Hosting

Definition:

Hosting is the action that describes how storage and computing resources are provided to an individual or organization for the accommodation and maintenance of one or more websites and related services via a server.

Analogy:

Hosting is like an apartment building.

Imagine that you have an apartment within a building. There are tons of apartments within that one building.

The building is hosting your apartment, just as it is hosting all of your neighbors' apartments.

In other words:

Hosting is the action that gives a website a place to live on the internet.

Why is hosting important?

It's one thing to know what a term means, but that is worthless if you don't know why you should know what hosting is in the first place. Let's break down the importance of this tech term based on two high level categories. We'll walk through an explanation as well as provide a score, 1-10, that shows you how much you should care about hosting.

Pre-Product: 5/10

The first will be if you do not have a product yet. This means that you don't have a physical product. Maybe you're in the ideation phase, or maybe you're almost ready to start development. Whichever it is, we'll get into why hosting is important and why you should or shouldn't care about it if you do not have a product.

While you don't have anything to host just yet, you should start to plan ahead and figure out where you will be hosting your website/app/product. So, don't get stressed about it, but start figuring out which provider you want to use.

Live Product: 3/10

The second category is if you do have a live product. Maybe you just launched your business or maybe it's been live for years and you're continuing to improve its quality. Regardless of the scenario, if your product is live, software development carries a different weight.

Once you are hosted somewhere, there isn't much more to do. Make sure that you are paying your bills and that you are using the right provider, but as long as that is all set, it should be able to run behind the scenes seamlessly.

Examples of hosting

So you know what hosting is, by definition. You know if you should care about it or not depending on your situation as a business/company/product. To dig in deeper, we will walk through some examples so we can make sure you really have a solid grasp on hosting.

Three popular hosting providers:

There are plenty of hosting options out there, so we will walk through some of the common tools used to host your website.

1. Hostinger
   
   Hostinger is one of the highest recommending web-hosting platforms. When you compare quality with price, Hostinger sits at the top of the list.
   
2. WPEngine
   
   WPEngine is going to be a go-to hosting provider if you are using WordPress. It's an easy to use solution that focuses on its optimization with WordPress and simple user experience.
   
3. GreenGeeks
   
   GreenGeeks is an interesting hosting provider to touch on because of their eco-friendly approach. They focus on sustainability and reducing carbon footprints, so if you too are prioritizing the environment, check them out.

Key Takeaways:

1. Hosting is the action that gives a website a place to live on the internet.
   
2. If you don't have a product, start planning ahead as to where you will host your website.
   
3. If you do have a product, you should know who you are hosting with.
   
4. There are tons of hosting options out there, so choose one you best align with.