What is Web Hosting?

So you have a business, an idea, a hobby, or even a list of resources that you want to share with the world, and you’re trying to figure out how you’re going to do it the easiest and quickest way possible. Well, wonder no more!
Using web hosting is probably the best way to share your ideas, products, resources, and so much more and it’s so easy to do as well.
What is web hosting? Simply put, it gives you your own little piece of the internet. It’s your own little home on the World Wide Web and it’s surprisingly easy to get, set up, and run. Actually, it basically runs itself once you have it set up and all that you have to worry about afterwards is updating your website content as you see fit.
Web hosting allows you to use your internet connection and build your home online. Your web hosting account lets you upload web pages, document files, databases, music files, video files, and all kinds of other items that you want to share on the internet with your friends or customers.
You can pay for web hosting or you can use a free web hosting service. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, so let’s go though that now.

Free Web Hosting
Free web hosting is great to use if you want to share your resources, like pictures, short videos or informative documents. The best part of free web hosting is that it’s free, and there are more and more services like this becoming available on the internet.
Of course, the free price tag comes at a cost. If those free sites have problems, you may lose all of your items that you’re sharing. You can always keep a copy of everything on your computer, but then you’d have to re-upload everything to several different sites to make it available again. Also, most free web hosting services have limits on the amount of web hosting space that you can use and will make you pay for a premium service if your needs are more than what their free service allows. The biggest drawback to these services is that they are full of ads (They need to make their money somehow!). This looks very unprofessional to prospective clients.
If your web site is not of a business nature, then free hosting may work well for you. Or at least, offer a great start into website ownership.

Paid Web Hosting
Paid web hosting, on the other hand, has several advantages. There are a lot less limitations on the use of these services. And having hosting with a reputable company allows you more security than what free web hosting services provide, most often backing up data and having several safeguards in place to prevent servers from going down or losing data.
Of course, the down side to paid web hosting is that you actually have to pay for it, and you almost always get what you pay for. Most paid web hosting companies offer both monthly and yearly payment options. I suggest that you try the monthly plan first, that way you can see how the company operates and how their service and support is before you are tied in for a long time.

So there you have it. Web hosting, whether free or paid, is easy to get and easy to set up. Usually all that you have to do is have a valid email address, setup a username and a password, and upload your data and you’re a part of the World Wide Web!