Every website needs a web server. This web server can either be exclusive to your website or the space on the server can be shared with many websites. An exclusive or dedicated web server is useful if you have a large website with millions of visitors each day. However, for most of the websites that do not have that kind of traffic, the heavy investment needed in a dedicated server may not be necessary. For a majority of sites, shared hosting — or sharing server space with other websites — is both economical and practical for a number of reasons.
How does shared hosting work?
Web hosting companies invest a huge amount in state-of-the-art web servers that connect to a high-speed internet backbone. Most websites do have the kind of traffic that would justify such a high-end configuration for their websites — either in term of web server space or in terms of network bandwidth. To make web hosting affordable to most websites, web hosting companies rent space on a server to multiple websites that “share” the hosting space with others. The infrastructure cost gets distributed between multiple websites making the web hosting cheap and affordable to most businesses.
Advantages of shared hosting
Besides shared infrastructure and costs, shared hosting offers a number of other advantages that make it the preferred option for most websites. Some of the advantages of shared hosting include:
Shared Hosting is Simple
If you were to get your own dedicated server, setting it up to host your website is quite a complex task. With shared hosting, the web hosting company sets up the server for all the websites, making the hosting of your website quite simple.
No Maintenance Hassles
With dedicated hosting, you are responsible for any maintenance that your server may need. However, with shared web hosting, your web hosting company takes care of the maintenance of the server for all the websites hosted on it. This means you do not have to worry about the server maintenance.
Scalability
Although you share the server space with other websites, with most web hosting companies, you can always scale up your web hosting, allowing you to grow your hosting needs with the growth of your website.
Price
Of course there is the cost factor. By sharing the infrastructure costs with other websites, the cost of web hosting comes down for each of the websites, making shared hosting a cheap and cost-effective solution for most websites.
Selecting a Shared Hosting Provider
Not all shared hosting plans are the same. “Cheap” shared hosting doesn’t always mean a good solution. Here are some tips on selecting your shared hosting provider:
- Credibility: Seek references, visit other websites hosted on the server and make sure the low cost offered by the web hosting company is not a result of a compromise on technology or speed.
- Suitability: Look at the plans offered by the web hosting company and make sure the plan includes all the software, security and other infrastructure that your website needs.
- Flexibility: Many established “branded” web hosting companies may not be flexible with their plans to meet your requirements. It’s always better to work with a smaller company that values its clients and is flexible.
- Cost: A penny saved is a penny earned. However, a cheap shared hosting package can be the advantage of scale or a result of desperation. When a web hosting company services a large number of shared hosting clients, the distribution of costs between many websites can bring down your shared hosting costs. On the other hand, web hosting companies can cut corners in desperation trying to make a quick buck or grab any business that comes its way. This could be dangerous for your business if your web hosting company goes out of business. Make sure your web hosting company has enough sites hosted with them to ensure that you are getting the benefit of scale and not a raw deal.
Shared Hosting Services from Ballistic Domains
Ballistic Domains has been in business for many years now, meeting the growing web hosting needs of a number of clients. Over the years, we have emerged as among the leading shared web hosting service providers. Talk to us about your requirements and you will find it hard to find a service provider as flexible, responsive or affordable as Ballistic Domains.
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