Not all web hosting is the same

Web Hosting can be a confusing and complicated thing, but what exactly is it, and do I need web hosting if I have bought a domain name?

Firstly, let’s briefly explain what is web hosting and domain names. Domain names are like your address on the internet – for example our Domain Name is www.iconvisual.com.au. But having a domain name doesn’t mean you website is on the Internet. It’s just that you’ve staked your spot on the web. Web hosting is how your website domain name is live on the internet, it’s like your home, where you store your belongs. So domain names are the location of your website, and the web hosting is the actual storage of your website.

Shared Hosting is the most common, and the cheapest option. Websites hosted in a shared environment share all the resources on that server that means you could be on a server shared by possibly hundreds of websites. While shared web hosting is cheap, as little $11 per month, the downside is that troubles with one of the shared sites on the host could lead to problems – ie downtime - for all the sites hosted on that server .

 
Dedicated Hosting is as the name implies a single, dedicated server, a physical system which you have full control over. This server can host a single website or multiple websites, it may also be segmented into a number of virtual servers and these virtual servers may be on sold.

At Icon we have our own dedicated server which is located in Sydney Australia – this means website load time isn’t slowed down like websites which are hosted overseas (to reduce costs). Having a fast website response time is crucial so that your web visitors don’t click straight off your slow website.

It also means we have full control over the websites which are hosted on our server, and have optimised the server to host the websites which we develop.