Shared Hosting: Pros And Cons

Hosting is where website files and databases are stored. Managed service providers provide rental resources and are responsible for the proper function of virtual or physical equipment.

User loyalty and ranking in search engines depend on the stability of a website. Positions in Google may decrease over time if project pages are not loaded regularly. Therefore, it is very important to choose reliable hosting so that you do not have to urgently transfer your site.

Shared hosting features

When choosing to host, website owners are faced with a lot of choices. All hosting providers offer roughly the same set of services, but it can be difficult to choose the one you need.

The easiest options are web hosting or shared hosting. This is a general-purpose solution for sites with minimal consumption of server resources, as well as large projects with thousands of unique users per day.

Shared hosting is a service where a provider provides rental resources: hard disk space, RAM, and communication channels. It is called a share because multiple workspaces with different owner sites exist on the server at the same time.

If the technical term is omitted, a virtual host is a bus where passengers buy multiple seats. The bus is constantly moving, but each passenger has their seat.

All projects hosted on the same web host have common resources. But at the same time, they work independently of each other because they are made of specialized “shells”.

Shared site hosting is usually chosen when the site does not yet have a large audience or the owner does not want to know the web server settings. Most exchange sites have a handy panel that allows you to manage the site space in a clear interface.

Pros of shared hosting

To use shared hosting, you don’t need to know a programming language or set up the basics of a web server. The top shared hosting providers provides a convenient control panel where all operations are performing in a visual interface.

Main advantages:

Fast website launch. To properly configure the resource, just upload the file and connect to the database.

stable job. The client pays for the smooth running of the website, which the host has to deliver.

Zoom options. If the load on the website increases, you can purchase additional resources or switch to a more powerful tariff.

technical support. Experts will help you add redirects, update configuration files, or set up mail servers.

Save a backup. Typically, file and database backups are created once a day.

acceptable price. Shared is the cheapest when compared to other hosting rental options.

The shortest time passed from paying a tariff plan to launching a website on a new host. Project owners do not need to delve into technical details and pay for the services of outside experts.

Cons of shared hosting

Shared hosting is often criticized for its shortcomings, but not in all cases. If the site is visited by 200 people a day and consumes a minimum of resources, then you can safely use shared hosting.

Minuses:

Share resource. A client’s site is in its container, but resources are distributed across all the server’s containers.

Lots of neighbors. Once infected, the problem can spread to all sites.

An IP address. Not all hosting providers offer the opportunity to buy a dedicated IP on a shared network.

Technical limitations. Most shared hosting sites are designed for PHP and MySQL-based sites. Managed projects can have issues if they use a different set of technologies.

hard limit. Typically, a provider can only provide a fraction of the server’s capacity, and if multiple clients need to scale, resources are distributed among them.

The savings from opting for shared hosting can be a cruel joke. For example, during a DDoS attack on one of the sites, the entire server will go offline and the solution to the problem will depend on the provider’s responsiveness.