Shared hosting is the cheapest web hosting option available and is usually the first choice for persons creating their first website. Why? Shared web hosting plans have come a long way. They offer users access to powerful server and hosting services like cPanel at relitively cheap prices without compromising the quality of servers. For individuals and small businesses with limited funds budgeting for shared hosting often fits their needs.
This makes shared hosting ideal for websites or individuals with small blogs. Maybe you only require a simple landing page listing the opening hours of your business, appointments, your products/services, location and contact information.
There are also times when shared hosting is all you can afford. Whether or not that is the case, shopping around is critical, as there are varying prices for shared hosting plans. But shared hosting isn’t the only option nor is always the best for everyone. There are persons who have high traffic, complex websites that require a lot more resources, server space and bandwidth.
Definition of Shared Hosting
This web hosting solution is created when a single physical server is divided multiple times to host numerous websites. Each website has its own domain name. Shared hosting works best for small to medium sized websites or blogs that do not need high bandwidth or advanced configurations. With shared hosting, each user has access to all the server resources and features such as disk space, databases, email accounts, monthly traffic, FTP accounts and other add-ons.
Budgeting for Shared Hosting
By sharing the same server resources, shared hosting providers are able to keep the cost low to host websites on this plan. As a result, Shared Hosting typically costs between 2€ - 10€, monthly. This makes this type of hosting very attractive, and the most popular as it will not break even a small business when budgeting for shared hosting. But the cost is not the only thing you should look at when choosing the best shared hosting plan for your business or blog. Pay attention to the features that will benefit your website.
Why you should choose Shared Hosting
Shared hosting packages can help you build and manage a thriving website. Here are some ways shared hosting can benefit your website.
Price: Budgeting for Shared Hosting
This is a no-brainer. One of the best selling points of shared hosting is that it will not ‘cost you an arm and a leg’. The monthly fees are cost efficient and you can enjoy even more discounts by getting a yearly subscription.
Scalability
Web hosting service providers normally offer different plans. This is reflected in the price. Small packages are cheaper with less allotment for bandwidth, disk space and RAM. There are medium and large packages as well. This way if you exhaust the resources of the smallest package you can increase your resources by getting a bigger one. This way you can keep upgrading as your website grows.
Webmail
Shared hosting facilitates multiple email accounts and more than one database.
CPanel
It’s easy to manage your website with user-friendly cPanel and other applications. You also benefit from MySQL and PHP support.
When is Shared Hosting not your best option?
Just as VPS, dedicated hosting is not for everyone, so it is with shared hosting. While it’s the perfect option for many it falls short for some. High traffic sites, e-commerce and enterprise businesses need a different hosting environment to thrive fully. Here are a few downsides of shared hosting which you should carefully consider before committing this web hosting solution.
Performance
By sharing resources, the price is low but so is the potential performance as well. Whenever a site on the same server receives a spike in traffic it affects the others, causing them to become sluggish and run slowly.
Security
This is one of the biggest drawbacks of shared hosting. If the server suffers any kind of attack, all the websites on the server are affected. Shared servers are also prone to hacking.
Limited Resources
Resource limitations occur with shared hosting, after all, the CPU, bandwidth and everything else is shared with thousands of other websites sharing the same server. So it’s likely you will experience hard drive, memory and CPU limitations on a shared network.
Customer Support
Shared hosting is highly automated. This limits customer support, as you do not readily have access to a support team to assist you with specific technical issues. You may have to use a support ticket. You may also have to wait on a response, as it is not instant.
Is Shared Hosting right for me?
As we discussed above, shared hosting is not for everyone. If you are still lingering in the field of indecision, here are some tips to you help you determine if shared hosting is the best hosting solution for you:
- You have little or no web hosting experience
- You are working within a tight budget
- Building a personal blog
- There’s no need for extensive web programming
- Your website is for a start-up or small business
- This is just an experiment with coding and web design
Other types of Web Hosting
If you are convinced that Shared Hosting will not fulfil your hosting desires, dedicated hosting and VPS are two other popular options to consider.
Dedicated Hosting:
This a type of web hosting that gives you the option to purchase or rent a server with all its resources dedicated to only you. Essentially, with dedicated hosting you have exclusive server space, bandwidth and resources. You will also be able to enjoy the freedom of customising and controlling the type of operating system you want for your server.
VPS
In terms of cost and features, Virtual Private Server (VPS) is the ideal mix of shared hosting and dedicated hosting. It is more expensive than shared hosting but cheaper than dedicated hosting. With VPS, you can rent or buy private virtual space on a large physical server. While you share physical server space with other websites, you have your own bandwidth and resources.
Get the best web hosting package now!
If you are ready to start your website today, let us help to make the process seamless with our high-quality website hosting plans. Whether you are a newbie or a professional web-developer, we have a package that that is perfect for you.
