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What is web hosting?
Web hosting is the service used to store and serve websites online. Is a digital space or digital container to keep all the files that make a website.
What are the different types of web hosting?
There are many different types of web hosting to use for our website, but the most basic ones are:
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is still the most common type of web hosting offered in the market. Web hosting companies allocate entire servers to host hundreds of different websites that share the resources of the server.
Shared hosting is the most common type of web hosting offered by web hosting companies.
VPS Hosting
VPS hosting is a more advanced type of web hosting. Allows for more flexibility in terms of configuration and customization.
If you’re an advanced user you’ll see it beneficial to acquire VPS hosting for your website. Only if you have a website with high amounts of traffic and memory requirements.
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting means having an entire server for your website. The main benefit is you don’t have to share resources with other companies hosted in the same server (as with shared hosting).
Dedicated hosting is only recommended for big websites, with big amounts of traffic. This is why it is also the most expensive, ranging in prices from $200 to $1,000 per month.
WordPress Hosting
Web hosting companies started offering WP hosting specifically designed for WordPress websites. The web servers are optimized to host WP sites and offer additional services such as plugin and themes updates, code optimization, cache tools and backups.
If you use WordPress for your website, take advantage of the WordPress web hosting plans. Price wise, it is very similar to shared hosting prices.
Company specific Hosting
I call company specific web hosting, the hosting provided by a company for their specific service, such as website builders.
For instance, Strikingly or Webflow website builders offer web hosting for their websites, but if you decided to move your Strikingly website to another web hosting company, it wouldn’t be possible.
Company specific hosting is only compatible with their own websites and website builders. In most of the cases, if you create a website with one of these companies, you’ll be tied with them for life.
Website builders offer web hosting as part of their website building tools, but neither of them allow for cross-compatibility should you decide to move your service to another company.
What is a web host?
A web host is what we call a web hosting company, or, the server where a website is hosted.
Does my business need web hosting?
If you’re planning to create a website for your company or organization, you need web hosting. Web hosting allows you to host a website and provide a digital space for your users.
Web hosting vs domain name
A domain name allows you to point to a name that may start with www and ends with .com, .net, .org, or any other of the top-level domains (TLD).
With your domain name, you will be able to access your website, which will be hosted in a web host.
Recommended Web Hosting Companies
This is a list of some popular web hosting companies.
There are plenty of web hosting companies to choose from. We recommend Siteground because they have been on the market for many years and their exceptional customer service.
If you decide to host your website with Siteground, I’ll be able to also give you support for your emails, domain and website.
Free web hosting, is it good?
If free web hosting is what you’re looking for, there are some options out there. Of course, nothing is really free. If you choose a free web hosting company, you’ll have to accept the inclusion of ads or other type of advertisement the company uses to justify the free service they’re providing you.
Make sure you accept the terms and conditions of their service before using a free web hosting provider.