Web Hosting
You must select and contract with a Web Hosting Provider to host your site.
Your Web Hosting:
- creates a place for your site’s files to reside on the provider’s server.
- maintains the background environment for file organization, access and backup, usually cPanel.
- provides the ‘bandwith’ required for your site’s data to be sent out to browsers
- and ultimately, makes your site available to visitors around the world through the internet.
Hosting Plans vary widely in terms of:
- available features and services.
- plan/contract duration.
- setup fees and monthly or annual costs.
- service and support.
Flexible starter plans at reasonable rates are offered by:
I would STRONGLY caution you against going with GoDaddy for domains or hosting. They have a reputation for being slick in how they get you in the door. Once you’re in, they tend to forget all about you. And, like Hotel California, you can never leave. You’ve been warned.
Many people choose the HostGator Hatchling Plan and are quite pleased with it. However, unless something has changed, it will support only one URL and therefore one website.
For very little more money, HostMonster and BlueHost (sister companies) offer plans which support an unlimited* number of websites. I personally started with HostMonster.
Eventually your site will out-grow a ‘shared hosting’ account such as those shown above and you will need to upgrade to VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting.
VPS is considerably more expensive, but the good news is, your site will be making more than enough money to support the added costs.
*Unlimited sounds great and it is, but there are restrictions on the number of files you are allowed to maintain. Trust me when I say it won’t be an issue for quite some time. But, I feel that you should be aware of all the facts.
OK. By now you should have chosen and purchased a Hosting plan for your new website. Time to start setting up your new server account.
