Articles
Hosting guides, practical explainers and comparison notes from HostScout. New articles appear here as they are published.
What Is a Load Balancer? Roles and Risks
A practical explanation of load-balancer components, routing layers, health decisions, connection handling, and resilience limits.
SOA DNS Record Explained: Fields and Checks
A practical guide to SOA fields, serial arithmetic, secondary timers, negative caching, and safe authoritative checks.
Ubuntu Server for VPS: Why It Is the Default
Why Ubuntu is the familiar VPS option, where its LTS model helps, and what to verify before trusting a provider image.
Fix 502 Bad Gateway Without Guesswork
A field guide to separating edge, proxy, network, TLS, socket, and upstream failures before changing production.
What Is Apache Kafka and When Do You Need It?
A practical explanation of Kafka's event-stream model, queue overlap, delivery limits, and operating cost.
Self-host GitLab: Requirements and Setup
A production-minded setup guide for sizing, installing, securing, backing up, and operating a self-managed GitLab instance.
MySQL vs PostgreSQL: Choose for Your App
A workload-first comparison of MySQL and PostgreSQL for application teams that need a defensible database choice.
Fix 403 Forbidden: A Safe Diagnostic Guide
A safe edge-to-origin checklist for finding the rule behind a 403 without opening permissions or disabling security.
Professional Email Setup: A Safe Domain Checklist
Build business email on your own domain without confusing aliases with inboxes or turning the MX change into a risky leap.
Fix 500 Internal Server Errors Safely
An evidence-first troubleshooting route for HTTP 500 errors across Apache, Nginx, PHP, WordPress, permissions, resources, and upstream services.
What Is Docker? Images, Containers, and Hosting
A practical guide to Docker's moving parts, hosting choices, and the operational work containers do not remove.
Check Domain Availability Before You Buy
A careful domain-search workflow that separates availability, registration data, pricing, name risk, and completed ownership.
What Is a Landing Page? Purpose and Hosting
A practical guide to landing-page purpose, structure, hosting choices, form delivery, measurement, and ownership.
Favicon Guide: Sizes, Formats, and Setup
A practical favicon setup for browser tabs, search results, touch icons, and installable web apps.
Website Builders Compared by What You Keep
Choose a website builder by testing what you own, what moves, what renews, and who fixes failures.
Fix Slow MySQL Queries Without Guessing
A production-safe method for finding expensive MySQL query shapes, reading estimates and actual execution, and validating one reversible change.
Self-host n8n on a VPS: a safe setup plan
A production-minded plan for running n8n on a VPS without guessing at server size or stopping at the first successful login.
Fix WordPress Plugin Conflicts Safely
A rollback-first method for identifying a WordPress plugin conflict without turning the live site into a test environment.
What Is a Website? What It Needs to Go Live
A plain-language map of the parts behind a website and the checks that turn files into a dependable public site.
Self-host OpenClaw with Docker: secure VPS setup
A security-first Docker setup for OpenClaw, from host preparation to backup and recovery checks.
What is cPanel? A hosting buyer guide
A practical glossary guide to cPanel hosting, costs, limits, alternatives, and what to check before buying a plan built around it.
Minecraft mods setup: Fabric and Forge
A practical Fabric and Forge setup guide for Minecraft mods, with compatibility checks, server-hosting caveats, and a test-first rollout path.
Reseller hosting explained: white-label plans
A practical guide to reseller hosting, white-label plans, margin checks, control-panel expectations, and provider support boundaries.
Linux swap file setup for a low-RAM VPS
Add a Linux swap file when a VPS runs short on RAM, then watch for signs that swap is hiding a plan-size problem.
What Is an Email Alias and When to Use One
Email aliases route messages without creating another mailbox. Use this guide to separate aliases from paid inboxes, forwarding, privacy masks, and role addresses.
CDN providers compared for real selection
A practical CDN comparison focused on edge footprint, price model, security scope, and lock-in risk.
RAID levels explained for dedicated servers
A practical RAID glossary for dedicated server buyers comparing speed, redundancy, usable capacity and backup risk.
Machine learning server requirements
A practical guide to sizing CPU, GPU, RAM, storage, and provider choices for machine learning servers.
What Is an IP Address? IPv4, IPv6, Public and Private
A practical glossary guide to IP addresses for hosting buyers: address types, server exposure, DNS, security checks, and provider questions.
What is a domain name? DNS mapping explained
A practical glossary guide to domain names, DNS records, registrars, and the checks that keep a site pointing at the right place.
What is WordPress? .org vs .com explained
A practical guide to WordPress, the .org and .com split, and the real hosting decisions behind a first site.
What Is a Data Warehouse and When to Use One
A practical glossary guide to data warehouses, analytics storage, and the checks that matter before moving reporting away from live databases.
How to build a website: domain, hosting, platform
A practical website-building guide that starts with the hosting decision, then covers domain, DNS, platform choice and launch checks.
Fix slow DNS lookup without guesswork
A practical DNS lookup troubleshooting guide for separating resolver lag from hosting, CDN, and authoritative DNS problems.
What is a DDoS attack? Host mitigation basics
A practical glossary guide to DDoS attacks, host mitigation layers, and the questions to ask before choosing protection.
URL structure explained: URI vs URL
A practical glossary guide to URL anatomy, URI differences, and the mistakes that make websites harder to crawl, migrate, and operate.
VSCode Remote SSH on a VPS: practical setup
A practical VS Code Remote-SSH guide for choosing a VPS, hardening access, and keeping development close to production.
SSL certificate chain: root vs intermediate
A practical glossary guide to SSL certificate chains, root certificates, intermediate certificates, and the order mistakes that break trust.
Self-host Nextcloud for cloud storage
A practical guide to running Nextcloud on your own VPS, with provider checks, backup risks, and a clean decision rule against free cloud tiers.
Cloud storage free plans compared by cost
A practical comparison of free cloud storage promises, object storage bills, egress risk, and exit checks.
What is shared hosting? Limits and risks
A practical glossary guide to shared hosting, resource limits, noisy neighbors, shared IP risk, and the checks to run before buying.
Free Web Hosting: Real Cost and Limits
A practical review of when free web hosting is useful, where the hidden cost appears, and which limits to check before committing a site.
Cheap Web Hosting Tradeoffs to Check First
A practical HostScout guide to where budget web hosts usually cut costs and how to check the tradeoffs before checkout.
What is a VPS server? How to choose one
A practical VPS explainer for buyers who need more control than shared hosting without renting a whole dedicated server.
How to choose a domain name without regret
A practical domain-name guide for choosing a memorable name, avoiding legal and DNS traps, and keeping ownership portable.
CDN and edge bandwidth limits in 2026
A practical data note on CDN bandwidth, request billing and edge-security limits, with provider samples and checks before launch.
Best Managed WordPress Hosting Compared
A HostScout comparison of managed WordPress hosts by cost, storage, operating fit, and the risks hidden behind easy setup.
Fix DNS server not responding and NXDOMAIN
A practical DNS troubleshooting guide for separating local resolver failures from NXDOMAIN, broken records, and provider-side DNS problems.
Dedicated servers guide: when bare metal pays
A practical guide to choosing dedicated servers only when isolation, hardware control, and predictable load justify the bill.
Cloud Hosting Cost Map: Compute, Storage, Egress
A practical cloud hosting cost note that separates instance price, storage, traffic signals and missing egress data before you shortlist a provider.
WordPress Hosting Checklist for Real Costs
A practical WordPress hosting checklist focused on renewal price, backup restores, support quality, and real plan limits.
What is DNS? Meaning, Records, and Lookup Flow
A practical DNS glossary for domain owners: lookup flow, records, TTL, nameservers, and the checks that prevent broken sites or email.
VPS hosting guide: CPU, RAM, NVMe and backups
A practical VPS checklist for CPU, RAM, storage and backup limits.
HTTP error codes: 502 Bad Gateway fixes
A practical guide to the common HTTP errors that break websites, with owner checks before you blame the host or move infrastructure.
How to Start a Blog in 2026: A Practical WordPress Guide
Start a blog by choosing a tight topic, picking the right platform, buying hosting with renewal and backup checks, publishing useful posts, and measuring reader demand before you scale.
How to choose an NVMe VPS for Docker workloads
Choose an NVMe VPS for Docker by sizing RAM before CPU, treating disk capacity as a writable layer budget, and separating cheap unmanaged VPS plans from managed app platforms. Current HostScout data shows usable Docker entry points from $4.26 per month, with managed NVMe capacity priced much higher.