Hosting a website is renting space on a server, just like renting an apartment or a home. A web host is a company that offers services such as upkeep, security, configuration, and management of physical servers used to host websites. Websites are stored on servers, which are actual computers. The server will launch and send all information, including text, videos, audio, images, and other files, to the visitor’s browser as soon as they access your URL.
As the name implies, shared hosting is a solution where multiple websites share the same server’s resources like bandwidth, memory, and storage. The least expensive option, shared hosting, is ideal for new users with little to no technical knowledge. This option would work good for small enterprises and personal websites that need a simpler setting and setup.
Let’s say you are a small business owner, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur and this is your first time creating a website for your organisation. If so, you want to think about beginner-friendly choices like shared hosting or WordPress hosting if you already have a WordPress website.
You might think about switching to a more advanced hosting plan, such VPS or cloud hosting, when your website or business grows and you require more space, speed, or bandwidth. However, in order to be able to relocate whenever you need to, we advise you to pick a web host that offers a variety of hosting packages.
Shared Hosting: What Is It and How Does It Operate?
Right there in the term is the key to understanding shared hosting. With this kind of hosting, your website and one or more other websites share a physical server. Let’s talk about how servers and hosting function in order to comprehend what it means and why it’s crucial.
Every website on the internet is kept on a server and is known as “hosting” (a type of computer). Users can access it openly in this way. The browser utilises the URL entered for a website to determine the location of the website when someone types the address into their browser.
Shared hosting plans are frequently significantly less expensive than dedicated hosting plans since shared hosting servers are less resource-intensive than dedicated servers. There is less work for you because the server is maintained by the host who also owns it. However, there are also drawbacks because sites may wind up competing with one another for resources.
But for beginners looking to host their first websites, shared hosting plans are a popular option, and for good reason. This kind of hosting is an appealing choice due to the low financial outlay and absence of maintenance obligations.
Does Shared Hosting Fit Your Needs?
Understanding shared hosting and how it functions is one thing. Another is figuring out if it’s the greatest hosting option for your website. Four important factors that you should take into account when determining whether or not to choose a shared hosting plan are described below.
- What Features Do You Need and What Is Your Budget?
Shared hosting plans, as we previously noted, are typically less expensive than other hosting plans like a Virtual Private Server (VPS), cloud hosting, or dedicated hosting. With a shared plan, you are just utilising a portion of a server’s storage and resources, so your hosting company may charge less.
It probably isn’t cost-effective to buy a dedicated plan just yet if your site isn’t very big and doesn’t get enough traffic to fill up the disc space and resources on a dedicated server. It’s also crucial to think about the features offered by any hosting plan you’re thinking about. For instance, our shared plans include a free domain, which streamlines the process of setting up your website.
- What Technical Skills Do You Possess? How Simple Is the Hosting Dashboard to Use?
It’s probable that, as a newbie, you don’t have a lot of server management experience. A shared hosting plan typically takes care of this duty for you. This is advantageous if your technical knowledge is limited or if you just want to focus all of your time on website upkeep.
Additionally, you should examine the control panel of your desired web host. It will be necessary for carrying out important duties like troubleshooting, controlling billing, upgrading your plan, and others. Making ensuring yours is simple to use can make managing it easier and prevent a lot of hassles in the future.
Its navigation is simple to use and understand. Even new users shouldn’t have much issue getting up to speed and setting up their accounts to their preferences.
Finally, the process your host offers for plan upgrades is another factor to take into account when it comes to simplicity of use. While shared hosting plans are a good location for the majority of websites to start, as they get bigger, they typically need to be switched to a different, more powerful hosting plan.
You will probably need to log into your hosting account regularly because hosting is an essential component of maintaining your website. If you want to spend your time effectively, it’s critical to pick a hosting service that makes managing your account and maintaining your server simple.
- What Resources Are Needed for Your Website, and How Big Is It?
As you already know, shared hosting entails sharing a single server with two or more websites. Unfortunately, this can result in a few issues that could seriously harm the success of your website.
To begin with, shared hosting accounts only offer a little amount of storage. You might not want to use shared hosting if your website is rather huge. Additionally, other websites on your server may expand and use up more storage space, pushing your website out into the background.
The volume of traffic to your website is the same. Your shared server is more likely to become overloaded if you suddenly start receiving a lot of traffic than a dedicated server would be. The same goes for another website that uses your server and may temporarily go offline due to a traffic surge.
The performance of your site may also be impacted by other websites running on the same server. They could take longer to load because of their size and volume of traffic.
- What Conditions Are Associated with Shared Hosting Plans?
Your hosting company might impose usage limits so as to prevent any one website on a shared server from consuming more resources than it should. Despite their primary purpose of aiding consumers, they may provide problems if you are unaware of the requirements for your website.
To be more precise, a shared server website will often be exposed to:
- Storage limits- The amount of bandwidth and other resources, like server memory, that one site can utilise, are often limited by web hosts. You might need to change your hosting package if your site becomes so popular that it consumes more resources than it should.
- Limits on files- Shared servers may occasionally cause security problems. Malware may propagate to all of the websites on the server if it infects just one of them. Some hosting companies limit the kinds of files you can upload to your website in order to avoid this.
- Hacker activities and spam- For security and speed reasons, a lot of web providers keep a close eye on what happens on shared servers. Your server may opt to temporarily or permanently disable your site if there is proof of spam or hacker activity there.
Conclusion
In light of this, it’s critical to keep in mind that shared hosting is best for:
- Sites for small
- Businesses Blogs
- Personal sites with portfolios
- Database-driven sites
If your website fits into one of these categories, you shouldn’t be adversely impacted by the limitations on shared hosting. Here is hoping that you have understood the article and are contemplating getting shared hosting for yourself. Till then, keep reading and watch this space for more.
