What is shared hosting? We’re going to cover the most important things you need to know about shared hosting. So you can see if shared hosting is right for you. Let’s get started shared hosting is a type of web hosting where multiple websites are hosted on a single server and the server’s resources are shared with other customers.
This is one of the most popular and affordable options for web hosting because of the cost of server maintenance. It is shared among multiple customers, here’s an example so it’s easy to understand how shared hosting works.
Let’s pretend that your website is displayed in the middle of two other websites. As you can see there’s one server connected to you and two other websites one to the left and one to the right of you. You are all on the same network using the same IP address and sharing the same server resources such as bandwidth and disk space.
If you’re not familiar with what an IP address is. It’s simply a unique numeric address that identifies your website on the Internet with shared hosting multiple sites. They are sharing the same IP address.
Now, this is a very simple explanation but, I just want to make sure that everyone reading this understands especially for those who are new to web hosting.
Advantages of Shared Web Hosting
Some advantages of shared hosting are that it’s the most affordable type of web hosting. Since the CPU bandwidth disk space and other resources are being shared. Web hosting and server maintenance costs are discounted and the savings are passed on to you.
List of Advantages of Shared Web Hosting
- Affordable Web Hosting
- Easy to Setup
- Easy Management
- Low Maintenance
- You Can Host Multiple Domains
Shared hosting is simply straightforward and easy to set up mini hosting accounts come with a free drag-and-drop website builder. They are one-click WordPress installation so you can easily build a website and have it up and running in no time.
Shared hosting offers easy management. Most shared hosting plans come with the industry-standard control panel called cPanel. This makes managing your hosting accounts super easy shared hosting is also low maintenance server maintenance administrative tasks and security. They are usually handled by your hosting provider so you don’t have to worry about managing servers installing server software security updates or other aspects of hosts with shared hosting.
You can host multiple domains. Many shared hosting plans allow you to host more than one domain or website in a single hosting account. Shared hosting is also flexible and scalable. You can choose a shared hosting plan that fits the needs of your website. If those needs change you can either scale up or scale down for example as your personal website blog or small business grows. You can upgrade to a better hosting plan that offers more security flexibility and scalability for growth.
Disadvantages of Shared Web Hosting
Some disadvantages of shared hosting are limited server resources. Mini shared hosting providers claim that they offer unlimited web hosting with unlimited disk space unlimited bandwidth and everything else.
List of Disadvantages of Shared Web Hosting
- Limited Server Resources
- Limited Security
- Limited Control Over the Configuration of Your Server
- Limited Support
But that’s simply not true unlimited plans do have limitations on the number of server resources you can use each website on a shared hosting plan has. Its own resource limit because others are sharing the same server the truth is that most hosting companies do give you plenty of resources. But it’s based on what they think the average website will normally use on a shared server. So they assume that most likely you’ll never really exceed or go over your resource limit. But as your website traffic grows you could exceed your limit and your website could experience slow loading pages or even downtime. If this happens you’ll most likely need to upgrade to a better plan with more resources.
Another disadvantage is the limited security with shared hosting your sharing an IP address with multiple web sites. Which is usually more prone to hacking or possible spam issues if one of the websites. That share your IP address gets blacklisted or if there’s any malicious activity, then it can affect all the website users on that server.
It’s good to know that most hosting companies do have great security measures in place to prevent these types of potential threats. And security risks another disadvantage is the limited control with shared hosting.
You have limited control over the configuration of your server. You’ll be able to install your content management system such as WordPress. But you’ll only be allowed to use all configuration. You won’t be able to configure or customize the system or server to meet specific needs.
Like you can with dedicated hosting also with shared hosting sometimes you have limited customer support. Now most shared hosting plans do come with great customer support. However, there are some shared hosting providers that offer limited level support compared to someone using a VPS or dedicated hosting.
For example, some hosting providers offer 24/7 phone support and others may be just limited to live chat support only. So it’s important to do your research on the type of support offered before selecting any shared hosting provider. Who should use shared hosting you should consider shared hosting. If you have a personal website blog small business or any other type of website. That has small to medium traffic.
Shared hosting is perfect for websites that don’t require any advanced configurations or high bandwidth. On the other hand, if you have an e-commerce store or high-traffic web site. Then a cloud VPS or dedicated hosting plan might be a better option for you.
But if you’re on a tight budget or just want to save on costs shared hosting is an affordable way to launch a website. While keeping your expenses low as we already mentioned before shared hosting is easy to set up easy to manage requires low maintenance.
You can host multiple domains and it’s flexible and scalable. If you’re still not sure if shared hosting is right for you. There’s a lot of hosting providers that offer a 30 day and even 45-day money-back guarantee. So you can try it out and see. If it’s a good fit.
Well, that’s it, guys, if you have any questions or comments please contact us.