For those who decide to build a web site, many do not understand what web hosting is. An easy explanation that I give is that a web host is a service provider, almost like a cell phone provider. If you don’t have a cell phone provider (like AT&T or T-Mobile) then you can not make or receive calls. This is the same for a web site, if you do not have a web host you can not put your site on the Internet. But web hosting is a little more than just a service provider. A server is connected to the Internet at all times, and can hold a lot of information on different sites.

These servers are given Internet Protocol (IP) numbers so that they can be found by other servers or search engines. These servers hold all of your websites information weather it is an HTML file, graphic files, Cascading Style Sheets (CCS) or Javascripts.  There are several different types of Web Hosting out there:

  • Free Web Hosting Services - Free (sometimes) is advertisement supported web hosting and is often more limited when compared to paid hosting
  • Shared Web Hosting Service - Where a web site is placed on a server with many other web sites (often thousands) a shared web site may be hosted by a reseller
  • Reseller Web Hosting - Allows the client to become a web host themselves, resellers could functions (for individual domains) under a few of the listed types of hostings
  • Virtual Dedicated Server - Divides a server into virtual servers, where users can feel like there own dedicated server, however they are really sharing a server with many different web sites
  • Dedicated Hosting Service - User get his/her own web server and get full control over it, this doesn’t mean that they own the server (however in some cases they can). The owners will have full administration to the box, and are in control over their own maintenance and security.
  • Managed Hosting Service - The user gets his/her own server, but they are not allowed full access to it. This is to ensure the best quality service possible. Typically, they do not own the server it is just leased out to them.
  • Colocation Web Hosting Service - Similar to dedicated web hosting service, but the client owns the server. The hosting company provides the space for the server as well as the Internet access, and power for the server. The client would have to have their own personal administrator come to update or make any changes on the server. This is the most powerful and expensive hosting.
  • Clustered Hosting - Has multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource content.

There a few things that you should consider when trying to figure out what type or hosting you are interested in. Price and capability by your administrators is one of the top considerations.  Three more things to consider are:

  1. Database Server Software
  2. Scripting Software
  3. Operating System

When considering all of the aspects reviewed above, you can better choose which company you want. You could also search the Internet to find active web hosting message boards that may provide more feed back on what type of web hosting you may need. However you decide on you web hosting company and the type of hosting you may need, I hope that this information provided will help guide and inform you to find the correct hosting for your site.