What is a shared hosting?

Shared hosting is one the most easily available and cheap type of website hosting service. The hosting service company uses a very powerful server and creates a partition account on that server and gives access to different customers. So, essentially, the company uses one server but has multiple customers having exclusive access to their own files and accounts. It may sound like your files and information can be accessed by someone else who uses the same server, but it is really secure. 

A single server can be partitioned hundreds of times for different accounts. A single account can be used to host multiple websites. All websites hosted on the same server will share the same system resource of the server, which allows the hosting company to provide multiple offers to the customers and also keep the plans at a reasonable price. It is one the reasons why shared hosting is quite popular among the new website developers and among websites who don’t have a lot of traffic. 

Advantages of shared hosting

For many years now, shared hosting is the only reason that small websites having low traffic have been able to exist. Many small businesses and individuals can purchase a plan and get access to a shared hosting account. These individuals and businesses will not have to spend a lot of money for the website, but they can generate traffic and once they feel that their website is getting a lot of monthly or daily traction, they can either upgrade their plan or choose a different hosting. Buying a shared hosting will only cost them a few dollars per month for the cheapest plan of the hosting company of their choice. Many of the advantages which come into consideration when someone opts for the shared hosting are: 

• Cheap and Affordable: Shared hosting is definitely the cheapest option available for anyone who is starting a new website and does not have the capital or does not want to invest a lot of money before generating the traffic. The services provided are also good given that they are a cheap plan.
• Easy to use: The hosting service provider sets up your account almost immediately after buying a subscription plan. It means that you don’t have to wait a long time before you can start building your website.
• Technology used efficiently: Many websites are run on one server which utilizes the server’s resources in an efficient manner. Since different websites get different numbers of visitors, the server easily handles all the requests. 

Disadvantages of shared hosting

Despite being reliable for many situations, shared hosting isn’t always the best option. Compared to a dedicated server, it always lacks behind due to some major disadvantages. Below are listed some of the major disadvantages of shared hosting: 

• Performance impacted by other sites: Because all the sites on the server share the server resources, the performance of one site can impact the others. For example, if a site experiences a huge rush of website traffic, it could slow the other websites and maybe even crash the website.
• Limitations for growth: IF and when your site gets bigger and starts getting more traffic, it will not be possible for a shared server to handle all the traffic. When this happens, the hosting company will ask you to get an upgrade to a virtual private service (VPS) or a dedicated server.
• Quality: Always go for a top rated hosting service company when opting for a shared hosting. Many of the companies which provide a discount, deliver a poor experience due to cutting corners. 

What you should look for in shared hosting?

Since we have discussed what shared hosting is, we should now discuss how you should opt for a specific hosting provider company. Some of the parameters which help in this decision making process are listed below. Make sure you take into consideration all the parameters and then finalize your decision. 

• Storage space – The storage space on the actual physical disk is provided to you for your website data, files and media. The storage space depends on your website size and data.
• Bandwidth – The amount of data which your visitors can download from/upload to your website. If this limit is exceeded, you will have to pay an additional amount. While most of the companies provide an unlimited bandwidth, data transfer speeds lag if and when appropriate hardware is lacking.
• Uptime – The website needs to be ready at all times for visitors to use. Most hosting service providers have an uptime guarantee of 99%, but you should opt for the service which offers 99.99% uptime guarantee.  You can check the uptime by using uptime monitoring.
• Customer support – This is one of the most important criteria while making a decision about which hosting company to choose. It is really important if you are new to website building and hosting and you lack technical knowledge. Nowadays, almost every company is providing 24×7 customer support.
• Security – The data which you upload on the website must be protected from cyber attacks. Cheap hosting companies often tend to offer the least possible security features.
• Easy to use dashboard – It is a great convenience when the control panel allows to execute most of the tasks from an interactive and easy to use dashboard interface. Some of the other attractive features which make a difference are pre-installed applications and ecommerce features. Explore the dashboard to see whether it offers the relevant apps for your website.
• Domain name – Many hosting providers provide a domain name service as an add-on. It is convenient if you want to set up the website and the domain name from the same place. It will give you the benefit of having all your website data and credentials at one secure location and keeping up with the changes and updates for the websites can be handled from one place. 

All the factors listed above will help you get a better understanding of what hosting you require and what all are the criterion which need to be focused on to get the best value for money hosting service.

At HostDistrict, our experienced team of website designers will guide you  through the process of choosing a hosting and building and hosting your website. Email us your queries and we will get back to you with the answers.