Beginners Hosting Guide 2024.
Hosting a website simply means making sure that your website can be accessed on the World Wide Web (WWW). This is generally
done in two ways. You can pay for hosting from a service provider or you can host it yourself on your own server – we’ll look at both
methods in this article.
How the host works How Web Hosting Works – Website files, such as HTML, images, videos, are stored on servers connected to the
Internet. When users want to visit your website, they type your website address into their browser, and their computer then connects to
your server. Your web pages will then be transmitted to users through the Internet browser.
How to host a site using a hosting provider
Using a service provider is the easiest way to host a website. You can pay a small monthly fee and rely on the service provider to take
care of all your equipment, infrastructure and other associated needs.
Benefits of hosting with a service provider
Usually cheaper
Support is often readily available
No need for hardware maintenance
Greater reliability
Disadvantages of hosting with a service provider
May be service restrictions
Less choice in accommodation
Simple Steps to Hosting a Website Here are the steps to host a website with a hosting service provider.
Decide what type of website you are creating
There are two main types of websites; static and dynamic.
Simple static websites can be created using a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) app and then uploaded to the hosting account.
Dynamic sites are primarily application driven and use scripts, databases, and other tools to generate parts of the site on the fly.
WordPress and Joomla are examples of common Content Management System (CMS) applications that are popular today. Others,
such as Magento and PrestaShop, are used for e-commerce websites.
Website hosting at Hostinger Your selection of web hosting depends on the type of website you are creating. A low budget web host like Hostinger ($ 0.99 / month)
Just as there are many categories of cars, website hosting also comes in several variations. For example, shared hosting is the cheapest and easiest to manage – it’s akin to the compact cars in the world.
As the type of web hosting evolves, so does the cost involved and often the complexity of managing the hosting account. For example, in VPS hosting you have to manage not only the details of the hosting but also the environment in which it is hosted.
Three types of web hosting
In short, the most common types of accommodation are
Shared hosting
VPS / Cloud hosting
Dedicated Hosting Server
WordPress? Prestashop? Magento? WooCommerce hosting?
It’s important to know that web applications and web hosting are not the same thing. Some web hosts offer plans like WordPress
hosting, PrestaShop hosting, WooCommerce hosting, etc. These are not really hosting types, but intended to attract lay people who
may not be familiar with the actual web hosting terms. These hosting offers only entice users with the names of popular web
applications.
For example, not many people know the difference in hosting types, but many will recognize the term “WordPress”.
The type of web hosting you will need is usually defined by:
How much traffic you expect to get to your website, or
Any specific needs your website might have.
Most of the websites that are just starting out will generally have a low volume of traffic (i.e. few visitors) and shared hosting accounts
will be fine for those. Most shared accounts also come with app installers (such as Softaculous ), but to make sure your needs are
met ask the host if the app you want can be installed on the account you are viewing.
Shared hosting vs VPS / Cloud vs dedicated hosting
In terms of performance and manageability, each type of web hosting also has its pros and cons, so choose yours accordingly.
How shared hosting works Shared hosting is often inexpensive and easy to manage, but does not involve advanced controls and is
not capable of handling high volumes of traffic. You can get shared hosting services from A2 Hosting , Hostinger , GreenGeeks
How vps hosting works VPS / Cloud hosting is more expensive and very versatile. Users can install almost anything they need on
these accounts and be able to cope with varying traffic volumes depending on the amount of resources paid. You can get VPS or
Cloud hosting services from Digital Ocean , Interserver , InMotion Hosting .
How Dedicated Hosting Works Dedicated servers are the most complex to manage and the most expensive. They are very powerful
and can be managed down to the hardware level by administrators. AltusHost , InMotion Hosting TMD Hosting provide dedicated work
Choose and buy a web hosting plan
Even within hosting types, service providers often have a variety of plans available. The main difference in these plans often lies in
the amount of resources each gets. The more resources your site has, the more visitors it can handle.
When it comes to resources on web hosting, we generally refer to three basic things: processor (CPU), memory (RAM), and storage
(HDD or SSD). However, these don’t always translate into good performance from a web host.
In the past, there was no easy way to assess the performance of a web host. Most users have had to rely on reviews which
unfortunately normally only take snapshots of a host’s performance and rarely update that. To overcome this, try using HostScore , a
site that constantly evaluates the performance of web hosts based on continuous data collection. This means that their reviews of the
host’s performance are much more accurate.
Also, keep an eye out for value-added features like free SSL, domain name, ad credits, an included website builder, or other things
that can help you build or market your site.
hosting your website at A2 Some web hosts also offer other benefits over more expensive plans such as special optimizations or
upgrades. A good example of this is the shared hosting plans on A2 Hosting . The most expensive plan in this series consists of 20
“Turbo” speeds.
Hostpapa welcome email Usually, right after purchasing a web host, you will receive a welcome email with details of your login
credentials and nameserver. Keep this email in a safe place – you will need the information to set up your domain and log into your
server control panel. Screenshot showing my welcome email from HostPapa .
After testing and reviewing over many hosting services in the past, I was able to narrow down some of the best hosting options for
different use cases.
Newbie web host / simple websites
Hostinger (subscription at 0.99 $ / month)
GreenGeeks (subscription at $ 2.49 / month)
TMD hosting (registration at $ 2.95 / month)
Web host for growing businesses / websites
A2 hosting (registration at $ 8.99 / month)
InMotion hosting (subscription at $ 4.99 / month)
Interserver (registration at $ 4 / month)
Move / create your website to the server
With your domain name and web hosting plan ready, it’s time to migrate. Site migration can be complex, so if you are doing this for
the first time, ask your new host for help. Some web hosts offer free site migrations .
InMotion website transfer To initiate a site transfer to InMotion Hosting, log into the AMP dashboard> Account Operations> Website
Transfer Request. Click here to start InMotion free site migration now .
If you’ve built your website locally (on your own computer), just upload our files to your web server. To do this, you can either use File
Manager in your web hosting control panel or perform the transfer using an FTP client.
The process is similar to copying files from one location to another on your own computer.
How to host a site locally
Hosting a website locally means that you are essentially using your own location to set up a web server from scratch. This means that
you are responsible for everything from hardware and software to providing bandwidth and other infrastructure needs.
Benefits of self-hosting
Extreme control over your hosting environment
Potential for faster service times
Your choice of equipment and service providers
Disadvantages of self-hosting
Can be very expensive
Not always possible in residential environments
Please note: Local web server hosting is complex and can be very expensive. It is also often less reliable than hosting with a service provider.
Select equipment and software
The basic server hardware can be very similar to your own PC hardware with some slight differences. In fact, technically you can take
your own PC (or even a laptop) and turn it into a home web server if you really want to.
The main difference is in the reliability of your web server and the volume of visitors it can handle. As with service providers, you’ll
need to keep an eye on CPU, memory, and storage space.
If you are opting for high-end server equipment such as a rack server, you will also need to ensure that the specific needs of that
equipment are met. This includes space, cooling and power.
hosting a website on your own server Example of an HP SMB server ( the source )
If you need the service to be more reliable, you will also need to consider hardware redundancy. For example, running your storage
disks in RAID, plus mirroring enables backups to additional disks.
Your other infrastructure equipment such as routers and modems will also need to be able to handle high traffic loads.
For software, apart from your operating system, you will also need to focus on your web server platform (at the moment Apache and
Nginx are the most popular in the market). It also means that you should be responsible not only for configuring the software, but
also for licensing.
Ensure sufficient bandwidth
Internet bandwidth is also vital for running your own server. In many cases, most of us accept standard internet bandwidth because
we use limited internet connections. Imagine if 30 people were trying to use your home internet at the same time – maybe this is what
you are looking to support.
What should also be taken into consideration is your IP address. Most home internet plans come with dynamic IP addresses
assigned. To run a web server, you need a static IP address. This can be handled by a service provider such as DynDNS or by
purchasing the service from your Internet Service Provider (ISP).
Learn how to calculate the bandwidth you need .
Develop and deploy a website
The next part is similar to the experience of using a web hosting provider except you don’t get any support. Your web files must be
moved to your web host for your site to start working.
Which option is the best for hosting your own website?
As you can probably see from the two examples of using a provider of hosting or self-hosting a website, the latter can quickly become
extremely expensive and complex. In fact, it is (trust me, I already did).
Aside from the satisfaction of having done it, there is little real benefit to doing so, unless you are a business that has very specific
needs for your site. Some of these may be legal or corporate requirements, for example.
However, web hosting service providers today have become very versatile and in many cases are open to discussing special needs
with customers. In the majority of cases, using a standard hosting plan is usually more than enough.
Manage your hosting resources
Hosting a website – especially if you opt for hosting locally, is never a setup and forgetfulness task. Managing server resources will
become more and more important as the popularity of your website increases. This is especially true when you have multiple
websites hosted under the same server.
Use a third-party newsletter provider
Install newsletter software on your limited web hosting account and it will start consuming your disk and bandwidth. Unfortunately,
there isn’t much that can be done about this, and the smallest newsletter script available – OpenNewsletter – is still 640KB and you’ll
have to count against any storage issues as well.
In comparison – MailChimp , a complete newsletter solution from zero cost if your target audience is less than 2,000 12,000
subscribers and you don’t want to send more than 12,000 emails per month.
All the templates can be customized, so you don’t need to host your own and you can integrate the newsletter with Facebook.
Good alternatives to MailChimp are Constant Contact , the only limit of which is given by the subscription options – people can only
sign up from your form.
Use a cache system
Majority of small business and personal website owners with a low budget opt for shared hosting packages to save on their
investment. Sometimes an upgrade is necessary to increase performance and accommodate a larger audience and the traffic it
generates, but if you can’t, you can save server resources by using a caching system that does not overload your processor.
WordPress users can install W3 Total Cache but if you are not using WordPress then you should try to optimize your website cache
with the tools made available by your CMS provider. For example, Joomla can rely on Cache Cleaner or Jot Cache ; while Drupal also
has several caching performance tools
Regularly empty spam content
Eliminate spam in the form of emails, blog comments, pingback URLs, and files overloading your servers and database quota.
Do this at least once a week to avoid memory issues (e.g. deleting comments in WordPress only works up to 64MB memory. After that
you will get fatal error and you will either need to increase the memory size allowed in your PHP.INI. file or in wp-config.php in your
WordPress root).
Hosting a website simply means making sure that your website can be accessed on the World Wide Web (WWW). This is generally
done in two ways. You can pay for hosting from a service provider or you can host it yourself on your own server – we’ll look at both
methods in this article.
How the host works How Web Hosting Works – Website files, such as HTML, images, videos, are stored on servers connected to the
Internet. When users want to visit your website, they type your website address into their browser, and their computer then connects to
your server. Your web pages will then be transmitted to users through the Internet browser.
How to host a site using a hosting provider
Using a service provider is the easiest way to host a website. You can pay a small monthly fee and rely on the service provider to take
care of all your equipment, infrastructure and other associated needs.
Download and delete log files regularly
Log files were created to keep you informed about the status of your website, but they are not used on the server: if you don’t
download and delete them at least once a week, their size will increase. to occupy several megabytes per GB. This is especially true of
two cPanel logs:
/ home / user / public_html / error_log
and
/ home / user / tmp / awstats /
The error_log file usually includes dynamic errors like PHP warnings, database errors (illegal rankings, etc.), and spam comments
that did not get passed. Check this file weekly for errors and warnings, and then delete it.
The / awstats / folder, on the contrary, contains all of the access logs and statistics logs for your website. You should deactivate the
AwStats software in your account to avoid increased web space usage, as the program automatically saves its stat files. Otherwise,
you should contact your host to ask them to disable all scanning software.
Website Hosting FAQ
What is a web host?
Web hosting is more than just the space your website is located on. It also encompasses software needs and costs, along with
bandwidth and a ton of other micro needs that need to be managed. For more details – I explained how a web host works in this
guide .
Hosting provider vs self-hosting: what are the main differences?
Web hosting service providers have set up dedicated environments for web hosting. They are optimized for this purpose and because
they do it in bulk they are often able to provide the service much cheaper than the self-hosted environment.
Do you need a web host for a website?
Yes, web hosting is one of the key components needed to run a website. Find Out More – Here is a list of the best web hosting
companies I have recommended.
Is the domain name essential to make my website work?
A domain name is the address of your website. Without it, your users will have no way to access your website unless they know the
exact IP address. Learn more about how the domain name works .
Does GoDaddy host any websites?
Yes, GoDaddy is a web service provider and one of its products is web hosting.
Is shared hosting sufficient for my site?
If your website is new, shared hosting is usually more than enough. The capacity of shared accommodation differs from host to host.
Some web hosts, for example, SiteGround , have very solid plans even among the shared hosting options.
How many types of accommodation are there?
There are four main types of web hosting: Shared, VPS, Cloud, and Dedicated hosting. Each offers different degrees of performance,
reliability and safety.
What type of accommodation is the best?
“Best” is relative – what is best for my website may not be right for yours. As a general rule, if you are new, shared hosting should be
the “best” place to start. Dedicated servers are the most powerful types of hosting, but they are also the most expensive (so not
recommended for beginners).
Can I use WordPress on my web host?
Most web hosting service providers today allow you to install a variety of popular web applications. This usually includes WordPress,
Drupal, Joomla, and many more. To be sure that the app you want can be installed, it’s best to check with your service provider.
Why is my website slow?
The speed of the website can depend on many factors. One of them is the quality of your website optimization. To find out what is
affecting your site’s performance, use a tool like WebPageTest or GT Metrix. Running a test here breaks down the details of load
times, allowing you to identify lag points in your site’s load time.
How does hosting a website work?
Hosting a website involves a web server designed to serve your website files to visitors on the web. The key components involved are
your website files, a web server, and a domain name through which your site can be accessed.
What is cloud hosting?
As the name suggests, shared hosting accounts “share” the resources of a single server. In Cloud hosting , several servers pool their
resources in a “Cloud” and these resources are then distributed to Cloud hosting accounts.
What is managed hosting?
Managed hosting is a type of web hosting where the service provider takes responsibility for maintaining the technical performance of
your account. This usually includes technical and software updates.
