Web hosting can range in cost from free to pennies a month to hundreds or even thousands of dollars. If you\u2019re contemplating setting up a website, you may wonder exactly what you get for your money. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The services that web hosting companies offer vary, but all of them share a basic set of costs that enable them to get your site up and running on the net. We\u2019re going to have a look at those costs and think about how free web hosting and very cheap web hosting companies pay for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For a company to offer web hosting, they need servers. Servers are usually high-power computers that are capable of processing lots of data and delivering it to web clients. Your average home computer can do much the same thing at a less efficient level, but hosting companies need specialist hardware that has lots of RAM, disk space, and processing power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Those servers need to be kept somewhere with a very fast connection to the Internet. They also need a lot of infrastructure to both keep them powered and keep them cool. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The power supply and the Internet connection must be very reliable with multiple sources of redundancy so that sites don\u2019t go down in the event of a power cut or a problem with some part of the Internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Housing servers in data centers that provide all of these facilities is expensive, and it\u2019s a cost that all hosting companies need to meet. Companies rent space on bigger hosting companies’ servers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some buy space in specialist companies’ data centers to keep their own servers (co-location). Others own their own data centers. Some use cloud infrastructure providers like Amazon’s Web Services. But in all cases, someone must pay for the basic infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hosting companies can\u2019t \u2014 unless they are very tiny \u2014 just plug their server into a cable modem. They need a reliable supply of very low latency and very high speed redundant bandwidth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mostly, hosting companies either pay bigger hosting companies for bandwidth or buy it from an ISP (Internet Service Provider) that has a point of presence in the data center where they keep their servers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maintaining servers, the software, and the associated infrastructure is a job for highly trained experts known as system administrators. They\u2019re the people behind the scenes that make sure your website is always available to its visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019ve seen a lot of hosting company advertising, you\u2019ll have noticed that they don\u2019t often talk about how great their servers are or how much bandwidth they offer; they instead talk about their support and customer service. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because web hosting is a complicated process and because web hosting clients often have very specific needs, hosting companies need to provide a point of contact with experts to help their clients. People don\u2019t often think about this, but support is one of the biggest costs associated with web hosting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some companies offer free hosting, most often as bait for future upgrades. As you\u2019ve seen, hosting costs money. Any company offering services for free or unlimited amounts of a resource like bandwidth is going to be paying for it somehow: some advertise on your site\u2019s pages, some sell your data, some will offer degraded service and try to up-sell you with premium features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Often free hosting plans have very strict limitations on the amount of bandwidth clients can use \u2014 the same is true of very cheap hosts: you\u2019ll have seen sites get pulled from the net when they get a sudden spike in visitors because they went over their bandwidth allocation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All honest hosting companies have bandwidth limitations on their hosting accounts because it\u2019s an expensive and finite resource; honest hosts are upfront about it, while less honest hosting companies will promise unlimited bandwidth but hide a \u201cfair use\u201d clause in the fine print.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Free hosting also almost never comes with anything approaching adequate levels of support or any guarantee of uptime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As with many things in life, you get what you pay for when it comes to web hosting. Premium hosts cost more. They offer better support and hardware. Service is more reliable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This isn’t always true. Some charge a lot, but do poorly. But, cheap hosts mean poor service. You won’t get good speed or uptime. Your hard work deserves better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Web hosting isn\u2019t just about picking the cheapest plan. It\u2019s about building on a solid foundation. Some providers advertise low prices. But they don\u2019t mention hidden fees limited resources or weak support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n