Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own or lease for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center
For somebody who has never started a website
or has no experience in this field, selecting the right web hosting
can be a big challenge or even the first mistake. Not because it is
hard to find a web hosting service, but because it is hard to select
proper web hosting for particular website. There are many cheap
deals, many free hosting offers and many possibilities for wrong
decision. Selecting free web hosting is a very common mistake. There
is no free lunch. Free web hosting is fine for some type of
websites, but you should always check terms of service and
reputation of this web hosting provider.
There are some technical terms connected with web hosting that you
should understand and check. You don't have to go into details and
understand the theory and all the details. It is enough to know the
basics and to distinguish various hosting plans. Before you start
looking for hosting you should have a clear vision of your website.
What's the website type (personal homepage, blog, forum, sales
letter, e-commerce, etc.), how many databases do you need, how many
domains you will use, any special requirements,...
Free Hosting
There are many free web hosting offers around the web. Some will
place an ad on your pages, others will require some membership,
while some are really free without any special requirements. If your
website will be a blog or personal website then free hosting is
probably fine. However, do not select free web hosting for any
commercial website. For commercial website hosting you need a
reliable hosting provider with prompt support.
Domain
Domain is the name that identifies your website, e.g. link2city.com.
This domain will be part of the url or web address of your website.
The domain name is the most important element of the website if you
intend to do some online business. If you will have a simple blog or
personal homepage then the domain is not so important. Almost all
web hosting providers offer domain registration services. You will
have to decide for how long you will register the domain, from 1
year to 10 years. After that period you will have the possibility to
extend the registration. There is no rule for the registration
period, select according to your needs. You might also already have
some domain registered. When you will have access to control panel
of your hosting you will simply enter the domain details. Many
hosting providers offer plans with unlimited number of domains. If
you select plan which is limited with only one domain make sure you
will have no needs for additional domains.
Disk Space
You need some disk space to store your web pages or blog script. The
space you will need depends on the pages you will host. Since most
hosting providers offer quite a lot of disk space even for the
smallest hosting plan, disk space should not be a problem. Some
providers offer also unlimited disk space. Of course, it is limited,
but the limit is the actual limit of the web server disk space
(which is also shared among all the websites on this server).
Bandwidth
When visitors will come to your site they will actually download
each page including all supporting files and images that are needed
to display this page. This downloading consumes some bandwidth. If
your website will not have more than thousands of visitors each
(very unlikely) day then this should not be a concern for you.
MySQL Databases
Many popular scripts like Wordpress and Joomla need one MySQL
database. Database is storage for the content of your pages. Usually
you will need only one, but you should check this first. It is a
good idea to have a hosting plan which offers more than one database
because sooner or later you will install some new script and you
will need a testing database.
PHP
PHP is a scripting language which is used to dynamically create
WebPages. Most popular scripts are based on PHP so your hosting plan
should support it. There are different versions of PHP. Check which
version your script needs. There are also some other features that
your webhosting provider will offer like CGI, Fast CGI, Ruby on
rails, SSH, Perl, Chilisoft, ASP, Python, SSI, Cron, etc. Check what
your script needs to work properly.
Support
Make sure your hosting provider has at least few different
possibilities for support: phone, forum, email, etc. You will need
it when your website will be down or you will be lost in the control
panel.
Price Define needs, compare hosting providers and their plans
according to your needs and features offered, and only then select
hosting plan according the price. You need web hosting because you
need continuous online presence and not because some hosting
provider is cheap.
There are many other terms that you will find when you will search
for best web hosting. If you don't know what they mean then you can
simply skip them, just make sure you will have everything your
website will need to work properly. If you will select a hosting
plat that will bemusing some functionality, you will have two
possibilities. Either to purchase this additional feature or to
change hosting plan. Anyway, after you will choose your first
hosting and set up your first website, you will get some experience
for the next web project