Website Hosting

Every website or application that wishes to be available and accessible to everyone over the internet needs to be available on the World Wide Web (www) server. Web hosting in simple terms is the service that provides storage space to a website or an application by uploading it on the server so that it is accessible to anyone connected to the internet.

Web hosting is a service rented out by web hosting providers (Bluehost). Once your website is hosted users can access it by entering the domain name in the URL section of their web browser.

To access your website, a user needs to follow these steps. The computer/mobile they access the website from connects to your website's hosting server. The server then serves the website to your user in their web browser. Note that the user accessing your website needs to be connected to the internet to access your website.

There are several types of web hosting options available to suit your website needs:

Shared Hosting: If you’re just starting out your website or blog, Shared Hosting is the best option. It is affordable as the server space is shared amongst websites
WordPress Hosting: If you have a WordPress blog/website then WordPress Hosting is the recommended option
VPS Hosting: VPS Hosting is the upgraded version of Shared Hosting. Although you do share website space with other websites the resources are not shared
Dedicated Hosting: Dedicated Hosting gives you complete control over your website. You neither share your website space nor the resources with any other website
Reseller Hosting: If you want to start your own web hosting business, Reseller Hosting enables you to resell hosting space and services offered to you by your parent hosting provider.

The choice of hosting varies depending on the needs of your website. If you’re just getting started online, then Shared Web Hosting is the right option for you. It is affordable, brings in the right set of features and tools to get started, and allows you to scale. Once your business grows and you outgrow your current hosting plan, you must upgrade your hosting for a seamless experience. Simply put, the best web hosting plans are the one that suit your website’s needs.

Bandwidth is the amount of data that your website transfers to its users at any given time. Higher the bandwidth, the quicker your website can deliver data irrespective of the number of users accessing it.

Bandwidth is usually calculated in Gigabytes though some plans might even support ‘Unmetered’ bandwidth. Technically, unmetered or unlimited bandwidth or disk space doesn’t mean that users have infinite bandwidth. On the contrary, the web host knows that despite these resources not being infinite a website might not utilise them fully, and still have more than enough to build a seamless online presence. However, if a user does exceed the account’s bandwidth, the web hosting provider would request the user to reduce their bandwidth usage.

After you’ve purchased a domain name, the next step is to get yourself a web hosting. There are several web hosting plans available. As you’re just getting started online, we recommend Shared Hosting or WordPress Hosting as they are affordable and easy to manage.

When you have a Shared Hosting package you are one of multiple users hosting their website on a web server. This means a specific allotment of resources (RAM, CPU, etc) are not guaranteed for your website. Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting provides more space and bandwidth to manage a higher influx of traffic to your website. VPS Hosting allows you to expand a website over time so you can easily scale up your website as it grows. Users have a much higher degree of control with VPS Hosting so you can customise your control configuration as you’d like.

The type of web hosting service your website needs depends on the requirements of your website.

There are several points to consider before choosing the right web hosting plan for your website, some of these important points to consider, include:
- How much traffic are you expecting on your website?
- What kind of information will you require from website visitors?
- How many websites do you need to host?
- What level of technical skills do you own to manage your website server needs?
- What are your website storage and bandwidth requirements?
- What additional features/support do you need from your hosting plan?

As a recommendation, Shared Hosting or WordPress Hosting is the best choice for your new website.

An SSL certificate is the mark of security that ensures your website is safe by encrypting the transmission channel between the server and your website. Once you’ve installed an SSL certificate, the communication between the web server and browser is private and can be used to send sensitive information. Visitors visiting your website will know your website is secure with an SSL certificate by identifying a padlock icon and ‘HTTPS’ in the URL bar. All our web hosting plans at Bluehost come with a free SSL certificate.

If you already have a website and are considering changing your web host, then you will need some assistance with migration. Bluehost provides a migration service that can assist you in getting all your files transferred securely and correctly. Migrating your website can be time consuming and extremely complex so we want to provide you with the best support possible from our team of experts.

Bluehost is happy to provide customers with 24/7 support and assistance to help through each step of the website building process. If you are in need of additional support with the design or functionality of your website, our team of experts is here to answer all your questions. If you want a more detailed approach to creating your website, Bluehost offers additional professional resources like our Blog and our Knowledge Base to help you out.

Yes, you can. If you already have purchased a domain name from another web hosting provider, you can continue to use that and point it to your server with Bluehost. If you are considering transferring your domain name, Bluehost makes it easy to transfer an existing domain to your Bluehost account. If you need any assistance, please contact our customer support team and we will be happy to help you.

Yes, you can easily upgrade your web hosting plan as your website grows. In fact, that is also the recommended course of action.

There are several web hosting plans available but choosing the right one depends on:
- How much traffic growth are you expecting on your website?
- What level of technical skills do you own to manage your website server needs?
- What are your website storage and bandwidth requirements?
- What additional features/support do you need from your hosting plan?

Once you’ve figured out your requirements finding the right upgraded plan is easy.

Security and privacy are at the core of our business practices and product offerings. Our web hosting and web hosting services come equipped with security features like SSL certificate, malware detection, spam protection, domain privacy, automated security updates, firewalls and round the clock expert technical support to help ease your concerns.