What is shared Webhosting and who is it suitable for?

by Muzammil Bashir, Senior Editor of whoishostingthis.com

If you are in the process of trying to start your first website, there is a fair chance you are already pretty baffled by this point — there are truly a multitude of things to learn and consider. I couldn’t possibly cover it all here, but let’s start with web hosting shall we?

There are a few options for different types of web hosting, but by far the most common is shared web hosting and that’s probably what you will be looking at.

*What is it?*

In a nutshell; as the name suggests, you will be sharing your hosting with other website owners. Your website will be hosted on a server, and that server will also host several other websites. Similar to how you might keep different types of files in different folders on your own PC.

The difference with a web hosting server is that it will be set up so that different users only have access to their own area of the server – so only you can see your files — but everyone will be able to see your website (don’t worry, that’s a good thing).

*The pros*

The biggest advantage is of course the price. Let’s face it, for your first ever website, you don’t want to be paying a fortune for hosting, and you don’t need to. Shared webhosting shares the cost of the server and let’s several people have just enough for what they need.

*The cons*

The downside to this is that you have less freedom over your server and less space for your website. In reality though, that vast majority of websites are actually surprisingly small in terms of file size and it is entirely possible to host 10 or more sites on a pretty standard shared hosting package.

*The reality*

The reality of web hosting is that very few websites ever get big enough or popular enough to need a dedicated server and shared hosting is almost always the best option for small businesses and first time web masters.

*What is right for you?*

Well, see my comments above. The only time you should consider whether shared hosting is right for your new site is if you have a good sized budget and a lot of ambition for your site. It is rare, but if a site does unexpectedly go viral it is possible to gain a lot of traffic fast and sometimes moving server quickly might not be all that easy to do.

But for most of us, if your site is growing organically, you can easily upgrade to bigger and better servers as and when you need to — so you might as well start off with a nice value option and work up from there.

• Posted on Friday, July 22nd, 2011

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