Shared Web Hosting
Shared Web Hosting is a type of web hosting where multiple users (think websites) share the resources (CPU, memory, disk space, bandwidth) of one physical server. By far, this is the most common type of web hosting service in use today. The web hosting provider manages the physical server to troubleshoot performance, uptime, hardware and software. One of the most attractive aspects of shared web hosting is that it shares the costs associated with the physical web server between many users. This can greatly reduce the cost for each individual website. Of course, these savings always depend on the number of sites being hosted on a server, as the web hosting company will try to maximize profits per server. You will have no control over the physical server but will have full control over your site through a control panel.
Advantages of shared web hosting
One of the obvious advantages of using shared web hosting is cost. Short of free web hosting, this is the most cost efficient and affordable way to get your website up and running. Oftentimes a shared web hosting company will have several hundred sites sharing the same physical server. Say the server costs $15,000 (not out of the question) and support, connectivity and maintenance add another $5000 a year. These costs are now shared among all the users and sites on the physical server. Now instead of yearly costs of $10,000 (planned life of server = 3 years), the web hosting provider can divide that cost between maybe 500 customers. The yearly cost per user drops to $20!
Another advantage to using shared web hosting is that the end user is responsible for very little, if any, server maintenance, troubleshooting, or management. The web hosting company manages the physical server for you. Day-to-day tasks such as routine maintenance, performance tuning, software upgrades, and backups are handled by the web hosting provider. Should something go wrong, a professional staff is available to fix the issue. This is a real advantage since most end-users are not familiar with the inner workings of a server, much less connectivity and troubleshooting performance issues.
Disadvantages of shared web hosting
The most glaring disadvantage of shared web hosting is degraded performance. Remember you are sharing just one server. There is only so much processor, memory and disk space to share. Modern servers and operating systems are very good at sharing resources, but there are still limits. Even though most shared web servers will be high-end high performing systems, there will always be a limit on just how many sites can peacefully co-exist on any server. Some web hosting companies will overload servers, sometimes hosting over one thousands sites on one server. This leads to slower performance and response times for every site on the server. Unfortunately, the end user has no say in how many or what types of sites are hosted on the physical server.
Another disadvantage to shared web hosting arises if you should need a specialized script or plug-in for your site. Web hosting provides monitor and regulate scripts and applications running on their servers quite aggressively. Most will limit certain types of scripts, or in some cases have a list of banned scripts or applications. You will not be able to install your own custom scripts or software without the host’s approval and this rarely happens. It only takes one rouge process to bring down the entire server, possibly bringing down hundreds of (paying) sites and making for many unhappy customers. For this reason alone, shared hosting tends to be very “vanilla” in what is and what is not allowed on the server. Database intensive and resource hungry applications are usually frowned upon. There is also the possibility of getting your account suspended or even terminate should your site tax the resources of the server too heavily.
Five things to look for in shared web hosting
When looking for shared web hosting, remember you do not have the server all to yourself. What you do impacts all the other users on the server, just as what other users do may also affect you.
- Maybe most importantly, find out exactly how many and what types of sites are allowed on the web service providers shared servers. The web hosting company should be able to answer this question. Look for hosts with fewer sites per sever. Usually, the fewer the better, but this can be influenced by the type and popularity of the hosted sites. You would be better off sharing a server with 1000 small personal blogs rather than with 100 very popular database driven e-commerce websites.
- Find out what type of servers are being used. Performance and responsiveness can be greatly affected by server hardware and operating systems. Generally, multi-processor servers with large amounts of available ram and high performance disk sub-systems will perform better than single processor, memory starved systems. Ask your web hosting provider for details.
- Find out what scripts are allowed or are available on the servers before you sign up. If you need a certain plug-in or script, ask first. Installing a poorly written script or a resource intensive app that is not on the web host providers approved list is a sure ticket to getting your account banned. Ask.
- Find out about your prospective host’s backup and recovery plans. Bad things can and do happen to servers. The likelihood that they will happen on shared servers is even greater. (Too many people, not really knowing what they are doing.) Find out how long it will take to get your site back up and running should there be a major hardware or software failure. Remember in such an occurrence, the web host may have to restore or move several hundred sites. This could take several hours to several days depending on the host’s procedures.
- Find out about the web hosting providers support options and the quality of their customer support. All hosting companies will claim to have great customer support, but in most cases, this is just not the case. Ask current and past customers about their experiences with the hosting company. Most web hosts have community forums. Check online. Do a Google search with your prospective host’s name and “support”. Don’t just take their word for it!
Shared hosting is a great way to get started in web hosting. Cost and simplicity are the main reason this form of hosting is so popular today. There are many reputable web hosting companies out there that offer some really great plans at really low prices. Just remember to do your homework. Shared web hosting is not for everyone.
