Shared Hosting - Everything You Should Know
Starting a website doesn’t have to be a long and strenuous process. In fact, there are a number of different services available, one being shared hosting that can help those who are just starting out or growing their business take the necessary steps in the right direction without having to worry about breaking the bank in the process.
Whether you are going to start a new website with a low budget or planning to host multiple websites on a single server, shared website hosting can be your best choice. However, before digging into the details of shared hosting, let’s explore the definition of shared hosting.
What Is Shared Hosting?
Shared hosting is a web-hosting service that uses shared resources of a single server to host multiple websites. This is the most common type of website hosting service, also known as “reseller hosting.”
Almost every hosting companies offer shared hosting as their cheapest option for starters. The secret to understanding what shared hosting is lying right there in its name. In shared hosting, You will use a physical amount of server resources, which are shared among many different websites.
The host owner takes responsibility for maintaining the server and other resources, which means less work for you. However, with the small investment and lack of maintenance requirements, shared hosting is still the best choice for beginners.
Advantages of Shared Hosting
The question “What are the advantages of shared hosting?” has no straightforward answer, but this article highlights some benefits and drawbacks to help you decide whether it is the right choice for you.
Pricing
Pricing is the main factor why people love to use a shared website hosting for their websites. You can easily go for a shared hosting plan with just $2-$3 monthly based on your budget. Furthermore, most shared hosting providers are ready to provide a massive discount on your yearly plan if you extend your hosting plan.
Free Domain
Some popular hosting providers offer a free domain for the first year with a shared hosting yearly plan. You just need to activate it from their domain directory and save at least $10 as the cost of the domain. However, you can use your existing domain with your hosting.
Unlimited Subdomains
Sub-domains are essentially sub-sites of your primary domain. They are included with all shared hosting packages. It means that you can have as many subdomains as you want – whether it’s for marketing purposes or simply because you want to separate different areas within your website.
For example, if you have a personal blog called ‘xyz.com’ then the address of your Showcase page might be http://showcase.xyz.net/.
Many of the shared web hosting providers allow unlimited sub-domains. However, there are a few hosting providers that will enable a limited number of sub-domains. Based on your needs, please make sure you choose the right hosting plan for adding sub-domains.
Unlimited Addon Domains
Who does not want to add multiple addon domains to host multiple websites on a single hosting plan? Most of us want to host as many sites as possible on a single hosting plan to reduce the cost.
However, only top providers offer unlimited addon domains feature, so it’s good to check before signing up that this option is available with your chosen provider.
Many companies do not allow addon domains because they are so rarely used. Instead, you should ask whether or not your chosen hosting company will enable you to register an unlimited number of addon domains, which will give you the ability to set up brand new websites under your existing hosting plan.
Less Maintainance
In shared hosting, there is no hassle in maintaining the server where you are hosting your website. Almost all hosting providers offer shared website hosting and maintain their resources to avoid maintenance from the client end.
Automated Backups
Backups are essential for any online presence – especially if you have critical files that cannot be easily duplicated elsewhere on the web. The majority of shared hosting providers offer daily backup features as standard, but it is worth checking their policy before signing up just to make sure that this feature is included with all packages.
Some providers may limit how many times backups can be restored per month to prevent abuse of resources (i.e., there might only be room for one restore every seven days). With unlimited disk space, backups are not an issue, but it is still a good idea to implement the feature of automated backups in case there ever comes a time when you need to restore your site.
Option for open-source application installations
Along with websites on different CMS, you can also install different open source applications on shared hosting. Imagine a day without shared hosting to install open source applications. You will find it expensive. In most cases, you may have to spend a lot of money using open source applications and other third-party apps. In shared hosting, you are getting everything in a cheap package.
Option for server-side scripting
This means that you can run scripts on your hosting account, making it possible for you to control your website with ease – besides using folders and files. This could be anything from automatically uploading products onto an online store or publishing content by clicking ‘send’. Many different services offer this type of functionality on their own servers, but shared hosts often have this kind of service available through third-party applications.
Shared hosting also has its cons, which you need to consider before choosing it.
Disadvantages of Shared Hosting
Like every other thing, shared hosting also has some disadvantages. Some of them are—
Limited Server Resources: If your site receives extremely high amounts of traffic regularly, then shared hosting is not ideal because an influx of visitors could seriously affect the speed of other areas on the site.
Disk Space Limitations: Although disk space is often unlimited, providers often set certain restrictions around how much disk space can be used per account – especially with cheap plans. For example, users may only have access to a certain amount of disk space which cannot be increased under any circumstances. This is often the case with cheap shared hosting packages, and it can become an issue if your website begins (or wants) to store large files such as video, music, or other media content.
Limited Server Configuration: Shared hosting providers often limit how many server configuration options you have access to – this is because they do not want you to be able to damage things like databases and file permissions.
Final Words
Shared hosting allows you to pay as you go and is respected as suitable for those starting out their work’s website/blog or those who simply want to play around with the idea of having an online presence. You can start small and expand your hosting needs as time goes on.