What Is Web Hosting and How Does It Work

Web hosting is the service that keeps a website's files, databases and email on a server connected to the internet around the clock. When someone types your domain into a browser, the server sends the page back and the visitor sees it in a fraction of a second. Without web hosting, a website exists only on the computer of whoever built it.

Konet has been providing web hosting since 1999, so what follows is not theory. It is what we do every day for our customers' websites.

What is a hosting server and what is a web server

A server is a computer that stays on and connected to the internet at all times, and its job is to answer requests from other computers.

The term web server has two meanings. It is the machine that hosts websites, while it is also the software running on that machine that answers browsers. Well-known examples of that software are Apache, Nginx and LiteSpeed. We use LiteSpeed Enterprise because it has built-in server-level caching for WordPress and WooCommerce.

A hosting server is not just a powerful desktop. It runs without interruption, it has memory with automatic error correction (ECC) and disks built for constant writes, and it sits in a datacenter with backup power and multiple internet connections. For example, our customers' websites run on Dell PowerEdge R7625 servers with two AMD EPYC 9334 processors, DDR5 ECC memory and enterprise NVMe disks, in a Tier III datacenter in Frankfurt. We publish this because when you buy hosting, you are essentially renting a piece of that machine.

How does web hosting work

Every time you open a website, five steps take place:

1. You type the domain into your browser, for example konet.gr.
2. DNS translates the domain into the IP address of the server where the site is hosted.
3. Your browser sends a request to that server.
4. The web server runs the site's code, for example WordPress in PHP, reads the database and sends back the page, the images and the rest of the files.
5. Your browser displays the page.

In other words, a server is like an apartment building. The hosting provider owns it, divides it into apartments and rents each one to a different customer. But in an apartment building it matters a lot whether you can hear your neighbour's noise in your own living room. That is why every one of our plans has its CPU, RAM and I/O limits written down and enforced by CloudLinux at kernel level, so another website cannot take the resources assigned to yours.

Also, your hosting provider is not your internet provider. Your home or office connection gets you onto the internet, while your hosting provider keeps your website available to everyone else.

What is the difference between a domain and hosting

The domain is the address and hosting is the house. A domain name is the name a visitor types, for example yourbusiness.gr, and you register it through a registrar for one or more years, as we explain in how to register a domain name. Hosting is the space and the resources on the server where your website's files live.

The two are connected through nameservers and DNS records. In the domain you declare which server hosts the website and which one handles email, so they can even be with different companies. That does mean two accounts, two expiry dates and two support desks when something stops working, which is why we explain when it pays off to keep your domain and hosting with one provider.

Konet has been an accredited .gr and .ελ registrar licensed by EETT, the Greek telecoms regulator, since 2004, with Registry No. 15-069. So domain registration goes directly to the .gr Registry with no intermediary, and the domain stays in your own name.

What does a web hosting plan include

Every web hosting plan is a set of resources and services. These are what you should read before you buy:

• Disk space. How many GB your files, databases and email can take. The disk type matters too, as an NVMe disk is many times faster than a SATA SSD.
• CPU and RAM. How much processing power and memory your website has when many visitors arrive at the same time.
• I/O. How fast your website can read from and write to the disk. It is the limit that usually goes unpublished, yet it decides how fast an online shop feels.
• Email. Email accounts on your domain, with webmail and connection to Outlook or your phone.
• Databases. WordPress, WooCommerce and almost every modern website need MySQL or MariaDB.
• SSL. The certificate for https, which today should be free and renew automatically.
• Backups. How often they are taken, how far back they go and whether you can restore them yourself. We take a backup every 2 hours and keep 24 restore points, which you can restore yourself from cPanel.
• Control panel. The environment where you manage all of the above. We use cPanel.

There is no server with infinite resources. So when a plan says unlimited, the limits exist but they are not published. In our plans every limit is written down, and you can watch your website's usage live inside cPanel.

What types of web hosting are there

Types of web hosting differ in how many resources you get and whether you share them with others.

Shared hosting. Many websites share the same server, with limits per account. It is the affordable option for company websites, blogs and small online shops. At Konet we simply call it Web Hosting.

Semi Dedicated hosting. Still cPanel hosting, but with much higher limits and far fewer accounts per server. It suits large websites and online shops that do not want to manage a server. We explain it in detail in what is semi dedicated hosting, and the plans are on the Semi Dedicated Hosting page.

VPS hosting. A virtual server with reserved resources and full root access, so you can install whatever you need. It does require server administration skills. See what a VPS is and when you need one and our VPS Hosting plans.

Dedicated server. An entire physical server for one customer. It is for very large projects with their own requirements and their own technical team.

Reseller hosting. Hosting for those who host their own clients' websites, with a separate cPanel for each client. See our Reseller Hosting plans.

Cloud hosting. Resources come from a pool of servers instead of a single one, so the website can be moved or scaled more easily. The term is used loosely in advertising though, so ask what exactly it means in the plan you are looking at.

There is also Managed WordPress hosting, which is not a separate technology. It is hosting tuned for WordPress, with updates and support included in the plan.

How much does web hosting cost

The cost of hosting depends on three things: the resources you get, the type of hosting and the billing period. A shared plan for a company website costs a few euros a month, while a VPS or a Semi Dedicated plan for an online shop costs several times more because you get several times the resources.

At Konet, Web Hosting starts from €3.95 per month excluding VAT for the first year on annual billing, and the same plan renews at €4.95 per month excluding VAT. With any provider, look at the renewal price and not only the first-year price, as that is what you will pay from the second year on. Also check whether the price you see includes VAT, because in Greece the difference is 24%.

Finally, check what the price includes. SSL, backups, email and moving your website from another provider may be part of the plan or charged separately.

Is free hosting worth it

Free hosting is fine for testing and learning, but not for a professional website. The provider has to cover the cost of the server somehow, so it usually places ads on your website, limits you to a subdomain of its own instead of your own domain and gives very small resource limits.

There is also no obligation for backups, support or availability, and the account can be closed without notice. For a business, the website is its shop window on the internet, so the cost of real hosting is lower than the risk of losing it.

How to choose web hosting

Price is only one of the criteria. Ask the provider which processor model runs your website, what the CPU, RAM and I/O limits of the plan are, how often backups are taken and how far back they are kept. Ask also which datacenter the servers are in and whether a technician answers when you ask for help.

Check the company's real age too. The whois record of its domain and its history in the Internet Archive show how long it has actually existed, and that applies to us as well.

We cover every criterion in our guide on how to choose web hosting. If you want to compare providers with measurements, first read how to read hosting benchmarks, and for more practical questions we have the hosting FAQ.