What is web hosting?

Web hosting is the service that makes your website visible on the internet. Your site is a folder of files (HTML, images, scripts) and that folder has to live on a server that is permanently connected to the internet, ready to send your pages to anyone who visits the URL. Web hosting is renting space on that server.

Three things a hosting plan provides

1. Storage - disk space for your website's files, the database, e-mails and backups. Modern hosts use NVMe SSD storage which is roughly 10x faster than the spinning hard drives older hosts still rely on.
2. Bandwidth - the data that flows between your visitors and the server. Most quality hosts in 2024 onward offer "unlimited" bandwidth within a fair-use policy.
3. A control panel - the dashboard you use to manage your site. cPanel is the industry standard and is what we use for all shared and reseller hosting at Trinico Cloud.

What you actually do with hosting

Once you have a hosting plan you can:

• Install WordPress, Joomla, Drupal or any other CMS in one click via Softaculous.
• Create e-mail mailboxes on your domain (you@yourdomain.co.za).
• Create databases for your applications.
• Add unlimited subdomains (shop.yourdomain, blog.yourdomain).
• Issue and renew free SSL certificates via Let's Encrypt or AutoSSL.
• Restore from daily backups if something breaks.

Why South African hosting matters for SA visitors

Trinico Cloud servers are in South African data centres. That means a Cape Town visitor reaches your site in under 30 ms, compared with 200+ ms for a server in Europe or the US. Faster response time means lower bounce rate, better Google rankings (Google uses page speed as a ranking signal) and better conversion rates for online sales. It also means you are billed in Rand on a local invoice, not a fluctuating dollar amount on a foreign credit card.

See cPanel hosting plans cPanel mail hosting only