For your business4 min read

What is web hosting? A plain-English explainer

Web hosting is one of those tech terms everyone uses and nobody explains. Here's what it actually is, in plain English, and whether you need to worry about it.

Quick answer

Web hosting is the service that stores your website's files and makes them available on the internet 24/7. Every website needs hosting — but if you use a modern website builder like Adviita, Wix, or Squarespace, hosting is included automatically and there's nothing extra to buy. You only need to think about hosting separately if you're using self-hosted WordPress or building from raw code.

Step-by-step

What hosting actually is

Think of your website as a building. The files that make it work (text, images, code) are like the building's interior — the actual stuff inside. Hosting is the land the building sits on AND the maintenance crew that keeps it operational. A hosting company runs servers — physical computers connected to the internet — and your website lives on one of them. When someone visits your URL, their browser reaches the server, downloads your files, and displays the page. Without hosting, there is nowhere for your website to physically exist online.

Hosting vs domain — they're different

These get confused constantly. A domain is your address (yourbusiness.com). Hosting is the property at that address (where the files actually live). You can own a domain without hosting (it just doesn't point anywhere yet), and you can have hosting without a domain (people access it via an IP address or a temporary subdomain). For a real working website you need both. Most builders bundle hosting in and let you bring your own domain separately, which is the simplest setup.

What's typically included with hosting

Standard hosting includes: server space for your files (usually plenty for a normal small business site), bandwidth (data transferred when visitors load your site), an SSL certificate (the padlock icon that secures your site — Google requires this), automatic backups (some plans), email forwarding (some plans), basic security and monitoring. Quality varies dramatically between hosts — cheap shared hosting is often slow and unreliable; managed hosting on quality providers is fast and stable. Modern website builders include managed hosting tuned for their specific platform, which is why they're usually faster than a self-hosted WordPress site on cheap shared hosting.

When hosting is included (and when it isn't)

Hosting is INCLUDED automatically with: Adviita, Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, Webflow, Carrd, Framer, and most website builders. You don't need to buy hosting separately. Hosting is NOT included with: self-hosted WordPress (WordPress.org), hand-built sites you upload yourself, custom developer-built sites that don't include hosting in the contract. In those cases you'll buy hosting from a provider like SiteGround, Kinsta, Cloudflare, Hostinger, or DigitalOcean.

What hosting costs (when you do need it)

Self-hosted WordPress: shared hosting starts at £2–5/month (slow and often oversold), managed WordPress hosting starts at £20–35/month (fast and properly maintained). Cloud hosting (DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode) starts at £4–10/month but requires you to set up and maintain the server yourself — not suitable for non-developers. Static-site hosting (Netlify, Vercel, Cloudflare Pages) is often free for low-traffic sites but requires technical skills to use. For most small businesses using a website builder, hosting is included in the monthly subscription and there's nothing extra to pay.

What 'good' hosting looks like

Three things matter. Speed — your site should load in under 2 seconds on mobile (test with Google PageSpeed Insights). Uptime — your host should guarantee 99.9% uptime or better; cheap hosts often go down for hours at a time. Security — automatic SSL, regular backups, and DDoS protection should be standard. Modern website builders score well on all three by default because they only have to optimise for their own platform. Cheap shared WordPress hosting tends to score poorly because they're cramming thousands of sites onto each server.

Tips & best practices

▸If you're using a modern website builder, you don't need to think about hosting at all — it's handled for you. This guide is mostly for people considering WordPress or hand-built sites.
▸Avoid the cheapest shared hosting tiers (£2–3/month) — your site will be slow, which Google penalises and which loses you enquiries. The cost saving is rarely worth it.
▸Hosting and domain registration are best kept SEPARATE — buy your domain from a dedicated registrar like Cloudflare or Namecheap, and use whoever's best for hosting. Tying them together makes switching either one painful later.

Common questions

Do I need to buy hosting if I use Adviita?

No. Adviita includes managed hosting in every plan, including free. There's nothing extra to buy, set up, or maintain. Just add your custom domain when you upgrade (or keep the free adviita.com link).

What's the difference between shared hosting, VPS, and managed hosting?

Shared hosting (cheapest): your site shares a server with hundreds of others — slow, unreliable, fine for testing. VPS (Virtual Private Server): you get a dedicated slice of a server with your own resources — faster but requires technical management. Managed hosting: optimised for a specific platform (e.g. managed WordPress) with the technical bits handled for you — fastest and easiest, but most expensive.

Can I host my own website on my own computer?

Technically yes, practically never a good idea. Your home internet isn't fast or reliable enough, your computer would need to be on 24/7, and you'd need to handle security yourself. Hosting providers exist because they're vastly better at this than a home setup could be.

How much hosting do I need for a small business website?

Almost any tier works for a typical small business site (5–10 pages, a few hundred visitors a month). Bandwidth and storage are rarely the bottleneck — speed and reliability matter more. A budget plan from a quality provider beats a top plan from a cheap one.