After preparing your website, you need to upload that website to the internet. How can you do that? You need a web host for that — and a quality one to avoid any headaches down the line. A website host affects a website in many ways. Your website’s speed, security, scalability, and usability rely on the hosting provider.
But deciding on a website host comes with its complications.
Different hosting providers provide different web hosting features — disk space, bandwidth, security, and more. It’s essential to understand what you need and what you can go without.
Read on to learn about the top web hosting features you need:
What is web hosting?
Web hosting is the process of storing all the files that make up your website on a server.
Think of it as your digital office. Like you need a physical space for a physical office, you need a digital space for your digital office. A web host rents out that digital space on servers for your website files.
It helps you establish your website on the internet.
Besides storage, the best website hosting services usually help you with website maintenance — backups, security, and uptime.
Different hosting solutions exist. The best one for you depends on your needs and priorities.
Read more: What is web hosting and how does it work?
Top 10 best web hosting features
Disk space
Disk space or storage is one of the two essential services a web hosting provider offers.
At its base, a website consists of many files — files that make up its visuals and files that decide what happens when you click a button.
To run a website, you need those files on web servers backed by physical data centers. The files consume disk space; so, you need a hosting plan that provides the required disk space.
Besides the files required for the website’s operation, you also need space for user-submitted content. For example, you should also consider the website’s dynamic and interactive features, such as user-generated content. When users upload their photos, videos, or other documents, it increases the storage space necessary for your website.
That’s why it’s essential to choose a web hosting service that offers enough disk space for your website’s basic elements and to accommodate the growth of user-generated content.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth is another essential service that the best website hosting solutions should provide. It measures a server’s capacity for data transfer within a specific time frame.
Bandwidth is a critical web hosting feature if you want your website to load faster — as loading time is the time it takes to transfer website files.
If you want high bandwidth, you need to get your web server or look for one that shares its resources with a few other websites.
For example, dedicated hosting — while expensive — is a web hosting plan in which your website has its server, giving you more control and server resources to work with.
Other plans such as virtual private server (VPS) and shared hosting limit the bandwidth available but tend to be cheaper.
You will see advertisements for unlimited bandwidth, but the truth is: it’s impossible to have completely unlimited bandwidth. There is always a maximum speed limit because of physical limitations.
Bluehost offers plans with “unmetered bandwidth”, which means that you receive a set amount of bandwidth but will be able to transfer as much data as you want with that transfer speed.
Security
According to Fundera, 43% of small businesses are victims of cyberattacks.
Your web host is an extra line of defense against cyberattacks. With the right web host, you can protect your website from cyberattacks.
If your website collects personal or financial data, sign up for a web hosting plan that offers:
- SSL certificates —SSL certificates encrypt data sent via your website, so only the recipient gets to use the data. Some web hosting plans offer free SSL certificates.
- Automated malware scans —Web hosting providers can help you remove malware and identify threats. Some also offer website scans to enhance security and warn website owners of suspicious files.
- Firewall management —A web application firewall (WAF) creates a set of rules designed to protect your website from the most common attacks.
Be sure to check the hosting plan’s default security features; many plans offer advanced security features as an add-on.
If you are working with sensitive data, sign up for Bluehost’s Managed WordPress hosting plan, providing:
- Secure shell (SSH) access
- Multi-factor authentication
- Domain privacy
For advanced security, consider Bluehost Cloud hosting plans with additional user protection layers:
- Automated protection: Every Bluehost Cloud plan comes with DDoS Protection, a web application firewall, and backups to protect against malicious attacks.
- SSL included: Security is a top priority, with every plan featuring Let’s Encrypt SSL for encrypted, secure website communications.
- 2-factor authentication: This adds an extra verification step and prevent unauthorized access.
Uptime
One of the top web hosting features that small businesses and new website owners fail to consider is uptime.
Uptime measures the percentage of time your website is up and available to visitors — the closer to 100% uptime, the better.
The best web hosting solutions provide high uptimes by offering:
- Backup servers: This ensures that should the server hosting your website go down, there’s a backup that will have your website up in no time.
- Backup servers in multiple locations: If a natural disaster occurs, a duplicate server in the same data center will not keep your website up. But suppose duplicate servers are in multiple data centers on different sides of the country or on a different continent. In that case, your website has a much better chance of staying up and available.
Some web hosting companies also have a money-back guarantee for uptime. If they fail to fulfill their promise, they pay you.
For instance, Bluehost Cloud hosting offers 100% network uptime. Your site is replicated in real-time across multiple data centers, ensuring it remains online consistently without interruption.
Website speed
Today’s internet users expect websites to load in five seconds or less.
Besides affecting user experience, website speed also affects search engine optimization (SEO).
Good web hosting companies help their users deliver quick page speeds by:
- Using servers with solid-state drives (SSD): SSDs access data faster than traditional hard drives.
- Limiting sites on a shared server: Websites require server resources to run — the more websites hosted on a server, the more competition for resources. By limiting the number of sites on a shared server, the web hosting company ensures that there will be enough resources for each website.
- Offering a content delivery network (CDN) service: Content delivery networks are a group of geographically distributed servers that cache static content such as webpages, JavaScript files, CSS, images, and videos. They speed up the delivery of web content by bringing it near a user’s location.
Here’s where Bluehost scores again with its superfast cloud hosting. All plans include a global CDN that dynamically optimizes images and delivers edge server caching, reducing page load times around the world to mere milliseconds.
You can also choose the ideal data center that works best for your origin servers, reducing latency across the globe.
Pre-installed apps
Web hosts enhance the user experience and website functionality through various pre-installed apps. These applications cover everything from website management to content publication, offering a streamlined approach to digital operations.
Common apps include:
cPanel
The control panel (cPanel) is an app that lets you control server processes. It allows you to manage domains, install software, create email accounts, and monitor resources, among other tasks.
While every hosting account includes a cPanel, the interface depends on the hosting provider — it can be difficult or easy to use.
Bluehost, for instance, comes with a beautifully designed control panel that offers easy access to all the apps you need.
One-click installer
A one-click installer is a great tool that helps you install content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. This tool removes the technical barriers associated with software installation, allowing you to set up your CMS with just a single click. It simplifies your work and saves you time and money.
File transfer protocol
A file transfer protocol (FTP) lets you manage files on a server securely. This functionality is essential for website owners who regularly update their content or need to perform bulk file operations.
eCommerce features
While there are dedicated eCommerce hosting plans, flexible web hosting services enable you to create a blog with eCommerce functionality such as shopping carts and payment gateways.
Domain names
When selecting the right web hosting provider, consider how it handles domain names.
Your domain name is the digital address of your digital space on the Internet. It was developed to find and identify internet entities without using IP addresses.
Web hosting providers often offer domain name registration services, allowing you to secure your chosen name directly through your hosting account. This convenience means you can manage both your domain and hosting from a single dashboard.
Some hosting plans even include free domain name registration for the first year, providing added value and reducing initial setup costs.
Beyond the domain name, your web hosting service should include features like domain transfer, privacy protection, and email hosting tied to your domain. Privacy protection is particularly important, as it helps shield your personal information from public view in the domain registry databases.
But what if you already have a domain name with another registrar? This is where domain transfers come into play. Your web host provider must support a seamless transfer to your new hosting environment.
Website builder
Building a website is not difficult anymore. A lot of web hosting providers include site builders as a built-in web hosting feature. These builders are intuitive platforms that allow anyone, regardless of technical skill, to design, develop, and launch websites.
Take, for example, Bluehost’s Website Builder. It epitomizes simplicity and efficiency in web design, offering users a drag-and-drop interface alongside more than 300 pre-designed templates. This ensures that whether you’re building a blog, an eCommerce store, or a portfolio, there’s a foundation that fits your vision.
Beyond mere aesthetics, Bluehost’s builder is equipped with Smart AI, a tool that ensures your site isn’t just beautiful but also responsive, automatically adjusting to fit any screen size perfectly.
The other features of the website builder include:
- Stock image library gives access to a vast collection of high-quality images to enhance your site’s visual appeal.
- Custom fonts and CSS let you personalize your website down to the finest detail.
- Free email marketing tools help you capture leads, build customer relationships, and promote your services or products.
Support
When choosing web hosting, robust support services are not just an added bonus—they’re essential. The level and quality of support provided by a reliable web hosting provider can significantly impact the operational efficiency and reliability of your website.
Here’s how an exceptional web hosting service offers:
24/7 availability: Technical issues can arise anytime, so leading hosting services offer round-the-clock support to ensure you can access expert assistance whenever needed.
Multiple channels: Whether you prefer to speak directly with a representative over the phone, receive detailed communications via email, or have quick queries answered through live chat, a top-tier host offers various support channels to suit your preference.
Resource libraries: Self-help resources such as tutorials, articles, forums, and FAQs allow users to troubleshoot common issues themselves, facilitating a more efficient problem-solving process.
Many web hosting providers like Bluehost have elevated this support paradigm. Bluehost cloud hosting ensures that your calls and chats bypass conventional triage to connect directly with a Level 3 technician. This means that you’re engaging with trained WordPress experts. This approach eliminates the all-too-common generic responses, replacing them with precise, reliable WordPress knowledge.
Backups
Website backups are essential.
Regular, easy-to-access backups are crucial for any website. They protect your online presence against data loss and provide peace of mind. When choosing a web hosting provider, ensure they offer comprehensive backup solutions that fit your site’s needs.
Here’s what to look for in backup solutions:
Frequency: Daily backups are ideal because they minimize data loss. Some hosts offer real-time backups, capturing changes as they happen.
Ease of restoration: In a crisis, you want to restore your site quickly. Look for hosting services that simplify the restoration process, preferably with just a few clicks. A good hosting provider should restore your website with minimal downtime and make frequent automatic backups of your website to prevent data loss.
Storage location: It’s safest to store backups in a location different from your site. This way, if the server faces issues, your backups remain unaffected.
Automatic and manual options: Automatic backups save you time and ensure regular copies are made without your intervention. However, having the option to create manual backups is helpful, especially before making significant changes to your site.
When it comes to backup solutions, Bluehost Cloud hosting offers an outstanding solution with Jetpack’s automated daily backups. In the event of data loss, this feature streamlines the restoration process, making it a simple click away. Jetpack’s daily backups ensure your website can quickly recover from any data loss event.
FAQs
What are the key features of a good web host?
Top-tier website hosting providers like Bluehost offer reliable uptime, speedy performance, robust security measures like free SSL certificates and malware protection, scalable resources to grow your site, and responsive customer support.
How does a web hosting provider ensure high uptime?
Providers ensure high uptime through redundant network configurations, reliable hardware, and constant monitoring. While Bluehost is known for its 99.9% uptime guarantee, this is a standard the best providers aim to meet or exceed.
What security features are crucial for protecting my website?
Essential security features include SSL certificates for encrypted connections, regular malware scanning, firewalls, and backup and restore capabilities to recover from data loss.
Can I start with a basic hosting plan and upgrade later?
Yes, starting with a basic plan is common, and upgrading should be straightforward. Providers offer various plans to cater to different needs, ensuring you can scale your hosting as your website grows.
Why is customer support important in web hosting?
Quality customer support is vital for quickly addressing technical issues, minimizing downtime, and helping with general inquiries. Availability through live chat, email, and phone, as well as a comprehensive knowledge base, are signs of a supportive host.
How do backup and restore services work with web hosting?
Backup and restore services work by periodically saving copies of your website’s data. In the event of data loss or a security breach, you can use these backups to restore your site to a previous state, ensuring minimal disruption.
Why is a user-friendly control panel important for website management?
A user-friendly control panel streamlines website and server management, allowing you to easily manage domains, install applications, create email accounts, and handle other hosting-related tasks without extensive technical knowledge.
Final thoughts — Top 10 web hosting features to look for in a hosting provider
Choosing the right web hosting plan can make or break your website’s success.
Before signing up for one, take time to determine the web hosting features you need so it will be easier to find a provider that offers it all, saving you a lot of time and trouble.
If you are looking for a reliable hosting partner that cares about you and your business, sign up for a Bluehost hosting plan today.
The post 10 Features the Best Website Hosting Should Provide appeared first on Bluehost Blog.
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