What is Web Hosting and where does it fit in?

I think the following analogy helps to explain the relationship of Web Design, Website Creation and Website Hosting quite well.

Let's say you hired a seamstress to make a suit or a dress...
  1. Design: The 1st step would be to design a suit or a dress. They might sketch it on paper or use a computer but they would get your approval on it before they start cutting fabric and sewing.
  2. Creation: The 2nd step is to actually create the item. The cutting and sewing of the garment you want and making it into a wonderful suit or a dress.
  3. Hosting: How are people to see this new suit you have had made? Well, by you wearing it of course! We'll refer to that aspect as your body 'hosting' the suit or dress. Without a body to wear it, all you have is a well made garment, hanging on a hangar. No one will see it without a "host".


Now, let's apply these same steps to websites; we will follow the same plan...
  1. Design: 1st we design the website; the layout, the colors, where content will go, where graphics will go, etc. This is called Web Design and along with the next step is the creation of your website.
  2. Creation: Then we actually create the site on a computer. It becomes a computer file that we can only see on our computer. How will the rest of the world see it? It needs a host, a Web Server, to show it off to the world. (next step)
  3. Hosting: This is where we set aside a specified amount of space on a computer that is permanently attached to the internet (a Web Server) that can 'host' the file for all the world to see. That is called Web Hosting.