What is hosting?

Hosting this, hosting that. Around you just this hosting. And would anyone at all want to explain what website hosting is at all? No? Then let us explain it to you.

What is hosting?

What is hosting? Well, it’s nothing more than a hosting service, which consists of sharing space on the physical disk of a server shared by many users simultaneously. Each hosting account is separated from each other, so the hosting users use the resources assigned to them independently.

Website hosting can be compared to renting a room in a dorm. The student house is shared by many students at the same time, who receive a guaranteed place in the building and can use the room assigned to them. The rooms are separated from each other so that, although there are many students in the student residence, each of them can lock themselves in their own room and use it for their own purposes (provided, of course, that these purposes meet the standards set by the student residence). Students can also use the common area of the dorm – elevator, lobby, canteen, etc.

According to our analogy, the common parts of the dormitory are server components, and the student rooms are a separate disk space allocated to hosting users.

Hosting can also be called a hosting service, which consists of providing a virtual private server or dedicated physical server. Continuing the analogy – a virtual private server can be a student stand, and a dedicated private server a house with its own plot and a solid fence.

Types of hosting

As mentioned above, website hosting can be performed using shared hosting, VPS server or dedicated server.

The cheapest option is shared hosting, in which server resources are shared among the hosting company’s clients. Users are guaranteed a certain amount of disk space and monthly transfer rate, as well as a specific number of databases, e‑mail accounts or domains they can attach to the purchased hosting account.

A virtual private server provides more computing power, much more disk space, and a far wider range of freedoms in managing the hardware resources allocated. However, it is still a shared server.

A dedicated physical server is a completely separate physical machine that is entirely dedicated to the use of a single user. As such, it provides the greatest degree of freedom in terms of management, administration and configuration, as well as guaranteeing by far the greatest computing power or disk space.

What type of hosting will be enough for your company?

If you’re looking to host a website for a business, small store or blog, shared hosting is all you need, allowing you to easily set up and administer your site while keeping maintenance costs as low as possible.

For medium sized stores and large websites, portals or complex corporate sites, it is worth investing in a VPS server that will enable you to develop the potential of your business.

For the most demanding applications – such as running huge stores and e‑commerce operations or creating complex web platforms, it is worth investing in a dedicated physical server.

Read also:

• What is a dedicated server and who needs it?
• What is VPS and how to choose it? Is VPS for you?
• How to avoid unnecessary costs and problems with IT services?