HOSTING / PUBLISH A WEBSITE
Web Hosting Explained
Web hosting runs the files and software that make a website available. The important choice is not just disk space: it is whether the service can run your kind of site and who maintains it.
What You Are Buying
A static site serves prepared HTML, images and scripts. A content management system (CMS), such as WordPress, also needs application software and usually a database. A website builder bundles an editor with hosting, but its export options may be limited. Shared hosting places customer accounts on the same server; a managed website plan adds specified maintenance tasks. These labels describe different things and can overlap.
When You Would Use It
- A portfolio or brochure site needs publishing, HTTPS and dependable delivery; it may not need a database or a server you administer.
- A regularly edited publication or shop may need a CMS, staging, database backups and compatible extensions.
- Reseller hosting lets an agency allocate accounts to clients. It does not automatically make the agency’s customer support or recovery work the upstream host’s responsibility.
What You Still Manage
You normally remain responsible for your content, account security and permitted use. Clarify who patches the CMS, themes and plugins, who tests updates, and who restores a broken site. “Managed” must refer to a written scope.
Privacy Considerations
The host, CDN and application can process visitor IP addresses, request paths and stored website data. Contact forms, analytics and plugins may add other recipients. Ask which access logs are collected, whether URLs can contain personal data, who can read production data and how long copies remain. A private control panel does not make the published website private.
Compare provider access, logs, retention and encryption →
Consumption, Allowances & “Unlimited”
Look for total storage, file-count limits (often called inodes), CPU time, memory, concurrent processes, database size, site count and data transfer. “Unlimited websites” can mean many names sharing one small resource pool—not a new allowance for every site. Unmetered transfer may still have a port-speed or fair-use restriction.
Read the plan’s resource limits and acceptable-use policy together. Ask what happens at the threshold: an extra charge, reduced speed, rejected requests or suspension. Understand the billing language →
Questions to Ask Before Buying
- Which runtimes and database versions are supported, and for how long?
- What happens when CPU, transfer, file count or storage hits its limit?
- Are backups separate from my website quota, and is restoring included?
- Can I export the full website and database without keeping this subscription?
The takeaway: Buy for the application and maintenance you need—not the largest advertised site count.