Ultimate Guide to Web Hosting 2021

Everybody needs a website in today’s time for their business or organization. However, not everybody succeeds on the online platform in cracking the digital code. Many businesses fail due to poor website functionality and, most importantly, bad user experience.
It is recommended that the average time required for your site page to load should be less than 4 seconds. Well, that is quite fast. This ultimate guide to web hosting will help you clear all your doubts and make you well-equipped with all the information required before purchasing hosting.

To break it down for you, a website’s usability lies mainly on three aspects – a good web design, search engine optimization, and solid web hosting. Mere purchasing a domain name won’t do it. You need to have a web hosting account or hire a web hosting company to ensure that your website is responsive and visible to people on the internet.

How does Web Hosting Work?

When you visit a website, the files that create it are shown within your web browser. So, it’s vitally important that you choose a good reliable web host that suits the needs of your website. Indeed, getting hosting right means more traffic and bigger revenue.
Since now you know how vital web hosting is. With that said, let’s get right into it.

Ultimate Guide to Web Hosting 2021

Before buying web hosting, it is better to understand first what is Web Hosting and what types of Web hosting are available by the Hosting Providers to host websites and Apps.

What is a Web Hosting?

In simple terms, Web hosting is a server where all your website files are stored. These files are then communicated using HTTP or HTTPS requests and rendered onto the user’s device. It is essentially rented space on a remote computer; it is normally charged monthly or annually.

Types of Web Hosting

There’s a lot of confusion regarding what hosting web options are available in the market.

Don’t rush through this process. Choosing the wrong web hosting type can cause big problems for your site down the road. Regardless of your situation, this ultimate web hosting guide will explain everything you need to know about your web hosting options.  

There are mainly six types of Hosting you will come across most often:

1. Shared Hosting (Considered as the most cost-effective):

Shared hosting is perfect for entry-level website hosting. This is where your website will be stored on the same server as multiple other websites. All domains share the same server resources with a shared hosting plan, such as RAM (Random Access Memory) and CPU (Central Processing Unit). However, because all resources are shared, the cost of shared hosting plans is relatively low, making them an excellent option for website owners in their beginning stages.

Although shared hosting provides website owners with a more simplistic approach to the web, the trade-off is that you’re sharing the server with multiple other website owners. This means that surges in usage can ultimately affect your website’s user experience. 

2. VPS Hosting or Virtual Private Server Hosting:

VPS Hosting is a step above shared web hosting. When a website outgrows its shared plan, it’s common for owners to upgrade to a VPS. It is considered the ultimate middle ground between a shared server and a dedicated server. It’s ideal for website owners that need more control but don’t necessarily need to spend on a dedicated server.

A VPS avoids the problem of having your hosting neighbors bring down your website while avoiding the cost of a dedicated server.

3. Dedicated Hosting:

When you have a dedicated server, you are renting one physical server from a hosting company. You can have full control (called “root” permissions in Linux) if you want it. A dedicated server is generally the highest level of server you would need if your online business grows into a presence that is getting website traffic of around 100,000 monthly visits. While the costs of a dedicated server are significantly higher than shared hosting, your business will be at a point that can easily afford the necessary costs of having your server.

4. Cloud Hosting:

Cloud-Based Web Hosting refers to a fairly new hosting technology and is the current buzzword of the industry. This is a great choice for growing businesses as there are hundreds of individual servers working simultaneously. As the need grows, the servers can be added and removed as per the requirement to make it even a bigger cloud.

It’s the perfect alternative to traditional web hosting, as with individual cloud servers, your website will have higher uptime rates and perform at a very high level.

5. Reseller Hosting:

The Web Development industry is growing at a very fast pace. Developers have started considering selling hosting to their clients and add an extra side pocket income. As the name suggests, Reseller Hosting involves selling hosting services to clients.

As the reseller, you get to choose the pricing options for your clients. Since you’ll be paying wholesale rates to the provider, then you have the opportunity to make substantial profit margins.

6. WordPress Hosting:

With the increase in popularity of WordPress as a Website Building Platform, many web hosting companies are offering something called “WordPress Hosting.” This type of hosting is used to host websites build only on WordPress.

It follows the same server architecture as the shared hosting. However, WordPress hosting usually has added security to help protect your site from security threats that allow hackers into your website.

Why is a Good Web Hosting Important?

There are a lot of articles on the internet that show the ultimate guide to web hosting. Although all web hosting providers offer excellent services, there is a fundamental checklist of elements that all sites need to contain:

1. Safe & Secure Environment:

Hosting with a secure IP address and a good web hosting company means you are on your way to enabling HTTPS on your site. This offers a more secure site where sensitive information is protected. This is also known as SSL (Secure Socket Layers).

This means whatever information you pass through the web is encrypted and out of reach of the hackers.

2. Reliability:

High-quality customer service is a hallmark of a good web hosting solutions provider. A good web host will always be there when you need any technical assistance or support.  You could lose your information, your stats, and your business, generally, if something goes wrong with the site and you can’t fix it.

3. Speed:

The website’s speed goes right from the development infrastructure to the hosting used to communicate on the web. Many factors are determined by the speed of a website, be it SEO, page size, image optimization, and many more.

If a Hosting fails to provide the required speed, it will ultimately lead to your clients looking for hosting services elsewhere with tools and software strong enough to top lags and heavier traffic.

4. Customizable Plan:

It is very important that once you’ve chosen your web host provider, you opt for a flexible plan which can be modified based on the site’s needs. If your website grows over time, then your web host should cater to the increased server, storage, data speed demands without much fuss.

Best Website Hosting Providers

Now that we know what good web hosting should comprise, let’s look at some of the best Web Hosting Providers available on the Internet.

1. Hostgator

HostGator is my top recommendation for dedicated server plans. While dedicated hosting isn’t cheap, the plans offered by HostGator are pretty affordable. The plans start from $2.75/mo, which is decent to host a single website.

You’ll have access to 24/7/365 priority customer support as well. So if you think your website needs a dedicated server, check out the plans and options offered by Hostgator.

2. Bluehost

Bluehost has an outstanding reputation in the industry. More than 2 million websites across the globe trust Bluehost for web hosting.
It offers a free SSL, a free domain, and a free Premium CDN with its plan. The plans start as low as $2.95/mo, which is incredible considering the 24/7 support provided by the technical team. Bluehost is one of the great choices when you’re looking for Shared Hosting.

3. Siteground

Siteground is one of the most popular and widely used web hosting on the internet. This includes everything right from WordPress hosting to shared hosting and private servers.

Overall, Siteground ranks near the top of all web hosting companies for both uptime (99.99%) and speed (651 ms). Their customer support team is knowledgeable, fast, and friendly. All plans come with a CDN, SSL certificate, and email accounts.

The benefits of hosting also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee on all shared hosting plans. The plans start at $4.99/mo.

4. Namecheap

Most people know of Namecheap as a domain registration and management service offering web hosting services. Namecheap’s hosting plans offer fast, reliable service with a 100% uptime guarantee. If you need to build a new site, you can easily do so using one of Namecheap’s many site-building apps. If you have an existing website, Namecheap will move it for you for free.

In addition to a solid knowledge base, you can consult if you need help, Namecheap offers 24/7 chat support.

The shared hosting plans offered from Namecheap are cheap and affordable, starting at just $0.82/mo, which hosts up to 3 websites.

Summary

In today’s digital environment, your website is the first impression of your business. Slow loading speeds and frequent unavailability are red flags that most internet users won’t forgive. I hope this ultimate guide to web hosting will come in handy while you search for a suitable web hosting provider.

If you have any further queries, please leave your questions or comments below.

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