Once your new website is live, it’ll need a place to call home. In other words, it’ll need a host. This is also known as ‘Web Hosting,’ and it’s where your website lives on the internet. It’s where your site’s files are stored so they can be accessed online.
It can be a little confusing to understand. It’s easier to compare it to a landlord and tenant.
Web Hosting: Tenancy Contracts For Websites
Picture this: you’ve just rented some land, and you want to build a house on it.
In this analogy, you rent the land from a landlord, and then pop your new house on it. You decide to host a house-warming when that’s done, and tell everyone to visit your new house by giving people the address.
In the Website World, the land you rent is the web host. It’s basically a little space on the internet, on which you can set up shop. The house is your website. The address is the website’s domain name; the thing you tell everyone so that they know where to find it.
It’s as simple as that.
But there are a few different types of web hosting to be aware of, and some definitions to get you started.
Type One: Shared Hosting
Shared Web Hosting is when your website shares memory, disk space, and resources with other websites on a single server. Sharing is caring, after all.
It’s a cost-effective and simple way to start a website, especially for small businesses and individuals. The hosting provider sorts out all your maintenance and manages the resources for you. How kind!
However, you should know: there can be performance issues if your site, or one of the others on the server, experiences a lot of traffic.
Type Two: Virtual Private Server (VPS)
A VPS means that one server is divided into multiple virtual servers, and you get your own special section of it.
That means that you get your own operating system, storage, RAM, and data transfer limits. All your own resources, as your own part of a virtual server.
VPS is a life-saver when it comes to high traffic or memory-usage. These won’t affect your business at all if you have one. You can be confident in better performance and greater security.
All that, and you’re still hosting a website that’s relatively cost-effective and scalable as your business grows. Look at you go!
A VPS does, however, require that you have some knowledge of tech, or choose a good provider to support you with the technical know-how. (We happen to know one)!
Type Three: Cloud Hosting
A cloud provides a network of virtual servers, rather than any single physical one. It replicates files across a group of virtual servers.
Cloud web hosting is a modern and flexible type of hosting. It’s also great because it’s highly scalable and accessible anywhere there’s internet access — so, from quite a few places! You can also opt for pay-as-you-go models of cloud web hosting, so it’s not too much of a financial commitment.
Type Four: Dedicated Hosting
With dedicated web hosting, the whole server is yours. You’ve all the power, with full control over the server, operating system, software, and security settings. You’re also allocated all the resources like RAM and storage, which can improve site performance.
In short, you’re able to rent the whole physical server. Because of this, it can be slightly pricier, but you can weigh up things like increased flexibility, scalability and security within that.
Of course, with great power comes great responsibility. Make sure you’ve got someone nearby with tech knowledge to support you with your full control of the site.
What Should You Prioritise With Web Hosting?
When it comes to selecting your web host, make a list and tick off a few things:
- Security – is this host best-placed to ensure that transactions carried out and data shared on my site are kept encrypted and secure?
- Traffic Spikes – will this web host be able to adapt to and support the needs of my customers, especially during times with higher web traffic? (It’s a good idea to think about your industry, your business, and the likelihood of frequent traffic spikes for you, personally)
- Scalability – will my site be able to grow and change as my business does? Or is it limited to the size at which it starts?
- Value For Money – when I pay for my web host, am I getting as much as I deserve?
Too Confusing? Meet Zap Host (We’ll Do It All For You!)
With Zap Host, we offer hosting solutions that are custom-made, with online competition and raffle sites like yours in mind.
We recognise that no two websites are the same, and that no two websites have the same needs. So, Zap Host is a little bit different to the others out there.
Firstly, it’s designed with traffic spikes in mind. Competitions, by their nature, have specific days where traffic is higher than others; those are prize draw days, and those few hours before the competition’s deadline. With Zap, you can be confident in your web host’s ability to cope with the strain.
It’s also aaaall about the good-old scalability: Zap Host grows as your business does, ensuring speed and efficiency throughout the process.
Finally, Zap Host is incredibly secure. Even more secure than Area 51. It includes advanced protection measures, to keep transactions safe and secure. Team Zap is big on Secure Payment Systems (psssst… we even made our own!).
And Now… Please, Welcome Your Hosts: Zap!
Phew, all this technological speak is a lot, right!? Luckily, the team at Zap are technological whizzes. Web design doesn’t have to be complicated; you can always Zap it.
