If we want to run a website, we need to host it on a web server so other people on the internet can access it. In this article, we'll explain what a web server is, how it works, and what types of web servers can you choose?

1. What is a Web server?

In simple terms, a web server is a computer on which we can store website software and all its contents. A web server is different from a standard computer in that it needs to be online 24/7 and requires the right software and hardware to transfer data between our website and the browsers people use to access it. In particular, support for HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is required to store, process and transfer websites, files and emails.

By supporting these protocols, web servers can exchange data with other online devices such as other servers, computers, and smartphones.

2. How does the web server work?

When someone clicks on a link to a website or types its URL into the address bar, it's the web server's job to send the page that was called to the user's browser. The protocol used to manage this process is called HTTP, and it enables web servers and browsers to communicate with each other. To access a website, a user's browser (such as Chrome, Edge, Firefox, etc.) requests its files using HTTP. Once the request is received and accepted, the website files are located and transmitted back to the browser using HTTP again.

3. What types of web servers are there?

When discussing different types of web servers, conversations fall into two distinct categories. This is because we can define a web server in terms of the technology and operating system software used by the web server. Here we look at both.

1. Web servers classified by technology

Currently, website owners can choose from four types of web server technologies. These are shared hosting, VPS, dedicated server and cloud.

The underlying technology for all of this is dedicated servers. It's a web server with massive storage, a powerful processor, a high-speed SSD drive, and a lot of memory (RAM). In a shared hosting solution, a dedicated server is shared by hundreds, sometimes thousands, of different users, each with their own server storage and computing resources. In dedicated server hosting, users get an entire dedicated server for themselves.

With VPS (Virtual Private Server) and cloud hosting, web hosting uses virtualization technology to create virtual servers that run on physical servers. With a VPS, multiple virtual servers run on one physical machine. The difference with shared hosting is that there are fewer VPSs, so users have more storage and computing resources. Importantly, since each VPS is a virtual server, each user has their own operating system, which prevents the workload of other users on the physical machine from affecting their own operations.

With the cloud, a large number of dedicated servers are linked together in a so-called hyper-converged infrastructure. Running on this infrastructure is a larger number of virtual cloud servers. The operational scale of a cloud data center means that customers can have as much storage and computing resources as they need, and can scale up or down as needed.

Another advantage of virtualization is that if there is a problem with the hardware, the virtual server can be quickly moved to a different physical machine. With a VPS, this requires a simple restart, whereas with a cloud, it happens automatically, with no interruption to the website or other hosted applications.

2. Web servers classified by operating system

In addition to choosing shared hosting, VPS, dedicated server or cloud, web server plans can also be chosen by operating system. The two main types are Windows and Linux, and there are also various Linux distributions available such as Centos, Debian, and Fedora.

Both Linux and Windows have pros and cons, but the choice usually comes down to the type of software our business wants to use. Open source software tends to run on Linux, while people using Microsoft software usually use Windows. Proprietary software developed by other companies will be available for either or both.