Website hosting options

To appear online, your website must be hosted on a web server connected to the internet 24 hours a day. Web hosting involves storing your website's files - such as pages, images and videos - and serving them to visitors when they open your website in a browser.

You can either host your website yourself or on an in-house server, or rent space on a server from an external hosting provider. This guide compares the pros and cons of in-house hosting against the pros and cons of using an internet service provider for hosting. It also looks at cloud hosting as an alternative solution that can scale with your business.

There are many factors to consider when choosing a web hosting provider,  including your website's size, expected traffic, security needs and budget. This guide will help you understand these factors and decide which web hosting solution is suited to your business.