What is web hosting? A plain-English guide for 2026

Web hosting is the service that stores your website’s files and makes them available on the internet. When someone types your address into a browser, their device asks a server for your pages, and the server sends them back in a fraction of a second. Without hosting, a website has nowhere to live.

If you are launching your first site, moving from a website builder or simply trying to understand what you are paying for, this guide gives you web hosting explained without jargon. Where a technical term is unavoidable, we explain it the first time it appears.

How web hosting works

A website is a collection of files (HTML pages, images, stylesheets, scripts) and, for most modern sites, a database that holds content such as blog posts, products and orders. Those files need to sit on a computer that is switched on all the time, connected to a fast network and protected from attacks. That computer is a server, and a hosting provider rents you a share of it.

Here is what happens when someone visits your site:

1. The visitor types your domain (for example yourbusiness.co.uk) into a browser.
2. DNS (Domain Name System) looks up the address. DNS works like the internet’s phone book, translating your domain into the IP (Internet Protocol) address of your server.
3. The browser contacts your server and requests the page over HTTPS, the encrypted version of HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol).
4. The web server software (for example LiteSpeed, Apache or Nginx) finds the right files. If the page is dynamic, as with WordPress, it runs PHP code and queries the database to build the page.
5. The server sends the finished page back, and the browser displays it.

All of this usually takes well under a second. How fast it happens depends heavily on the hosting: the storage drives, the web server, the caching and how many resources your account can use.

Domain name vs web hosting: what is the difference?

People often confuse the two because they are frequently sold together. They are separate services:

The practical takeaway: keep your domain under your own control, then point it at whichever host gives you the best service. If you ever switch providers, you update the DNS records and your visitors never notice. Our guide to migrating a WordPress site walks through that process.

The main types of web hosting

Hosting comes in several forms. They differ in how the server is shared, how much control you get and how much technical work falls on you.

Shared hosting

With shared hosting, many websites live on the same physical server, and each account gets a fair share of its processing power, memory and storage. The provider manages the server, security patches and software, and you manage your website through a control panel such as cPanel.

Shared hosting is the most popular choice because it is affordable and needs no server administration skills. A well-run shared platform isolates each account, so one busy neighbour cannot slow everyone else down. It suits brochure websites, blogs, portfolios, local business sites and small to medium online shops.

WordPress hosting

WordPress powers a large share of the web, so many hosts offer plans tuned for it. WordPress hosting is usually shared hosting with WordPress pre-installed, server-level caching that works with a WordPress plugin, and tools such as WP-CLI (the WordPress command-line interface). We compare the two in detail in WordPress hosting vs shared hosting.

WooCommerce hosting

WooCommerce turns WordPress into an online shop. Shops have different needs from blogs: the cart, checkout and account pages cannot be cached like ordinary pages, and the database works harder with every order. WooCommerce hosting configures caching so product pages are fast while the checkout stays dynamic and secure. See WooCommerce hosting requirements for the details.

VPS hosting

A VPS (Virtual Private Server) splits a physical server into isolated virtual machines, each with dedicated resources and its own operating system. You get more control and more guaranteed power, but you (or a paid management service) are responsible for configuring, securing and updating the server.

Dedicated servers

A dedicated server is an entire physical machine for one customer. It offers maximum resources and control, at a much higher cost and with the most technical responsibility. It makes sense for large, high-traffic applications with specialist requirements.

Cloud hosting

Cloud hosting spreads a site across a cluster of servers so resources can scale up and down. It is flexible but pricing is often usage-based and harder to predict, and setting it up well usually needs technical skills.

What a hosting plan includes

Hosting plans list many features. These are the ones that matter most for a typical website:

• Storage. The space for your files, database and emails. The type matters as much as the size: NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) SSD drives read and write data far faster than older SATA SSDs or spinning hard drives. Read NVMe vs SSD hosting for why.
• CPU (Central Processing Unit) allocation. The processing power reserved for your account, often expressed in vCores. Dynamic sites such as WordPress use CPU every time a page is built without cache.
• Bandwidth. The data transferred to your visitors. Most shared plans describe this as unmetered under a fair-use policy.
• Email accounts. Mailboxes on your own domain, such as hello@yourbusiness.co.uk.
• Databases. MySQL or MariaDB databases for WordPress and other applications.
• SSL certificates. SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), now technically TLS, encrypts traffic and enables HTTPS. Browsers flag sites without it as “not secure”, so it should be included free.
• Management. Either a dashboard (commonly cPanel) where you manage files, emails and databases yourself, or a managed service where the host's team sets these up for you on request.
• Security. Malware scanning and a WAF (Web Application Firewall) that blocks common attacks before they reach your site.
• Support. How you can reach the provider, when, and whether the people answering can actually fix problems.
• Uptime commitment. An SLA (Service Level Agreement) states the availability the provider commits to and what you receive if it falls short.

How much hosting do you actually need?

Most new websites need far less than people expect. A typical small business WordPress site with a few dozen pages and optimised images often uses well under 2 GB of storage. A shop with a few hundred products and photos may use a few gigabytes. Emails can grow faster than the website itself, so factor in mailbox usage too.

A simple way to decide:

1. Start with your platform. If you use WordPress, choose WordPress hosting. If you sell online with WooCommerce, choose WooCommerce hosting. For anything else (static sites, other PHP applications), general SSD hosting is the right fit.
2. Estimate your storage. Add your current site size, expected growth over a year and email usage, then leave some headroom.
3. Think about traffic patterns. Steady traffic is easy to serve with good caching. Regular spikes from campaigns or seasonal sales justify more CPU.
4. Check the upgrade path. A good host lets you move up a plan in a few clicks without migrating.

Our web hosting buying checklist goes into each of these points in more depth.

Why the quality of your hosting matters

Cheap hosting can become expensive if it slows your site down or takes it offline. Hosting quality affects your website in four direct ways:

• Speed. Server response time is the first step of every page load. Google’s Core Web Vitals measure loading, responsiveness and visual stability, and a slow server makes good scores harder to reach.
• Search visibility. Page experience is one of many signals search engines consider. A fast, secure, reliably available site gives your content the best chance.
• Conversions. Visitors leave slow pages. For a shop, a sluggish checkout means abandoned carts.
• Security. Up-to-date server software, isolation between accounts, malware scanning and a firewall protect your site and your customers’ data.

How Getradi hosting works

Getradi offers three types of hosting, each with three plans, so the choice stays simple:

• SSD hosting for websites and PHP applications of any kind.
• WordPress hosting with WordPress pre-installed and LiteSpeed Cache ready to use.
• WooCommerce hosting with caching tuned for product pages, cart and checkout.

Every plan runs on NVMe SSD storage (5, 10 or 15 GB) with the OpenLiteSpeed web server and HTTP/3, a free SSL certificate, a server firewall and brute-force login protection, 24/7 ticket support and a 99.9% uptime SLA. Every plan also includes free migration of your existing site by our team. Prices start at €15.90 a month billed yearly, plus VAT, and every plan has a 15-day money-back guarantee.

Getting started: your first steps

1. Register or choose your domain. If you already own one, you will simply point it at your new hosting.
2. Pick a plan. Match it to your platform and estimated storage, as described above.
3. Point your domain. Update the nameservers or DNS records at your registrar using the details in your welcome email. Changes usually take effect within a few hours.
4. Install your website. On WordPress and WooCommerce plans, WordPress is already installed. On SSD plans, upload your files over FTP, or ask us to migrate your existing site for free. Then follow our guide on pointing your domain to your hosting to make it live.
5. Enable HTTPS. Confirm the free SSL certificate is active and that your site loads on https://.
6. Set up email. Create mailboxes on your domain and connect them to your phone and email client.
7. Keep your own backups. Whatever host you use, keep regular copies of your site, for example with a backup plugin that stores files off the server.

Frequently asked questions