For websites to be displayed online, they must first be stored on a server – commonly referred to as web hosting server or host. In order to access your website, users need to enter its domain name into their browser which communicates with web hosting server to retrieve website files before showing the final result on screen.

Web hosts play an essential role in keeping your website online by hosting its files and managing its server infrastructure. They ensure your pages load quickly and reliably while offering security measures against hackers or any potential cyber threats that could compromise it.

Finding an exceptional web host requires finding one with superior uptime, speed and scalability – this ensures your business website can easily accommodate an unexpected increase in visitors without impacting performance. Quality web hosts provide multiple plans and pricing structures so you can select one best suited to your company’s needs.

While it is possible to host your website yourself using PC software and hardware, third-party web hosting providers tend to be more cost-effective for businesses. They have access to equipment necessary for hosting websites efficiently while offering multiple plans suitable for both small and large organizations.

Shared hosting is the most affordable form of web hosting; multiple users share one server. However, shared hosting comes with some limitations which could potentially hamper its effectiveness if your website requires extensive bandwidth or storage space. For that reason, alternative forms may be more suitable depending on your specific requirements. Other types of web hosting include virtual private server (VPS) and dedicated server hosting, with VPSs being more expensive but offering greater performance and scalability. VPSs can support an entire application stack while dedicated servers can host mission-critical apps. Dedicated servers are typically reserved for larger businesses requiring high levels of performance and reliability from their hosting service provider; typically housed within data centers globally owned and managed by them themselves and thus making this type of hosting suitable for e-commerce websites.