In this blog post, we will discuss what is shared hosting and how it works, and also look at the benefits of shared hosting.
However, before we delve into our topic what is shared hosting, let’s first understand what is web hosting.
What is Web Hosting?
Web hosting is a type of internet hosting service that lets small business owners, bloggers, entrepreneurs make their website available to internet users via the world wide web.
Here the hosting provider offers users the space to store website files like code, images, etc. Each and every website you have visited at any given time is hosted on a web server.
The server space allotted to a website depends on the hosting type. The major hosting types are shared, reseller, VPS, and dedicated. They are just distinguished by the kind of technology utilized for the server creation, level of management the server offers, and additional services
Meanwhile, you can read the blog post on what is white label reseller hosting.
Having said that, let’s see what is shared hosting.
What is Shared Hosting?
Shared hosting is one kind of web hosting service where multiple websites on the same server share the resources between them. Even the cost of the upkeep and maintenance is shared among the users or clients. Hence, shared hosting is an economic solution.
After understanding what is shared hosting, lets now see how shared hosting works
How Shared Hosting Works?
To better understand how shared hosting works, let’s see an example. Imagine there is a huge house that has several separate rooms. All these rooms have at least an individual living in them. While living beside each other in your own rooms, all of you share the electricity bill, water bill, and other related expenses.
The nature of shared hosting is similar to the above example, the resources (RAM, Hard Disk, Bandwidth) are shared among the websites on the same server. However, this system comes with few disadvantages as well, let’s see the disadvantages of shared hosting.
What are the Disadvantages of Shared Hosting?
Noisy Neighbors: As the resources of the server are shared with several websites on the same server, your website may go down or crash when other sites use more resources.
Vulnerable to Security Threats: in a shared hosting environment, there is no guarantee that your website will be secure against hackers. If any of the websites on the same server gets compromised, chances are high that all or a few other websites on the same server get compromised.
No Root Access: To perform advanced operations on your website, need to obtain root access to your server. However, several web hosting companies don’t offer root access with shared hosting plans.
Limitations on User Installations: Shared hosting servers offer a restricted list of software that can be installed on your web server. If you want to install anything outside the list, you likely be out of luck.
Pay Extra for SSL Certificates: The introductory price of shared hosting is low. However, in the later stage, you are forced to spend to add a feature. For instance, several shared hosting companies don’t offer SSL certificates for free, this eventually causes the websites to show a ‘Not Secure Warning’. But, companies like Let’s Encrypt offer free SSL Certificates.
Conclusion
After understanding what is shared hosting in brief, you may have doubts about whether to choose shared hosting or not?
No, we suggest you rather go for cheap Linux VPS plans as VPS plans will be more cost-effective than a shared hosting plan in the long run.
Besides, if you don’t have time for technical aspects of your business and want to focus on other aspects of business, you can check out our Managed VPS Hosting plans.