Web Hosting? What is it?

Web hosting is a type of internet hosting service that allows people to make their websites available to the public via the world wide web. For the most part, visitors come to your web site via a search engine through an organic search or through paid advertising. However, regardless how they reach you on the internet, you are available on the internet because you have a web host. Web hosting companies provide space on a server and allow access to the website via internet connectivity. The type of web hosting service you have depends are on your needs in terms of the amount of control you want over the technology used to host your site and the maintenance. The cheaper the web hosting service you have, the less control you have. However, regardless of how affordable or expensive the web hosting service is does not indicate the benefits you might have from the service.

There are several different types of webhosting services. The main types are shared webhosting and dedicated webhosting. Shared webhosting is the most basic web hosting service and you have the least control over the technology that hosts your site. Dedicated webhosting, otherwise known as a dedicated server or managed web hosting, allows you a bit more control in that you can choose the technology and hardware that your server has. Below is a description of each type along with a description of another type of web hosting service, reseller hosting.

The basic web hosting service is relatively inexpensive since many websites reside on the same server. This is called shared webhosting. Since several websites reside on the same server, the costs are shared between the individuals on the server. On the server, each website is contained within its own partition and the website owners can create their own script such as HTML, PHP, Javascript or any other script that makes the website useful for the webmaster and the visitors. Shared webhosting is widely used by many businesses and hobbyists on the web.

Dedicated hosting is for individuals that want to have their own server. You get to specify the type of hardware you want and do not share space with any other websites. Additionally, you can host several sites on the same server depending on space capacity and the terms set by the dedicated server webhost.

A third type of web hosting is called reseller hosting. Reseller hosting allows individuals to sell their hosting space. Many reseller hosting companies require that you have a dedicated server for this service. The benefit of reseller hosting is that you get to sell the space. For those starting up an internet business such as website design, reseller hosting has the benefits of allowing you to create a second income besides the service your company initially provides.