Web Hosting Glossary

Plain-language explanations of terms you'll see in web hosting, networking and web development.

cPanel

Popular web hosting control panel. Lets you manage files, databases, email, backups and more through a GUI.

Encryption protocol for internet traffic. Powers HTTPS and protects sensitive data in transit between browser and server.

Global network of edge servers that serve content from the closest location to the visitor. Speeds up sites worldwide.

Service that translates domain names (like example.com) to IP addresses. The internet's phone book.

Virtual server that mimics a dedicated physical server. Has guaranteed resources and doesn't share with other tenants.

Flash-based storage drive. 10-100x faster than traditional spinning disks. All our servers are SSD-based.

File transfer protocols between your computer and a server. SFTP is encrypted and more secure.

Open-source relational database. Especially popular for PHP-based sites like WordPress.

Very fast web server with built-in caching. An efficient replacement for Apache for WordPress sites.

OS for hosting servers that isolates accounts so one site can't impact another's performance.