What is web hosting?
On this page, you will learn what the words “hosting” and “hosting plan” means, and you will also find out how to hire a hosting service for your website.
What is hosting?
Let’s first see what Wikipedia says about hosting.
The World Encyclopedia states that hosting is “a service that operates Internet servers, allowing organizations and individuals to serve content on the Internet.”
Doesn’t sound very clear to you, does it? Me too, so let me explain things more simply:
In order for your website to be available on the Internet 24 hours a day and 365 days a year, it needs to be installed on a special computer that is constantly turned on and connected to the Internet, so that every Internet user in the world at any time can access your site.
In addition, a certain set of programs must be installed on this computer to “serve” the site. This computer is called a web server or Internet server.
Both in the world and in our country, there are companies whose activity is precisely related to the installation and maintenance of this type of computers (servers), and which provide the service of renting a part of these computers for installation on customer sites.
It is the service of renting web servers or parts of them, that is called web hosting.
What is a hosting plan?
However, both the servers and the programs installed on them are different.
Like any other service, hosting can be provided in a different way, that is, it can include elements of different quantity and quality.
It is the set of elements included in the hosting, as well as their features that constitute the concept of a hosting plan.
Main (but far from the only) elements of a hosting plan are:
- Operating system of the hosting server
This is the operating system installed on the server. The most common and reliable system for such kinds of servers is definitely the Linux system. Although recently many servers also offer Windows hosting, in our opinion the Windows operating system is not the best for this kind of activity and our recommendation is to go for a Linux server. - Disk space
This is the amount in megabytes of server space that will be available for your site. This parameter is rarely critical because most common hosting plans include disk space of the order of 10 and more Gigabytes, and a small and even medium-sized company site usually needs no more than 0.5 to 1 Gb. Note, however, that the amount of disk space also includes the space needed to store mail to your domain. If you intend to receive or send large files by mail, it is a good idea to take this into account when choosing a hosting plan. - Monthly traffic
Your monthly traffic requirement depends on the size and traffic of your site. The bigger your site and the more visitors you have, the more traffic you will need. The rule “appetite comes with food” applies here. A new site (like yours, probably) usually doesn’t have many visitors in the beginning, so monthly traffic, in the beginning, shouldn’t bother you. Later, when your purchased monthly traffic becomes insufficient, you can easily switch to a hosting plan allowing more traffic. - Number of allowed e-mail addresses
This is the number of e-mail addresses to your domain that you will be allowed to create. If your company has a lot of staff and everyone needs a separate e-mail address in the company, you should pay attention to this parameter. However, this parameter is also rarely critical, because most hosting plans include the ability to create 100 or more email mailboxes, which is quite enough in most cases. - Supported server technologies
These are, broadly speaking, the programming languages that can be used to build your site. This is more of a technical parameter that your web designers will be interested in, but at a minimum, it is important that the server supports the PHP language as well as a MySQL database connection. - SSL certificates offered
This is a really important element because supporting an encrypted connection (https://) between your site and your visitors has now become the standard, and some hosting companies offer such SSL certificates only for an additional fee.
How to choose a suitable hosting?
Choosing both a suitable hosting company and a suitable hosting plan is a complex and responsible task, especially difficult for inexperienced people whose work is not directly related to the Internet.
As in all areas of commerce, here you will also come across advertising slogans and beautiful promises that sometimes have no coverage, and if you do not have the necessary experience and knowledge behind you, you risk making a costly mistake.
In fact, the real problem is that moving a site from one hosting to another is not an easy and simple task. If it turns out that a hosting company does not meet your needs and expectations, moving your site to another hosting server can take days, not counting the time to find and verify the “new” hosting company.
Therefore, the best solution for most people who do not have the necessary experience with Internet technologies is to turn to specialists for consultation and assistance.
A good solution would also be to consult sites like hostadvice.com, which specialize specifically in collecting data and opinions about the major hosting companies around the world. Such sites can give you really accurate and, in most cases, authoritative opinions and comparisons between the options available to you.
The problem here, however, is that in some cases, the interests of the people who have shared opinions and ratings on such sites may differ from yours.
So for example, if someone gave the highest rating of 5 to a certain hosting company, it is possible that the reason for that high rating is mostly because the person decided that they received the best customer service and the most responsive from that company support (maintenance technicians). However, on the other hand, what is most important to you could be, for example, the speed of the server, and it is possible that the servers of this company are not the best in terms of speed.
Another divergence could come from the pricing. Naturally, the best is often the most expensive. It could be that the hosting company you “liked”, i.e. had the highest ratings on all metrics, expects you to pay $30 or even more per month – something you may not be able to do (or not at all you have to) afford it.
Don’t ask the old man, ask the experienced man
Yes, your best solution is to turn for advice not so much to “very knowledgeable” people, but to people who are really “experienced” with hosting companies.
As you’ve probably read elsewhere on our site, we’ve been building and maintaining websites since 1999. That’s 23 years! Dozens of hosting companies have passed through our heads, and our experience with some of them can become the basis of a whole sitcom series, sometimes leaning towards the black comedy genre. But we won’t bother you with that now.
We will simply allow ourselves to recommend a hosting company that has made an extremely good impression on us recently – the company Hostens.
Now we know what you’re saying to yourself: “Yeah! They’ll get a commission on the sale, and that’s why they’re recommending them!” Yes, that’s right. We will get a small percentage of this sale, but believe me, we would not risk our name and authority for something that is not worth it …
And why hosting at Hostens is really worth it? It’s very simple: in our opinion, they currently offer the best ratio between quality and price!
You will certainly be able to find better hosting plans offering more services than Hostens. However, they will also come at another cost. You will certainly find cheaper hosting than Hostens. However, it won’t be what you get from Hostens.
Who exactly are Hostens?
The company behind Hostens is called “Interneto vizia” and is based in Lithuania. It was established back in 2003, and since 2005 it has been the largest hosting company in Lithuania.
A few years later, however, it has already been nominated in the “Top 10” global hosting companies on authoritative sites such as hostingadvice.com, top10-websitehosting.co.uk, and of course hostadvice.com. The latter gives Hostens 4.6 points (out of a possible 5), clearly adding “Offer One Of The Cheapest Prices On The Market.”
And indeed, if you look at their hosting plans, you’ll see that you can get 10 Gigabytes of server space to install 10 separate sites for just $0.90 per month, with a free SSL certificate included! You could not find such prices even with the cheapest hosting companies, and here we are talking about a renowned global company with a presence on almost all continents.
The company has servers in both Europe, America (USA), and Asia, and you will have the choice of where to host your site. This is important because regardless of the speeds with which today’s Internet works if most of your visitors are from the US, it is much better to have your server in the US and not in Europe. The same goes for Europe or Asia, depending on which visitors you are targeting…
Hope we were helpful!
