What is Hosting, How does it work and what is it for?
Hosting is the starting point from which you will start to raise your project since it is where you will write down the DNS of your domain, save the files and configure your website, either wordpress or your own project, the base begins at the hour choose the hosting that best suits your needs, if your project will be in wordpress, you are going to look for one that is optimized for wordpress, (with facilities such as siteground with its sg optimizer plugin) or Digital ocean if you want a web app more personalized (you can use python or laravel with more comfort) but you need to have more knowledge of sysadmin.
Definition and short translation
Basically, hosting is a server that these people or companies offer to host their websites and files of each application and website that you are going to host, on the one hand, you will have an administration panel called Cpanel, for the files and for the database You will generally use phpmyadmin.
Translation : Hosting = web hosting
How does it work and what is the main function of hosting?
Hosting is where the files are stored and that users will access them once you register a domain and point it to the DNS of your server, these are the domain name system with which you can link a name to an IP of a hosting, explained very briefly and summarized.
The final scheme would be USER >>> DOMAIN >> DNS >> HOSTING
Are the hosting and the domain the same?
The truth is, no. Hosting and domain, despite being fully linked, are not the same.
The domain is basically the name given to the IP of your website, that is, instead of being: 190.91.029.27015, it would be: www.codigohosting.com. It should be noted that domains can be different, due to the information that this website contains.
And that you are going to find many different extensions such as:
“.com” This domain is the most used since com is commercial, but it is not the most expensive of all but the most naturalized among users around the world.
“.Net” named after the network was originally used by companies related to the internet.
“.Org” intended for non-profit organizations, but you can find websites of all kinds.
“.Info” This domain is used by those who have informative pages.
However, there are also domains that are based on the countries, for example:
“.co” It is addressed to Colombia.
“.Ve” It is addressed to Venezuela.
“.Ar” is aimed at Argentina.
4 Types of web hosting explained
There are different types of web hosting. Among them are:
A VPS is not necessarily better than a shared one and a Dedicated one is not necessarily better than a VPS, by themselves.
The configuration and optimization of the websites and the server are key.
Free Hosting
Almost always, people who are newbies and want to start on the web, acquire free hosting, since they do not have enough capital to purchase paid hosting. But, really, it is not the best option, since free hosting will always bring problems in the long run, either by memory or because it falls over time. Therefore, you must be very careful where you place your dreams.
Benefits of free Hosting
If you are thinking about what free hosting is for, despite the fact that the providers include advertising, remember that when you are starting you can use it to learn how to install a wordpress, try your own cms or upload your first web page in HTML + some language of the backend that you are practising.
Advantages of WordPressHosting
- Easy to use for beginners
- Some providers offer plugins to cache and optimize your speed.
- Technical support can sometimes help you with wordpress issues
Disadvantages of WordPressHosting
- It is only recommended in case you use WordPress, otherwise, you will not enjoy comforts.
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting ends up being the cheapest on the market since it shares resources with other web pages. Therefore, you don’t have to pay everything, but also think that you won’t have full hosting either.
Advantages of shared hosting
- Low cost, ideal to start projects
- You already start with CPanel and the configured server details
- Minimal maintenance
- Easy to use
Disadvantages of shared hosting
- Does not support much traffic
- You cannot change the server settings
- It depends on the visits and pages viewed by each one, it can be slow
VPS Hosting
These are private servers and are the most used option by webmasters since it is inexpensive and you can have the peace of mind of receiving a lot of traffic a day without your page falling. Why is this? Because there is a logical division of more resources compared to shared plans.
Advantages of a VPS
- You can optimize the configuration, according to what you need
- Supports more traffic
Disadvantages of a VPS
- You must know how to manage it (although there are tutorials on youtube or you can hire a sysadmin)
- More expensive than shared hosting
Cloud Hosting:
These allow you to host your files on one or multiple servers that you pay according to the data you consume.
This differs from the traditional ones in the simple fact that instead of staying on a single server, more powerful infrastructures are used such as those of the amazon web services where you will have greater flexibility and scalability, this means that you can have more traffic and also more knowledge to manage them. or have a sysadmin. A point in favour is that you only pay what you use, this during peak visits is good since at no time do you lose uptime and your users will not even know it and when the traffic drops back to its normal flow you do not have to continue paying costs Additional features. I had experience with Digital Ocean to host a website made in Django recently and it was much more work but in some cases, it can be useful since you will learn about server administration and how some services work,
Advantages of Hosting in the Cloud (Cloud)
- It is paid according to what you use
- Almost never falls
- Easy to scale in case you have traffic spikes
Disadvantages of a cloud hosting
- Sometimes you can’t configure the server
4 Benefits of a Hosting
If you have good hosting, you can have a lot of benefits, some of these are:
- You will have a much more professional website.
- It is easier to do branding or SEO when you have your own domain
- Your clients can access 365 days a year
- If you are a programmer you can make your own scripts or modifications that in sites that offer you a website or store, they do not let you modify.
Where can I buy Hosting?
After reading the benefits of hosting, perhaps you should be looking for where to buy one to start your venture. Therefore, the most common companies to acquire a hosting are the following, anyway I recommend that you take the time to read the analyzes I did because it seems to me that you should be clear about your project and see how companies differ:
Title: 50% OFF On Managed VPS Hosting on first month.
Coupon: 50NOW
Validity: Lifetime
What is Hosting with SSD disks?
Currently, SSD hosting is highly named and sought after, as they are the latest technological innovations that have come out for web hosting. SSD hosting is basically the fastest disk on the market since it uses memory to store data instead of heads and magnetic plates. But are these hosting with SSDs really good? Really yes, since they have a higher speed and are less prone to damage.
HDD or SSD Hosting? Which is better?
This is the question that webmasters who still use hosting with HDDs ask themselves since they are very afraid to change. But, it really is the best they can do, since with SSD hosting they will have a greater capacity, a greater storage transfer and a higher speed.
Finally, we hope that with this post you have been able to get the most information about hosting so that you can start your project with all the peace of mind possible.
4 Reasons why your website can slow down
- You are under attack DDOS or similar.
- Your wordpress theme is inefficient, you have many plugins that make simulation queries, you make calls through Ajax to update things like visits for example.
- Although it is difficult to admit, especially if you are the programmer, perhaps you made SQL queries that you are not doing in an optimal way
- You may have some cron job running repeatedly.
What is the utility they offer
In case you want to offer a web service or simply host an institutional page, if you do not have a contracted to host you should buy a server, configure it and have it running 24/7 x 365 at home, with the administration, configuration and maintenance tasks that are involved this equipment, it is simply a cost that is not justified, you should spend thousands of dollars or opt for the economic option of using a personal computer to host your websites, in this case, you should learn to use Linux for greater stability and the capacity would be less ( it is possible when you have few visits but then you will have to migrate).
Free hosting options
Of course, there are several options on the internet, generally, the hosting providers that offer you free accommodation, request in return to display advertising on your website, if you have a business or company, it is not a good option because it damages your image, think as a client, If you are going to hire a service and a popup appears on your face or you see advertising from the competition on the banners, think twice (my opinion).
Also read: What is the difference between Windows VPS hosting and dedicated server?
