What is Web Hosting and How to Choose the Right One

Hello!

Marco Mijatovic, Content Manager at First Site Guide, has prepared a cool infographic explaining a web hosting for beginners. This article will come in handy for the Internet newcomers and eCommerce beginners.

Let’s assume you want to start your own company, or that you already have one, and the next step towards advancement is creating a website. What should you do? Well, you can either take a quick online course or a tutorial on how to make one, or hire a web designer to do it for you. After all it’s in your best interest that your online store, blog, or company website look really attractive and professional. However sooner or later the issue known as web hosting will come up, and people will start to ask you about which web hosting service company you are going to choose as your provider.

If you have never created a website and are relatively new to the whole thing, you might ask: “What is web hosting, and how does it affect my website?” Well, web hosting is very important for a website’s performance and its speed. For example, you can create an eCommerce website using a fast CS-Cart software as your platform, but the speed of your CS-Cart store will also depend on web hosting. If the hosting is not that good and fast—a page will still take much time to load and the user will probably leave and won’t even give your content a chance.

It’s basically a server where your website is located and depending on user proximity to that server its loading speed is either fast or slow. So, a good web hosting service should have numerous servers where your content is uploaded, so that all of the users around the world have a satisfying experience when browsing your website.

There are many more features and details related to choosing a web hosting service, and for someone who is a first time user, all of this can be really puzzling. Luckily, First Site Guide has designed an infographic that will show you everything you need to know about web hosting. Once you are well-informed it’s far easier to make the right decision and choose a provider that will meet your demands and goals. Once you are done, you will know what web hosting is, what a good provider should provide and the existing types of web hosting.

What is Web Hosting?

When you make a website and want other people to see it, you will need to publish it with a web hosting service. Web server hosting is a service that allows organizations and individuals to post a website or web page on to the Internet. A web host, or web hosting service provider, is a business that provides the technologies and services needed for the website or webpage to be viewed on the Internet. Websites are hosted or stored, on special computers called servers. In this article, you will learn how to choose a web hosting.

Only 5,55% of websites are currently active

There are currently 966 million websites in the world

There are 4,49 billion web pages worldwide

Website Users

When Internet users want to view your website, all they need to do is type your website address into their browser. Their computer will then connect to your server and your webpages will be delivered to them through the browser.

A Good Web Host Also Provides The Following:

Resources

Check the features you are getting:

• Disk space & bandwidth
• Number of email accounts
• Programming languages (PHP, ASP.NET, Java)
• Databases (MySQL, MS SQL, Access)
• CPU and RAM allocations

FTP Access

It’s the basic technology used to upload and download files, so a web hosting service must provide this capability at all times.

Website Builder

Most web hosts include some kind of site building tool that makes it easy to get a website online even without any technical skills.

A Control Panel

This allows you to manage your hosting and website. Make sure it is easy to use. The most popular and widely used web hosting control panels are cPanel and vDeck.

You will also find that a good web host usually prepares a good amount of tutorials and a knowledge base to which you can refer.

Security Features

Websites must be kept secure so they aren’t hacked. Your data must be kept secure at all times too.

Domain Name

Before we jump into the different types of web hosting, it’s important to remember you have to have a domain name so your website can be found on the Internet. The domain name is essentially your company’s Internet address; the same way your company’s street address is used to find your offices, a domain name is used to find your website. Considering this, pick a domain name that’s memorable and relevant!

Types Of Web Hosting

As technology has progressed different types of web hosting have appeared to meet the different needs of websites and customers.

Shared hosting

Economical and the most basic web hosting option

• Limited bandwidth, disk space and control offered
• Best for start-ups to maintain low-moderate incoming visitor traffic
• Easily available at $0,95- $2,95/m

VPS hosting

• An amalgamation of the dedicated server plus Shared hosting.
• Gives root access to the virtual private server
• Dedicated space and resources to each VPS client.
• Suitable for companies receiving moderate visitor traffic
• Easily available at $17,9-$19,9/m

Dedicated hosting

• Robust, scalable & flexible web hosting option with complete administrative access
• Efficiently manage traffic spikes
• Best for companies having security and compliance requirements
• Easily available at $49.95- $53,9/m

Cloud hosting

• Highly scalable solution to meet growing business needs
• Works on a pay-per-use pricing model
• Scalable traffic management
• Best for SMBs and large enterprises
• Easily available at $26,54/m

Reseller hosting

• Powerful control panels along with Domain/FTP features
• Aid in brand building
• Aid in sharing your server space with others
• Easily available at $19,92- $22,9/m

BEFORE SIGNING UP WITH A WEB SERVER HOSTING, YOU SHOULD SHOP AROUND AND GET A FEELING FOR WHAT IS AVAILABLE.

You should use a variety of criteria before making your choice

Experience. How long has the company been in business?

Money-Back Guarantee. Hopefully, you won’t want your money back, but this offer shows the company has confidence in its services

Reputation. Check online reviews to find out how satisfied customers are

Uptime. Does the web hosting provider guarantees a certain amount of uptime? This refers to how often your site is actually online, which should be close to 100%

Location. Choose a host that’s located in the same country as your web audience. This will give you Search Engine Optimization benefits and loads faster

Extras. Look for extras such as SimpleScripts Installer, free domain name, free advertising credits

Support. All web hosts offer support, but it’s best to choose one that has 24/7 support as you never know when you might need help. It’s also helpful if they offer support in a number of channels, such as phone, email and live chat

Backups. Look for a web hosting service, which will help you to backup your data regularly

Cost. Shouldn’t be your only consideration, but definitely important. Make sure you are not sacrificing stability, support, and infrastructure for price

Terms & Conditions. Always read this! Make sure you know what you’re getting yourself into, particularly in regards to account cancellation

Now you know what is web hosting and how to choose a web hosting for your eCommerce website.

Hope you liked Marco’s article and found the infographic useful!

Yan Anderson

Head of Content Marketing at CS-Cart | Website

Yan Anderson is the Head of Content Marketing at CS-Cart with over 10 years of experience in the eCommerce industry. He's passionate about explaining complicated things in simple terms. Yan has expertise in building, running and growing eCommerce marketplaces. He loves to educate people about best practices, new technologies, and trends in the global eCommerce industry.