A website hosting service that is provided by a web hosting company allows individuals and organizations to publish their own websites and make it accessible to a wider audience. The HTML files of the website are uploaded into and stored inside the web hosting
The company’s web server computer is running 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.
There are many web hosting companies that provide this service, and it can be difficult to make the right choice that strikes the right balance of your allocated budget for the website that matches the website’s functional requirements. The underlying technologies that are used to power your website is one of the first things to consider in choosing a web hosting company that offers a matching support of these technologies. You must also consider the running load of the website especially in terms of storage capacity in gigabytes and its traffic bandwidth which affects the website’s access speed and 24/7 availability.
It is important first to understand that the web hosting company has a faint idea of the inner workings of your website and that you are probably the only most knowledgeable person in terms of your website’s special functionalities. The web hosting company only provides the software environment and the runtime infrastructure to publish your website and make it accessible to a wider audience. Your website may require heavy local computation, process terabytes of data, and requires superfast access bandwidth and streaming connection dependence to other external sites.
Or your website may just be a simple personal blog and does not involve heavy computation. Have all these requirements match what the web hosting company is offering. Read some reviews of what others have to say about the web hosting company before giving your payments and uploading your HTML files.
Websites that have functionalities using proprietary Microsoft technologies are generally more expensive than websites using functionalities that are powered by open source technologies. This cost difference, by no means, does not indicate that the proprietary technologies are superior over the open-source technologies. For example, as of February 2010, the open-source Apache web server served over 54.46% of all websites in the world and over 66% of the million’s busiest.
In March 2010, the proprietary Microsoft IIS web server served 24.47% of all websites on the Internet. There are varying pros and cons with whatever choice of technology is being used to develop a website. Take into consideration that after a website is deployed to the web server of the web hosting company, there is still the need for the website’s regular administration, further enhancements, bug fixing, or even continued development. This can be a hidden cost that needs to be considered.
In summary, the choice of a web hosting company depends on the type of technology that is being used to develop the website. The expected functionalities of the website should also determine in making the right balance to buy only the needed features in terms of computing power, data storage, and bandwidth. You must choose the web hosting company that offers the matching granularity of service without losing the opportunity of stepping up your website requirements at a later future time.
You must do your own research to review the reputation of the web hosting company especially if the operation of your website involves confidential information and intellectual property.
