What is the Back End?

The back end of a website loosely consists of a server, databases, and APIs.

What are web servers?

A web server is a system that delivers content and services to users over the Internet. Web servers are exactly like regular computers except that they are more powerful and robust. Also, most servers don’t have a display like a monitor or a screen that most PCs do, but you can connect to them with SSH. To put it simply, SSH is a way to get another machine’s terminal on your own. A web server can ‘host’ a website, i.e., the webserver will have all the code for the website on it: front and back and anyone with an Internet connection can access it with their machine to view the website.

Technically, you can open up port 80 on your PC and host your website there. However, this is usually never done because a regular PC would not be able to handle the load of potentially thousands of client connections, it would put your personal data at risk, and you would have to keep it on with the server running 24/7. So web hosting services solve this problem.

Web hosting services

Web hosting companies provide space on a server that is owned or leased for use by clients, as well as providing Internet connectivity, usually in a data center. They typically charge a monthly fee for this service. A data center is a building that houses multiple servers. Data centers usually require extensive cooling and maintenance to keep the temperature of their machines down, which reduces crash rates and so increases profits. Facebook, for example, has some of the largest data centers in the world!