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Web Hosting

If you are on the verge of founding a website for the first time, then web hosting may seem a pretty tricky thing to you. Web hosting is simply the process of renting storage space on a data server, to store the data related to a website. When a visitor wants to visit a webpage his device sends a request to the server through protocols. The server then provides the requested data based on availability. If the requested data isn’t available then the server will respond with error codes.

But there are various kinds of hosting providers with different packages are present on the market. It is important to have some knowledge about them to build a successful website. Shared hosting is one of the most common choices among first-time website owners. And in this article, we are going to have a discussion on it.

What is Shared Hosting?

Dedicated hosting requires a minimum of one server for every single website. But in shared hosting, multiple websites share a server and its resources. Thus it becomes a cost-effective way of hosting a website. Usually, blogs and newly formed websites don’t get that much traffic. So, using a shared hosting plan appears as a budget-friendly option for them.

Shared hosting seems less expensive because websites running on a shared hosting server use fewer resources than those on a dedicated server. Also, the original host of the server takes the responsibility of maintenance, which makes it easy for a beginner to operate a website. Since multiple websites are running on a single server, they have to compete for the limited amount of resources available to them. Still, no other hosting option is as popular as shared hosting.

Why Should You Consider Using Shared Hosting?

  1. Affordable: Since Shared hosting users share the available resources with others, naturally it costs way lesser than the other available options, making it quite affordable for blogs, small businesses, and startups.
  2. Budget-Friendly: Budget is not a constant. It depends on the customers. That is why every hosting provider has different packages of shared hosting available in the market. Usually, blogs and small businesses need to take care of their budget. So, they chose their hosting plan according to their budget. Since shared hosting provides different types of cost-effective and budget-friendly hosting plans, these blogs and small businesses like to use shared hosting.

5 Reasons Why You Should Not Buy Cheap Hosting

  1. No Need for Maintenance Knowledge: To use dedicated hosting servers to their full potential the client must know servers and the ways of maintaining them. Else, they have to hire experts to do these things for them. But shared hosting providers usually take care of these technical issues for their customers, as these are part of the contract.
  2. Easy to Manage: Shared hosting generally comes with a built-in Control Panel (cPanel) making it easier to manage for someone with less or no technical knowledge.

Disadvantages of Shared Hosting

  1. Slower Load Time: Websites share a limited amount of CPU, RAM, and storage space on a shared hosting server. They have to compete to get the highest amount of performance, eventually increasing the load time of a webpage.
  2. System Crashes: System crashes are a common problem in shared hosting. Competitions between websites to use the limited server resources causes this problem very often.
  3. Security Issues: According to top cybersecurity agencies, shared hustings may have some major security flaws. If one website in a server gets attacked, attackers may also find a way to get access to the whole server resulting in other sites hosted in the server being vulnerable to their attacks. Sometimes, the owner of other websites hosted on the same server may also pose threat to your website.
  4. File Restriction: Sometimes, hosting providers place restrictions to safeguard the user data from malware. They restrict websites from uploading some specific types of files. This may seem helpful but some users have to suffer from these restrictions too.
  5. Lack of Customization Option: Shared Hosting providers keep the server-side control to them to avoid problems. They restrict the resources to a limited amount to avoid server crashes. Clients can’t control or customize them as their wish. This makes it difficult to use the full potential of a server. 

 Alternate of Shared Hosting

There is no specific alternative to shared hosting is available to the market. Specifically, no hosting plan can be as cheap as shared hosting. But if someone has a slightly better budget. VPS can be a good and affordable hosting option for them. Virtual Private Server (VPS) is often considered a better option because it gives the client access to their customizable server at a very low price. Generally, hosting providers subdivides a computer into several VPSs to make them affordable. Clients can enjoy dedicated disk space and bandwidth along with higher security than shared hosting. If a website is too small to use a dedicated server but is also too big to suit shared hosting, then VPS could be their best alternate. 

What is RDP? What are the uses of it?

Though VPS requires some advanced level technological knowledge, you can also hire someone to manage these things for you or pay an extra fee to the hosting service provider to customize it according to your needs. This will eventually increase your cost of managing the website.

Decision Time

Shared hosting has some major drawbacks compared to dedicated hosting services. But is also a cost-effective option too. If your website is going to be a blog or a portfolio, and if you have lower traffic then shared hosting should be your choice. It will also help you if have less or no Linux administration skills.

But for start-ups and small businesses, which going to have a gradual rise in their traffic, VPS should be a go-to option. Because it will be a more secure and faster option. VPS will also provide them with more control over their website. 

VPS may seem a more secure option but it can’t beat dedicated hosting service in terms of security, performance, and resources. That is why large companies and enterprises consider dedicated hosting over anything.  

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