What Is Web Hosting?

Web hosting in plain words

Every website is a set of files: pages, images, scripts, and often a database with posts, products or orders. To be reachable around the clock, those files have to sit on a computer that is always on and always online. That computer is a server, and the company that runs it is your host.

A hosting plan gives you a share of that server's storage and processing power, a control panel to manage it, and usually extras such as email on your own domain, SSL certificates and backups. The host takes care of the hardware, the network and the server software.

What happens when someone opens your site

1. A visitor types your domain, for example example.com, into the browser.
2. The DNS system, the internet's address book, translates the domain into the IP address of your hosting server.
3. The browser connects to that server, securely if the site has an SSL certificate.
4. The server's web software sends back your pages. For a WordPress site it first runs PHP and reads the database to build each page.

All of this takes a fraction of a second. The quality of the hosting decides how fast it happens and how reliably the site answers.

Domain vs hosting

These two are often confused, but they are separate things you pay for separately:

• The domain is your website's name, such as example.com. You register it with a registrar, usually for a year at a time.
• The hosting is where the website lives. Without it, the domain points nowhere.

To connect them, you set the domain's nameservers or DNS records to the ones your host gives you. You can keep the domain at one company and the hosting at another, and move either one without losing the other.

Types of web hosting

For a first website, shared hosting is almost always the right start. If you are unsure between the first two, read VPS vs shared hosting or what is a VPS.

What a hosting plan should include

• Storage and number of websites: how much space you get and how many sites you can host on one plan.
• A control panel to manage files, databases, email and domains without the command line. cPanel is the best-known one; see what is cPanel.
• Email on your domain, such as [email protected], with webmail and spam filtering.
• Free SSL certificates that renew themselves, so your site loads over HTTPS. More in how to get a free SSL certificate.
• Automatic backups you can restore from yourself.
• One-click installers for WordPress and other apps.
• Current PHP and database versions, so modern software runs.

How to choose a hosting plan

• Check the renewal price, not just the first-term price. Many hosts advertise a low price that only applies if you prepay for several years.
• Look at the real limits: storage, websites, email accounts and databases per plan.
• Ask how backups work: how often, how long they are kept and whether you can restore them yourself.
• Make sure upgrades are easy, so you can grow without moving host.
• Read what support covers and when it answers.

Start with a plan that fits the sites you have now. Moving up later is usually a few clicks.

Web hosting on HytHost

HytHost web hosting has four cPanel plans, from 2 GB of SSD storage for up to 3 websites to 50 GB for unlimited websites. Every plan includes:

• cPanel, with Softaculous and WP Toolkit for one-click WordPress;
• free SSL through AutoSSL with Let's Encrypt, renewed automatically;
• email on your domain, with webmail and spam filtering;
• PHP 8.1 to 8.5, MySQL databases and phpMyAdmin;
• unmetered traffic and daily backups kept for 10 days;
• one free website migration from your current host.

Plans renew at the same price, and you can upgrade from the client area paying only the prorated difference. The domain is not included: register it anywhere and point it at your plan.