Shared Hosting Services- Wise or Foolish?
Let us first tell you what shared hosting is, using an analogy:
Imagine a well owned by a single authority. Commoners are allowed to use the well as well (haha) but the well-owner gets to decide for how long and how much water they can draw at once.
The owner gives access to the users, provides tools and guarantees secured access for a minimal charge of a few dollars per month.
In Shared Hosting, the Authority is the Web Master who buys a huge server space with large bandwidth to share. Users with access to the well are the Hosts who buy space and memory from a particular Webmaster. The “Well” here corresponds to a Web Server which is connected to the Internet.
The Webmaster provides bandwidth and RAM to the shared hosts for some amount, meanwhile they also offer common applications and security to the hosts.
Sounds good? This, however, is not the full picture.
We’ll look deeper into the pros and cons of a Shared Hosting Website for your business.
Disadvantages:
#1 Performance
The performance of your site depends largely upon the traffic that other websites on the server are receiving. If a site is crashing because of a load of visitors, then it is likely that your site will become heavy, making it slow.
#2 Unreliability of Server
If the web server crashes, you will be at the receiving end of the inconvenience.
#3 Lack of Security
In shared hosting, you can never be sure who can access your main database, because of the lack of security features. You are vulnerable to cybercrime like hacking, malpractice and snooping.
#4 Limited Resources
You will be sharing resources like CPU, RAM and hard drive configuration with many other websites. This puts a limitation on how much of the resource you can really use.
#5 Software
You will have access only to the software that the Webmaster has permitted for use. Beyond that, you won’t be able to install any applications on your own for work purpose.
#6 Less Features
Because it is a shared hosting scenario, you can not expect the same features that dedicated hosts provide.
#7 Unavailability of Resources
For security reasons, some ports and connections with the server may be prohibited for use.
With so many drawbacks, why do companies still go for this kind of a solution?
The answer is, a shared hosting service is not that bad after all. We’ve seen the cons, now we’ll look at the pros of this shared arrangement of web space.
Advantages
#1 Cost Effective
For hardly $5-$10 per month, you can get up to 40 GB of space. For small businesses with moderate traffic on the site, it is fairly enough.
#2 Customisation
Although the resources are shared and limited at times, you can customise your website using the Control Panel.
#3 Convenience
Your website gets managed and serviced by professionals so you do not have to worry about handling the technical issues of the server. Again, this becomes a cost-effective alternative that only shared hosting can provide.
#4 Multiple Account Management
You can easily manage more than one account in your domain and contain more than one database for your website.
#5 Efficiency
In shared hosting, you get ample space and RAM with a good loading speed, in spite of sharing the bandwidth with other sites.
#6 Support
You get a free support system for MySQL and PHP.
#7 Supervision
Along with support you get round the clock supervision, maintenance and technical help by the Webmaster. This counts to the same amount of reliability that dedicated plans offer, but in a lesser price.
The question stands- Is Shared Hosting the Best Option?
Our say is, if you own a small business or are an individual seller of good or services, then Shared Hosting will be perfect for you. Eventually, as your business and visitors grow, you can move your site to a dedicated web server for your company.
For a large company expecting heavy traffic, which requires high-level security, constant maintenance, high-end resources and a large bandwidth, dedicated hosting service will be a much-needed solution.
Looking for a Consultation?
Hit us up with an email at [email protected] or tell us in the comments below. We’d be happy to help!
