How to host a website?

Looking to start a new WordPress website but don’t know where to begin?

In this guide, John Hughes takes you through the basics of website hosting to ensure you build a platform that works best for you and your audience using Wordpress. 

First, the article differentiates between a website being hosted (1) externally/publicly and (2) locally. An externally-hosted site is stored on a provider’s server, whereas a locally-hosted site is stored on your own machine/server.

Externally hosted website

To host a website externally, the most important choice to make is the provider and their hosting plans. The guide then outlines five key considerations for making this decision:

• Determining which type of hosting is best for your website (shared, dedicated, cloud, etc)
• Examining the additional features offered by different providers
• Evaluate the customer support options from different providers
• Creating a budget for yourself and finding an offer that works within that budget
• Ensure you can install WordPress on the provider’s server

Locally hosted website hosting 

There are two methods for hosting a website locally:

• Using a local web stack to create a site: while this is difficult to set up, it often gives you more control over your website.
• Signing up for a virtual sandbox environment: while this is an easy method to create a local WordPress site, you will still be relying on a third-party to host your website.

Curious to learn more? Read the full article to get started with hosting your own website!