If you’re creating or launching your first website, then shared web hosting could be a solution worth looking at. However, as a newcomer to shared web hosting, you might find it a bit confusing, but it’s one of the most popular options for website owners and bloggers.  To make things easier for you, we have written this comprehensive guide covering all the aspects of shared web hosting that you should be aware of before opting for this web hosting solution.

Read on to understand what shared hosting is, how it works, the advantages of using shared hosting solutions, and what you must consider before opting for this web hosting solution.

What is Shared Hosting?

Shared web hosting, as the name suggests, is a type of web hosting where a single hosting server is shared by multiple websites. However, you’ll have no idea who or what websites you’re sharing the resources of your hosting server with. Each customer/user on the server typically has a limit on the total amount of server resources they can use, but this will be defined by the hosting package you choose.

Shared web hosting is the most economical and effective option for the majority of small businesses, new websites, and individual bloggers, and more. Thus, this web hosting solution can accommodate the needs of a vast array of users while not being too heavy on the pocket.

How Does Shared Hosting Work?

In a shared web hosting solution, the server is partitioned in order to host multiple accounts for various customers who manage their own websites, emails, and database, while server resources and costs are shared by all.

Shared web hosting is like sharing an apartment with other people where you have your own room, but you’ve to share resources like common areas, electricity, etc., with others living in the same apartment. What makes this hosting solution economical is that you can split the expenses like rent and maintenance amongst all the residents equally.

Why Should You Opt for Shared Web Hosting?

If you are on a budget and need to get set up quickly, shared hosting is the best option for you. Shared web hosting is far cheaper than other web hosting solutions and enables you to find an online home for your website on a budget.

The most significant advantages of shared hosting are:

Low cost
In shared web hosting, since you share server space with one or more users, it is a cost-effective option; this enables service providers to make profits and deliver a lower price point. And in this very competitive hosting market, you can easily find yourself a shared hosting plan in India for less than Rs 100/month. Thus, considering all the features you can get nowadays, these affordable web hosting packages offer great value.

Efficient
In shared web hosting, you’re provided with all the necessary resources for running a website where your service provider will take care of your initial bandwidth and storage space requirements. Moreover, your website will also have the resources for it to run smoothly at high speed. Of course, this significantly depends upon the hosting provider and hosting package you choose because not all of them are as fast as you would expect them to be.

 

Easy to Self-manage
Shared hosting is a simple and straightforward way to get started. One of the benefits of shared web hosting is that service providers like BigRock offer a control panel to manage your website, which simplifies the user interface. This, in turn, helps maintain administrative tasks and any monitoring duties associated with running a server.

 

Convenient
When you require more resources, you can always upgrade your shared hosting plan to a higher one, which makes it very convenient. In addition, you can easily manage resources, applications, installations, and more with the help of a convenient control panel provided by your service provider. Everything on this control panel is visually displayed, which makes it easy to understand whatever you’re doing.

Furthermore, the administration and maintenance of the server are taken care of by the service provider; thus, you don’t need to concern yourself with anything else but running your website.

 

Built-in cPanel
Shared Hosting packages typically come with built-in web hosting panels. You will be getting cPanel with Linux Shared Hosting and Plesk with Windows Shared Hosting. These panels enable you to manage your websites, DNS settings, email settings, etc., effortlessly.

What should you consider before choosing a Shared Hosting plan?

It is important to keep certain things in mind before choosing a shared hosting plan. Below we’ve mentioned the four most significant factors you must keep in mind to choose the best web hosting plan for your needs:

Your Budget & Required Features
As mentioned above, in shared hosting, your website will share a server with other websites, which relatively brings down the cost. But all these users on the server will be sharing the same server’s resources, including the storage space.

So before signing up for a shared hosting plan, check what your budget is and what features you’re eyeing. For example, many shared web hosting plans do come with a free domain, hence making it easier to set up the website. You can also add unlimited email services at a very small extra cost. One will agree that the features that usually come with a shared hosting plan make it the most pocket-friendly package available.

 

Your Technical Skills
Managing a server on your own can be a bit difficult if you’re not technically sound. But with a shared hosting plan, that part is usually taken care of for you. This implies that even if your technical skills are not top-notch, you don’t need to worry as your hosting provider will be taking care of it. While shared hosting is a smart place for most websites to start, as they grow, they typically need a more robust hosting plan such as VPS or dedicated hosting.

 

The Size of your Website
The bigger your website, the more resources it will require. In Shared Hosting, since you’ll be sharing the same server with many other users, you might face some problems down the road. For instance, you might have issues with storage space as all the other websites on the server will be sharing the same space. And some websites on the server may experience sudden growth, which might push your website to the edge of the server space.

Furthermore, an increase in traffic to any of the websites on the server can impact your site. It can overload the server and may even lead your website to crash. Your website might also become more prone to malware attacks on a shared hosting plan. Therefore, if you’re expecting heavy traffic on your website anytime soon, it would be better to consider trying other hosting plans like VPS or dedicated web hosting.

 

The Restriction on Shared Hosting
There are certain restrictions on the shared hosting packages. However, these restrictions vary from one hosting package to another where many of them often prevent a single website on a shared server from eating up the resources of the server at the expense of others. It is important to check what are the limitations related to memory limits, spam and hacker activity, file restrictions of the hosting package to ensure that suits your needs. 

Ending Note

To summarize this, it can be said that shared hosting is a great option for small and medium-sized websites. It will provide you with many features at a very small cost which makes it one of the most affordable packages available today. It also provides all the essential tools required to get your website up and running.

While there are certain restrictions on shared hosting in terms of storage space, bandwidth, etc., these factors come into play when you start exploring limits on your package. But if none of these affects your website, then go ahead and sign up for a shared hosting plan right away. Get in touch with our expert team to gain insight into shared hosting plans, our expert team will help you choose the best hosting plan for your needs!