Web hosting is where all your files are stored so people can access your website.
A lot of people get the words “web hosting” completely turned around. They tend to think it’s more complex than it is. To give you an example of what web hosting is let me elaborate. Think of all the pictures on your home computer, laptop, or tablet. Let’s say you want to show them to someone. Typically, people upload them to Facebook so their friends can view them.
Once, they are uploaded to Facebook your friends can view them. They are uploaded to a server and Facebook is using a hosting service. This is just a place where your files “live” on the internet. So, let me say it again, a web hosting service is where your files are stored. Here is a diagram that shows you what I am talking about.
Each hosting company offers different amounts of storage, RAM, CPU, etc. You are renting out a server to store your data on. There are thousands of hosts available, so picking one that is dependable and helpful is essential.
But, you also need a domain name. This is simply the web address that people go to. For example, Amazon.com is a domain name.
Do I Need Web Hosting For My Website?
Yes, without web hosting your website would not exist. This is why you need web hosting for your site. There would be no files to view therefore your site wouldn’t exist.
So here is how it works. People go to their browser. The most popular ones are Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari. W3schools.com shows which browser is the most popular one. Google Chrome is what most people use currently.
People open their browser and go to Google.com, Bing.com, and Yahoo.com. They type something in that they want to know. Each of these search engines will show you different sites. When you click on a website, it shows your domain name in the navigation bar. Again, your domain name is the www.example.com. It pulls your site’s data that is stored on a server which you pay a monthly or yearly fee for.
How Much Is Web Hosting?
Starter plans are cheap. Usually, you can sign up for a web hosting service for under $5 per month. This is an entry plan. Again, it’s going to have different resources, CPU, RAM, and disk space. Shared plans are just starter plans. Once your website grows you will need to upgrade to a plan with more resources. Otherwise, your hosting account will get suspended for using too many resources.
What About Free Hosting?
These can be very appealing to those people that are on a tight budget. Spending $5 a month might not fit into everyone’s budget. There are free hosting companies and they can serve a good purpose for those who don’t have the funds for paid hosting. If you do use a free web host just know that they have lots of limitations on resource usage and they are not as reliable as paid web hosts.
So Many Different Types of Web Hosting. Which One Should I Choose?
I’ve written an article which shows the different types of web hosting. There are 10 different plans to choose from. Not every host is going to provide all types of hosting. For instance, some hosts specialize in shared hosting, VPS, cloud, or dedicated hosting.
Here are some popular hosting providers:
This is why tbwhs.com was developed to show you customer reviews on different hosts. Some hosts have had lots of known problems. Other hosts have gotten good feedback. Hopefully, this makes sense. Do feel free to ask any questions you have about web hosting down below.
Hi, Garen your post is so informative and easy to read. You have made web hosting cleared to me. You have explained it in a fun way and I like that.
Trust me many sites that try to explain web hosting do it in a complicated way that honestly gets me confused, I hate reading 4,000 words to learn what web hosting is.
My website is hosted on Wealthy Affiliate, sometimes my site goes down, but I’m happy with it 🙂
Glad to hear you are using Wealthy Affiliate for your managed WordPress hosting. I haven’t really noticed any downtime with them. My uptime stats with them over the last four months are 99.953%. Very happy with the uptime.
I actually want to find a good, fast and secure hosting. I apologize for the novice question. But have heard the words ASP host. I was wondering if I need an ASP host or not? Do you have any good recommendations for my criteria?
ASP stands for active server page. These are HTML pages with embedded ASP scripts. When a user goes to a website, it loads the HTML and then the embedded ASP script. These are thought to be a little safer. But, this does require a Windows hosting server. Linux-based servers will not be able to support ASP. Also, ASP scripts call on SQL and Access.
Here are three good companies that support ASP.Net:
RoseHosting
A2 Hosting
InterServer
Hi Garen, I appreciate your easy to understand explanation of webs hosting. Up until earlier this year, I had no idea of the details surrounding websites or even experience with much of anything other than email and facebook. I could’ve understood your presentation of the info in this article even back then. Are there any of the popular hosting providers you would recommend over the others or are they all really similar?
To answer your question no not all host are the same. What people don’t always understand is that a lot of big host like BlueHost, JustHost, and iPage are all owned by the same company. EIG owns lots of hosts. I believe there are 70+ hosts they own. Therefore, if you leave the one you might just be signing up with another company they own.
Certainly, not all hosts are the same. There are lots of them I feel are light years above other hosts. For example, Siteground has much better support than 1and1. It’s completely different between these two hosts. Siteground bends over backward to fix issues for you. 1and1, on the other hand, is very difficult to work with.
Some hosts are cheaper than others. Some offer more CPU power, RAM, storage, etc. There are hidden fees with some, yearly contracts, etc. Could check out this article on how to chose a web hosting company:
https://blog.tbwhs.com/choosing-a-web-host/
So, web hosting is like cars. Sure there are lots of cars, but some are better than others. Web hosting is no different. Some companies get lots of great feedback. Others can get horrible reviews.
Hi Garen, I like how you explained web hosting. It was short, simple, and straight to the point. I have come to understand that web hosting is absolutely essential, and I am glad that there is free web hosting. I started my own website a few months ago, and the free web hosting that I started out with was a life saver to my wallet as I could figure out how everything works for free.
I like how you explained this topic. Very easy to read and follow. I also did not know that your hosting can be suspended if you use too many resources than what you bought. Great insight, I am sure others will find this post very useful.
Thank you
Yep, a lot of hosts use this as a marketing pitch. However, they all have limits. Really hate the words “unlimited”.
Thanks a lot for explaining web hosting to me. I kind of understood it, but now I totally understand it. I did have a question for you, though. How secure are hosts in general? Is there any way we can safeguard our data?
Some host are much more secure than another host. For example, Turnkey Internet seems to be much more secure than GoDaddy. This has to do with how the hosts maintained their servers. For example, in the past years, GoDaddy has been known to overload their servers. Therefore, there could be thousands of sites on a single shared server. When one site has a huge spike in traffic, the other sites suffer. This happens because they are using more resources.
Different companies do offer security features. For example, Hostgator offers SiteLock. This helps prevent people from hacking your website. Also, SiteLock can restore your site to a previous state if it does end up getting hacked. This does come with an extra monthly fee, though. There are lots of security and backup plugins you can install if you are using WordPress.
This is a great primer on web hosting which will really be useful for newbies out there. This really explains it very clearly and I am sure that any questions anyone may have about hosting have been answered through this post of yours. I am currently using SiteRubix by Wealthy Affiliate. I have tried other hosting companies that are really good but I think having sites hosted at Wealthy Affiliate gives real value for your money. The support is great as well as the training that is included in the package. Thanks for this great post Garen!
I agree that the hosting is very solid with Wealthy Affiliate. But, a lot of people don’t realize that Wealthy Affiliates web hosting is actually managed WordPress hosting. This will cost $30 a month if that is not all they offer (see WP Engine). But, they offer so much more. This makes it a tremendous value for the money.
Also, I do agree that Wealthy Affiliate’s customer support is very good. Usually, they reply within 20-30 minutes. I have been very impressed with the level of support they have.