Why Is Web Hosting Important and How Much Does It Cost?
Why is web hosting important for my website? What is the best web hosting for small businesses? How much will web hosting cost me? These are some of the common questions you are probably asking yourself prior to launching a website for your business.
It is also likely that you have heard of web hosting but not entirely sure what it is and how it is important in building and running your website. To answer all the questions you have about web hosting, let us tell you what it is, why you need it for your website, and what it costs.
What Is Web Hosting?
Web hosting is a service that lets individuals and organizations publish web pages and websites on the Internet. A hosting provider gives services and technologies to a website to be viewed online.
They also host or store the files of a website in web servers, so viewers can access these files each time they visit the website. The servers are kept in storage facilities and maintained by technicians to ensure websites are kept up and running.
Why Is Web Hosting Important for Websites?
Installing and creating a website can be done locally on a computer. Once it is ready for the world to see, it must go live on the Internet, and this is where web hosting comes into play.
Web hosting provides your website the “Internet” space to keep your files secure and to make them accessible to website visitors. You can take advantage of the benefits of web hosting if you hire a hosting company that provides hosting packages.
Web hosting providers own and maintain thousands of servers to cater to many customers to rent space online. They offer monthly subscriptions, and you have the option to choose from their available packages.
Web hosting providers also have invested in the following:
- Upgrade and replacement of servers
- Professionals who take care of the servers’ maintenance
- The bandwidth needed to keep the servers speedily and consistently functioning
- The protection of the servers from overheating
- The servers and space needed to keep them
Is There Such Thing as Free Web Hosting?
Yes, there is. There are free platforms you can build a website with that also offers free web hosting.
It may sound like a great option, but there are issues and risks attached to it that are hard to ignore:
1. Has Limitations
Because it is free, you will only have fewer branding options and customizations. You might be working on a default layout that does not give you the option to change backgrounds, colours, and style.
These limitations can cause issues in growing your business because you must work extra to differentiate your brand from the platform’s image in the eyes of your website visitors.
Free hosting also gives you less storage space for your files. This can negatively affect your marketing strategies because you will have limited media files to share on your website.
2. May Not Be Free
Some hosting services will offer you a free plan if you sign up for them. Once you get started, you might find out that you cannot do many things on the free plan, so you are forced to upgrade your subscription into a paid one.
These companies will get you hooked and give you a feeling that you are stuck with them.
3. May Not Give You Your Own Domain
If you are building a website on a free platform, you must abide by their rules in doing things. This can also mean you might not have your own domain for your brand.
It might also mean that you will not be able to use email addresses that contain your domain name.
4. May Lose Everything
If the free platform you are into decides to let go of your website for various reasons, there is nothing you can do. Your website can be gone completely, and you must start building it again.
Tech support might not be available as well to help you, which can cause problems with your customers if your website issue is not fixed immediately.
How Much Is a Web Hosting Plan?
Because fee web hosting is not a good option, you need to start looking at paying for a monthly hosting plan. The cost for the package depends on the hosting company, the plan itself, and the type of web hosting you want to have.
To give you an idea of the prices for the different hosting plans, let us discuss each type of web hosting with its price range.
1. Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is the most affordable plan among the types of web hosting. Its monthly subscription can start at less than 3 GBP.
It can go up if you add features like automated backups, unlimited professional email address, additional storage space or bandwidth, and a website builder.
This type of web hosting allows a server to share space for multiple websites. It can work for many websites, especially with new ones or personal websites, but others might want to pay for additional features to extend their websites’ functionality.
2. E-Commerce Hosting
E-commerce stores that deal with selling and buying transactions most of the time would need e-commerce hosting. The monthly price for the subscription can start at 3.98-15.92 GBP and go up to more than 198.94 GBP.
E-commerce hosting is designed to be compatible with e-commerce software that can accept secure payments and has checkout and shopping cart functionalities.
3. Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting is ideal for website owners with a lot of traffic and who need more space. This type of web hosting utilizes different (and multiple) servers to balance the load and maximize uptime.
It also aims to provide websites with more flexibility and faster loading speed. So, when a server fails, another one kicks in to ensure everything keeps running.
The price can start at 3.98-39.79 GBP.
4. VPS Hosting
Virtual private server (VPS) hosting allows sharing of a server with other websites but gives each site private resources. This is best for websites that receive a lot of traffic and need large storage space.
The price per month can range from 15.92 GBP to 79.58 GBP.
5. Dedicated Hosting
This is the most expensive type because it gives your website one server to use. You get all the storage space, bandwidth, and resources because you do not share the server with others.
This is perfect for larger websites with huge traffic and that need a high level of hosting power. The plan price range each month is 63.67 GBP to more than 795.87 GBP.
What Is Uptime in Web Hosting and Why Is It Important?
Uptime in web hosting is the amount of time that your website provides access to files to site visitors. This is an important element in keeping your website running because downtime means a loss in revenue.
A good web hosting provider can guarantee you that they will keep your website accessible to site visitors at least 99% of the time. They make sure that updating your website and fixing site issues that can make your website offline are done at a minimum.
So, when choosing a web hosting provider, make sure they can provide at least 99% uptime.
Conclusion
Do you need web hosting? The answer is a clear yes. You should not opt for the free version but go with the paid monthly plan.
Doing so will give your website proper security, file storage, at least 99% uptime, and overall superior performance. You just need to choose wisely on the type of hosting you want for your website to achieve its maximum performance. So, start going through each web hosting type now and pick the right fit to give your site visitors the best experience they deserve!