We answer 10 of the most asked questions that people often have regarding the web hosting.
1. Can I switch web hosting companies?
Yes, of course you can! Switching hosting from one provider to another consists of backing up and migrating your website content and database, installing the website on the new hosting space and checking everything works and then switching the domain name and / or the DNS for your domain to point at the new server. If you have email accounts provided by your current hosting provider you will need to migrate these as well.
2. Can I get web hosting for free?
Yes, but be prepared for disappointment. Like most things for “free” there will likely be a trade off. This will usually be that the site will be very, very slow. You may also find that your provider ceases trading quite quickly. Free is almost always a false economy.
3. How web hosting works?
Web hosting is storage space provided on a computer which is connected to the internet 24/7. Web server software sits in front of this disk storage space and translates and transmits physical files (images, videos etc) and HTML files (which can be generated by languages such as PHP or Javascript) requested by a website visitor. The web hosting space is accessed by a visitor typing a domain name into a browser. The browser converts the textual domain name entered into a browser (e.g example.com) into a number string (e.g. 151.1.1.1) using a system called DNS.
4. What web hosting should i use?
This depends on your requirements. By far the most popular web hosting is that which supports the coding language PHP. Content management systems such as WordPress, Joomla and Drupal all use PHP to generate the pages on the sites they serve.
5. What is the difference between web hosting and wordpress hosting?
Not really any. Some hosting companies may allow you only to create websites using WordPress. Others may allow you to install other software using PHP.
6. Which web hosting is best for beginners?
Difficult to say, but as a beginner the best web hosting would be one with plenty of free support offered if you get stuck.
7. Which web hosting is best for WordPress?
It depends on the amount of traffic your website is expecting, how quickly you want your site to respond and how much you want to spend. Whilst large companies may entice customers with low-cost offers of hosting they tend to pack tens or hundreds of websites onto each server. Your website is likely to be slow, very slow. As website speed is a ranking factor for Google this is likely to impact any SEO efforts you may make.
8. What web hosting do i need?
This depends on your requirements. 70% of all websites in the world run using PHP. If you are using WordPress, Drupal, Laravel or other frameworks you need PHP support in your hosting package.
9. What web hosting does Amazon use?
Amazon owns its own web hosting platform called Amazon Web Services (AWS) which they allow other companies to host websites on. This platform uses different technologies designed to bear heavy loads from millions of customers at once.
10. What web hosting does Google use?
As with Amazon, Google has its own hosting platform called Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Although they don’t have the same level of e-commerce sales on this platform as Amazon the GCP is used as the back-end to the Google search engine.