One of the most common questions people have when they set out to create a website is where to host it. Remember that a website is a collection of web pages, graphics, script files, and anything else associated with the website. These files need to be stored on a computer that is accessible to other people. This computer that other people can access is also called a server or a host. When a server stores your files and allows others to access them, it can be said to be hosting your website. Deciding where to host your website’s files is extremely important and should be planned and researched like any other part of the process.
Working with Different Types of Hosting Services:
After you have chosen the type of hosting you want, your job might not be complete. In fact, you might spend as much time researching the available services as you did choosing the type of hosting.
Free Services
Several free hosting solutions exist on the Internet. I profile a couple of them here, but this is by no means a complete list, and new site hosts show up every day. Before signing up, review the features of the site and the terms of service and use, read reviews of the service, and if possible, look at sites that use the free hosting service. Remember that although all these sites will host your website for free, they do come with limitations. The following sections describe a few of the best free services for web hosting.
Google Sites:
Google Sites makes things as free and easy as its search engine is. Google’s emphasis with Google Sites is connecting people in groups as easily as possible. If you are interested in Google Sites make sure to watch the introduction tutorial. Google Sites allows easy text editing, attachments, and comments. The page creation tool allows easy linking, addition of images, and creation of new pages. It has page templates for commonly created pages with programming already added. Google also allows you to let other people change your site if you are working on the website as a team. You can easily customize your pages and no HTML is required. If you like Google Sites, it also offers expanded services for a monthly fee.
Bravenet Hosting:
Bravenet offers a limited free hosting service. This is more of an introduction to its pay services but if you are in desperate need of free hosting it may work, in a pinch. Setup is fairly easy, but it allows next-to-no features for your website and a limited amount of space and bandwidth. To allow for free service, Bravenet places ads on your page. If you are not interested in allowing ads on your site, Bravenet offers ad-free site hosting, for a fee, which also includes more features.
php hosting:
PHP is the most popular programming language and they have collected the best hosting plans supporting it. It also offers more technical features, such as running PHP scripts and connecting to a MySQL database. If you don’t know what those things are, don’t worry—you don’t need to. The idea here is that you need some technical knowledge to use the advanced features of this site. For further information, you can check out some reviews about safe and reliable php hosting services.
Low-Cost Commercial Sites:
If you are doing anything more than the basics, you probably should spend some money on a low-cost commercial web hosting company. If you are going to spend any money on your website, I would make this the first place you go. A good hosting company can give you so much in terms of features, space, and peace of mind that it makes the low monthly fee well worth it.
WPWebHost:
Your One-Stop WordPress Hosting Solution. WPWebHost specializes in hosting WordPress powered websites. With our WordPress hosting optimized server & WordPress-savvy team, you have all the reasons to host your WordPress blog with our WordPress hosting solution.
Windows Live Spaces:
Microsoft’s Windows Live Spaces (see Figure 2.3) offers a space for MSN or Microsoft Live users to store photos, lists, and blog entries. It is limited in its features but is simple to use. In essence, it is not really hosting any kind of website, but it does give you a web presence if you want a simple one.
Here are a few of the better-known low-cost commercial sites. They all have tons of features and make setting up an excellent website much easier.
- DreamHost
- Go Daddy
- Host Gator
- Blue Host
- Host Monster – Power house web hosting company on the web that has earned a good reputation on the web.
Other Resources:
When trying to decide which web hosting service to go with, take the time to read what people are saying about it. Substantiate the claims each service makes by researching the service. You might find that a web service that sounds too good to be true actually adds viruses or other harmful software to your computer or website. In addition, new web hosting services appear constantly on the Internet. Keeping track of them all would be impossible, so let someone else do it for you. Web hosting sites are always being reviewed, and here are some of the websites that review those services:
? Free Web Hosting — A rating site for free web hosting services
? FreeWebspace.net — A searchable guide to free web hosting
? FindMyHost — Reviews and ratings of web hosting services