The total number of websites is fast approaching the 2 billion mark. With the online landscape becoming increasingly dominant in every facet of our lives, web hosting holds the entire Internet together, allowing us to carry on with business seamlessly. An industry that didn’t even exist before the advent of the World Wide Web is now the backbone of the modern digital world.
The past few years have been extremely challenging for everyone. With a global pandemic sweeping across the planet, the online world has kept small businesses afloat. Zoom meetings and working from home have become the norm, while online delivery is now more important than ever. Billions of users take the Internet for granted, but behind the addictive social media platforms, online shopping, and work assignments, there is a web host providing space and speed for every website and app.
Since the dawn of the Internet, web hosting has evolved into a multi-billion industry, with cutting-edge technology shaping its evolution. For any company, keeping a close eye on such a dynamic niche is essential. Whatever your business is, without a reliable hosting provider, you can’t grow and achieve your goals.
In this article, we reveal the latest web hosting stats and trends so that you remain informed of any changes in this crucial industry. But before we dive into the numbers and discover what the future holds for this sector, we thought you might enjoy a quick overview of all the major events in web hosting history.
Web Hosting timeline
1969 – Two computers are connected for the first time in our history. The first computer was located in a research lab at UCLA, and the second was at Stanford; each one was the size of a small house.
1973 – The first transatlantic connection is established. Two European organizations can connect to ARPANET, the U.S. Defense Department’s predecessor to the Internet.
1984 – Domain names become a reality. The first available extensions are .edu, .gov, .mil, .com, .net, and .org.
1985 – Symbolics.com is the first .com domain registered.
1989 -Tim Berners-Lee creates the World Wide Web while working at CERN, enabling users to access hypertext documents from anywhere on the network.
1992 – Metropolitan Fiber Systems (MFS) introduces colocation web hosting through their Internet exchange point known as MAE-East. Organizations such as United Nations have their own websites.
1994 – With the launch of Geocities, free web hosting becomes available to a wider audience.
1997 – Jomax Technologies, which will later become GoDaddy is founded. Today, Godaddy is one of the largest hosting providers in the world. The same year, virtual web hosting hit the market.
2001 – RoseHosting becomes the very first company to offer commercial Linux VPS hosting to the public.
2006 – Amazon launches its Web Services platform, making cloud hosting available to the masses.
2008 – Google follows suit and launches its Cloud Platform, giving users access to cloud hosting on one of the largest networks in the world.
2015 – North America runs out of IPv4 Addresses. IPv4 Internet Protocol has prevailed since 1983, but its exhaustion led to more widespread use of IPv6 addresses.
2017 – The number of global internet users grows to 4 billion.
Sources: Dailyhostnews and Wikipedia.
Now that we’ve warmed you up with a bit of web hosting history, let’s return to the present days. And what better way to see what’s going on in the industry than with some interesting stats.
Web hosting stats for 2022
- According to Global Industry Analyst, the total worth of the web hosting industry is more than $70 billion. Since the pandemic, the demand for web hosting has been increasing, so the industry is expected to reach $152.7 Billion by 2026.
- GoDaddy tops the market share hosting 10.49% of all websites worldwide. Google Cloud Platform comes in second with 6.10%, and 1&1 completes the top three with a 4.38% share.
- Cloud hosting is the fastest-growing hosting type with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 18% per year. In contrast, shared hosting grows at 10.3% per year, while dedicated hosting at 5.6%.
- As of May 2019, there were over 330.000 web hosting service providers worldwide, with the United States accounting for over 101million hosted domains, more than any other country. In contrast, despite its population, China only has 22,204,290 registered domains.
- The shared web hosting segment had a 37.64% share of the market. Dedicated hosting trails behind with 27.9%, followed by Collocated hosting ( 27.9%), reseller (13.6%), and VPS (10.3%).
- The average price for a shared hosting service ranges from $3 to $10. A decent VPS server will cost you somewhere between $30 and $50.
- According to Hostinginsider, the US economy loses $500 million each year due to slow loading websites, with a single-second delay reducing conversion rates by as much as 7%.
- 40.2% of all available websites use Apache hosting servers. Nginx is the second most preferred option at 2.67%. The OS with the most users worldwide is Windows Server (11.26%), followed by UNIX at 2.23%. (Hostingadvice).
- Plesk (81.81%) and cPanel (16.8%) are the most popular web hosting panels in the Alexa top 1 million sites. WHMCS comes in third, with a 1% market share.
- The volume of the Internet will grow from 33 zettabytes in 2018 to 175 zettabytes by 2025. (One zettabyte is equivalent to a trillion gigabytes). That’s a lot of space for the web hosting industry to cover.
As you can see, numbers paint a clear picture. One of expansion and growth, But as the web hosting industry continues to flourish, the global trends and economic demands exert a strong influence on its future. Below we present the latest web hosting trends to watch in 2023 and beyond.
Green Hosting
Protecting the environment is on everyone’s agenda right now, and the hosting industry is not an exception. The carbon footprint of the Internet and systems supporting it accounts for 3.7% of global greenhouse emissions, similar to the airline industry. No wonder, an increasing number of hosting companies are becoming environmentally aware and investing in eco-friendly initiatives.
They do this by gaining renewable energy certificates (REC) or carbon offset certificates (VER). A recent study of 543 US adults found that more than 60 percent of people are inclined to buy from an online shop if the website explicitly claims to use green energy.
Multi-cloud hosting
The turbulent events of the last couple of years have emphasized the importance of stable and predictable hosting environments. With multi-cloud hosting, companies can offset the risk of cyber threats, downtime, and data loss, by distributing computing resources across several high-end hosting providers.
A multi-cloud setup could be all-private, all-public, or a combination of both. Most enterprises already reap the benefits of multi-cloud hosting with 92% of enterprises having a multi-cloud strategy in place.
Managed Web hosting services
Managed Web hosting has been around for a while, but it never really kicked into gear until the pandemic. With millions of new users flooding the cyberspace, managed web hosting plans provide all-inclusive solutions for newcomers who lack technical skills to run and optimize a website.
The host takes care of everything from backups and security to optimal speed and system updates, leaving the user to concentrate on content and audience. Some managed hosting providers rent out computer servers that are completely operated by the service provider. For organizations that want to keep pace with the latest trends and regulations, managing web hosting is a viable solution.
According to Markets and Markets, the managed services market is expected to grow from 223.0 billion in 2020 to USD 329.1 billion by 2025.
DIY website builders are on the rise
Covid-19 has sparked a new influx of online businesses, with thousands of online stores, launching during the pandemic. For most owners, building a website from scratch is too difficult and time-consuming. Here’s where DIY website builders come to the rescue. With sleek drag-and-drop builders, anyone can create a professionally looking website in no time. You don’t have to worry about code and aesthetics, as every step, and building block is visually updated in real-time.
Yahoo Finance estimates that the DIY website builder market value will reach around $2,6 billion, posing stiff competition to traditional web hosting services. Many hosting providers are already offering advanced DIY options in their hosting plans to keep new customers on their side.
Data centers are on the decline
It may come as a surprise to you, after the stats we’ve shown you, but the number of data centers worldwide is declining. Although the demand is higher than ever, classic brick-and-mortar data centers are slowly becoming obsolete. With fewer organizations building their own data centers, the cloud became the dominant preference, as it offers greater flexibility, security, and speed.
In 2015, the number of data centers reached an all-time high of 8.55 million. After that, this number slowly started decreasing and dropped to just 7.2 million in 2021. According to Statista, in 2024, data centers will only account for 36.5% of total IT infrastructure spending worldwide.
AI takes the central stage
The rise of AI brings convenience and fresh opportunities to the web hosting industry. AI’s ability to think and learn helps optimize server performance using predictive analytics. The advanced firewall technology used by artificial intelligence swiftly identifies the encrypted patterns and threats that cyber attackers pose. Data centers use AI to manage the heating and cooling system and mitigate any security breaches and hazards.
AIs applications are endless, and each web host can come up with creative ways how to harness and utilize AIs potential. Quality web hosting is all about speed, security, and uptime. AI improves all these aspects by analyzing tons of data and spotting hidden bugs and glitches. Everyone benefits from AI’s capabilities. The hosting company saves time and reduces operational costs, while customers enjoy fast-loading websites with excellent security and performance.
Final Words
Web hosting is an ever-green industry. It will exist and thrive as long as the power girds remain intact. Driven by fierce competition, a growing demand, and technological advancements, creative web hosting companies can successfully overcome existing and future challenges.
The latest statistics indicate a continuous market growth, while the emerging trends point towards AI-dominated solutions with a clear focus on environment protection and customer satisfaction.
