The web hosting statistics of 2021 reveal that there are over 330,000 web hosting service providers globally. All these service providers use web servers for hosting the files of their clients’ sites, in order to provide the service of website hosting to them. Web hosting, as a service is required for making websites accessible online to site visitors and is provided by web hosting companies through their variously priced web hosting plans. Server space on the web servers of website hosting companies, along with the necessary technologies are provided through these plans. Let us elaborate on web servers and subsequently proceed to comprehending the difference between dynamic and static web servers.
The Role of a Web Server in Web Hosting
Web servers have the most important role to play in web hosting. That is because web servers not only store and process the files of the websites (text, application data, images, videos) that have availed the service of hosting, but also let web browsers retrieve that content from the servers in order to make websites accessible online to site visitors. Web servers not only store the component files of websites but also web server software. All the best website hosting services are powered by efficient web servers.
Web servers function on the client-server model. Whenever a site visitor initiates the process of visiting a website on his Internet connected device, his web browser communicates with the web server that hosts that particular website’s files. The web server responds to the incoming request by locating the files, processing those and subsequently delivering the files over the Internet to the same browser. At this stage the website becomes accessible to the site visitor.
The content of the site that is hosted on a web server can be static or dynamic. Static content is shown as it is, whereas dynamic content can be updated and changed. Server-side scripting languages are supported by most web servers for encoding business logic into the communication, in order to deliver dynamic content.
In the context of the service of website hosting, which is of many types, a web server can either host a single website or multiple websites. Shared web hosting refers to the website hosting solution wherein multiple sites are hosted on a single server and share its resources. Dedicated web hosting entails hosting a single site on a single server. In this type of hosting, the hosted site reaps the benefit of utilizing the entire resources of the server for its exclusive use. These are two of the examples that reflect the way in which hosting services differ from each other in terms of how the web servers host website’s/websites’ files.
The most common web servers that are available are Apache HTTP Server, NGINX, Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), Lighttpd, and Sun Java System Web Server. There are some other web servers, such as GWS (Google Web Server), Domino Server, Novell’s NetWare Server, etc.
As mentioned previously, web servers can be shared or dedicated, based on how these host the files of websites. Another way of classifying servers is as dynamic and static.
How Do Dynamic Web Servers Differ from Static Web Servers?
As you are aware, websites can have static as well as dynamic content. Hence, a web server can cater to the requirement of serving either dynamic content or static content.
There will be a computer and HTTP software in a static web server. Since the web server in this case sends the hosted files of the site as it is to the browser, it is regarded as static. On the other hand, when a web server is considered dynamic, software such as application server and database are involved. The reason it is considered dynamic is that the application server can be used for updating the hosted files, prior to these being sent to the browser.
Conclusion:
Regardless of the type of web server, its function is to respond to client requests which are made over the Internet. Web servers are meant for displaying the content of the sites that have availed the service of web hosting, by storing and processing the files of websites and delivering those over the Internet to site visitors.
HTS Hosting, the best Website Hosting Company, provides all types of web hosting solutions at the most affordable prices, wherein powerfully configured and fully secure web servers are used to host the files of websites. These web servers exist in HTS Hosting’s state-of-the-art data centres and deliver continuously high uptime, fast speed, powerful security and performance.
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