Web hosting is the service that stores your website on a server and keeps it available on the internet. It's the 'land' your site is built on - without hosting, there's nowhere for your site to live.
Also known as: Hosting, hosting plan, web host
In plain English
Your website is made of files - pages, images, code - plus a database of content. Web hosting is the rented space on an always-on server where all of that lives, so visitors can reach it 24/7. The host also handles the connection to the internet, security basics, and keeping the server running.
Why it matters for your business
Hosting is the foundation everything else sits on. Slow hosting makes a great site feel broken; unreliable hosting takes your whole business offline; the wrong plan can mean surprise bills or sudden suspension. It's the one place where cheap usually costs more later.
When you'll run into it
When starting a site, when your current host becomes slow or unreliable, or when your business has outgrown what your plan was built for.
Run into this on your site?
WordPress Hosting