Introduction

The appearance and the security of your website is an integral part of your business, customers navigate the place like a supermarket. And any type of deficiency can easily make anyone snap their finger to close it or make them click the “go back” button. This is something most business owners fail to address, deeming it light as if it doesn’t affect their organization overall but that’s where they’re wrong. 

As a customer myself, I do not want a website that loads slower than how a turtle walks or go through a website that gives me the scare of unprotection, exposing me to higher risks of privacy issues. 

The real deal breaker for me is the SSL certificate. If a website doesn’t have it, don’t bother getting on my good side because I already hate you.

Appearance wise, I don’t really care if you’re not great at color combinations or your website is looking more dull than a lunch meal in a western public school, if it navigates me through the right pages and the right location then we’re onto something good.

What is Web hosting?

Web hosting is basically an online service that is provided for individuals, organizations, or businesses to make their website accessible on the internet. So when someone types a business name on google or search engines, they will be able to find it and view whatever is inside the website without getting the error pages. 

It’s easy to understand, right? Now stay with me.

How Does Web Hosting Work?

I’ll make things simple for you. Hosting is like renting a place of your own, the hosting provider is the owner of the flat, the flat is the server while you, on the other hand, represent your website. Now you rent a space on this physical server which allows you to store all your belongings like website’s files and data.

The hosts then provide you with all the technology and resources required to have an effective and secure connection for your website. They now have the responsibility to keep the server up and running, executing necessary security measures and making sure that data and all other types of files are transferred successfully to the visitor’s browsers.

In this article, we will be answering web hosting-related questions including the question “Why Choose vHost for Web Hosting Needs?”

Hang on, you’re in for a good ride with this one. 

What is the purpose of a hosting service?

So aside from the fact that having a working website for your business makes it one step ahead in the game, the security and privacy of accessing your website is also in the picture. Providing the infrastructure and resources needed to manage, store, and serve the files and data that make up a website are all the purpose of availing a hosting service.

What are the different types of hosting?

Shared Hosting

To be honest, shared hosting is like having roommates. It’s like sharing a server with other hosting accounts, so we’re pretty much just talking about the price and it is the cheapest way of hosting a website. 

But of course we all know that sharing doesn’t really go well with the word “Optimal ” and it’s up to the hosts on how well they will manage all the websites sharing the same server. 
Overall, it’s an excellent solution for small businesses and personal websites that do not require advanced configuration or higher bandwidth compared to bigger organizations. It’s cheap and simple, and it’s a great option, you’ve really got nothing to lose.

Managed Hosting

From the word itself “Managed” It’s a type of hosting that is managed by experienced administrators, the server is exclusive for you but someone’s handling it on your behalf. It can be customized to the customers likings, and fit the requirements of a customer’s specific needs.

Managed hosting plans are usually offering the service with a service-level agreement (SLA) which is technically a document that highlights the commitment of a service provider to provide for the clients requirements, this includes the standards they must adhere to and the metrics to measure the overall performance.

Dedicated Hosting

So, you decided to just have an entire physical server for your site(s). 

It’s all yours and you don’t have to share it with anyone, you get to choose the type of hardware and software to use and basically have the freedom to do whatever you want with it. The most flexible arrangement for big organizations actually, it is a more reliable option compared to shared hosting that offers better performance as you don’t get to share it with anyone else. 

And you don’t want me to start with security because there’s a greater degree in this specific hosting choice.

Cloud Hosting

Perfect for eCommerce shops or any types of businesses with multiple websites and large-scale sites. Technically, cloud based web hosting relies on a cluster of servers to function, allowing for the content of the website to be spread across multiple servers making it an easier way to scale. Cloud hosting is a reliable type of hosting, its flexibility sets it apart from any other hosting services. 

Colocation Hosting

An advanced type of hosting that’s actually only used by large businesses. 

Very similar to dedicated hosting, you get the option to upgrade your website and your resources but you need to buy your own hardware and software and you can only rent a space in a data center which makes it the most reliable type of hosting especially for large-scale business that gets a massive amount of traffic.

The flexibility of this hosting is incomparable, because it’s your hardware and you can configure it however you want. 

Do I really need hosting? 

Well, having a website is already a good enough reason to avail a hosting service. 

Though you might wanna consider the type of hosting you want to avail in that case, especially for startup businesses and single websites. That is why it’s important to learn the differences of these web hosting services, the more you know, the easier it is to narrow down your list.

How to choose the right web hosting company?

Deciding which web hosting company to trust when it comes to hosting is not an easy task, you are required to consider a lot of factors and not just the price.

Here’s a short list of things to analyze before availing a web hosting service from a web hosting company like vHost:

Web Host’s Uptime 

Frequent and unexpected downtime can be a little bit frustrating and it will impact your business and customers’ trust. Make sure to look for the web hosting company’s advertised percentage uptime and the fair terms of service they offer as this reflects their commitment of bringing high quality hosting services to their customers. 

Online Reviews

And just like online shopping, customer reviews are just as important for web hosting services. While it’s easy for these web hosting companies to say that they offer the best of services, people who have tried and experienced it one hand are the type of people that actually tells how a provider’s servers actually perform in real time.

Security

Look for the advanced security measures they implement and ensure that the hosting provider is well-equipped to protect your website from malware or DDoS attacks. Literally the most important thing to look for in a web hosting company because it will protect your website from different types of digital risks.

24/7 Customer Support

It applies to all businesses honestly, a web hosting company that has poor customer support is a huge red flag. If you cannot reach their customer support, make sure to run and never look back. 

Web hosting companies with great 24/7 customer support that you can contact when your website encounters unexpected lags, crashes or security breaches are the best companies to choose. A big bonus if they also provide support resources such as blogs or knowledge bases.

Additional Services

Hosting plans usually come with additional services, like SSL certificates or content-delivery network (CDN). While it is optional, you might wanna put the web hosting companies that offer these additional services onto the top of your choices.

Why Choose vHost?

vHost offers various types of web hosting services but there are things that make them stand out among the rest which is why users are choosing them for all the hosting services they need. 

Reliability: vHost offers a robust infrastructure that ensures your website stays online with minimal downtime. Our powerful servers and redundant systems guarantee high uptime, keeping your website accessible to visitors and customers majority of the time.

Performance: Having cutting-edge hardware, caching solutions, and content delivery networks, our server ensures that your website can load quickly for optimized speed and performance.

Scalability: We understand that your needs might evolve over time. Our hosting plans are designed to scale seamlessly as your website grows, ensuring you never outgrow your hosting provider.

Security: Prioritizing the security of your website is our main priority, our hosting provides robust security features, proactive monitoring and regular updates to keep your website safe and secure from outside threats.

24/7 Support: With any issues you might encounter, do not hesitate to call our dedicated support team as they will happily assist you. Our customer support is 24/7 available for assistance on migrations, technical troubleshooting, advice on best practices and more.

User-Friendly: Our control panels and tools to efficiently manage your website and hosting settings are made user-friendly, a well-designed interface to assist you in your hosting journey.

Value: Investing in our services will not require you to spend a hefty amount of money, our services are made to be affordable and competitive without compromising its quality. 

About Us

For any type of hosting services, vHost is ready to assist and provide. Our web hosting company can cater to your web hosting needs with security and efficiency. We’re the #1 web hosting provider with 50+ worldwide data center and 459k supercharged websites. 

vHost cutting-edge hosting solutions, websites can experience the true power of a robust and reliable hosting environment. 

What is a DDoS?

Stands for Distributed Denial-Of-Service Attack – DDoS is a type of attack that sends an overwhelming flood of requests to disrupt the normal traffic that a website or a server receives to cause havoc and make it vulnerable.

DDoS is a total nightmare for online businesses as it prevents legitimate users from accessing the site and rendering it useless. 

How to Identify a DDoS Attack?

Some signs might just be because of some technical problems from your own server but there are particular and clear symptoms you can look through to identify a potential DDoS attack.

1. Server responding with 503 error due to service outage
2. Unusual traffic patterns that occurs at certain hours of the day 
3. Inability to access any website

The best sign to identify a DDoS attack would be via a network traffic monitoring and analysis which is possible with the use of firewall or intrusion detection systems. 

How to Prevent DDoS Attacks?

There’s really no specific type to prevent a DDoS attack but there are several practices you can implement that can lessen the potential of being a target. 

1. Scale up your bandwidth – Talk about expanding the pathway, add more bandwidth if you notice an unusual amount of traffic.
   
2. Learn the symptoms of a DDoS attack – Run some manual tests, DDoS attacks are pretty easy to identify especially when your website receives a stable traffic.
   
3. Outsourcing DDoS protection – There are companies that specialize in scaling resources to respond to an identified DDoS attack, look for one and take advantage.
   
4. Consistent monitoring of unusual activity – Monitoring traffic in real-time is the best practice you can do to identify a DDoS attack, it will help you prevent it from completely happening.
   
5. Practicing good cyber hygiene – Prevention is better than cure, practice all the best security prevention such as changing passwords, using multiple authentication and so on.

What is a Service-level Agreement? 

Every company has different types of service-level agreements. 

And with every negotiation, it needs an intermediary. Service-level Agreements or SLAs are an effective way of mitigating setbacks such as ambiguities, unfulfilled commitments and miscommunications that occur between customers, service providers and internal departments. This also sets clear expectations from different parties before the start of any business relationship. 

Who uses SLAs?

IT companies are usually the ones that use the service-level agreements. But this also applies to businesses that offer other types of services.

SLAs can also exist between departments within a company. 

What is the Importance of SLAs?

SLAs establish trust and peace of mind for all parties involved which makes it an important component of any business procedure as it brings several benefits for organizations, teams and vendors.

This piece of document holds all the details of the service, and it holds different key components:

1. Goals of Stakeholders
2. List of Stakeholders
3. List of Services excluded from the Agreement
4. A backup plan if goals aren’t reached
5. Service performance metrics
6. Agreement overview
7. Service levels

Keeping a template of SLAs that caters the needs of stakeholders can come handy, it prepares you for any type of business situation that might occur. 

What is a CDN?

A content delivery network is a group of servers geographically distributed, allowing for a quick transfer of assets needed for websites such as loading content including javascript files, stylesheets, images, and videos. 

CDN can also stand for content distribution network, this network allows users to view website content even if they are far from the main server network. 

Is a CDN Important?

The main purpose of CDN is to reduce delay or latency in communication, the nature of communication to make requests going from the client to the server and with responses coming back makes it a two-way type. The internet is a complex and global invention, which means it has to move over large physical distances.

The CDN server improves efficiency by placing servers at the exchange points between different networks.

Keeping a website online is a critical component for anyone with an internet property, anything that can bring down a web server and prevent users from accessing a site or server must be avoided at all costs. 

What are Internet Exchange Points (IXPs)?

IXPs are the common grounds of IP networking, this is a physical location where internet infrastructure companies meet to connect with each other. 

CDN’s place data centers at strategic locations across the globe to enhance security and to survive various types of failures and congestion on the internet.  

What are the benefits of CDN?

1. Improve Load Times – The moment a website slows down, users drop it off as quickly as they can. CDN typically reduces file sizes by using tactics such as minification and file compression to make websites load quicker this includes reducing bounce rates.
   
2. Optimize Connection Reuse – CDNs speed up sites that use the TLS and SSL certificates by enabling TLS false restart and optimizing connection reuse.
   
3. Improve Website Security – A CDN can improve your website security by providing DDoS mitigation and other more optimizations.