What Is Shared Hosting?
A shared hosting service is a web hosting service where one physical server houses (hosts) many websites. These websites all use the resources of a single server which keeps the cost of the web hosting plan low. In addition, each website on a shared hosting server gets a part of the server to store website files. Shared servers can host hundreds or thousands of websites. Resources such as FTP accounts, databases, email accounts, monthly traffic, disk space and other features offered by the web host is shared by all the websites on the server with each user getting a percentage of all server resources like mail server, RAM, CPU, Apache and single MySQL.
Shared hosting is the most inexpensive way to get a new website to live because of its low start up and maintenance costs( which is split among multiple users). Shared hosting is great for small blogs or websites that do not require high bandwidth or advanced configuration.
How Does Shared Hosting Work?
Simply put, shared hosting houses multiple websites on a single server. These sites could be anything from a couple of hundreds to several thousands, depending on the available processing speed, hard drive space and RAM.
Hosting is done on a machine that is similar to a dedicated server, the only difference is that the server’s resources are used by many client’s(websites). However, website files and applications are stored separately on the server with different file directory tree. This way, websites sharing the same server do not have root access to other site’s files and databases on the server – all the accounts on a shared server share, is computing resources.
When Is Shared Hosting Needed?
Do you have a small -traffic websites such as a small online store or blog, a shared hosting service is perfect for you. It is the most low-cost hosting option available and provide plenty of resources to manage the traffic coming to your small website.
Most shared hosting service plans come with “unlimited” storage space and bandwidth. Even though, in reality, these “unlimited” plans are really metered storage space and bandwidth. In most instances, you will not use all of your allocated resources however, if your website suddenly sees an increase in traffic, you would most likely get a notification from your host – switch to a different plan like dedicated server or VPS.
If this happens to you, not to worry, there are various levels to shared hosting and an upgrade to a more advanced plan will expand the features available to you within your budget. For example, a
premium plan might offer unlimited domains in place of one – with more resources allocated to your site so that you can better manage incoming traffic flow.
What Are The Advantages Of Shared Hosting?
● Easy Setup And Maintenance
Shared hosting solutions are geared towards the non-tech savvy website owner. Therefore, most shared hosting solutions come with great customer support and easy-to-use interfaces. In addition, shared hosting plans, ensure secure and faster websites, run automatic backup and provide SSL certificates using the Cloudflare CDN cache.
● Broad Selection Of Features That Are Easy To Customise
A lot of shared hosting plans come with a broad range of products to assist you in customising your website via control content management systems like cPanel – you can add an application rate one click installer or get the whole team involved with limitless email accounts. Please note, products vary depending on provider however, you can totally customise your website to suit your needs.
● Affordable Prices
On the average, shared hosting plans start at about $3 a month which makes them very affordable for individuals looking to launch a website. However, it is important to read the terms and conditions of the hosting provider because renewal fee can sometimes be higher than the initial signup price. However, shared hosting is the most cost-effective hosting solution available.
What Are The Disadvantages Of Shared Hosting?
Shared hosting is a great web hosting service -it has great uptime, is affordable, and easy to manage. However there are some drawbacks:
1. There is not a lot of customisation options to ensure the best performance for your website.
2.Load time is slower than dedicated servers.
3. You have no idea who you’re sharing your servers, so your site can be at risk from other websites on the server.
4. Shared hosting servers can become overburdened by the other websites sharing it.
5. Your website may not perform as well when it begins to see higher traffic levels.
Factors To Take Into Consideration Before Choosing A Shared Hosting Provider
Exit And Upgrade Options
If you intend to expand your online business, a shared hosting service will not be a good fit for so long. Keeping that as a guiding factor, the hosting provider you choose should make it easy for you to switch plans. Shared hosting services that provide 24/7 customer support and intuitive auto-scaling options are best.
Security
Websites hosted on shared hosting plans servers are more at risk of malware attacks – when one website on a shared server is under attack, the other websites are also put at risk. To reduce your website’s exposure to these types of security threats, go with a shared hosting service plan that offers top-notch security.
Some start-up plans include firewalls and all-day network monitoring, you can also see shared hosting plans that come with daily backups and malware remover. These types of plans are best.
Responsiveness Of The Support Team
You will need customer support at some time – if you do not readily have the support to address issues when they come up, you could lose money as a result of website downtime. Search for web hosting providers that offer 24/7 support for their shared hosting services and have multiple contact channels.
Speed And Reliability
Because you’ll be sharing your hosts server with other websites, you would want a host that doesn’t cut corners on page loading speed and uptime. The shared hosting provider you go with needs to have a 99.9% uptime(the industry standard).