Website hosting stores the files that make up the visual parts of your blog. A website’s design is made up of code and files. When you buy a domain, it allows you attach the file storage (hosting) and park that onto the website’s address.

So you can have a website without hosting, but if you want it to look like a website, you’ll need to buy hosting which holds the files.

A few notes:

– I’m not a fan of products that are named “WordPress Hosting” they are typically 2-10x more expensive then the hosting that you’ll actually need.

– Shared hosting means that a number of websites are hosted on one server, making it more economical.

 – Website speed is important in the long-term success of your blog. My recommendation is to get started with a less expensive hosting plan (which can mean slower load times), then when it’s up and running and you are optimizing it, consider upgrading your hosting plan to make it faster.

– Selecting a hosting plan, there are options for a “US Database” or “UK Database” – The database closest to the person viewing the website will be faster, so choose the area closest to your intend audience.