WHAT IS WEBHOSTING
A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that hosts websites for clients, i.e. it offers the facilities required for them to create and maintain a site and makes it accessible on the World Wide Web. Companies providing web hosting services are sometimes called web host
When a hosting provider allocates space on a web server for a website to store its files, they are hosting a website. Web hosting makes the files that comprise a website (code, images, etc.) available for viewing online. Every website you’ve ever visited is hosted on a server.
The amount of space allocated on a server to a website depends on the type of hosting. The main types of hosting are shared, dedicated, VPS and reseller. They are differentiated by the kind of technology used for the server, the level of management provided and the additional services on offer.
How Does Web Hosting Work?
Web hosting and domain hosting
How to pick a web host
Types of web hosting
In a nutshell, web hosting is the process of renting or buying space to house a website on the World Wide Web. Website content such as HTML, CSS, and images has to be housed on a server to be viewable online.
What exactly is a server? A server is a computer that connects other web users to your site from anywhere in the world. As the name implies, web hosting service providers have the servers, connectivity, and associated services to host websites. By offering a variety of hosting plans, they cover the spectrum of hosting needs, from small blogs and large organizations.
If you’re planning on creating an online presence, reliable web hosting is essential. There are literally hundreds of web hosts available today providing thousands of varieties of web hosting services. Plans range from free with limited options to expensive web hosting services specialized for business. The plan you choose will depend primarily on how you plan to use your website and how much you have budgeted for hosting.
Choosing the right hosting plan will mean having access to the right allocation of resources to keep your website loading quickly and reliably for your visitors. Think about how many businesses these days operate primarily online; their sales and business leads come from their website. If someone lands on a website and there’s a problem — it takes too long to load or doesn’t appear at all — potential customers won’t wait around. They’ll bounce off that site in search of a one that works correctly and can deliver what they are looking for, seamlessly.
If you’re new to operating a website, web hosting and related lingo can be a puzzling topic. Many a novice website owner has used the cheapest option or anything bundled with their domain name purchase under the mistaken belief that all hosting options are essentially the same.
This can be a costly mistake.
This article includes everything you need to know about web hosting and how choosing the right one is important to the success of your website, all in simplified manner you will understand.
How does web hosting work
Web hosting happens when the files that make up a website are uploaded from a local computer on to a web server. The server’s resources, (RAM, hard drive space, and bandwidth) are allocated to the websites using it.
The division of server resources varies depending on the type of hosting plan chosen. To choose the appropriate hosting plan, you first need to differentiate between the plans available. This doesn’t have to be complicated. For the non-technical readers, let’s use a simple analogy: Choosing web hosting is similar to searching for office space:
How do you decide which type of office space is right for your needs? Is a workstation in an open co-working space enough, or the next best thing; an office within a business center. Do you have intentions to expand quickly or expect a lot of people coming and going? Would you consider renting an entire building or would building your own space appeal?
Aside from the style of office you use there are other considerations. How easy the rooms are to access, which functions they offer (extras such as a whiteboard, high-speed internet, and other facilities), and where are they located and the overall cost. These considerations will determine your needs and help decide which type of office is right for you. Let’s compare this selection process to deciding which web hosting fits.
Shared hosting is similar to renting a workstation in a busy, noisy, open plan office or co-working space. You have all the modern conveniences: a desk, internet connection and some stationary and you share the space with other co-workers including the kitchen, printer, and restroom. You can’t do any makeovers to the space such as installing whiteboards etc. This is a popular option for launching small websites and not appropriate for large-scale commercial projects.
A virtual private server (VPS) is a nice step up from shared hosting. Medium sized business will benefit from renting an office within a business park. With a VPS, users are isolated from each other. You have neighbors, but you are less dependant on them, and you can carry out any makeovers (customizations) as you like and organize your workstation on your own.
If an entire office building is comparable to hosting on a dedicated server. It’s a more expensive option and best for websites who value reliability and high performance. Since you control the entire space, you have more say over configurations and plenty of space, but it’s not worth investing in if you won’t use the space included.
Advantages Of The Use Of Vps Or Dedicated Server
What is VPS Hosting?
Virtual Private Server Hosting (VPS Hosting) is a virtualized hosting solution with specific memory, space, and CPU cores allocated to a single tenant and is located on a single parent server. Shared hosting, on the other hand, shares resources with hundreds, maybe even thousands of customers’ websites.
Businesses hosting on VPS gain benefits such as near-instant scalability and flexibility. VPS is one of the most affordable web solutions available on the market today, which can be a competitive advantage for your next web project.
Check out the top benefits of VPS hosting below.
Tired of slow sites? Liquid Web’s VPS Hosting outperforms AWS, DigitalOcean, and Rackspace in raw CPU performance.
What is: Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting is a term used to describe web hosting packages that provide a dedicated server with dedicated resources to a single client. Dedicated hosting plans are ideal for WordPress websites with very large number of visitors. Many WordPress hosting service providers offer Dedicated Hosting plans along with shared and VPS hosting plans.
For example, in a shared hosting plan, a client is sharing a computer with many other clients. In the case of a VPS hosting plan the clients are sharing a machine but not the resources with other clients on the same computer. However, on dedicated hosting plans a client leases a whole server with all of its resources. Web hosting companies offer different packages of dedicated hosting plans. Prices of theses plans are based on the clients choice of hardware and resource allocation.
Dedicated hosting plans are ideal for large organizations or websites with much higher traffic. The clients get full control of the server which allows them to configure it to meet their own needs. The dedicated plans also come in managed and unmanaged forms where the hosting center can manage the server for the client in case of any problems. Dedicated Managed servers are generally more expensive. The pricing is also influenced by the amount of resources needed such as bandwidth, storage space, and amount of RAM, amongst other things. Additional expenses for dedicated servers also include the software packages needed to run the server. Such software can include licensing for Windows, if desired, cPanel, if desired, and other paid software. Free alternatives to most of the paid software packages are available but are not generally preferred due to issues with stability of the software. The main exception to the preference for paid vs free software is the widespread use of Linux over Microsoft or other paid OS on servers.
Avoid Noisy Neighbor Syndrome
As you compare shared vs VPS vs dedicated hosting, shared hosting is akin to living in an apartment building. If you share a wall with a neighbor that blasts his music at 3 am, it will disrupt your sleep. To translate this metaphor, if another customer suddenly starts using too many resources, your site on the same shared server can slow down or even go offline altogether.
VPS hosting is similar to living in a house in the city. You don’t share walls with anyone else, but your neighbor is still close enough to keep you awake if they turn that music all the way up. You will pay a little more for the solitude. With a VPS, there are other users on the physical server, but they are blocked out into a more private and protected block of the hard drive. VPS providers such as Liquid Web will stop any server resource issues long before they affect your business.
Dedicated hosting is a more expensive option than VPS and is similar to living in a house with a few acres of land. With a dedicated server, you are the only client on the physical server and have complete ownership of all server resources.
Dedicated Resources
Another one of the many benefits of VPS hosting is that all of your server resources are dedicated entirely to your business. In most cases, a VPS gives you more resources than shared hosting as well. You will not share CPU, RAM, space, or bandwidth with any other customer.
Speed
With shared hosting, your site’s performance will depend on the amount of resources being used by other sites on the server at any given time. Shared hosts have to try and configure the server to function with a wide range of website configurations.
A VPS can be optimized to run efficiently for your site. Due to more specialized configurations, an organization using managed VPS will notice hosting benefits such as better performance right out of the box. And Liquid Web’s VPS is the fastest on the market.
Affordability and Value
While a VPS will usually cost more than shared hosting, it will not cost anywhere near as much as dedicated hosting. At Liquid Web, a high-performance VPS does not cost much more than most shared hosting plans. When you look at the advantages of VPS over shared hosting, you can quickly see why a VPS is a much better value, especially as you consider managed VPS hosting.
Access and Control
Sites owners using shared hosting have limited control over what is installed on their environment.
Businesses that lease VPS hosting will benefit from running only the services needed. For example, if you know you are not going to use email functionality on your server, you can shut down or even uninstall services like Bind or webmail applications. Liquid Web provides root access to your VPS so that you can make any changes you need.
Elasticity
If your site suddenly experiences a surge in traffic, as is usual during Black Friday promotions, you need to be able to scale your server resources to meet increasing traffic demands. This kind of fluctuation will often bring a shared server to a screeching halt, especially if other sites on the server experience the same thing. Not only is a VPS typically capable of absorbing these spikes, if your site does suddenly need more resources, VPS hosts can upgrade your resources quickly and easily.
Enhanced Security
Let’s face it, shared hosting is the least secure hosting option. This is not because shared hosts do not take security seriously. Most shared hosts work hard to patch systems and provide a secure environment. However, security on shared hosting is compromised due to the large numbers of customers accessing the server via Plesk, cPanel, or InterWorx. If one customer uses weak passwords and is hacked, this can put the entire server at risk.
A VPS, on the other hand, has none of these disadvantages. For one thing, fewer admin (root) users on a server (i.e., fewer customers) means fewer people have access that can be compromised. Also, VPS hosting users gain benefits from using virtualization technology to isolate data from other users. Finally, tools such as web application firewalls (WAFs), spam filters, and other security configurations can be more strict on a VPS because it does not have to work with as many different configurations as a shared server does.
Flexibility
A VPS has many use cases, such as gaming, email, or project management servers. If you use WordPress multisite, you will find that large multisite networks will demand higher resources and thus crash a shared server.
OS and Software Freedom
Many shared hosts will not allow you to run certain software applications. Most do not allow streaming software or gaming servers, for example.
With a VPS, you can usually pick your favorite operating system. You can choose from the best OS options like Ubuntu, Cloudlinux, or Debian. The same goes for server software.
Long-Term Scalability
As your business grows over time, you will inevitably need more resources for your website. With a VPS from Liquid Web, you can quickly and easily upgrade to a larger VPS or even an entire bare metal server.
Get An Industry-Leading VPS From Liquid Web Today
If you are running a website with very low traffic and no need for advanced functionality, shared hosting can suffice. However, for most other businesses, a VPS is almost always a better option with more performance, flexibility, and elasticity for years to come. And – Cloud Spectator verified that Liquid Web’s VPS Hosting is the fastest on the market.
Conclusion
If your website loading times are not as fast as you would like, it may be time to upgrade your hosting plan. Fortunately, a VPS can provide a performance boost to handle increased traffic at a cheaper price.
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