Application Hosting Providers

There are a few things you need if you want to become a part of the online world and create a personal or a business website - a domain name, a hosting account, and the actual website files that people will see when they type your domain name in their browsers. All these services are supplied by web hosting providers that make it possible for a web page created on your computer to be visible online all around the world. A hosting provider is a company that sells disk space on its servers where people can upload their website files. Each person gets a hosting account to manage files, email and FTP accounts, or to create databases for script-driven web design applications like Joomla, Mambo or WordPress. All these things are managed through a hosting Control Panel tool that can be accessed with any web browser from any location. This could be a third-party panel such as cPanel or DirectAdmin, or the company may have its own Control Panel, such as the Hepsia Control Panel offered by NTC Hosting, which is easier and more intuitive to use, highly customizable and with more functions compared to other Control Panel tools.

There are different services offered by hosting providers. Most of them offer free or paid shared web hosting services since this is the cheapest type of hosting and many people are looking for it. As the system resources per account are limited, the shared hosting solution is suitable for small or medium-size websites. For a resource-demanding website with thousands of hits, some companies also offer the more powerful virtual and dedicated servers. The difference between the two is that the first one involves virtual machines created on a physical server and sharing its resources, while the second one is a whole machine rented by a single client where the only limitation is the server hardware.

All servers are located in datacenters that are either owned by the hosting provider, or by third-party companies that offer space and infrastructure to hosting providers. These facilities ensure the flawless work of the servers as they provide alternative power supplies and have at least a few different Internet providers so that all systems would remain active in case of an infrastructure problem. The staff also monitors and maintains the conditions in all server rooms to keep the temperature and humidity optimal.

Each hosting provider has one or more web pages where you can see more information about their server hardware and the datacenter(s) where the servers are located. You can also see a detailed comparison of all the features of the hosting plans they are offering, so you can choose the right plan for your website and avoid paying for a plan and not using all its resources, or paying for a plan that cannot bear the load generated by your site. A custom website with a lot of information and several means of contacting the provider can help you distinguish a genuine hosting company from a reseller.

The service that comes with the hosting plans also depends on the particular provider. While with the shared hosting solution the company manages the servers in all cases, with a VPS or a dedicated server there are two options - managed and unmanaged hosting solutions. With the first, the provider does everything the client needs - software updates, troubleshooting procedures, installation of third-party software, etc. With the second option, all these services are an optional upgrade, while the basic plan features do not include them and anything related to the software on the server is a client's responsibility.

As hosting providers often sell domain names as well, and many of them offer one or more web design tools, any hosting account type will come with everything that you need to start your web presence. Due to the level of automation today, you don't need any coding skills or web design experience to be able to create professional websites.