Web Hosting in 2024: Meaning, definition and different types of web hosting services viz. Free, Shared, Reseller, Virtual, Dedicated, and Cloud etc.
If you are running a business or you want to be a blogger to share your thoughts to the world then, you must have a website. To create a website, you should have at least two indispensable things viz. Domain Name and Web Hosting.
Recently, I have shared with you most relevant tutorials related to domain name. Today, I am here to tell you something very interesting for your online career i.e. Web Hosting Services. Did you know the meaning of web hosting and how it works for you to make you live on the internet?
Web Hosting Definition: Actually, web hosting is a type of internet hosting. Whereas internet hosting is a type of service which lets you to serve your contents on the internet. Internet Service Provider (ISP) offers mainly three level of internet hosting i.e. DNS hosting, Email hosting, Files hosting and Web hosting.
What is Hosting Service? Meaning of Web Hosting Services
Web Hosting Service is a kind of internet hosting service and it helps to you to make your websites or web pages accessible through the World Wide Web (WWW) on the internet. Web hosting services are provided by Web Hosts commonly known as Hosting Companies. Web hosting companies allow you to buy space on web server and provides you a control panel for managing your hosting accounts.
For example, if you want to run a WordPress blog then, you should have to purchase a hosting service from a Web Host. Note that most hosting providers require you to have a registered domain name for your website to be hosted on their servers. However, if you have not obtained any domain for your site/blog then, hosting companies may offer you to buy the same from them.
What are different types of Web Hosting Services?
There are various types of web hosting service viz. Free Hosting, Shared Hosting, and Dedicated Hosting etc. You may host your site using any of the following different types of web hosting services:
Free Web Hosting Service:
Free Hosting Meaning: You may find many companies which offers free hosting services. This type of hosting is useful for personal blogs or small sites. You will not be asked to pay any money and therefore your websites shall be hosted free of cost. There is no need to have your own Domain Name. They offer you free sub-domain like:
- www.YourSiteName.SuperWebTricks.com
- https://SuperWebTricks.com/YourBlogName
- http://www.superwebtricks.com/users/yourwebsite.html
Custom Domain with Free Hosting: Some free hosting providers may allow you to use your own registered domain name and disk space upto 1GB with data transfer upto 5GB. Additionally, you may upgrade your account from free host to paid hosting service. Following are the list of some most useful free web hosts:
- 100webspace.com: 100MB Disk Space, 3GB Monthly Traffic and 1 hosted domain.
- 50webs.com: 500MB DISK SPACE, 5GB MONTHLY TRAFFIC and 10 HOSTED DOMAIN(S).
- Awardspace.com: Free subdomain, PHP, MySQL, App Installer, Email Sending & No Ads.
- Biz.ht: 1 GB Disk Space, 5 GB Monthly Traffic, 1 Domain Hosting, MySQL(v.5), PHP5, Perl, CGI-BIN, Joomla & WordPress Installer and Email, SMTP, Webmail, POP3.
- Biz.ly: 50 MB of FREE webspace, 1000 MB monthly bandwidth, 3 FREE subdomain/Email hosting, FREE Blog & Photo Album
- Biz.nf: 1000 MB of web space, 5000 MB of data transfer, 1 POP3/SMTP, Webmail, FTP Access, File Manager, PHP 5/7, MySQL 5, CGI, etc.
- Blogger.com: Powered by Google.
- Byet.host: 1000 MB (one gigabyte!) Disk Space, FTP account and File Manager and Control Panel.
- Freehostia.com
- Freehostingeu.com
- Jimdo.com
- Webs.com
- Websitebuilder.com
- Weebly.com
- Wix.com
- WordPress.com
Moreover, free web hosting provides limited resources and your websites may be down frequently. There would be lack of technical helps. Your site will be less secured and the right to delete your site is vested with the hosting provider. You may not be allowed to upload files larger than specified size i.e. free hosts limit on file hosting. Advertisements shall be shown automatically on your free hosted sites.
One of my client told me that one day without notice his account with free web hosts was terminated and he lost all contents including files, images videos etc. When he asked for an explanation from them, they never replied him and all is gone forever. Therefore, if you want to run your own branded website then, you should ignore free hosting service and go for the paid hosting services.
Shared Web Hosting Service:
It is a cost effective and most commonly used web hosting service. Many of my clients including me are using share hosting service. In share hosting You may use your own registered domain name.
However, all domains share a common server resources like CPU and RAM and you have not full control over server. In other words, your website shall have the same IP address on which many other websites are hosted. That is why it is most economical hosting service as the overall costs of server is amortized over all website owners. You may expect to pay between $3 per month and $11 per month depending on plan and period for which you buy the share hosting service.
Therefore, if you want to start your new WordPress blog, you may buy share hosting plan to start with, as the most servers are based on the Linux operating system which is best fit with WordPress.
Note that the share hosting services may be limited or unlimited as you choose for your website. One of the main reason for its popularity is that the shared hosting is cheaper in compare to other types of hosting services such as dedicated server hosting.
Dedicated Hosting Service:
The dedicated web hosting is a type of internet hosting service where you have root level control for your Linux or Window based operating system. That means the entire web server shall not be shared with anyone else as in case of share hosting service.
It is also known as managed hosting service. However, you will not become owner of server even you have full control over it. Therefore, you will be responsible for security and maintenance of your own dedicated server.
If your site receives huge traffic then, you should use dedicated web hosting service instead of share hosting. In dedicated hosting, you may find four types of server managed support viz. Fully Managed, Managed, self-managed, and Unmanaged. Dedicated web hosting plan may be purchased by paying $149-249 each month.
Virtual Dedicated Server:
Virtual Dedicated Server is also known as a VPS (Virtual Private Server) which divides server resources into virtual servers. That means a single computer can have several VPSs and each one have its own Operating System (OS) that runs the hosting software for a particular user.
You have root access to your virtual space and therefore you will be responsible for patching and maintaining the unmanaged server. In some case your VPS provider may provide managed server i.e. they do the admin tasks for the customers. Your hosting company may offer the virtual dedicated server hosting or virtual private server hosting as an extension for web hosting services.
In VSP hosting your site does not share the resources with other sites which runs on the same server as in case of share hosting plan. Despite of the fact that VPS hosting is costlier than share hosting plan, you may opt for VPS hosting as it is cheaper than dedicated web hosting plan. Depending on the VPS configuration you choose, you may have to pay $15-150 on monthly basis.
There are many other web hosting services in addition to the above like Cloud hosting, Clustered hosting, Colocation web hosting service, Grid hosting, Home server, Managed hosting service, and Reseller web hosting.