What is Web Hosting?
Web hosting is like renting a space on the Internet to store their website so that people from all over the world can access it through the Internet. Think of it like having a virtual store. If you want to open a store and sell products, you need a physical space to store your products and a storefront for customers to come in and purchase your products. In the same way, if you want to have a website, you need a place to store the files that make up your website and a way for people to access it over the Internet. A web hosting company provides the space on a server (a powerful computer specifically designed to host websites) where your website files are stored and ensures that your website is available 24/7 so that anyone can access it from anywhere in the world. They also provide email hosting, technical support, and security.
Free Hosting
As the name specifies that free hosting means non-paid service. It comes with limited features, support, and resources. Nevertheless, it can be the right choice for someone who wants to start a blog or a small website or just experience and learn web coding and designing. It does not matter what your reasons for choosing free hosting are; you must put the most effort into finding a reliable site for using it.
Free hosting is optional for you when you want to build a more significant site, and you also have to run it for the long term. We strongly recommend using your time wisely in building sites with those free site builders providing free hosting because it will be time-consuming and less reliable.
Shared Hosting
An entry-level hosting service where websites are stored with many other websites on shared servers. When people initially begin online businesses, they go for a shared hosting scheme because it is cheaper than others, and the same server would service multiple websites; CPU and memory are used by altogether hosted domains.
It is perfect for small start-up businesses as their operating costs will be reduced. But this website hosting is also recognised as the “Poor neighbour Effect” as CPU, memory and disk space are shared amongst all the domains using it.
VPS hosting
A virtual private server is a kind of Internet hosting account. Your database and files will be on a web server to have your website on the Internet. The physical servers can be split into other shared VPS servers as they provide flexibility and customisation in a virtual machine. Their hosting environment is more controlled, and they provide supporting staff to help customers with their technical issues.
The only issue is that their prices are slightly higher, but they are less costly than dedicated Servers. Some examples of VPS hosting are- DigitalOcean, SiteGround and Liquid Web.
Cloud hosting
This is one of the most popular hosting services of all. Cloud hosting providers offer within their infrastructure services hosting organisation computing and storing resources. There is no physical entity in the cloud; it is all virtual. Their fast delivery speeds make their scalability its uttermost benefit.
But their risk exposure is high as files and data are stored on external supplier infrastructure.
Dedicated web hosting
Dedicated web hosting is where you have to pay for a server, which is then dedicated to you. It gives you complete control as a site owner, including root access. High-traffic scenarios demand the website in this kind of web hosting environment. Managed and unmanaged server types of offerings are available here. It is secure and allows you to choose the most suitable server per your requirements.
But it is one of the most expensive hosting models and difficult to manage.
Managed WordPress Web Hosting
This type of hosting is used only for WordPress. The host handles the whole thing instead of using ePanel, Plesk etc. This plan is ideally appropriate where the client is not keen to accomplish technical aspects of hosting. This type of hosting is continuously optimised to maintain speed.
But this type of site does get hacked through a backend or using defensive plugins or topics. Managed WordPress Web Hosting is expensive compared to shared hosting, as WordPress handles technical issues.
Reseller web hosting
This hosting permits the selling of various shared plans. Control panel on seller plans assistances to regulate shared accounts for billing, storage, memory etc. Many web designers practice reseller hosting models to track their customers. This model is flexible and offers more income at a low price.
But they provide Limited access to servers and mainly depend on the hosting company, which also requires a lot of knowledge. They also have to build a trust level through branding.
Co-Location Hosting
Co-location Hosting is a type of hosting that consists of hosting private servers in a third-party data centre. Instead of keeping internal servers in their offices or an isolated data centre, businesses contract out their server hardware to a colocation data centre. This way, they benefit from co-location hosting services like server cooling systems, reliable power, hardware, data back-up, climate and energy control, and increased Internet bandwidth.
Co-location facilities are frequently functioned by Internet Service Providers (ISPs), which usually have their fibre optic lines, thus ensuring the permanent availability of the network.
Conclusion-
Several types of web hosting include shared hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting, cloud hosting, and managed WordPress hosting. Each type has its benefits and drawbacks, depending on the website owner’s needs. It is essential to carefully consider each hosting type’s features and limitations before choosing the one that best suits your website’s requirements.