Detailed information about WordPress hosting - Get the initial hosting info

Contents

What is hosting?

Hosting is basically referred to hosting a website on a virtual server located somewhere else to host your website on behalf of you or your company and can deliver the content to users worldwide by using the Content delivery network (CDN). The location of the server where your website is hosted also plays a major role in delivering the content to the users since the distance from the servers also impacts the speed, but thanks to the Content delivery network. We will further read in this article about the CDN and other related terms to understand the basic terms required to host a website.

There are various hosting types and plans to choose from for different uses, such as e-commerce has different suitable options for hosting, and blogs and visiting pages type of the website have different suitable options for hosting such as: shared or managed to host. So read the entire article to get the information about WordPress hosting.

App hosting vs. website hosting

As we all have understood the purpose of the hosting websites above in this article, both the apps and websites also need a virtual remote server or physical server to host their content to the users. Apps and website both can be hosted on different type of hosting plans depending on their usage, as every hosting plan have different bandwidth limit and disk space options. In the case of the websites, it is important to have Cpanel upload and manage the website. In the case of an Android app or ios app, you have to upload the apk file to the app store, and the rest of the contents of the apps are hosted on the remote server, depending on the usage of the app and also the number of the users the hosting plans may vary. The famous hosting provider for the apps or applications is “AWS” which represents (amazon web services.) The apk file of the apps is placed on the app store, while the media file and user data are maintained on the remote server database.

What is Shared hosting?

With the name of shared hosting itself, some raw pictures may form in your mind. Shared hosting in simple words means that the resources of the single server slot are being divided between many multiple users present on that server. In this type of hosting sometimes there may be a limit per user for the resources but most of the time there are no restrictions which result in the slow speed and response for some of the websites, such that some websites may use more resources and some may find harder to operate on that particular server slot as the resources such as ram, graphics, memory, and disk space are shared within 10 to 15 websites or more. Just try to understand the above Para with some pictorial references:

Each server also has some limited overall bandwidth capacity which may also be dividing within many websites and hence impacting the website speed. Don’t know about bandwidth? Do not worry about that, we will be discussing every term in detail.

What is dedicated hosting?

Well, dedicated hosting is just opposite of the shared hosting. In this hosting type, every single website is being hosted on a separate server slot, and hence all the resources such as bandwidth, processor, ram, disk space, and graphics processing unit are utilized by a single website, which results in speedy performance and loads time of the websites. This type of server is suitable for e-commerce stores, famous brand websites, and government websites. This type of hosting is capable of handling more than 50,000 visitors/per month. As the bandwidth capacity with other resources is being utilized by the single websites the website is capable of handling a large number of visitors, since bandwidth is directly related to the website speed and it is also responsible for tackling a large number of visitors.

What is VPS?

The concept of the VPS (virtual private server) is the same as that of the shared server but there is a small difference, which is: in the case of shared hosting it is not decided that up to what amount of resources each website can use, such that in case of a shared server as earlier discussed that some websites may use more resources in comparison to others since there is no pre-decided limit.

But in the case of the VPS, there is a fixed amount of resources that each website can use. For example, if the disk capacity of the server is 1 TB means 1000 GB, and there are 15 websites hosted on that particular server then each website will be allotted nearly 66 GB of disk space, while the same for the ram, processor, and bandwidth.

What is managed WordPress hosting?

In the case of managed WordPress hosting, all the resources such as software updating, issue reporting, error handling, and premium WordPress support are made available from the hosting providers. This type of hosting is primarily designed and optimized for the use of the WordPress website only. The main benefit of choosing this hosting is that this hosting is cheaper and safer for beginners as there will be less downtime as these servers are designed for the use of WordPress websites only and also there are reviewed, updated, and managed by the hosting providers. This type of hosting is also a type of shared hosting, but here the resources are slightly restricted up to some threshold. Such that if some websites on these servers are found using an extra amount of the resources such as file-sharing websites, then those website owners will be slapped with a warning notice, and also the website may be taken down and may be restricted for a fixed amount of the data. The best-managed WordPress hosting is being provided by “Bluehost”

Read about how to install multiple WordPress in localhost.

What is cloud hosting?

Well, cloud hosting is very different from other hosting types and also one of the best hosting types for websites as these types of hosting may provide greater speed in comparison to shared and VPS hosting. In this type of hosting the website is being hosted for multiple servers across the world. Here in this hosting type, there is an involvement of multiple servers and hence the website speed is also good because the load is spread across the multiple servers and the resources of the multiple servers are being utilized. Also, there is the involvement of multiple servers which results in speedy performance since the distance of the servers from the clients also plays an important role in the website loading time. Since there are multiple servers, some of them may be kept in Australia, America, the UK, etc. due to which some servers may be near to the users, and hence the speed can be increased for the website loading, due to the short distance.

List of Best and top hosting companies.

The top and best website hosting providers are as follows:

So above was the top and most famous web hosting provider. But if you prefer the hosting providers which are recommended by WordPress are:

Blue host
Dream host
Site ground

You can select any of the hosting providers of your own choice since all of them have different plans and offers.

Is Bluehost good for web/website hosting?

Yes absolutely, Bluehost is one of the best hosting providers, and also this hosting company is recommended by “WordPress” officially. They can provide you with various options such as shared hosting, VPS hosting, WordPress managed-to-host, and dedicated hosting. Customer support is also very effective, at the time of purchase they ask for your mobile no, through which they can recognize you and also your domain name if you call them with your registered mobile no, they will help you instantly.

Blue Host is also famous for the uptime which they provide and also the hosting plans are at a very affordable cost.

What is bandwidth?

Bandwidth is referred to as the flow of the amount of data/second or (rate of flow of data). Let’s crack the above statement of the bandwidth in a simple form to understand the bandwidth with examples.

Since we all know that bandwidth is a term used in the field of networks and websites. Let’s take an example of a website. Each website is hosted on a physical or remote server. Each server has a specific amount of bandwidth and the bandwidth of a shared hosted server is divided among the multiple websites. Bandwidth In terms of a web hosting server is referred to as the maximum uploading capacity of the server or the amount of data that can be delivered per user.

Just take an example to understand the concept of bandwidth:

You have a website; with traffic of 2000 daily visitors. The average page size of your website is 3 MB and the average page view by each visitor is 3 pages.

Then the amount of the data to be delivered or uploaded by your server to the device of your visitor will be 2000 x 3MB x number of average page views which is 3 = 18000 MB.

Then this 18000 MB or 1.8 GB will be your daily bandwidth amount. This means that you will need 18000 MB x 30 (number of days in a month) = 5,40,000 MB which is 540 GB.

So above was only an example, the actual bandwidth required for a normal website is far less than the example we have seen.

What is unlimited bandwidth in hosting?

Many hosting providers show that they are providing unlimited bandwidth, but all those things are a joke. Actually, these are the marketing tactics, there are always some limits to the bandwidth data for every user, nearly you will get 5 to 10 GB of bandwidth with shared, VPS, or managed-to-host. If you will be using more resources in shared or managed to host then the hosting providers will ask you to upgrade your plans. So the unlimited bandwidth shown by the hosting providers is limited. When you are about to purchase the hosting plan with any of the hosting providers then always ask them about the monthly number of users that can be handled with your plan, and after you got the number of monthly users then you can easily find out the bandwidth which will be provided to you by using the above formula.

Bandwidth vs. speed?

So many people take bandwidth as a speed, but this is not true, bandwidth does not speed but can affect the speed at which the content will be delivered. Let’s understand this with an example.

Now you have hosted your website somewhere on a remote server, and the bandwidth provided per user is 3 MB/ user. But if your website has a lot of traffic and your bandwidth is still 3 MB/user, then many visitors coming to your website will feel the slow loading instead they have a good internet connection.

What should be the bandwidth for a website?

So to find out the answer to this question we have to take an example, such as:

You have a monthly visitor of 3000/month, and the average page size is 60 KB, with an average page view (number of average pages that every visitor of your website visits) is 3 pages.

Now the required bandwidth will be as follows:

3000 x 60 x 3 = 5,40,000 KB or 540 MB or 0.54 GB

So with the above details, your website will need less than a GB of bandwidth.

You can find your average page views and average page size by using Google search console.

What is CDN?

Here CDN stands for “content delivery network”. This is a network formed by multiple servers present all over the world to deliver content to users of the World Wide Web. Since the information is kept on different servers located in different countries and the information should be passed to the end-user sitting elsewhere in the world, then there is a need arises to make a Delivery network through which the contents will be delivered to the end-user. For this purpose, the various servers of the entire world have been connected to spread information worldwide.