There are two things you need to put a website on the internet, a unique web site address known as your domain name so that people can find the site and a web host that holds the content of the site.

Web hosting is simply the service of providing the server space for your personal or business website along with the internet connectivity so that it is always accessible for internet users to access the site. Whilst it is possible to host your own site if you have the hardware and knowledge to do this it is normally much more cost effective to have this done for you. Normally web hosting companies allow you a certain amount of space on one of their many webservers however dedicated servers can be provided for a cost and some companies are moving towards providing cloud based services.

There are free personal website services, free business website services, and those that make a charge for this service. Free services tend to be more restricted in the additional services which are offered and can have smaller limits on size, daily use and possibly the number of pages on the site. Some free services also force the site owner to have advertisements on their site to recover the cost of hosting. Some internet providers include a small web hosting package as part of their home broadband deals but again these can be quite limited in terms of features.

Paid for services vary greatly and there is usually a range of packages depending on your requirements. Some paid for web hosting packages include the cost of a domain name to be registered for the site and some free web hosting companies will provide a free domain so that you can build a fully functioning website completely free of charge.

Many hosting providers offer a range of tools to help build and run a website. These include templates to build the site through to advanced content management systems. With many web hosting providers there are enough tools available so that even a user with no previous experience or knowledge can quickly build a professional looking site. Some also have additional tools for integrating databases, blogs, photo galleries, forums and other features into a website easily.

When choosing a web hosting provider costs and features are very important but it is also worth considering service and uptime. Uptime is the amount of time that servers are running and so your website is present on the web. This should be as close to 100% as possible because if your website is offline this is likely to put people off returning. Generally companies that charge for web hosting have a higher percentage of uptime and more accessible customer service.