What is Web Hosting? Web Hosting Explained for Beginners

Jun 13, 2023

Web hosting is a service that connects your website or application to the internet worldwide. Thus, web hosting is an integral part of the website. In simpler words, when you sign in to any hosting company, you rent a server to place all the necessary documents, files, and folders required for publishing and efficient working of the website. 

NOW: You might ask what the server is. The server is a physical computer that remains active and working all the time. It is the responsibility of the web host to keep the server up and running all the time so that your website will be available to all visitors and audiences all the time.

Starting a Website

Hosting is the basic requirement to launch and publish your site. So, when starting a website, you need to find an appropriate hosting company that provides you with server space. Thus, when any visitor enters the domain name of your website, the host will transfer all the saved data, files, and information regarding the site to the server and the server will show the results accordingly.

Moreover, to start a website, you don’t need to know about coding or HTML. Just start with a content management system (CMS) i.e., WordPress, Wix, Drupal, etc. In this way, you can easily create the website, access the database, backups, etc. 

Besides this, you will also get cPanel access for the people who want to easily and quickly launch the website. With this system, running the website is no longer an issue.

Features of a good host

Hosting is not just limited to servers. It also provides some other features such as:

SSL Certificate

24/7 Support Service

Regular Backups

Email Hosting

One-Click CMS installation

Developer tools

99.99% Uptime

Good Site Speed

Hosting Rentals

Good hosting such as ServerSea web hosting in Pakistan plays an important role in running your website. It is similar as you rent a safe, secure, and reliable house for your family. You also need to find a good host for your website. For continuous running, you have to pay the rent regularly. 

A good hosting company offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. So, if you are not satisfied with the service you can reclaim the money. Besides this, if you find the hosting services appropriate then you can even move towards advanced plans for your website. 

Now: What type of hosting is appropriate for your website? This is a common question asked by many people. So, in this article, we will address this query as well. Stay tuned.

Difference between Web & Domain Hosting

When you buy web hosting, you rent space on a server where your site resides and is available to the users 24/7. The hosting company is responsible for server maintenance, uptime, backups, security, and other server technical aspects.

What is Domain Hosting?

Domain hosting also referred to as domain registration is about buying a domain name for your website. A domain name is the actual name of your website that users type in the browser. For instance, google.com is a domain name. ServerSea.pk is a domain name. A domain name contains two parts. One is the top-level domain (TLD) and the other is the second-level domain (SLD). The TLD is the part that comes after the dot for example .net, .com and .pk, etc. The SLD is the part before the. such as Google and ServerSea.

The domain registration procedure is done through a domain registrar who is the intermediary between you and the organization managing the TLD. You can buy a domain name for a period of one to two years and renew them before their expiry date. If you fail to renew a domain it becomes available for sale again.

Difference between Web Hosting and Domain Hosting

Web hosting and domain hosting are necessary for web building, and they both serve different purposes. Web hosting is where your website files reside and are served to the users when they visit your site. Domain hosting is the URL that users type to get to your website. 

If we take the analogy of a house, web hosting is the land where the house is constructed whereas domain hosting is the street number people look for when finding the house.

Importance of Web Hosting and Domain Hosting

Web and domain hosting is essential for building your online presence. Here are some reasons to convince you if you still are confused:

Website Performance: The quality of web hosting has an important impact on your site’s performance such as its uptime, speed, and reliability. A fast-loading site is important for retaining visitors and enhancing search engine rankings.

User Experience: Well-designed site is easy to load and navigate quickly to offer a good user experience, and encourage users to engage and stay longer on your site.

Security: Web hosting services maintain server security, protecting it against hacking attempts, security threats, and malware. A secure site is important for user data protection and maintains trust with the audience.

Branding: Your domain is an important branding part and helps you to stand out from competitors. A memorable and unique domain name helps in establishing brand identity, making it easier for users to remember and find your site.

Wrapping up, you can say that web hosting and domain hosting are both essentials of successful website building. Learn the difference between web hosting and domain name hosting along with their importance to make informed decisions about domain registrar and hosting provider selection.

Types of Web Hosting

Web hosting companies offer different packages and hosting plans for clients. Thus, enables the client to choose the plan that suits its requirement.

Here is the list of the most common and popular hosting types.

Shared Hosting

Dedicated Hosting

Cloud hosting

VPS hosting

WordPress hosting

It is recommended to start with the small hosting plan and upgrade it later when your site reaches high traffic. For better understanding, we are sharing a detailed description of each type of hosting.

Shared Hosting

Shared web hosting is suitable for small businesses and personal blogs. All the features and servers are shared among different clients. 

Advantages: good for beginners and small business holders, cheaper, no technical skills required, maintenance is provided by the host, easy cPanel handling, etc.

Disadvantages: Less control over the server, and huge traffic on other client's sites might reduce the speed of your website.

Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated hosting provides your own hosting server for your site. It provides you with a free hand to manage your website and choose software, operating system, and hosting services as per your choice. It is suitable for sites that receive high traffic. 

Advantages: provide full accessibility to the server, the best option for heavy sites, and provide security.

Disadvantages: technical skills are a must and costly packages.

Cloud Hosting

A cloud hosting server is the most reliable and effective option for a large business. This type of server replicates all the databases on different clusters of the server. So, if one server slows down, then the traffic is automatically shifted to another server to provide the best user experience. Thus, no downtime is ever observed.

Advantages: no downtime, server failure has no bad impacts, pay for what you utilized.

Disadvantages: root access is not available, and the exact cost is not recognizable.

VPS Hosting

VPS hosting is the abbreviation of Virtual Private Server. It means that still your server is being shared with other clients but you will have a separate dedicated space on the server. It is appropriate for medium businesses and traffic sites.

Advantages: dedicated space on the server, root access, and high customization.

Disadvantages: Expensive, technical skills are required.

WordPress Hosting

WordPress Hosting is a type of hosting that comes with pre-install WordPress plugins and features that you might require for better website development. 

Advantages: good performance of WordPress sites, pre-installed themes, and plugins, low cost, user friendly.

Disadvantages: Only recommended for WordPress websites.

Interesting Facts About Web Hosting

Here are some interesting facts about Web Hosting presented in an infographic below:

 

Conclusion

Web hosting is the basic requirement to launch your website. The hosting provider offers different packages to enable clients in picking the one that suits their site requirements.