Most consumers monitor the availability of a product and compare prices from different sellers before making a purchase. They are interested in promotions and special offers and want to get acquainted with your product on the company's website. We write the company's website address in the browser and do not think about how the symbols, drawings, and designs appear. Everything is simple - the web page appears because somewhere, there is a device that saves files with content for this site. This device is called a server. The hosting company will store resources on servers, client files, databases, information, etc. Renting such services is called hosting. The task of hosting is round-the-clock user access to your site hosting can be created on a home computer, but it will need to be kept on all the time and be sure to monitor power outages.
Why does a website need hosting?
The main goal of hosting is round-the-clock availability of data, files or databases and the ability to freely manage these files and change their configuration.
The main features of web hosting for:
- - Site. The hosting saves the files that manage the site, and the administrator uses them to change the site's configuration and monitor its health and functionality.
- - Applications. The provider stores customer data, necessary files, and applications and provides constant online support.
- - E-mail. Hosting can store messages and mail configurations, such as forwarding conditions, contacts, and auto-replies.
- - SSL certificate. When installing a security certificate on a site, you need space on the hosting where the files and configurations of the SSL certificate will be saved.
Hosting types
Providers provide different types of hosting, depending on the client's needs. When choosing a hosting, you need to consider the size of your site because the "weight" affects the required amount of resources and server space. Hosting types differ in terms of functionality, memory size, software (software), the ability to support different technologies, scripts, programming languages, channel bandwidth, and so on.
Main types of hosting:
- Virtual hosting or shared hosting. All capacities and physical space on server hard disks are divided among many subscribers. A very popular type of hosting among customers who have small sites, web projects, business card sites, personal blogs or startups and do not need more network resources around the clock.
Hosting benefits:
- Low price
- Easy to operate, no special technical knowledge required
- The server is already configured. The host configures all configurations
- The guide panel is intuitive
- The server is administered and maintained by the hosting technical support service.
Flaws:
- Limited hard drive space
- The user cannot influence the server settings
- Large projects may run out of hard drive space
- Due to the limited power of the server, you can not use "heavy scripts."
- There is a risk that your site will be infected with a virus due to a web page hosted on the same host as yours if you do not use a dedicated IP address.
- VPS hosting (Virtual Private Server). As in shared hosting, you operate the server together with other clients, but the provider will allocate you a separate area on the server and a certain amount of memory. This type of hosting is suitable for owners of medium-sized businesses, and projects of the kind: online store, forum, corporate website or portal.
Advantages:
- Complete independence from "neighbours", the traffic of other web pages does not affect the productivity of your web page.
- Possibility to install your software
- The unused capacity of your hosting is not distributed among other users
- Provides administrator access to settings and management
- Install your OS on a virtual machine
Minuses:
- Parameter settings are more complicated, so you need to contact a professional or learn system administration
- Hosting is more expensive than shared hosting
- Dedicated hosting means that you have your physical server to use. It hosts exclusively your, for example, website so you can configure the server as convenient: choose OS, software, and file systems. Renting a dedicated server is, in fact, equivalent to a local server, but the hosting company provides full service and control over the server. This type of hosting is suitable for large-scale Internet projects (marketplaces, online stores, portals with a large amount of video and audio content), where you need a lot of resources and reliable data protection.
Advantages of a dedicated server:
- server configurations under your complete control
- the security level is very high
- you do not share your server with other hosting clients
Minuses:
- high rental cost
- you need a system administrator to set up the server
- Colocation. This type of hosting is similar to a dedicated server in its characteristics; the difference is: that the provider provides a place in its space to accommodate your personal equipment and allocates a channel for access to the Internet. The pros and cons are the same as in a dedicated server. Only the cost of colocation can be cheaper given the lack of equipment for rent.
- Cloud hosting. When choosing this type of hosting, you pay only for the number of resources that you need, and the provider already redistributes them between other servers. One site can be stored on three servers - this helps distribute the equipment's load. If one of the cloud servers is loaded or out of order, your traffic is automatically directed to another free server. Cloud hosting is suitable for: sites that require fast data transfer, online stores, media publications, and various applications.
Advantages:
- high security of your data because they are duplicated many times
- cloud hosting uptime tends to be 100%
- server problems do not affect the speed of your site in any way
- you pay only for the resources you use
Flaws:
- it is difficult to calculate the cost of services before using cloud hosting
- if there are problems on the server, the hosting provider will need more time to detect and fix them
How much does website hosting cost?
Each provider defines the price of web hosting differently, ranging from free hosting (not to be confused with free trial periods) to inflated prices due to popularity. If you choose free hosting, then be prepared for some trouble, such as inappropriate ads on your site and entirely unsuitable for your business theme, which you have no control over. When you choose paid hosting services, you have complete control over the filling on your site. Paid web hosting has more disk area and baud rate and can offer unlimited amounts of them, unlike unpaid web hosting with minimal resources. The cost of hosting will limit the quality and quantity of media content. Paid hosting will provide a guarantee of the security of your information, your domain name and URL. Well, an essential parameter is the speed of loading your site. Free hosts are overloaded and prepared for mandatory downtime, while paid providers will provide high-speed resources with a warranty period.
Hosting recommendations
Take into account two main criteria for choosing a hosting:
- - amount resources your project will need (disk space, data protection, site speed and loading, etc.);
- - provider capabilities (additional information services, pricing variability)
As your project develops, you will come to the need for additional services, which are best obtained from the supplier where you rent the server. Test the hosting before renting, for example, we have a 10-day free trial period, during this period, you decide whether the tariff plan is suitable, evaluate the convenience of working with the control panel and the speed of the hosting.
If you are faced with choosing to host for the first time, we suggest contacting our support team, and we will help you select the hosting that suits your project. We will explain the difference between tariffs and calculate your site's memory quantity. Our support works around the clock, write to us in the chat or call.
Professional web hosting services allow the business owner to not think about maintaining the site all the time but to save time and energy for other business ideas.