Web Hosting

What is Web Hosting?

Web hosting is an online service that allows you to publish your website files onto the internet. So, anyone who has access to the internet has access to your website.

 

Hosting = 'home of your web site', if you want a website, you'll need somewhere to host it

 

hosting is a infrastructure, computer that keeps your website available across the internet

Web Server(Web Host)

Web Server or Web Host is a computer system that provide web hosting. When Internet user’s want to view your website, all they need to do is type your website address or domain into their browser. The user’s computer will then connect to your server and your web pages will be delivered to them through the browser. Basically, the web hosts allow the customers to place documents, such as HTML pages, graphics, and other multimedia files, etc. onto a special type of computer called a web server. It provides a constant and high-speed connection to the backbone of the Internet.

When someone types domain name, the computer points to the server, downloads the website files and displays the website.

 

The server that hosts your website is a physical computer that runs continuously to make the site available for visitors all the time. Buying servers for web hosting will allow you to store all the data of your website in the those servers of your provider.

 

Once a user enters your domain name into their browser’s address bar, the web host’s server will transfer all the files necessary to load your website.

 

You can host a website yourself, but it requires extensive technical skills. Self-hosting entails setting up and configuring a web server from scratch, including the equipment, infrastructure, hardware, and software. Furthermore, you will also have to handle all the ongoing maintenance.

 

A web hosting service provider ensures that your website performs optimally and with better security protocols. In addition, it simplifies the many complex aspects of hosting a website – from software installation to technical support.

Types of Web Hosting

1) Shared Hosting

: Sharing your hosting with others / most popular & affordable top hosting. With shared hosting, share server with many people

Downside of shared hosting: resources - everyone is sharing the same RAM and processor, but hosting platforms have a way to compartmenalize resources + DoS attack (doesn't mean someone else's site getting hacked can hack your site)

 

: With shared hosting, multiple users share the same server resources, including memory, processing power, and storage space.

Because of its simplicity and affordability, shared web hosting is an excellent solution for small businesses and personal websites that do not require advanced configuration or higher bandwidth. Hence, shared hosting is an excellent choice for beginners that need cheap hosting to start.

 

Pros

- Cost-effective, ideal for small-scale websites

- Technical expertise is not required

- Pre-configured server options

- No need to take care of maintenance and server administration

 

Cons

- Minimal access to server configuration

- Increased traffic on other websites can affect your website’s speed

2) VPS(Virtual Private Server) Hosting

: VPS acts like its own isolated server but it's shared with other virtual private servers on a single physical hardware server. the difference btw Shared Hosting and VPS Hosting is, a VPS takes the level of separation a step further - giving you dedicated resources - X amount of RAM, X shares of CPU and a virtual server that's your own - you can have significantly more server resources than with a shared hosting account + VPS is known for being easily scalable. Downside of VPS: hard to manage technical sides of VPS - better use managed VPS

 

: With this web hosting type, your website also shares a physical server with other users, but the web host creates a virtual partition for each user. Thus, a site hosted on a virtual private server get an allocated amount of resources.

 

VPS web hosting is a great option for medium-sized sites, eCommerce shops, and large blogs with a rapidly growing number of visitors.

 

→ Shared Hosting has your own folder with numerous other folders in one computer, but VPS Hosting has your own computer

 

Pros

- Dedicated server space

- Increased traffic on other websites has no impact on your site’s performance

- Root access to the server

- High customizability

 

Cons

- Users need technical expertise to manage it

- Even though it’s relatively affordable, some users may have to hire a developer to manage the virtual server, increasing the overall costs

3) Cloud Hosting

: This web hosting solution uses several virtual servers to host sites. Thus, if one server experiences high traffic or a problem, the remaining ones will take over and maintain the website operating.

 

Since cloud based web hosting relies on a cluster of web servers to function, businesses with multiple websites and large-scale sites like eCommerce shops can benefit the most from it, as it provides little to no downtime.

 

Pros

- Reduced likelihood of downtime and hardware failure

- Uses load balancing to handle high traffic and prevent DDoS attacks

- Scalability – your website is not limited to the resources of a single server

 

Cons

- Root access is not always provided

- It is more expensive than VPS and shared hosting

4) Dedicated Hosting

: taking all the advantages of a VPS but now having an entire PHYSICAL server to yourself. But can't easily upgrade or downgrade it like a VPS. Dedicated hosting designates a physical server for each website. By going with dedicated hosting, you can configure the server, choose your desired operating system and software, and customize the entire hosting environment to your specifications.

 

Renting a dedicated server is just as powerful as having your own on-site server, but with the added benefit of getting professional support from your web host. Thus, dedicated hosting is ideal for large online businesses that deal with heavy traffic.

 

Pros

- Complete control over the server’s configuration

- High reliability

- Root access to the server

 

Cons

- High cost, more oriented towards large businesses

- Technical and server management knowledge is required

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* source 1) https://youtu.be/AXVZYzw8geg

* source 2) https://youtu.be/htbY9-yggB0

* source 3) https://www.hostinger.com/tutorials/what-is-web-hosting/