A server is a computer (or a piece of software running on one) that provides resources, data, or services to other computers over a network. In web hosting terms, a server is the physical or virtual machine storing a website's files and delivering them to visitors on request.
What a Web Server Actually Does
- Stores a website's files — HTML, images, PHP scripts, and everything else
- Receives incoming requests from visitors' browsers
- Processes those requests, generating a proper response, often dynamically
- Sends the finished, completed webpage back to the visitor
Types of Web Servers
- Shared server — hosts many different websites simultaneously
- VPS (virtual private server) — a virtual machine with dedicated resources on shared physical hardware
- Dedicated server — an entire physical machine rented exclusively to one customer
- Cloud server — resources drawn dynamically from a distributed network of servers
Server Software
Apache and Nginx are the two most common web server software programs, both responsible for actually handling incoming requests and serving up webpages — the specific choice between them is generally decided by a hosting provider, rather than a typical WordPress site owner directly.
« Back to Index