What is Website Hosting?
Simply put, website hosting or web server is the place where a website is housed. This article that you are reading now is accessed from a hosting server located somewhere in Malaysia. Just like a physical house that has an address to locate them, websites work the same way with the world wide web link (www).
How is the Website Accessed?
When you search in Google for “website designers in Malaysia”, Google will search a huge database of websites that contain that word. Websites that contain this information are picked out and listed for you. Each search result points to unique website addresses located in web servers all around the world. Website addresses are usually in the form of numbers called IP Addresses. These IP Addresses point to the exact location of the web server where the website is saved. You can learn more about this in our other article about website domains.
Is Website Hosting Free?
Is there a free home anywhere in this world? Everything comes with a cost in one form or another. There are many free web hosting available but you are paying for them in the form of advertisements. Other free website hosting such as InfinityFree may be 100% free without ads, but they are heavily limited (lightweight) to encourage you to upgrade to a premium. We recommend free website hosting for students and freelancers who wish to learn what websites can do. However, we do not recommend businesses for free website hosting because 3rd party advertisements affect business credibility. While it is okay to test free website hosting, we do not recommend storing valuable information as you may not know how these companies handle your data. If you decided to try them out, please read their privacy policy if there are concerns.
Why is Website Hosting Expensive?
Just like when you buy a home, there are many costs involved. We use this analogy because web hosting works just like a home for your website. Web servers are storage locations that host websites and transmit them to users who request their access. The costs of website hosting usually consist of server maintenance, data protection, and rental of storage space to name a few. These servers are running 24/7 and are maintained to ensure a 99.999% uptime. Businesses depend on their uptime availability to have uninterrupted access to their many potential customers. You are also paying for qualified technical support to handle periodic backups and solve technical queries. Is website hosting expensive and worth your money? We recommend businesses to go for paid web hosting services, its returns will certainly outweigh its costs in all dimensions. After all, you are only paying a small annual fee considering it provides seamless availability of your website.