The idea of webhosting was one of the biggest ideas the old world envisioned, but it sure took them quite some time to make the best of it. In retrospect, there were a great deal of pundits who criticized the idea of the cloud, laughing at Google’s idea of a search engine and Apple’s innovative devices.  Well who’s laughing now? Below is Peer 1 Hosting‘s infographic outlining the evolution of web hosting, and let me tell you–we can’t live without it.

Bring-your-own-server

In 1991, you needed to have your own server or computer to host a site, but today, you can find web hosts that charges less than you spend on coffee a week. It saves you a lot of time, money and space. As times progress, webhosting prices drop as the convenience increases, allowing anyone to have a web presence of their own. Some of the earliest web hosting service services in the 90s includes GeoCities, Angelfire, Tripod, BlueHost, HostMonsters, and Lycos. It costs an average of 10.8 pounds for 153 MB worth of storage.

The cloud’s silver lining

In 1999, web hosting services continue to grow in demand, leading to the introduction of cloud services, courtesy of Fasthosts.  Blogger and Live Journal debuted, and one of UK’s top service providers, PEER 1 Hosting, was founded. Blogging has gone main stream by 2005 when Google bought Blogger, and WordPress launched as well. Web hosting storage has increased by 1,115 times since 1998.

Last year, web hosting costs an average less than $10, and its estimated that this year, cloud services will be worth $1.88 billion annually. The number of people using the internet has swelled as well, from 16 million in 1995 to 2.1 billion in 2011 (see infographic below).

Hosting is one of the most popular services among developers, according to the recent survey by BestVendor, after polling 500 developers around the world. It also speaks of ongoing trends in cloud storage, hosting and NoSQL adoption.

Meanwhile, web hosting prices only continue to drop.  Amazon Web Services recently lowered the price of its Simple Storage Service (S3). Google Drive is also expected to launch soon, competing in a consumer space currently dominated by DropBox and Box.