Website Hosting Services
Website Hosting Explained
In order for your website to be visible for the world to see, it needs to be hosted on a web server. A web server, in simple terms, is a large computer where the files that compile your website are stored. A web server allows anybody in the world to connect to it via a web address, this is how your website becomes visible on the World Wide Web (WWW).
Website hosting is an annual cost paid to the company hosting your website. Along with giving your website a presence to the world, there are a number of other services also included. Typical examples are email addresses, where you can have email addresses at the same domain name as your website (recommended for a professional look to your company) and statistics reporting where you can monitor the number of visitors to your website and what they view once they arrive.
Website Hosting Plans
Although there are a number of different combinations and options on web hosting, there are two main areas - hosting a static brochure type website or hosting an ecommerce website.
Hosting costs for ecommerce websites are more expensive than brochure websites as ecommerce websites are dynamic. 'Dynamic' means that content on some pages is interactive and can be controlled by the user. A typical example of this would be the 'shopping cart' page, whenever your visitor chooses a product and it is added to the 'shopping cart' page. Another example is where they complete address and payment details, this is then forwarded to you.
Without getting too technical, dynamic websites have programming languages (scripts) running in the background, which jump into action when the user completes certain things i.e presses a button. To have these scripts enabled, we have to choose a hosting package that enables them.
Bandwidth Explained
The more visitors you have to your website, the more 'bandwidth' you will use. 'Bandwidth' is the amount of data your website can transfer within a set period of time (usually monthly). Each hosting package has a set bandwidth. The hosting package we choose is directly comparable to the amount of visitors expected to your website. As the amount of visitors to your site increases, your bandwidth allocation needs to increase.
Brochure Website Hosting Costs
A typical brochure website (such as this site), if hosted with us, will cost you £100 per year. This includes email services, usage statistic reports and domain registration.
Ecommerce Website Hosting Costs
Our starter ecommerce hosting package costs £210 per year. This provides ample bandwidth for a busy ecommerce website. As the traffic (visitors) to your site increases, you may need to move onto our next hosting package. This costs just £350 and has unlimited bandwidth. These charges include email services, usage statistic reports and domain registration.
Existing Website Hosting Packages
If you have already purchased a website hosting package, we are more than happy to use your existing package. There are a few settings we require in order to use it (these will have to be provided). It is not mandatory to use our website hosting services.