What is web hosting?
Definition
Web hosting is the service that stores your website's files on computers called servers, which stay connected to the internet day and night and send your pages to anyone who visits. Your domain name is the address people type; hosting is the place the site actually lives. Every website needs both.
Why hosting matters to a small business
Hosting decides whether your site is up when a customer looks, how fast it loads and how safe it is. When it goes wrong, you tend to find out the worst way: a customer tells you the site is down, or a browser warning appears where your homepage should be.
There are a few kinds. With shared hosting, you rent space on a server alongside many other sites and look after your own software. Managed hosting adds updates, backups and security for you. Website builders bundle hosting into the plan, so there's nothing separate to set up. The question that matters most to an owner is simple: who's responsible when something breaks?
Check what's included before you choose: the security certificate for https (SSL), daily backups, software updates, support, and enough storage for your photos. Ask what renewal costs, too, since a first-year price isn't always the price after. And ask how you'll find out if the site goes down, and who fixes it.
For churches, hosting has to cope with Sunday mornings and Christmas Eve, when everyone checks service times at once, and someone has to own the account when volunteers change. For restaurants, the rush is Friday evening, when people check the menu. For contractors, it's storage for project galleries that grow with every job.
Questions to ask about hosting
- Is the https certificate included, and renewed for me?
- How often is my site backed up, and how do I restore it?
- Who updates the software, and who fixes it if an update breaks something?
- How much storage do I get for photos and files?
- What does it cost to renew, not just to start?
- Can I take my content with me if I leave?
How Future handles it
Hosting is included in every Future plan. Future hosts your site with https on your own domain, kept up to date and secure. There's nothing to set up or renew separately, and no server or plugins to look after.
Each plan includes room for your photos and files: 5 GB on Starter, 10 GB on Pro and 50 GB on Premier. Your content stays yours, and you can export it any time.