First time wading into hosting lingo? Keep this A-to-Z cheatsheet in your back pocket. When a review lobs an acronym grenade—TTFB, CDN, SSD—flip here for the human translation instead of a headache. Welcome to our Glossary Web Hosting.
Glossary Web Hosting Terms A-Z
ART – Average Response Time – the server’s average “done, here’s the full page” time while it handles a nonstop stream of requests during the test window.
CDN – Content Delivery Network – Think of a CDN as your site’s globetrotting stunt double. Instead of dragging every image and script all the way from your origin server in Utah, a Content Delivery Network stashes copies at “edge” nodes scattered worldwide. When someone in Berlin clicks your page, the nearest node hands over the files—shaving latency, easing the strain on your main host, and acting like crowd control when traffic spikes or a DDoS wave rolls in. Faster loads, fewer headaches.
CSS – Cascading Style Sheets – HTML is the cast list—who’s on stage and in what order. CSS is the director whispering: “You stand here, wear that font, fade in with a 300 ms slide.” It paints every visual cue: colors, spacing, grids, dark-mode flips, even the wiggle on a hover animation. Why it matters:
- Content and clothes live apart. One CSS file can restyle a hundred pages without poking their HTML. Swap a brand palette in ten minutes, not ten hours.
- The ‘cascade’ keeps the peace. When two rules argue over the same element, CSS uses a clear pecking order—selector specificity + source order—to decide who wins.
- Any device, same language. Media queries pivot layouts for phones, widescreens, or printers; special directives tailor output for screen-readers. Same markup, different outfits.
Bottom line: CSS is the design layer that lets the web change shoes without changing its skeleton—a single stylesheet can turn a bare HTML sketch into a polished, responsive experience.
SSD – Solid-State Drive – No whirring platters, just flash chips—think phone storage on server scale. With zero moving parts, an SSD grabs data in microseconds, shrugs off vibration, and sips a third of the power a hard-disk gulps. Why hosts shout “SSD storage”
- Speed: ~100× faster reads = snappier TTFB and happier Core Web Vitals.
- Stability: fewer parts to break, so downtime odds drop.
- Efficiency: lower power draw lets providers cram more servers per rack and brag “greener.”
Worth it? Yes for anything dynamic—WordPress, WooCommerce, forums. Static brochure site? You’ll still get SSD by default these days, and the price difference is pennies. Bottom line: “SSD hosting” is shorthand for quicker, sturdier pages without the premium markup.
TTFB Time to First Byte – the stopwatch starts the moment you click and stops when the server releases its very first byte of data. Think of it as the handshake before any images or CSS can fly. A low TTFB means the host’s network routes and backend are snappy; a high one hints at distance, congestion, or under-powered hardware. It’s the earliest clue to how lively—or sluggish—your entire page will feel.