Definition of Website Hosting

If you have built a web site and you want other people to see it, you must host your website on a publicly accessible web server.

Where to host your site?

Even though you can use your own computer as a server, it is a more conventional practice to let a hosting service provider take care of your site. The main reason for that is the greater reliability and the better visibility of your site, since web hosting service providers have top-notch hardware and allocate a far greater bandwidth usage allowance, which guarantees the speedier access to your web site from all around the world.

Website hosting solutions

Select a website hosting service, which enables you to register domain names and to create e-mail box accounts. Lots of web website hosting firms, like us at iClick and Host - Reliable webhosting at lowest prices, offer a charge-free domain registration as a gift if you open a hosting account.

Hosting your web site on your own

Hosting your website on your own web server is certainly an option, but only in case you have time and the required proficiency. There are some facets that you have to take into consideration, including the hardware and software expenses. To possess a genuine, professional-looking website, you will have to spend money on some powerful server hardware, since you cannot anticipate a low-priced personal computer to carry out the task. You will also require a permanent high-speed Internet connection without network outages, which typically comes at a rather high price. If you are availing of licensed software for your web site, you will need to invest money in the license as well. You may also need to deal with bugs and spyware. You will have to keep your server running all the time in an environment where "everything could happen". If you do not have the needed technical competence, you will have to engage a system administrator to tackle these issues for you, which will make the price of hosting your website yourself even higher than that of a dedicated server supplied by a web hosting solutions provider.

A dedicated web hosting server delivered by a hosting vendor

Leasing a dedicated hosting web server from a web hosting distributor is a good option if you would like to have a resource-demanding web site or a business web page that has very strict safety requirements. The chief benefits of using a dedicated server hosting solution are the high-speed Internet connection, the constant power supply and the extremely powerful hardware. Certain web hosting corporations, again like us at iClick and Host - Reliable webhosting at lowest prices, provide VPS web hosting and semi-dedicated server hosting solutions, which are based on extremely powerful servers that can be divided among several clients. You can also anticipate them to provide efficient load balancing services and the required backup servers.

Safety and reliability

Web hosting suppliers are specialized in providing web hosting services and since this is what they do to earn a living, you can anticipate them to offer uninterrupted Internet connectivity, the latest software updates and the best malware protection, as well as sysadmins available 24x7 to aid you in case of an emergency.

Select your hosting packages provider

What you need to take into account when picking your web hosting accounts provider is the stability of the offered web hosting services. Make certain that the hosting services provider of your choice provides a round-the-clock customer support service. Do not put yourself in a position where you cannot fix serious predicaments straight away because you must wait till the next business day. Besides, if you choose a shared hosting package, which includes a 24-hour support service, this suggests that there always will be system administrators available to solve any serious predicaments as soon as they occur, which is a very good thing.

Daily data backups

Make certain that your web hosting packages provider offers routine backups with the offered hosting services, or else you may lose some important data in case of a hardware breakdown or because you have deleted something unintentionally. The presence of day-to-day data backups is usually mentioned in the web hosting supplier's TOS.

Web traffic and web hosting server disk space

When selecting your hosting provider, pay particular attention to the traffic allowance limitations. Make sure that you won't have to pay a fortune for unforeseen high traffic volumes if your site becomes more frequently visited. There are lots of hosting distributors that offer unlimited bandwidth nowadays, so the most logical step to take is to make certain that you have taken the most appropriate decision before registering.

Content limitations

Pay particular attention to the hosting distributor's content limitations. If you aim to publish pics or to broadcast live video or audio, make certain that you can achieve that. Besides, most hosting vendors lay restrictions when it comes to utilizing their services for file hosting purposes, so if you upload too much content that is not connected or directly linked to your web site, your hosting account could get cancelled. Hence, double-checking the provider's Terms of Use, regardless of how time-demanding and dull this might be, is very essential.

Electronic mail capabilities

Most web hosting service providers nowadays also provide e-mail services with all their website hosting packages. It is a good idea to verify if the web hosting services provider of your choosing offers such features too, so as to confirm that you'll get all the features that you require in return for your money.