What Is Web Hosting and How Do You Minimize Costs?

When you want to set up a website you will often hear about web hosting. Watch the video, to learn what web hosting is and how you minimize the costs for it. A simple explanation for beginners.

Note: Under the video, you will find a detailed written explanation and guide to choosing the right hosting

Video explanation

Hey there, my name is Leon and in this video I will explain in a simple understandable way, what a web hosting is. At the end of the video I will also share some tips with you to minimize the price for a web hosting, so that YOU don’t waste your money. 

Definition

If you want the short, simplified answer: web hosting is the service of providing storage space for your website on a server which is accessible through the internet. But let’s look at that definition a bit closer. Imagine that you sit down in front of your computer, open the browser, type in google.com and hit the enter key. Right after you hit the enter key, a process starts, in which a server is being located through the internet that contains the content you want to open. Then, your computer downloads that content and shows this data on your screen. 

So, every time you type in a URL in the browser, you request data from a specific server and download it on your device where you can watch it. This means, that everyone who wants to have a publicly available website, needs to store that website on a server which is accessible through the internet 24/7. And web hosting is exactly this: the service of providing and maintaining that storage space. It is the connection for a website to the internet.

Note that the hosting companies not only provide you with storage space, but they also provide you with security, software, technical assistance and more to make setting up and maintaining a website as easy as possible for you.

Saving Potentials

And now I will share 2 tips with you, so that you don’t overpay for your hosting and lose money. 

  1. Buy web hosting service for multiple years and not only a single year. A lot of hosting companies usually offer a large discount, when you buy 3 or 4 years at once. These discounts are sometimes up to 60% and often they even come with a 30 day money-back guarantee. So, if you decide that you won’t be needing the hosting for such a long time, you can simply get a refund.
  2. Do not only look at the monthly costs, but also at what the hosting company is giving you for the price. Hosting companies with very low costs usually charge you for every small additional service while higher priced companies often have a lot of services included for free. 

So, that’s it for now. In the next video I will show you 2 hosting companies which I use for my clients or for myself. Both of them are high quality, but one of them is a bit more affordable while coming with less technical support. The other is a bit more expensive but includes a lot of free extras and is constantly recommended by experts. If you don’t want to wait for the video, you will find the link to theses hosting companies in the video description below. Remember to leave a small comment and to subscribe to the channel if you found this video helpful. 

See you in the next video!

Text explanation

What Is Web hosting?

The short answer: Web hosting is a service of providing storage space for a website on a server. But let’s dig a bit deeper here.

When you came to my website you somehow accessed all the content you are seeing right now, through the internet. This means, that my website is stored in some place, that is connected to and accessible through the internet 24/7. And that place is a server (internet-connected computer) which I rent from a so called hosting company. In other words: The hosting company is providing me with storage space that is connected to the internet (server) to make my website accessible for everyone. This service is what’s called a web hosting. And logically every website on the internet needs that.

Note: Web hosting not only includes providing the storage space. Hosting companies also take care about the security and maintenance of the server and they also offer technical guidance and support (and even more). Their goal is to make setting up a website as easy as possible for you, so that you use their service. 

Now that you know, why web hosting is necessary for a website let’s talk about the costs for the web hosting.

How Much Does Web Hosting Cost?

As you might have noticed, there are a lot of hosting companies out there. And all of them have different prices. But in average you have to expect costs of around $3-8/month for the starting packages. Of course, the service you get depends on how much you pay.

I now want to show you 2 different high quality hosting companies, that I use for my clients or for myself. The reason why I only consider these 2 is the following:

The first company (Hostinger) is very affordable and beats every other company that I know with the price while still providing very high quality.

The second company (Siteground) is priced a bit higher, but is constantly recommended by experts (also by WordPress) and has almost every additional service you can think of included in the price.

 

So, here is the comparison of both. A bit later I will give you a guide which one you should choose. 

from 0.99$/month

100 GB bandwidth
1 database

EXTRAS

+ 1$/month for daily backup

+ 2$/month for priority support

+ 10$ (one time) for CDN

30 day money-back guarantee

from 3.99$/month

unlimited bandwidth

unlimited databases

EXTRAS

free daily backup

free live support (phone, chat, email)

free CDN

recommended by experts

Which Hosting Is Best For Me?

As I already wrote before, I would only consider Hostinger or Siteground. Either you want the best price and waive all the extras, or you get the best rated hosting company out there, but pay a bit more. 

What speeks for Hostinger?

So, if you are on a low budget and you are developing a website for learning experience and don’t know where the journey is going yet, then I would recommend Hostinger

What speaks for Siteground?

If you are building a company website which is used for customers, then take Siteground. Because then you can not only take advantage of the free email that Siteground offers. If you break your site for any reason, you will have your daily backups and the live support to immediately bring your website back to life.

Can’t decide? Then choose the middle way!

And if you can’t decide between those two contrary offers, then I would suggest that you go with the Hostinger Premium Plan. The Premium Plan is still a bit less expensive than the starting Siteground offer. But with this plan, you can host an unlimited number of websites (starting plans are usually limited to 1 website), you will have unlimited bandwidth and unlimited databases. So the Hostinger Premium Plan primarily lacks the daily backups (but it has weekly backups) and the fast response live support in comparison to the Siteground starting plan.

 

How to Minimize the Costs for a Hosting?

Selecting the right hosting company is already the first step to minimizing your costs. You simply have to know how much the company charges per month and what is included in the price. You won’t do yourself any favor if you select a hosting company which charges 3$/month but then wants an extra 50$/year for a SSL certificate (SSL ensures a secure connection to your website – this is standard for websites today). 

The second step to minimizing your costs is to buy the hosting for 3-4 years at once. Hosting companies value it, when you put trust in them and select more than a 1-year-plan. They go so far as to give you a discount of up 60% for these longer periods. That means, that you sometimes get a 4-year-plan at the cost of not even 2 times the 1-year-plan!

Which Hosting Do I Have?

Personally, I am using the Hostinger Premium Plan, as I am doing backups myself and don’t need much technical support. The bang for the buck is simply amazing when you consider, that I am running multiple websites on that hosting. 

So, which hosting do you prefer? Feel free, to leave a comment below!

Note: I believe in transparency and therefore you should know that if you buy a hosting through the links on my page, I will get a commission. But of course, the price for you will still stay the same. So, did you like the honest review and think, that I added value to your life? And are you considering to buy a hosting? Then I would appreciate it if you buy the hosting through the links on my site and thus return me the favor.