Hosting is among the most important but possibly challenging aspects of launching your first website. It’s essential to comprehend the variances among hosting packages and kinds if you really want your website to be successful and your budget to stay in good health.
Luckily, web hosting isn’t as complicated as it initially appears to be once you break it down. You will be well prepared to pick the ideal hosting package for you and your website after conducting a little study into the subject.
In this article, we’ll concentrate on shared hosting, which is a popular option among new website owners. And we’ll talk about some factors you might want to consider when determining if shared hosting is the best option for you. Let’s get going!
What Is Shared Hosting?
Shared hosting is a kind of web hosting service that enables several websites to share one server to host their own websites. Do you have any idea why they would do that? The basic solution is money and time. In Shared Hosting, multiple websites are hosted on one server. Therefore, allocating resources among the various users significantly reduces the server’s cost.
Although there are many hosting alternatives, shared hosting is the preferred choice for most websites, especially for entry-level hosting.
Your website is one of several that share the server’s shared resources, such as RAM and CPU, with many other users and the server space itself. In addition to lowering hosting costs, this setup also requires little technical knowledge from the users.
However, shared hosting isn’t perfect; depending on your hosting package, you can discover that your website can’t effectively handle large traffic and also that you lack root access. The server’s overcrowding may also have an impact on the functionality of your website.
Entry-level shared hosting packages could be the ideal, cost-effective choice if you’re developing a new website, a tiny weblog with little traffic, or perhaps both. Let’s take a closer look at how a web server and hosting function properly before going into further detail about shared hosting.
How Does Shared Hosting Work?
Simply said, whenever someone enters a website’s URL into their browser, the request looks for the server where it is “hosted” or stored. The browser then sends an HTTP request to the web server after identifying the host, requesting the necessary data and information that makes the website accessible.
This procedure is the same for shared hosting. The major distinction would be that a single server is in charge of maintaining and storing the data for multiple websites at once.
You may compare shared hosting to a cruise liner with various decks. The cruise itself is the server, its cabins are websites, and the passengers are… those who share the same goal of achieving an online presence.
Although everyone travels in the same way and utilizes the same server, their journeys remain distinctive. On a cruise ship, your choices are very different from those of the individual renting the room next to you. To reach your goal, you share an engine (server), but you have the flexibility and freedom to create a distinctive route and experience. Shared hosting is so popular because it’s the most cost-effective choice available among all web hosting services.
What Should You Look For In Shared Hosting?
After clarifying what shared hosting is, let’s move on to choosing a good reputable hosting company. This has a significant impact on traffic, website performance, and cybersecurity. The following parameters must be examined before purchasing any shared hosting:
Storage Space.
You must consider disk space because they are responsible for storing databases, files, and multimedia. Honestly, this all depends on how big your website is. Consider your website purpose and choose a hosting provider who provides you with desired storage space.
Bandwidth.
The total amount of data that visitors to your website are able to either add to or download from it. If you exceed this threshold, you might be required to pay extra charges on top of your package pricing. Even though most hosting companies provide unlimited bandwidth, slow data transfer rates could occur if the proper hardware is not there.
Traffic.
Consider your choice with your expected website traffic in mind. Although it can be difficult to estimate website traffic, if businesses expect to see a lot of traffic for whatever reason, shared hosting will not always be the ideal choice because you take the risk of breaking its fair use policy.
Uptime.
Visitors must always be able to access your website. Although 99.9% uptime is often guaranteed by web hosting service providers, and you also should ultimately strive for 99.9% or higher. Uptime monitoring can be used to verify it.
Speed.
Speed is the primary factor for user interaction. With shared hosting, websites that share a server can slow down or perform worse than one another, but this isn’t true of many web hosts.
Customer Service.
However, this could be first on the checklist, particularly if you’re a newbie to web hosting and don’t have a lot of technical know-how. Nowadays, most providers offer support around-the-clock.
Security.
Your data must be kept safe at all times. Cheap hosting packages often lack security measures.
User-Friendly Dashboard
It’s useful if the control panel enables you to carry out most of the operations from a user-friendly interface. eCommerce functionality and pre-installed applications are both appealing. Check the dashboard to determine whether it provides the applications for your website.
Domain Name.
However, some hosting companies offer domain registration services as an add-on with your shared hosting package. If you want to create and manage all of your websites from one place, this is helpful.
It’s crucial to forecast the development of your website & determine if your website hosting company will support it.
Other Types Of Web Hosting Options
Dedicated Web Hosting
VPS Web Hosting
Managed Hosting
Fully Managed Hosting
Semi-Managed Hosting
Managed App Hosting
Colocation Web Hosting
Cloud Hosting
Reseller Hosting
Free Hosting
Read more to know about reseller hosting.
Questions You Must Ask Yourself
Is Shared Hosting Right For Your Business?
Is Your Budget Flexible Or Tight?
What Features Do You Need For Your Website Functionality?
What Are Your Technical Skills?
Have You Created One Before Or Seen Any YouTube Video?
How Large Is Your Website?
What Restrictions Apply To Your Shared Hosting Plan?
Do I Have Knowledge To Create A Website Or Do I Need To Hire Someone To Do It For Me?
Decision Time
With a clear understanding of what shared hosting means, it’s also simple to see why it’s almost always been the ideal choice for beginners. Even the most basic plans come with an appealing UI and adaptable options to fit your requirements.
Check out our other web hosting types like VPS hosting, cloud, reseller, etc. You can also study our detailed explanation of the Managed WordPress hosting options if you already have a WordPress website.
Do you still have questions regarding shared hosting? Ask us anytime or join our community to understand better.