Why Is Web Hosting Part of your WordPress Site?
There are a whole set of website tasks and technologies that are not tied to your website technology specifically. But, your website technology cannot run without them. One of them is a web server, which is owned by a web hosting company. All the files and the database for your website live on the web server. The fact that it’s a web server means that it can put your pages together and send them to viewers. Otherwise your website is just a bunch of files that no one can use.
Two Types of WordPress Installs
WordPress has a server system of its own called WordPress.com. You can put a free site on their server. You can also pay to use specific services, such as having your WordPress.com site use your own domain name, instead of yoursite.wordpress.com. The WordPress.com service is much like Wix or Weebly, but it uses a special version of the WordPress dashboard.
One of the benefits of using WordPress.com is that you do not need to worry very much about the security of your site. The downside of this service is that it does limit you in how much customization you can do on your site. It also limits you in what plugins and themes you can use. They do this to protect their servers from both careless users and hackers. If you use WordPress.com, they are your web host.
Your Own Hosted Site
The other option is to purchase web hosting space and then put a copy of the WordPress software in your web hosting space. That’s a lot like renting an office space. You can put whatever furniture in that space you want, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the building itself or the other folks in the building. One of the things you can add to your server space is a WordPress install. In fact, many web hosts have a copy of the WordPress install on their server already, and you can install it right from your hosting account.
More to come! If you would like specific topics covered in this or a different article, add a comment!