What is web hosting?

Think of your domain as your shop’s address and hosting as the shop itself. The domain (yourbusiness.com) tells people where to go; the hosting is where your website actually lives.

How it works

1. Your website’s files, images and database are kept on a server in a data centre.
2. Your domain points to that server.
3. When a visitor in Mutare, Gweru or anywhere else opens your domain, the server sends the website to their browser in a fraction of a second.

Types of hosting

Type	Best for
Shared web hosting	Business websites, blogs and small shops: the affordable place to start
WordPress hosting	WordPress sites, tuned for speed
Cloud and corporate hosting	Busy websites that need guaranteed resources
VPS	Developers and apps that need their own server
Dedicated servers	Large, resource-heavy projects

What good hosting includes

• Speed: fast storage (NVMe SSD) and web servers (LiteSpeed).
• Security: free SSL, firewalls and malware scanning.
• Backups: daily, so one mistake never costs you your website.
• Email: addresses on your own domain.
• Support: people who respond when something goes wrong.

Every Hostnali web hosting plan includes all of this, from $18.29 a year. See how much web hosting costs in Zimbabwe.