A newbie can be overwhelmed by a lot of jargons used to describe and communicate in the cyber sphere. If you are someone who is not into design and creation of Web sites; then web hosting, and shared hosting, can be really confusing.
Unfortunately, not understanding all the concepts, the options and the numbers might lead to costly mistakes and hassles. This article helps explain the concept of shared hosting so that you can make more informed decisions for your company.
Shared Hosting Defined
Web hosting companies, or Web hosting providers, basically provide space for Web sites in their computers called servers. They “host” company’s Web site and the companies who own the websites “hosted” by the web hosting provider then pays rent for the “space” used in the computer server.
Shared hosting is one level of Web hosting. Known also as virtual hosting, this level of Web hosting houses the files for numerous Web sites on one single server. In other words, the web hosting provider will partition a server and a number of websites “share” the space available.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Shared hosting is the most common and most popular form of web hosting service. This allows your Web site to have a strong connection in the Internet without the burden of running your own server.
The web hosting provider charges a fixed monthly fee to each Web site for a certain amount of disk storage space and fixed bandwidth or data transfer capacity.
The main advantage of shared hosting is that it is costs less than dedicated hosting, where a single server is “dedicated” exclusively to one Web site. A direct advantage is that it is easy to manage. By opting for shared hosting, your company basically outsources your Web site to a Web hosting provider.
This eliminates the need to hire and maintain a technical staff to maintain your own server. A professional web hosting company is expected to provide reliable service. Your web host should make sure that your Web site can be accessed anytime and have multiple systems to ensure constant connection in the Internet.
Shared hosting is ideal for individuals and small to midsized companies. It can provide for a strong Internet connection at a relatively low price. The provider can also provide technical support to your company.
By availing of shared hosting, you entrust your Web site to the web hosting provider. You also give up some administrative control of your Web site to your Web host.
Further, sharing the server with other companies or individuals might also bring a lot of technical problems. A technical problem present in one site could adversely affect others on the same server. Therefore, shared hosting is not ideal for those companies who own a very active Web site.
Conversely, companies with very busy e-commerce should not take chances that another web site’s technical difficulties could interfere with the traffic and operations in your site. You should opt for dedicated hosting for the server requirement of your company.
