What Is Web Hosting?
Web hosting is the infrastructure that makes a website available on the internet. A hosting provider supplies the computing resources needed to store, run and serve website content to visitors.
Hosting is where a website runs
Web hosting is a service that provides server resources for websites and web applications.
These resources can include storage, processing power, memory, networking, databases and software.
When someone visits a website, the hosting system delivers the required content to their browser.
A website needs somewhere to live
Without hosting or some equivalent server infrastructure, the website files may exist on a computer but would not normally be publicly accessible to internet users.
Hosting normally involves servers
A server is a computer or software system that responds to requests from other computers.
For a website, a web server may receive a request such as:
It can then return the appropriate HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images or generated content.
What happens when someone visits a website?
This process can happen in a fraction of a second.
A domain and hosting are different
A domain is the human-readable internet name.
Hosting is the infrastructure that serves the website.
You can buy a domain without buying hosting. You can also move a website to different hosting while keeping the same domain.
Hosting is not the website itself
Website
The pages, code, images, content and application logic.
Hosting
The infrastructure used to store or run that website.
Domain
The name people use to reach the website.
DNS
The system that connects the name to the service.
Some hosting simply serves files
A static website may consist primarily of:
The hosting platform can send these files directly to visitors.
No server-side programming language necessarily needs to run for every page request.
Dynamic websites can run application code
More complex hosting can execute code before producing the response.
This allows a website to generate different content depending on users, data and application logic.
Hosting provides storage
A website may need space for:
Hosting also provides computing resources
| Resource | Purpose |
|---|---|
| CPU | Processes application instructions |
| RAM | Temporary working memory |
| Storage | Stores website files and data |
| Bandwidth | Transfers data across the network |
| Database | Stores structured application data |
What is shared hosting?
Shared hosting places multiple customers or websites on the same underlying server infrastructure.
Resources are shared between multiple hosted sites.
This can make shared hosting inexpensive and simple, although it normally offers less isolation and control than dedicated environments.
What is VPS hosting?
VPS stands for Virtual Private Server.
Virtualisation divides physical server resources into separate virtual environments.
A VPS generally gives the customer more control over the server environment than ordinary shared hosting.
What is dedicated hosting?
Dedicated hosting gives one customer access to an entire physical server or dedicated hardware environment.
It can provide substantial control and predictable resources but is generally more expensive and requires greater technical management.
What is cloud hosting?
Cloud hosting uses computing resources provided through larger distributed cloud platforms.
Instead of thinking only in terms of one physical server, applications can use virtual machines, databases, object storage, load balancers, serverless functions and other cloud services.
Managed hosting reduces administration
With managed hosting, the provider handles more of the technical infrastructure.
The exact level of management depends on the provider and hosting plan.
Some platforms include hosting automatically
Services such as blogging platforms and website builders often hide much of the hosting infrastructure from the user.
The site owner can concentrate on the website while the platform manages most of the underlying hosting.
Blogger includes hosting
A Blogger site does not require you to rent and configure your own web server.
Google operates the hosting infrastructure while the site owner manages the posts, pages, template and domain configuration.
WordPress can be hosted in different ways
WordPress software can run on many hosting providers.
A managed WordPress platform may handle most server administration automatically, while self-managed WordPress hosting can give the site owner much more control over the environment.
Hosting may run web server software
Common web server technologies include:
These systems can receive HTTP requests and return website content to users.
Dynamic websites often need a database
A hosting plan may provide databases such as MySQL or PostgreSQL, or the database may run on a completely separate service.
Smaller applications may also use file-based databases such as SQLite.
Hosting often provides HTTPS support
Modern websites generally use HTTPS to encrypt communication between the website and its visitors.
Many modern hosting platforms can automatically issue, install and renew SSL/TLS certificates after a domain has been connected correctly.
Hosting transfers data to visitors
Every time someone loads a page, data travels from the hosting infrastructure to their device.
This data transfer is commonly described in terms of bandwidth or traffic.
A CDN can work alongside hosting
CDN stands for Content Delivery Network.
A CDN can cache copies of website resources on servers in multiple locations.
Visitors may receive cached resources from infrastructure closer to them rather than retrieving everything directly from the origin server.
Hosting affects website availability
If the hosting infrastructure becomes unavailable, visitors may be unable to reach the website even though the domain itself still exists.
Domain registration and website availability are therefore separate issues.
Backups are an important part of hosting
Websites can contain code, images, databases, user content and configuration that may be difficult to recreate.
Good hosting arrangements should consider how that information can be backed up and restored.
Website hosting and email hosting can be separate
A domain can send website traffic to one provider while email is handled by another.
DNS records determine which services handle each type of traffic.
You can technically host a website yourself
A computer connected to the internet can potentially run web server software and serve a website.
However, public hosting requires consideration of networking, security, reliability, backups, power, software updates and availability.
For this reason, most public websites use specialist hosting infrastructure.
Common hosting models
| Type | Basic idea |
|---|---|
| Shared | Multiple websites share infrastructure |
| VPS | Virtual server environment |
| Dedicated | Dedicated server resources |
| Cloud | Resources delivered through cloud infrastructure |
| Managed | Provider handles more administration |
| Static | Primarily serves pre-built files |
The web stack becomes easier to understand
Each layer performs a different job.
The infrastructure behind the website.
Web hosting provides the server resources and network infrastructure needed to make websites available on the internet. The domain gives the website a name, DNS directs requests, and the hosting environment stores or runs the website and delivers its content to visitors.
