Web hosting

Web hosting is a service which allocates space for customers to showcase their websites on computer servers that are connected to the internet 24/7. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own or lease for use by their clients as well as providing internet connectivity in a data center. The scope of hosting services varies widely. The most basic is web page and small scale file hosting, where files can be uploaded through File Transfer Protocol or a web interface. Personal web site hosting is typically free where as business web site hosting often has a higher expense.

Single page hosting is generally sufficient only for personal web pages A complex site calls for a more comprehensive package that provides database support and application development platforms. These facilities allow the customers to write or install scripts for applications like forums and content management. The host may also provide an interface or control panel for managing the web server and installing scripts as well as other services like e-mail. Some hosts specialize in certain software or services. They are commonly used by larger companies to outsource network infrastructure to a hosting company.

There are various types of web hosting services, such as free web hosting service, shared web hosting service, reseller web hosting, virtual dedicated server, dedicated hosting service, managed hosting service, colocation web hosting service, cloud hosting, grid hosting, clustered hosting, and etc. Free web hosting is offered by different companies with limited services, sometimes advertisement supported web hosting and is often limited when compared to paid hosting. Cloud hosting is a new type of hosting that allows customers powerful, scalable and reliable hosting based on clustered load-balanced servers and utility billing. Removing single-point of failures and allowing customers to pay for only what they use versus what they could use. Grid hosting is a form of distributed hosting in which a server cluster acts like a grid and is composed of multiple nodes.

Reseller web hosting allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Resellers could function for individual domains under any combination of these listed types of hosting depending on who they are affiliated with as a provider. Resellers' accounts may vary tremendously in size: they may have their own virtual dedicated server to a collocated server. Many resellers provide a nearly identical service to their provider's shared hosting plan and provide the technical support themselves. In dedicated hosting service the user gets his own Web server and gains full control over it. Another type of Dedicated hosting is Self-Managed or Unmanaged. This is usually the least expensive for Dedicated plans. The user has full administrative access to the box, which means the client is responsible for the security and maintenance of his own dedicated box.

Colocation web hosting service similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the user owns the colo server, the hosting company provides physical space that the server takes up and takes care of the server. This is the most powerful and expensive type of the web hosting service. In most cases the colocation provider may provide little to no support directly for their client's machine providing only the electrical, Internet access, and storage facilities for the server. In most cases for colo, the client would have his own administrator visit the data center on site to do any hardware upgrades or changes.

Web hosting is often provided as part of a general Internet access plan, there are many free and paid providers offering these services. A customer needs to evaluate the requirements of the application to choose what kind of hosting to use. Suchconsiderations include database server software, scripting software, and operating system. Most hosting providers provide Linux-based web hosting which offers a wide range of different software.