You might ask: "Why should I consider this question at such an early stage? Can I not just produce my website and then look around for someone to host it?"  This is where we need to have an understanding of the whole issue of web- hosting.  For, without this background:

• You could easily end up spending far, far more money than you really need
• Your website might appear unreliable and erratic, giving your visitors the impression that your business, too, is erratic and unreliable.
• You could end up having to re-build your site, because your website structure may not be compatible with the web-server setup provided by your web hosting company.

First of all, you may ask why do I need a web host? Why cannot I just put my website on my own computer?

In theory, you can. But you would need a very powerful computer, install web server software, add various pieces of hardware such as routers, and learn a lot of technical material about web protocols, such as TCP/IP. It is simply not practicable for most SMEs. You would also be responsible for the security on that server, i.e. preventing hacks / denial of service (DOS) attacks, etc. Basically you need to put your website onto a "web server". A "web hosting" company will provide you with access to a web server.

Let us look at the various options.....