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If you want to build a website, you need to start by buying web hosting. This essential service gives you a digital space in which to publish your website. You can’t make your website available to the public without this space.
What is web hosting? Why do you need to pay for a web hosting service? What can you expect when you buy a web hosting package?
I’ll walk you through these questions one by one, then share some resources to help you choose the best web hosting service for your needs.
Web hosting is the act of providing digital space for website data like landing pages and blog posts. This space exists on web servers and computers that run 24/7 and use specialized software to make websites available online.
You must have your website stored on one of these servers to be accessible on the internet. You can create a web server yourself, but it’s almost always better to buy web hosting services instead of self-hosting.
A domain name is the name people use to find your website, such as CNET.com. Domain name hosting, also called domain registration, gives you ownership of this name. When you get a phone number, you’re the only person who can use it, but people can’t reach you until you buy a phone plan. Similarly, when you purchase a domain, nobody else can use it, but people can’t reach your website until you buy web hosting.
Web hosting gives you server space to publish your website and an IP address you connect to your domain via the domain name system. When someone types your domain into their browser, the browser requests the corresponding IP address from the DNS. IP addresses are strings of numbers (like 192.185.2.48) that computers use to identify websites. If the browser finds the right IP address, it can load your site. If the browser doesn’t find an IP address, it shows an error.
You’ll need both types of hosting to run a website: domain name hosting to give you the site name and web hosting to provide the IP address and server space to store your website on. You can often buy a domain and web hosting from the same company.
To learn more about the differences between these hosting types, check out our web hosting vs. domain guide.
You need to put your website on a web server if you want to make it available to the public on the internet, a process called web hosting. You can do this yourself, but it’s such a complicated process that you’ll almost certainly want to pay a hosting company to do it for you.
You’ll need a lot of technical expertise to build a server yourself. You need to understand the hardware and know how to configure and maintain server software, like the operating system.
Web servers require a lot of continuous power and temperature-controlled environments to run effectively. If you can’t provide this environment, you won’t be able to run your website 24/7. Using a web hosting service lets you run a website without having to worry about these issues -- your web host handles server environments for you.
A web hosting provider operates temperature-controlled, secure buildings called data centers. These buildings also have specialized power systems, including backup generators, to keep the servers online 24/7.
Hosting companies maintain the servers within these data centers and rent out space on these servers to website creators like you. This lets you build a website without the technical skills or space to run your own physical server.
Web hosting companies generally offer several web hosting options, so what you can expect varies based on the plan you choose. Here are the basics of how each hosting type works.
Shared hosting involves a company splitting one server up into numerous sections and giving each one to a website. These sections are semi-partitioned, so other website owners on your server won’t be able to access your files, but you will share resources like bandwidth. Shared hosting is intended for sites with up to 400,000 monthly visitors (depending on the plan).
With shared hosting, the hosting provider will:
WordPress hosting is optimized for WordPress, a popular content management system that powers 43.3% of all websites. This software lets you build a website without code, but there are a lot of things to install and update. Many web hosting companies offer WordPress hosting to mitigate these complications.
On these plans, the web hosting provider will:
They may also:
Note: This section refers to third-party hosting optimized for the software available from the nonprofit WordPress.org. WordPress.com is a for-profit company that uses this open-source software to create an experience more similar to website builder hosting.
Cloud hosting provides website storage on multiple interconnected servers, providing faster loading times for visitors all over the world by letting browsers pull information from the data center closest to their location.
Cloud hosting plans vary, with some hosting providers managing all of the server configuration for you and others allowing you to do some configuration yourself. There are some things you can always expect a cloud hosting provider to do:
Website builders are streamlined tools for building a website without installing anything, updating software or using code. Website builder hosting comes with a website builder preinstalled; typically one created by the hosting company.
Hosting providers offering these plans will also:
Virtual private server or VPS hosting divides one physical server into several virtual servers. Unlike shared hosting, where all sites share resources, each VPS is given dedicated resources. This allows sites to accommodate several hundreds of thousands of visitors each month.
In self-managed VPS hosting, you configure the operating system and other software yourself and the hosting provider only does physical server maintenance.
In managed VPS hosting, the hosting provider:
In self-managed dedicated hosting, the hosting provider maintains the physical server and you’re responsible for digital configuration and management.
In managed dedicated hosting, the hosting provider:
To learn more, check out our full guide to the different types of web hosting.
Some companies, like WordPress.com and Wix, provide free web hosting plans. These are great for testing the company’s software before you make a purchase, but these plans often come with notable restrictions.
First, you usually won’t be able to connect the site to your own domain. Instead, you’ll typically be required to use a subdomain, which will look like this:
This tells everyone looking at your site that you’re using a free hosting option. If you’re running a business website but using a free hosting plan, people might think you aren’t confident enough -- or committed enough -- in your business to invest in it. This can lead to them not taking you seriously.One of the main drawbacks of free web hosting is that the hosting company usually places ads on your site. These ads pay the hosting company so it can recover the money spent on hosting your site. You’ll have no control over what the ads are and may have limited control over their placement.
Free web hosting may also come with restrictions on resources like data storage and bandwidth. The free Wix plan only allows 500MB storage and 1GB bandwidth, so you won’t be able to add many files or have many site visitors. The WordPress.com equivalent doesn’t limit bandwidth, but it only includes 1GB of storage, so you can’t add much content, especially large files like images. If you exceed these limits, you’ll be forced to switch to a paid plan.
The final limitation of free hosting plans is a lack of monetization options. On Wix, you won’t have any ability to accept payments at all. You can accept payments on WordPress.com’s free plan, but you’ll have 10% payment processing fees and you can’t run an e-commerce store.
There can be uses for a free hosting plan. It’s a great way to test these companies’ design tools before you purchase a plan. You may also want to use free web hosting to start a small hobby website or blog and upgrade when your site outgrows the storage limits. If you’re building a website for professional purposes, you’ll want to invest in paid web hosting.
Web hosting services provide the server space and technical support you need to publish your site online. This allows you to create a website without having the space or technical expertise to create your own server.
There are many different types of hosting you can purchase, and many companies you can buy them from. To find a web host, check out our guide to the best web hosting services.
Yes, it is necessary to have web hosting if you want people to be able to visit your site on the internet.
Web hosting makes your website accessible to people on the internet. Web hosting companies build and maintain web servers, which house websites, then rent them out to people who want to create websites without creating their own server infrastructure.
If you don’t have web hosting, you won’t be able to make your website available to the public.
Each type of web hosting comes with a different price range. The lowest-cost type of web hosting shared hosting, typically starts at $2-5 a month. Dedicated hosting sits at the other end of the spectrum, often costing $80 or more each month. You can also find free hosting, but I don’t recommend these plans due to their limitations around branding, ads, storage and monetization.
