What is web hosting
When you open a website in your browser, its files are stored on a physical computer — a server. The service of renting that server is called web hosting.
Put simply: hosting is an "apartment" for your site on the internet. The domain name example.com is the address; site files are the furniture inside; the server is the building.
How it works
When a user types slipjar.app into the address bar, a chain of events plays out between their browser and the server.
DNS and the domain name
Computers on the network talk via IP addresses — numeric identifiers like 185.143.172.10. Numbers are hard to remember, so in 1983 DNS was invented to translate readable names into IPs.
The path of an HTTP request
Once the IP is resolved, the browser sends an HTTP request. On the server side, a web server — usually Nginx or Apache — accepts it and returns the page.
Types of hosting
There are several hosting types: shared, VPS, dedicated, and cloud. Each fits specific workloads and budgets.
How to choose
The choice depends on traffic, resource requirements, and admin experience.
Summary
Hosting is the infrastructure that makes your site available on the internet 24/7.
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