What is web hosting? (website hosting)
Website hosting is simply where your website is housed. Just like a home is housed on a piece of land, a website is hosted (or housed) on computer servers of website hosting companies.
Example of these companies are GoDaddy, SiteGround, Namecheap, HostGator, Domain, and many more.
To make your website visible on the Web, your website’s files and data must be physically stored on a computer that is connected to the Internet. These large, high-powered computers are called web servers.
Website hosts are companies that physically house several web servers in one location, or what is sometimes referred to as a data center.
These companies host websites for us individuals and businesses.
Some companies are so big, like Facebook, Google and Amazon that have their own hosting because they are so large.
Here are a couple of videos from GoDaddy that provide a great explanation on what is Website hosting:
Important note: While I greatly appreciate the wonderful video explainer from GoDaddy, they are not my recommend website hosting company. I recommend you buy your hosting from SiteGround.
Here is a transcript of the first video:
*Website hosting. If you’re not sure what it is, this short video may help.
To make your website visible on the Web, your site’s files and data must be physically stored on a computer that is connected to the Internet.
These large, high-powered computers are called web servers. Companies that own web servers and lease out space on them are called website hosts.
It is typical for website hosts to physically house multiple web servers in one secure location, that is commonly referred to as a data center.
In addition to housing the web servers, website hosts provide the software, security, support, and bandwidth that connects your website to the Internet.
To accommodate a wide variety of websites and customer needs, there are a variety of hosting solutions.
Hosting solutions are broadly categorized based on the amount of server space you need for your website files, and the amount of bandwidth your site consumes.
Bandwidth refers to the amount of data being transferred or the amount of resource usage your website requires.
Beyond server space and bandwidth, there are other things to consider when selecting a hosting solution.
Your budget, ease of use, product support, software requirements; the level of flexibility or customization the solution allows; as well as the availability of features such as privacy, security, marketing solutions, and more. *
Here is a transcript of the second video:
*Hi there! In this video, you’ll learn what hosting is and we’ll identify the four types of hosting available at GoDaddy.
To make your website visible on the Web, your website’s files and data must be physically stored on a computer that is connected to the Internet. These large, high-powered computers are called web servers.
Website hosts are companies that physically house several web servers in one location, or what is sometimes referred to as a data center. In addition to housing the web servers, website hosts provide the software, security, support, and bandwidth that connects your website to the Internet.
Think of a website hosting company like a shopping center that contains several individual stores.
If you want to open a store at the shopping center, you can lease space in it and set up shop.
Just like a shopping center, website hosting companies enable you to lease space on their web servers where you can store your website files and make them available for visitors to view on the Internet.
To accommodate a wide variety of websites and customer needs, there are a variety of hosting solutions.
Hosting solutions are broadly categorized based on the amount of server space you need for your website files, and the monthly amount of bandwidth your site consumes. Bandwidth refers to the amount of data being transferred or the amount of resource usage your website requires. Consider your shop again; suppose you sell only handmade bracelets; you have a small, unique product offering, so you don’t need, nor want to, lease the same amount of space as a big department store.
Instead, you could lease a small kiosk in the shopping center that gives you just enough space for your goods and costs far less money. Additionally, because you’re a small shop, you don’t need a lot of extra technology or staff to help you sell your product, like a department store requires.
Between you and your mobile payment device, you have plenty of “bandwidth” to take care of your customers and don’t buy extra technology or hire more employees. Make sense?
Beyond server space and bandwidth, there are other things to consider when selecting a hosting solution. Your budget, ease of use or complexity of solution; the level of flexibility or customization the solution allows; as well as privacy and security features.*