Web Hosting is a service that allocates space and resources on a server specifically for the files that make up your website. It allows you to publish your website on the internet so your audience can access it and view it.

That's the short version. Here's a bit longer description of web hosting.

When you want to construct a store, building or house, you need a physical location and the same holds true for your website. All of the files (text, images, databases, videos etc.) that your website is made up of takes up space (hard drive storage space). While a domain name is essentially the human readable address of your website, all of your website's files need to be stored somewhere. Web Hosting gives you that physical storage place.

All your website files are stored on a server. A server is basically a very powerful computer that stores those files, but also is designed to deliver them to your visitor's web browser. The server where your website's files are stored is given an IP address. Your domain name is linked to the IP address which looks something like 168.1.0.101 (4 sets of 1-3 digits separated by a period/dot). This IP address allows your visitors' computers to find your website to view it.

Shared hosting, also sometimes referred to as virtual hosting, is a web hosting environment where multiple individual hosting accounts are stored on a single web server. Think of a web server as a very powerful computer loaded with resources. Each of the accounts on the server shares the server's system resources. These resources include disk space, data transfer and server processing power.

Shared Hosting offers you an affordable solution to get your web site up and running because all the related server hosting costs are shared and spread out among the other users/accounts who are being hosted on that server.

There actually isn't a difference between the two. Rather Shared Hosting is a type of Web Hosting service

Web Hosting is absolutely essential if you would like to have a website published online. A common thought is that registering a domain name is all that is needed to have your website online. A domain name is an important part of the puzzle as this is the address your visitors will type into their browsers to access your site. Web Hosting, on the other hand, is what makes it possible for your web site to be accessed by your visitors.

Web hosting is essentially the space you buy on a server that stores all the pieces that make up your websites. Once you your website is hosted by Propellerhead Hosting, your visitors will be able to access your site by typing your domain name into their internet browser. Their computer is then connected with our server where your site is being hosted. The server then delivers the files that comprise your website to your visitors' browsers so they can view your site.

One of the tools in our cPanel (hosting account control panel) features is something called Softaculous. You can use Softaculous to install the web's most popular software to your account with 1-click. That includes some of the web's most used solutions including WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. With Softaculous, you won't have to worry about fumbling around with download files, uploading install files or having to hire a developer to help you install the software you want on your Web Hosting account. All you will have to do is log into cPanel and click the Softaculous icon. From there you'll see categories of solutions you can add to your account. These categories include blogs, content management systems, eCommerce carts, forums, wikis and so much more. You can also use the Softaculous search feature to find the exact software solution you want to use.

You'll even receive an email from the Softaculous manager informing you when new versions of the software you've installed are available. You can log right into your cPanel account and update your software with a click of your mouse within the Softaculous interface. This will ensure that you have the most up to date features helping keep your site both secure and running at optimum performance.

Are you an experienced developer? You'll be happy to hear that we are a "developer-friendly" web host. In fact, we support the very best versions of PHP, MySQL, Apache, Python, Node.js and more as well as offer resources like SSH access, Git version control software and so much more.

It doesn't matter if you have a Mac, Linux or Windows-based computer, you can choose our Linux Hosting regardless of your computer's operating system. Your Shared server will support multiple versions of PHP, Python, Ruby, Node.js as well as the best versions of Apache, MySQL and many more! All of this basically means that you can host your favorite software solutions on our servers!