What is shared hosting

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Category: General

What is shared hosting?

Shared hosting is where multiple client websites are hosted on a single server, and the resources of that server (disk space, data transfer, CPU, etc.)are "shared" among the clients who are also hosted on that server.  This keeps the cost down, since the cost of the server and its resources are spread among all the clients who are hosted on that machine. It also makes sense for users who may not need all the resources of a server.  Each site "sits" on its own partition, or section/place on the server.  Hosted plans based on the shared hosting model tend to be the most affordable way for the average user to get their website online.

Who should use shared hosting?

Shared hosting is particularly useful for people who have small to moderate sized websites that do not require masses of server resources.  Sites that are ?mission critical? (commercial and other sites) often benefit from VPS or dedicated hosting.

What are the advantages of shared hosting?

The key advantage of shared hosting is cost.  Given that a number of websites share a server, the cost of maintenance is shared between a number of accounts. This brings end user costs down considerably. A good web hosting account offering in excess of 150 GB of disk space and similar amounts of data transfer can be available for less than £10 a month. Another advantage is that as the web host is responsible for managing a server, support is available if issues occur with the server.  In shared hosting, the provider is generally responsible for managing servers, installing server software, security updates, technical support, and other aspects of the service.  This means that people with relatively few IT skills can still set up a hosting account and a web site.

What are the disadvantages of shared hosting?

Because in shared web hosting server resources are shared between a number of accounts, if traffic to a particular website spikes, it will utilise more of the resources available than the other websites. This means that the performance of your website is often at the mercy of other, better performing web sites on the same server. In addition, being shared, hacker activity, malware, viruses, and any disruptive activity (DOS attacks, etc.) directed at a particular web site could impact all the accounts on a server. Furthermore, because of users? lack of control of server resources, they are wholly dependent on the support provided by a host. If support is under par, this can lead to tremendous frustration on behalf of the user. The quality of support is key to most people's decision regarding which web host to use.

Can I host multiple sites on the same shared hosting plan?

Yes! All of our shared hosting plans allow you to host more than one website, by adding secondary domains through our hosting control panel.  When you log in to your FTP account you will see a different directory for each domain name associated with your shared hosting plan, and each directory will serve the respective website autonomously.

What types of shared hosting plans are available?

Although many different types of shared hosting are available, UNIX/Linux and Windows hosting dominate. Which type of hosting you choose depends on what technology your web site will utilize. Web sites that will utilize PHP programming and a MySQL database (as many Open Source Content Management Systems do) should use a UNIX/Linux based platform.

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