Terminology and Concepts to Understand Before Shopping for a Hosting Provider
In the previous blog, I discussed the terminology and concepts on the Domain Name Provider side of things.
The important thing to remember is that the Domain Name Provider doesn’t necessarily need to be the Hosting Provider. You do have flexibility in which company you register your domain with as well as which company will host it.
The order loosely follows the flow of how I came across them in my research.
Hosting Provider
Web Server/Server
Locally Hosted
Local Host/localhost
Shared Server
Virtual Private Server (VPS/Private Server)
Dedicated Server
Cloud Hosting
Bandwidth/Traffic/Data Transfer
SSL Certificate (Secure Sockets Layer)
Wildcard SSL
Email @ Your Domain
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Cache
Caching
SQL Database
WordPress
Hosting Provider
This is the company that runs and maintains the web server your web files (HTML, CSS, images, databases etc. ) will be hosted on.
Web Server/Server
It’s a computer that stores web files that can be accessed by a client/web browser.
For me, this conjures up an image of a sterile room full of rows and rows of tall cabinet-like structures stacked to the brim with pure storage drives.
Locally Hosted
This applies to all the files of a website when they’re stored on your personal computer (or maybe even a personal server if you’ve invested in one). During development and testing, this is where files are usually stored and they’re not available to the public (unless you configure it to make it public).
It is possible to host your own website and make it public but that’s generally not recommended due to slow loading times and potential security issues.
Local Host/localhost
Think of this as a local domain name with the IP address of 127.0.0.1
When you type http://localhost into the browser, it looks to your computer system for the content instead of through the internet to an external server.
Typing in 127.0.0.1 is the same as going to http://localhost
The 127 block indicates that you don’t want to access the internet and that you’ll access the local machine.
I know from working with Ruby, JavaScript and React projects that the default is http://localhost:3000. If you’re opening multiple files to preview or you’re testing the frontend and backend files, you can tell it to open on a different port # or it will default to something like port 3001.
Shared Server
This is one of the main types of hosting available and is good for small and simple sites that won’t have a lot of traffic (maybe a few thousand visitors). Your website files will share the same web server and bandwidth as other website files that also live on that server. Generally, the most affordable option and the best way to start out.
Virtual Private Server (VPS/Private Server)
This is another type of hosting that is great for medium-sized websites and some e-commerce. Your website files will still live on a server with neighboring websites BUT will have dedicated storage space and bandwidth that other websites on that server cannot use. With this added power, your site can handle more traffic and process more. And, of course, it does cost a little more.
Dedicated Server
This type of hosting is the most expensive and is best for enterprise-level big businesses who want reliability and the best performance.
Cloud Hosting
“a type of web hosting which uses multiple different servers to balance the load and maximize uptime. Instead of using a single server, your website can tap into a “cluster” that uses resources from a centralized pool. This means that even if one server fails, another kicks in to keep everything running.” — Hostinger
Bandwidth/Traffic/Data Transfer
To get technical, this is “the number of bytes required to transfer your site to all of your visitors when they browse your content.”
Some web hosting providers and plans will put a limit on the daily or monthly bandwidth allowed (or even how many visitors are allowed) to prevent the server from crashing.
SSL Certificate (Secure Sockets Layer)
This is essential to “encrypt your website and customer data, and make sure no outside hacker can steal it.” It will encrypt data such as email and credit card numbers that flow between the visitor and your website.
You can tell a website has an SSL certificate because it begins with the protocol ‘https://’ instead of the unsecured ‘http://’.
Also, if you care about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Google ranks sites with an SSL certificate higher than those without.
Wildcard SSL
It is a SSL certificate with an asterisk (*), also known as a wildcard character, in the domain name field. There are a handful of wildcard characters but the asterisk (*) represents zero or more characters. Essentially, it allows one SSL certificate to secure multiple sub-domains of the same base domain.
Email @ Your Domain
If you want this feature, you should look for a plan that includes it or gives you the option to pay extra for it.
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
This is a network of servers all over the world that utilizes caching to “reduce hosting bandwidth, helping to prevent interruptions in service, and improving security.” The end result is the speedy delivery of content such as HTML files, JavaScript files, CSS files, images and etc.
Note, you’ll still need a hosting provider but if you feel your website isn’t performing as well as you’d like then you should look into CDN.
Big companies like Facebook, Netflix and Amazon use CDN services.
Cache
It’s a “reserved storage location that collects temporary data to help websites, browsers, and apps load faster.”
Caching
The process of storing copies of files in a cache so they can be quickly accessed.
SQL Database
If your website includes a database, such as for an inventory of goods being sold on an e-commerce site or account info for several customers, you will need to make sure you have enough server storage space as well as to double-check that the hosting provider offers support for the database management system you built your website with.
For example, Dreamhost provides support for MySQL meanwhile, a hosting provider like Heroku supports PostgreSQL.
WordPress
I’m not going to go too in depth on WordPress since I have no experience with it and don’t really need it to build a website. I’ll explore it someday, though. Basically, it’s a popular open-source Content Management System (CMS) to create simple websites, blogs and eCommerce sites.
In the perspective of shopping for a hosting provider, you’ll notice a lot of plans and services geared towards those that use WordPress software to build their website.
In a future blog, I’m going to shop around and compare a few domain name/hosting providers and take the plunge to set up a basic website.
Stay tuned!
