Shared Web Hosting Advantages and Disadvantages

Shared Web Hosting

Shared website hosting is the most basic type of web hosting, in which you share the server on which you are hosted with a number of other users and websites; one thing which sets shared website hosting apart from other types is the fact that users who are hosted on the server are not allowed root or administrator access to the server, thus meaning that you are limited as to what you are able to do with your shared website hosting account.

Almost everyone starts off with shared website hosting, since it is cheap and affordable for many, and the fact that you don’t have to worry about the administration of the server on which you are hosted is one factor which attracts many people who are new to website hosting to shared hosting plans; most shared web hosting plans also come with easy to use and feature rich control panels that allow users to administrate almost any part of their domain or website without the need for any intervention from their web host or anyone else for that matter.

The support available for shared hosting is also much better than that of higher up plans in most cases; this is because the web host that you are using is able to give you more direct support if you are using their control panel, and if they are providing you with a third party control panel then it is easier for them to provide you with support still, and the official documentation is also there if you still need extra help after your web host’s support team has intervened. Shared web hosting accounts come with many different features that you can use to help build your website from the bottom, meaning that if you are completely new to web hosting and web design in general, then you can easily get a website started up under your new web hosting account without having to have any technical knowledge; in this case, you could use an included script auto-installer for example, to install a CMS system within your hosting environment so that you can start adding content to your new website.

In some cases you are able to host multiple domains under your shared website hosting account, meaning that if you are new to website hosting then you can easily expand your use of your website hosting account by gradually building up the amount of domains that you host within it; this means that if you do want to host more websites under your account, then you can with the only limit being the amount of disk space that you have available and the amount of bandwidth that you have available to assign to each new website or domain that you are adding – in some cases web hosts only allow you to host one domain per shared website hosting account, meaning that if you want to host more than one website within your account you will have to purchase another shared website hosting account or upgrade your existing account to a reseller one. Shared website hosting allows you to easily expand your possibilities, allowing you to start at the bottom of the web hosting ‘ladder’ and work your way up to a dedicated server, in the case that your website becomes too resourceful for reseller or VPS hosting; this means that if you are wanting to start a new website and anticipate that over time the visitor numbers will increase, then you can easily start off with a shared website hosting package to get your new website based on, then as your website expands and your visitor numbers increase you can easily upgrade to a VPS server and then onto a dedicated server with ease and ensuring that your website will be fast and available at all times.

Compared to other types of web hosting, shared hosting can be particularly slow at some times, which could effect your website in a negative way meaning that if you receive a lot of visitors, shared web hosting is not something that you want; this is because shared web hosting servers are shared amongst many users meaning that it can take only one user on the same server as you to slow it down or to even make it shut down completely.

Advantages of Shared Website Hosting

Shared website hosting is something that is perfect for people who are new to website hosting, since the support provided is more than enough to get most people started, and the reliability is normally high enough to satisfy most people. One main factor that attracts most to it is the fact that you don’t have to worry about the administration of the hosting server, since that is taken care of by the web host from which you have purchased your website hosting plan; this allows you to effectively run your website without the need to worry about any type of server upkeep or administration.

Support and Maintenance

The good thing with shared website hosting when compared to other types of hosting is that you don’t have to worry about the maintenance of the server on which you are hosted; the money that you pay your web hosting company pays the support staff that they employ to look after the servers which people like yourself are hosted on, and to make sure that they have the latest updates and are as secure as possible to ensure that no hackers or other malicious attackers are able to gain unauthorized access to the shared web hosting server.

Another factor related to the maintenance and general up keep of the server is the support that is provided to you as the customer, in the event that you need help with a certain aspect of your shared website hosting account; support staff are able to provide you with more assistance when on a shared website hosting package rather than on an upper level one, since the your account is normally fully managed enabling you to request support for almost any issue. Most support staff will be able to help you out with issues ranging from a slow server, to installing a new program under your web hosting account which you might not be able to if you don’t have the necessary knowledge; support with upper level packages such as VPS and dedicated server hosting is normally limited, for example most web hosts only provide reboots and rebuilds of VPS and dedicated servers leaving customers to sort out their own issues if they happen to have a problem with their VPS or dedicated server – something which turns many people who don’t have much knowledge regarding the subject away from VPS and dedicated servers.

Support staff are also there to help you configure your website once you have uploaded it into your new shared website hosting space, meaning that if you have had a technical website designed on your behalf, you can easily have it uploaded and configured with the help of the support staff at your web host; this also means that the most technical of websites can be uploaded and configured without the need for any prior knowledge about the environment in which you are hosted.

It is important that the server on which you are hosted has the latest updates and is kept secure from hackers since if malicious attackers do manage to gain access to the server on which you are hosted, not only the data that is hosted under your hosting account but all the data that is hosted on the server is then vulnerable meaning that a hacker can easily steal the contents of a database and sell it on if the information fits the right category – it is for this reason that it is important to encrypt any data that you store either in your web space or databases that you have hosted within your shared website hosting account, because at the end of the day if a malicious attacker does happen to gain access to any of your website’s information, the consequences could prove to be very serious

Reliability and Security

Depending on the specifications of the server that your shared web hosting account resides on, shared website hosting can be more reliable than both VPS and dedicated server hosting in some cases; however, the reliability of a shared web hosting server is dependent on the hardware specifications of it as well as the other users who are hosted on the same server as you.

Most shared web hosting servers these days are of high specification, for example most now have quad core processors meaning that the odds of the hosting server crashing because of a CPU overload are incredibly low; most are also stacked up with RAM, again meaning that the odds of a shared web hosting server crashing because there is no memory left are incredibly low. However, the reliability of a shared web hosting server can depend on the other people who are hosted on the same server as you; for example, someone might be hosting a rather resource intensive PHP application which is regularly accessing a database to get the required information – this type of application is something which is bound to have an effect on the server’s performance, meaning that if it carries on to be resource intensive then the hosting account in which it resides might end up being suspended or terminated.

Since shared web hosting server contain many users, most web hosts try their hardest to ensure that their shared web hosting servers are as secure as possible to ensure that no malicious attackers are able to gain entry to the server in any way; for example, most web hosts have RootKit Hunter installed on their Linux shared hosting servers to ensure that no hackers are able to gain entry to the server and install malicious programs without being detected. You will also find that nearly every web host employs some sort of anti-virus on their shared website hosting server to ensure that the server itself contains no viruses, and to scan incoming and outgoing email to ensure that your email accounts don’t receive any virus emails and to ensure that no emails that contain viruses are sent from the server; this itself will ensure that the server and your data are secure to an extent.

At the end of the day, you want to make sure that you choose a web host who uses shared hosting servers with high specification hardware, since this increases the chances of your website and the services related to it being more stable, which is one that that you want to achieve. You also want to make sure that the shared web hosting provider that you choose to utilizes some type of anti-virus and firewall softwares within their shared website hosting servers, since you want to ensure that the data contained in your website hosting account is secure in the event that a malicious attacker manages to gain access to the server.

Disadvantages of Shared Website Hosting

Although shared website hosting provides many advantages for people who are new to the world of website hosting, for those who have websites which expect more of a web hosting server, shared website hosting does prove to have some disadvantages which can affect how some websites work and how some people are able to utilize their shared website hosting account. The following are disadvantages which might prove that shared hosting is not for you or your website, meaning that upper level packages such as VPS servers and dedicated servers are what you might need to ensure that you are able to provide your website visitors with a stable level of service and so that they are able to access your website with ease and when they need to.

The Sharing of the Server

One factor which many people don’t take into consideration when searching for shared hosting for their important website is the fact that the server on which they will be hosting their website will be shared with other people, meaning that the actions and usage of the other websites that are hosted on the same server as you have the ability to impact on the performance of your own website, which in some cases is something that can effect your website in a negative way. If resource intensive websites are hosted on the same server as you, then they can easily impact on the other sites that are hosted on the same server if they happen to be using up too much CPU or physical memory (RAM) of the server; in this case you would notice the impact of the other website on yours since you will experience slower response times to certain requests, such as those which include your website or web page having to access a database to gather the required data – you would probably see your website timing out when loading in this case.

If your web host happens to setup a ‘spam‘ user on the same server as you by accident, then you might also find that the server will crash because the user is using up too many server resources; for example, most spammers exploit shared website hosting accounts so that they can send out their spam, in most cases by the gigbyte (GB). If a spammer is exploiting your server then you might find that your website is slow to load either because it is timing out because their is not enough CPU left to process the request, or because the actual internet uplink on the server has been jammed up with all the spam which is being sent out. By sharing a server with other people, you’re website is still prone to attack through the means of another website or hosting account on the same web hosting server as you; this is because another website on the same server as you, or hosting account might be compromised meaning that a hacker or other sort of malicious attacker can easily gain access to the entire server due to that one compromised website hosting account.

Limitations

Although with VPS and dedicated server hosting packages you are limited by the amount of bandwidth and disk space that you have assigned to your server, with shared hosting you are limited by a larger amount of factors including the number of email accounts that you are able to create as well as the number of databases, amongst other things; this means that if you are wanting to only be limited by disk space and bandwidth, you will have to think again since in some cases you will only be able to create a certain amount of email accounts and databases under your website hosting account.

In most cases you are also limited as to what you are able to do with your web hosting account technically, meaning that you can be limited as to how your website can run, for example you might not be allowed to set file permissions under your web hosting account which means that certain scripts and programs won’t be able to run within your shared website hosting environment; in this case you would have to find a web host who provided a shared website hosting package that did allow you to set file permissions otherwise you are limiting yourself to only being able to use certain scripts and programs under your web hosting account.

Conclusion

In conclusion, shared website hosting is a type of web hosting which is perfect for those who are new to the world of web hosting, and don’t have much knowledge when it comes to the management and administration of a web hosting account; it is also fine for those who just wish to host a couple of small websites, since the features provided will allow for you to effectively manage small websites without the need for any intervention from your web host, although they will probably be more than happy to help you out if you happen to run into any problems regarding your shared hosting account. For those who are wanting to host resource intensive websites, or dynamic websites which will be using databases and will wanting to be accessing them often, shared website hosting may not be for them; this is because your website might end up using too many server resources, which in the eyes of most web hosts will lead to the suspension of your hosting account, especially if your website or account is impacting on the performance of other websites and domains hosted on the same server as you.

If your website handles important data, such as credit card numbers and other personal information, then you might want to consider a VPS or dedicated server solution since shared website hosting might be a little insecure for hosting such important information; with a more higher level solution, you are able to configure the server security the way you want it to be meaning that if you have a certain security infrastructure to ensure that the information you host isn’t compromised, you can easily deploy it giving your customer ultimate assurance when it comes to data security.

Every now and then you might experience a period of slowness with your shared website hosting account, which might be being caused by a ‘rogue’ user who was accidentally setup on the server by your web host and is actually a spammer using the server to send out all their spam; in this case your account’s information is not compromised, but spammers do have the ability to slow down servers by using up a lot of the available CPU and RAM meaning that the server is more vulnerable to crashing. So basically, if you are hosting a website which isn’t mission critical and you are able to deal with the occasional occurence of downtime, then shared website hosting is for you; if you are wanting to host an important website which is handling important information then you might want to consider a more higher level web hosting solution.

What do you think of Shared Web Hosting ? Did we miss something? Let us know in the comments below.