For beginners who don’t know much about the tech world and website hosting, let’s say it easily. Every person (who has a website) needs to “host” his website online using a “website hosting” service to be able to reach the online visitors. To understand it better, let’s consider one simple example.
Suppose you are the CEO of a budding start-up who has got a decent amount of success in the local market. But now you have a much bigger dream and want to extend your market to a more broad audience. So, What’s the best method to reach a lot of people easily? The INTERNET of course!
The way the internet has evolved, nothing is a better marketer than the internet. So after deciding that you want to go online, you contact a web developer who, after spending a lot of time, makes the website of your dreams. So, what now?
At this point, you must host your website with a website hosting service provider to be able to place your site online so that you reach a greater amount of people. Hence, website hosting is nothing much but a service to host your site online.
How does Website hosting work?
The web server on which your web hosting service provider will host your website is nothing but a physical computer that interacts and gives and takes info from the users around the world when they enter the name of your website on their browsers. So basically, when someone enters your website address in their browser, your server gets notified and from therein the computer of the client interacts with the website to get all the necessary data to display your site in their laptop/phone/desktop.
Some of the data that is being transferred between the server and the client device are:-
- Images
- Fonts
- Text
- Multimedia content etc
So after successfully transferring all the data to the client’s device, your website will be displayed on their screen. After which, anywhere they click or enter or request data will be handled by the server specifically. And it will respond to each of those requests uniquely. Every click will be considered as a request, and hence every click will be answered differently.
What are the different types of website hosting?
Well, there are many web hosting plans around the world. Every type of business needs a different type of setup hence everyone opts for a different type of service. But let’s short that long list and point out some of the most common methods of website hosting:-
- VPS hosting
- Shared hosting
- Cloud hosting
- Dedicated hosting
- WordPress hosting
Which one is the most reliable method?
Well, if statistics are considered, then the most reliable method and most utilized method is none other than the cloud hosting method. In this method, the server is not 1 single physical unit like others. It is a collection or a network of multiple servers acting like one. This decreases the risk of failure and increases uptime. One of the most famous advantages of this method is that even if a single server is out or malfunctions, then the others will cope with it. Unlike other systems where a single physical unit is responsible for the whole thing, a minor failure or malfunction can shut the whole server down. In which case, your website will be down and hence you will have to face the losses it will cause.
What are the pros and cons of Cloud hosting?
Pros
- Like mentioned, there is no downtime, which means you will get to enjoy seamless service.
- Even if any one of the servers fails, your website won’t be down because other servers in the network will cover up for it.
- Allocates on-demand resources
- Pricing is quite simple. “Pay as you use”, which means you will be charged for whatever you use. This gives an advantage that you will never get more than what you use
- It gives more flexibility to change into other web hosting services.
Cons
- Hard to estimate the actual costs
- The cost is even though “pay as you use”, but the prediction of prices is quite hard to estimate.
- Root access will not be provided every time.
Pros-Cons are just a part of every system. The actual selection of the web hosting type is dependent on the scale of the users’ business. No single plan is good for every type of business. So, do enough research before you decide to finalize any website hosting service.
