Everything on the internet is using web hosting and it a major aspect of everything on the internet. Be it a video hosting platform, music streaming, online gaming, social media, or any other service, they are all based on Web Hosting. The owners of these companies are paying to hosting companies to keep their website up and running and users like us can use the website and its services any time we want to.
When someone says Web Hosting then it means the physical space that is allocated access your website/service in the digital world. To simplify it, when you buy web hosting then your website/service gets allotted some resources in the physical world that keep the website running effortlessly in the online world.
While signing up for web hosting can be easy, there are few things that you need to understand about web hosting and how these factors can affect your business.
Hosting Plans
There are several types of web hosting plans available and when choosing a web hosting plan then you need to select the one that is best suited for your website/business.
VPS Hosting: This type of hosting is ideal for larger businesses and websites that expect a huge volume of traffic on a daily basis. A Complete server and its resources are allocated to your website(s) only.
Shared Hosting: This type of hosting is for new websites and businesses in which a server is shared among several other websites.
WordPress Hosting: This hosting is ideal for WordPress websites and everything on such hosting plans is optimized to provide a platform to host your website on the world’s best CMS. For WordPress Hosting, choosing WordPress recommended web hosting platforms such as BlueHost or Dreamhost would be an optimal choice since this hosting provider is also recommended by WordPress.org too.
Cloud Hosting: This type of hosting involves the hosting of your website on cloud servers which provide ultimate performance and speed.
Web Hosting Features
When anyone wants to start a business and make their presence online then they need to be familiar with common web hosting features that are essential to be understood because they will be able to understand what the hosting plan is offering and what their website really needs.
Disk Space or Storage Space:
It is the amount of storage space that is allocated to you. You can use this storage space to store all sorts of stuff including videos, images, documents, files, and more.
There is also a difference between the type of storage space, SSD storage space, and HDD storage. Generally, SSD storage space is much faster, safer, and better as compared to HDD storage space.
Bandwidth:
Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred between the website to the visitors in a time period, usually a month. Over usage of bandwidth may require an additional fee.
Uptime:
It is the time period during which your website is available and accessible online. Most of the good hosting providers such as HostGator, BlueHost, they provide 99.99% guaranteed uptime.
Backups:
Backups of your website(s) are important and your web hosting provider should offer automatic backups on a weekly or monthly basis to recover and secure the data in cases of any technical issue.
SSL Certificate:
SSL Certificate or Secure Socket Layer Certificate has become an important part of the internet and the reason behind it is that it provides a secure connection between the visitors and the website.
Google has made SSL certificate compulsory for its search rankings and any website not having an SSL certificate will be considered not secure and lost its ranking on search engines.
So, an SSL certificate is a must and if your hosting provider is unable to provide you with an SSL certificate for your website then you are better off without such a hosting provider.
Email Addresses
Some providers although provide you with the option to host an unlimited number of domains, don’t offer an unlimited number of email addresses. So, when choosing a hosting plan then make sure that it provides unlimited or if not unlimited then a good amount of email addresses that can be created through your account.
