What is Web Hosting?

Introduction

What’s web hosting? In just one sentence: Web hosting is a place where individuals or organizations place their websites.

Normally when we talk about a web hosting, it means a company that provides space on a computer (server) to *host* the files for your website, as well as providing Internet connectivity so that other computers can access to the files on your website.

Simple?

Well, I guess it’s not that clear unless you’re well aware that your website is actually a collection of various computer files (HTML files, images, videos… etc) that  linked together. To share these files on the Internet, a super computer (namely, a server) with high speed Internet connection are needed – so that you can store your files and let others access it via Internet connection.

People who offer such file storing services are your web host, aka, web hosting company.

Web Hosting And Data Center: Aren’t Them The Same?

Generally, the place where they put their servers is called data center. A data center is simply a room or a building.

Quoting from Wikipedia:

A data center or data centre or computer centre (also datacenter or datacentre) is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems. It generally includes redundant or backup power supplies, redundant data communications connections, environmental controls (e.g., air conditioning, fire suppression) and security devices.

A data center provides fast internet connection to the servers. It also has facilities such as security entrance, fire protection, electricity backup… etc, with the purpose of keeping the web server safe, secure and running with minimum downtime.

Shared Web Hosting

In shared hosting, one’s web site is placed on the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands. Typically, all domains may share a common pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU. A shared website may be hosted with a reseller..

Disadvantages: No root access (required to change server settings and install some software), limited ability to handle high traffic levels or spikes, your site performance can be affected by other sites on the server.

Best For: Most websites with moderate traffic levels running standard software.

Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting

A virtual private server, or VPS, divides a server into (well?) virtual servers, where each user feels like they’re on their own dedicated server, but they’re actually sharing a server with many other users. The users may have root access to their own virtual space.

Disadvantages: Limited ability to handle high traffic levels or spikes, your site performance can still be somewhat affected by other sites on the server.

Best For: Websites that need greater control at the server level, but don’t want to invest in a dedicated server.

Dedicated Server Hosting

A dedicated server offers the maximum control over the web server your website is stored on – You exclusively rent an entire server. Your website(s) is the only website stored on the server.

Disadvantages: Higher cost, slightly limited ability to handle high traffic levels or spikes (you would have to upgrade the server hardware to increase capability).

Best For: Websites that need the greatest control at the server level, or who need greater server performance.

Cloud Hosting

Cloud hosting offers nearly unlimited ability to handle high traffic or traffic spikes. Here’s how it works: A team of servers (called a cloud) work together to host a group of websites. This allows multiple computers to work together to handle high traffic levels or spikes for any particular website.

Disadvantages: Many cloud hosting setups do not offer root access (required to change server settings and install some software), higher cost.

Best For: Websites that need the flexibility to handle traffic spikes.

I Need A Web Hosting Service, Where Do I Start?

Seriously, there are way too many web hosting services online and you can easily get a dozen of them offering you the same thing by googling it for seconds. And, I am sure you heard about the nightmares with fishy hosting companies: Scams, over promised server uptime, unprofessional customer services, dishonest payment system, lack of features support, etc etc.

So how do we filter out the bad apples and pick up the right web hosting service?

IMHO, firstly, you will need to know how to protect yourself from getting screwed by a bad web host; getting familiar with some of the key terms and knowing what you need helps a lot; but most importantly, read, as much as you can, on reputable forums (such as Web Hosting Talk) and hosting reviews based on real experience (such as our hosting reviews).

For start, here are some popular hosting reviews on WHSR I’d recommend to all hosting shoppers.

Hosting Services	Features*	Quick Rating	Action
WP Engine	Premium WordPress Hosting	Excellent, A+	Read Review Visit Online
iPage	Bandwidth: Unlimited Disk Space: Unlimited Addon Domain: Unlimited	Excellent, A+	Read Review Visit Online
Hostgator	Bandwidth: Unlimited Disk Space: Unlimited Addon Domain: Unlimited	Excellent, A+	Read Review Visit Online
Fat Cow	Bandwidth: Unlimited Disk Space: Unlimited Addon Domain: Unlimited	Good, A-	Read Review Visit Online
GreenGeeks	Bandwidth: Unlimited Disk Space: Unlimited Addon Domain: Unlimited	Good, A-	Read Review Visit Online

Reading such reviews not only help you to understand more on a web hosting provider; it also educates you on how to analyze and judge a web host quality yourself (What are the consideration factors to look into? What features are important? How to track a host uptime? Etc etc).

Moving on, let’s check out The Difference Between A Domain Name And Web Hosting.