What actually is web hosting?
Quick answer
Hosting is renting space on a powerful computer (a server) that stores your website’s files and serves them to anyone who visits, 24 hours a day. When you pay a hosting bill, you are paying for that computer, its internet connection, and the people keeping it running.
What your money buys
- Storage: disk space for your pages, images and databases.
- Serving power: the processor and memory that build and send pages when people visit.
- The connection: a fast, always-on line to the internet.
- Upkeep: security patches, hardware repairs, and someone on call when things break at 3am.
Typical costs
Rough UK pricing
Shared hosting (small sites)£3 to £15 a month
Managed / business hosting£15 to £60 a month
VPS or dedicated£20 to hundreds a month
The bit people miss
Hosting quality is invisible until it is not. A cheap, overloaded server means slow pages, which costs you visitors and Google rankings. It is one of the few products where paying £5 more a month can measurably earn you money.
The takeaway
- Hosting is the always-on computer your website lives on.
- Small business sites typically cost £3 to £60 a month depending on quality.
- Slow hosting quietly costs enquiries; it is worth a few pounds more.
Want it handled instead of explained?
Everything in this article is included and looked after in every site I build. One monthly plan, no jargon, no surprises.
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