Shared Webhosting explained

[WebHost Admin]

Introduction to Shared Hosting / Virtual Hosting

Shared webhosting - also known as Virtual Webhosting - is a basic form of webhosting, that involves lots of different websites all sharing the same server.

This is effectively entry level webhosting, and also the most common form for most webmasters, as many websites have remarkably little resource usage.


What to expect from Shared Hosting

Even though Shared Hosting is the cheapest form of webhosting, you should still expect your webhosting company to provide support services. These support services will be focused on simply ensuring that the server is running fine and operational, and for your website to function as properly as can be expected with the server configuration used.

This means that while a webhost may be expected to provide support - such as helping move databases, help with FTP, or to help troubleshoot if your website appears to be down, disabled, or otherwise compromised - you should not expect your webhost to provide support for software issues. You will, in most such instances, simply be directed to inquire at the the relevant support forums of the software developer.

You should also expect that your website be available and accessible online, from any reasonable part of the world, at any time. Many hosts have some form of uptime guarantee, which is usually based on the guarantees provided to them by the datacenter that the hosting company uses to house their servers.

So if a webhost manages their servers in a datacenter that claims a 99.6% uptime guarantee, then the host will probably offer that same guarantee to you. It is also likely that the hosting company would offer some degree of financial compensation in the event of your website being offline for longer than reasonably expected due to problems with the hosting company’s server or datacenter (known as an outage, or downtime).

Please note that routine scheduled maintenance may result in the temporary loss of your website from being accessible on the internet, but planned downtime is almost never classed as an outage. Most webhosts will provide prior warning of planned maintenance, so that you can ensure that yo can plan around such periods, should you need to.


Advantages/Disadvantages of Shared Hosting

Pros

• Shared hosting is usually much cheaper than any other form of hosting, with reliable webhosting commonly costing as little as $8-10/month (£5-7/month)
• Most hosts offer a very flexible range of resource options, so you can usually find a shared hosting plan that works best for you
• Shared hosting accounts are usually very easy to manage, as there are no complicated root command to work with

Cons

• Not all requirements are covered by all shared hosting plans - for example, some budget plans may not allow use of databases or even PHP
• Because the server processor resources are shared, if any sites on the same server require more than usual processor requirements, then it may end up competing for resources with your own site, which may become slow or even unresponsive
• Some webhosts will fill a server with too many websites, leaving everybody’s sites fighting for the same processor resources anyway
• If a website on the same server is involved with e-mail spamming, you could find the internet address (IP) - which includes your website - blacklisted by e-mail filters
• You have no control over what happens to the server, or what software is installed - some software installed on the server may not work well, or at all, with software that you want to use on your website. Conversely, to properly run some software on your website, you may need software installed on your server that your host may refuse to install

Overall

Shared hosting offers a great environment to start and grow a site, but there can be risks involved.

Most hobby sites and basic e-commerce sites can probably enjoy a safe shared hosting experience.

However, if you are looking to host an e-commerce site for taking orders on a daily basis, then you may find that shared hosting environment may not offer the continued reliability and stability that you need.

[ozzie]

I found your post to be very helpful. It cleared up a lot of things for me including what to expect and what makes good shared webhosting.

Are the majority of free webhosts shared hosts? Also, are free webhosts allright to use for any kind of ecommerce?

[monaghan]

Free hosting is technically no different from paid, however the funding comes from adverts and often the limited ad revenue means over crowding the server to pay the bills.

The market in free hosts (and some low end budget hosts) tends to be fluid, so you could find yourself with a closed down server rather than your web site.

Personally I wouldn't use a free web host for anything important like ecommerce. With a revenue generating site, then invest a little and go with a good quality non-overselling host so you know that the response times and reliability of the site will be good. After all the idea of ecommerce is to generate revenue and you need to invest in other areas of the business, so a few £/month on a web site is only a small part of your overall budget.

[ozzie]

Thanks a lot for your reply Alex. It was very helpful. Also, thank you for signing my guest book. I sure appreciate that you visited my site. My cat Ozzie is pretty special.

[paperclip]

I found this post very usefull. I am in the hunt for hosting services fo rthe near future, and this gives me a better understanding of what's out there.

[thenetpreneur]

Thanks for this informative post.

I was also looking for the info regarding differences between Shared and Dedicated Hosting.

Regards
Modasser

[webhosting.uk.com]

Nice informative post.

[eUKhost.com]

Shared hosting is the most popular and widely used form of web hosting mainly due to the affordability factor.