Popular Web Applications To Consider for Your Online Business

The internet is rapidly changing before our eyes and technology is progressing at even faster rates. For most users, the internet is a set of websites and blogs that are used for entertainment, accessing information, or to make purchasing products around the world easier. However, what most people don't think about is how web applications and software are being powered by these same sites and servers as well. Such applications and programs can be used for blogging, CMS work, CRM, education solutions, gaming and forums, social networking, business and wiki platforms.

In short, a lot has happened over the past several years and the demand for customization and server side software is growing at a rapid pace. No matter what type of site, business, or brand you have, there are likely some valuable web applications out there just waiting for you to discover.

At the same time, there are also many benefits to going with your own hosted web applications, such as:

• Cost effective development and saves money over time
• Accessible anywhere while also offering user login restrictions
• Easily customizable to your personal or business needs
• Accessible for a range of devices, platforms, or web access
• Adaptable to increased workload and scalability of your business
• Increased security and direct access through your own servers

With all of this in mind, let's take a look at three of the most popular web applications and software making their way around the internet today.

WordPress CMS

Web site creation and web hosting is nothing like it used to be. Gone are the days when you set up a web hosting account, pay a huge monthly bill for your premium hosting, and also need to FTP in every time you want to upload new content. Now, it's all about WYSIWYG website builders‎ and having powerful CMS platforms that manage nearly all aspects of your site.

When it comes to choosing the best CMS out there, WordPress is always at the top of the list. It powers more than 30% of the sites on the internet, is free to use, and has a world of opportunity and customization when it comes to using different plugins and themes.

What's even better about WordPress, is that more web hosting platforms and solutions are focusing more time and effort on catering to the needs of such site owners. This means there is little-to-time time required in the actual set up and installation process, as many site hosting providers now offer one-click installs.

However, the option is always there to visit wordpress.org to download the free software and to install it at your own pace or preference. WordPress server requirements for Version 5.2+ are PHP version 5.6.20 or greater, PHP 7 is highly recommended. MySQL version 5.0.15 or greater or any version of MariaDB.

Jupyter Notebook

With more businesses and brands using their web hosting and online connectivity to share important information and documents with each other, it only makes sense for them to take advantage of different open-source applications that were built for such sharing as well.

Once such solution is, Jupyter Notebook, which is a robust, open-source application that allows its users to create and share documents containing equations, codes, explanatory text, and visualizations. This web-based solution is quite useful and effective in allowing users to streamline numerical simulation, transformation of data, and also for data cleaning, machine learning and statistical modeling -- all while being a quick and easy install as well.

To learn more about how to set this up, be sure to read through this Jupyter Notebook on Ubuntu installation guide. As recommended by many of the top installation and hosting tutorials online, you need to have Python installed on your machine first. Python 2.7 or Python 3.3 (or greater) will work fine.

Tiny Tiny RSS Reader

One of the many benefits to having your own website server and hosting, is that you not only have the ability to set up and host your own applications and software, you also have the opportunity to customize them to your liking and needs as well.

With so much content on the internet today, site and feed readers have always been extremely useful to make sure you are always in the know about what's going on. One of the most popular solutions out there was Google Reader, until they decided to take it away.

For anyone interested in creating a reader for their own, while also using their hosting, Tiny Tiny RSS has quickly made a great name for itself.

This application is perfect for anyone wanting to build out there own collection of news/content sources, or for organizations that want to provide their employees, co-workers, or teams with dedicated new sources from confirmed sources. Think industry specific news, or documentation being shared within the company or a network of sites and brands.

Through the use of this application, users have access to the following features:

• Server-side AJAX-powered application, user only needs a web browser.
• Free software, licensed under GNU GPLv3
• Self-hosted: control your own data and protect your privacy instead of relying on third party services
• Supports feed aggregation/syndication, keyboard shortcuts, podcasts, and more

Tiny Tiny RSS server requirements are PHP version 5.6 or newer (detailed PHP requirements) and PostgreSQL (9.1 or newer, recommended) or MySQL (InnoDB is required).

The Future and Benefits of Hosted Web Applications

WordPress, Jupyter Notebook, and Tiny Tiny RSS are just three popular web applications that we highlighted today, but there are hundreds of thousands of other software solutions just waiting to be discovered.

When looking for any type of application or software that can improve your daily life, productivity, or business, it's always important to make sure you are selecting one from a trusted and reputable site. It's also important to make sure you have the necessary server requirements in place beforehand, along with a backup of your most important site and server files.

More often than note, your web hosting provider will help you with any questions or installation requests that you might have. For anyone running their own data servers and looking to jump into the world of hosted web apps and software, be sure to download the latest versions of any software you are going to use, and to also read up on the latest tips, tutorials, and user guides from others who have already downloaded and hosted the software.