[vc_row el_id=”#introduction”][vc_column][vc_column_text]“Hosting” simply refers to the process of letting something live on the internet. When you want your website about quirky coffee mugs to be accessible to users all over the world, you’ll need a server for that website’s data to be stored on so that it can be delivered to browsers that search for things like “quirky coffee mugs.”
If you want to have a blog where you deliver great content about your thoughts on life to your avid followers, you’ll need a spot for that blog to live. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”#anchor”][vc_column][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Contents
The Difference Between Web Hosting and Email Hosting: Quick Summary
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]What’s the difference between web and email hosting? Web hosting is the process of storing data on servers so that it can be retrieved on the internet. It allows people to access your blogs, websites, and content.
Email hosting is the process of storing email data on servers so that mail can be sent, received, and read.
Many companies will offer dual packages where they do email hosting and web hosting at the same time. Some companies will do one or the other. Some people will opt to run their email and web hosting through the same server company, while others will pick different solutions for both web and email hosting.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Web Hosting
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Web hosting stores website information on servers that can be manipulated and accessed. Web servers allow you to have a storage location for your website while building it, and also allow others to access that data when your website is published on the internet.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Why Get Web Hosting?
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]While there are certainly some free services that will host your infant blog or website, you’ll get slapped with a number of limitations which will prevent that baby from sprouting up into a big strong tech giant. You’ll get ads displayed all over your blog or webpages, and not ads that earn you money. In addition, you’ll have a lot of size restrictions and possibly template restrictions to navigate.
Web hosting allows you to leverage a custom domain to set up your own website. When you purchase web hosting, you’re purchasing various kinds of server space for your data to live and be sent to people who are searching for the kind of content that you have to offer. While most free hosting services force you to use a domain that has the company’s name affixed to the end of it, purchasing web hosting finally gives you that clean cut “www” that you’ve been craving.
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Types of Web Hosting
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]There are a few different types of server setups that you can invest in. You can score a dedicated server, which is basically an in-house or off-site single physical server that your company has full access to. Dedicated servers offer you a great amount of security, especially if you house it on location. But they can be more expensive and more susceptible to failure.
You can also score a virtual private server, which is a single physical server split into a number of virtual servers which are individually used by a number of different companies and websites. When using a virtual private server, you get a great amount of security, for less speed and less cost than using a dedicated server.
There’s also cloud hosting, which has gained a lot of popularity in recent years. Cloud hosting uses a network of physical servers to create a single cloud environment which runs a variety of virtual servers within it. The cloud environment gives companies cheaper access to a great amount of data and resources. Setting up a cloud environment also helps prevent physical failures, because a single server failure doesn’t down anyone’s data.
There can be different advantages to each of these types of hosting. Generally speaking, cloud hosting is really useful for a startup or young website that doesn’t know how much traffic to plan for. If you receive only a little bit of traffic, you won’t pay too much for hosting. If you get a huge influx of traffic, you’ll pay more, but you have a hosting system that is built to be able to handle that much traffic. Dedicated servers are really useful for any company that lives and dies based on its website and tech, and also places a premium on security. There is still nothing more secure than hosting your own website and stashing some servers down within your basement.
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Email Hosting
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Why Get Email Hosting?
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]When you use a mail service like Google or Yahoo, you’re using server space that is provided by Google or Yahoo to run your mail. That’s why email addresses made with Google or Yahoo accounts always have google.com or yahoo.com at the end of it. “Gmail.com” is the name of the web space where your email address live.
While this is a nice solution for many people who simply need a free, personal email address, it won’t cut it if you’re starting a business or need a more professional email address. In that case, email hosting allows you to use your own domain name and specific address to grab some email real estate with your unique identifiers. You can use your full name, without any weird underscores and numbers, attached to your website domain name.
You can also use your own servers to host your own email, if you have them. This cuts out the need for a third party hosting service, but also avoids the drawbacks of using a free email service.
If there are other employees in the company that use their email addresses, you can also use their names attached to your company website. This allows you to easily scale email address numbers without having employees have different email addresses and styles from your own. This increases professionalism.
Also, since everything can be stored on a single dedicated server, cloud server, or virtual private server, you’ll have plenty of space for your data. Most free email accounts, you might have noticed, have limits for the amount of storage that you have at one time. This can get annoying if you’re zipping around huge file sizes. A dedicated server can store all that good information without deleting older essential files.
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Increased Email Power
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Email is a bit like lightning in a bottle. While free email services make email look like a simple thing, remember that when you get your own email hosting service you’ll have a bunch more options and customizations available for your email service, other than simply choosing an email name.
You’ll be able to have a lot of customization over the email security and authentication process. You can choose exactly how the replication and rerouting for your email service. Different hosting sources offer different kinds of services according to their audience. Some services can offer increasingly high security services, while others are built to handle huge influxes of emails. [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Special Hosting Functions
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]What are some of the special email features and gadgets that you can set in motion when you decide to pick a hosting server for your email accounts?
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- System support and access. When you have a hosted email account, you’ll also get a team from the service provider that can handle any issues that you have, whenever they pop up. People will get locked out of email addresses and you will lose track of messages and files. Make sure that you’ve got a customer service team that you trust to handle the crunch time problems.
- Special email addresses. You’ll get to throw that @ sign up at your own custom email domain, giving yourself added professionalism and cohesion throughout the email addresses of your company.
- Security. Additional security can be gained by filtering all your email through a third party service. The best email hosting services, however, have a bunch of security features built into the application.
- Data limits. You should seek something that lets you send huge files and store a lot of data on your system. Some hosting companies will charge you for overall server space, while others will charge you per user. Find a solution that makes sense for your data needs.
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Should I Combine Web and Email Hosting?
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Because email and web hosting are separate things but most businesses and blogs will need them both, you might be wondering whether it’s best to combine them. It is generally cheaper and easier to find a single company that is willing to host both your website and your email services. Going with multiple companies will probably cost more money and will make things more confusing to manage down the road.
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Conclusions
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Hosting is the storage of data on a server connected to the internet, such that that data can be sent and retrieved by browsers and your web development team. Web hosting allows your website or blog to be stored on servers, while email hosting stores your email data on servers. Some companies offer both web and email hosting, while others will specialize in one or the other.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
