Everyone from small business owners to celebrities, down to socially active teenagers want their own website. It’s an easy and simple way to showcase your offerings to the outside world while adding a touch of professionalism which can’t be attained through social media alone.
Is Shared Web Hosting Good for Beginners?
Shared vs. Dedicated
The debate is as old as the inception of the world wide web itself, and there’s no clear winner or loser. Shared hosting simply means that multiple websites will run on a single server. In comparison, dedicated web hosting scales this down into specialized resource pools, each catering a single website.
As you may infer, economies of scale come into play, with shared web hosting being several-fold cheaper than dedicated one. In addition, a dedicated environment is instilled with greater complexity, something that isn’t most suitable for a newcomer.
But is making the decision really that simple? Read on and find out.
Shared Web Hosting – The Good
First and foremost, shared web hosting is cheap. There’s a huge cost advantage involved as the operational cost of the machine is shared between different websites. A rough idea of this can be attained from the cost of shared WordPress hosting that runs between USD 3.95 – 9.95/month. This makes it very attractive for beginners, especially entrepreneurs who are looking to cut any cost they can.
Next, shared web hosting has greatly matured over the years. Driven by competition, service providers are in a constant tug of war to expand their clientele. This has led to considerable improvements in technology, with companies offering a plethora of tools to their customers, e.g. cPanel.
Furthermore, due to the template-like structure of shared web hosting, it is extremely easy for service providers to offer support. Whether this is in the form of live chat, how-to manuals or any other medium depends on the service provider.
Every small business owner has a vision, one that entails expansion. With the passage of time your website may get increased attention, and you may add extra functionalities. This may lead to bottle-necks, triggering the need of greater resources.
Hosting companies have greatly automated this function, allowing users to scale their processing & bandwidth needs with a couple of clicks. Moreover, service providers often have highly trained teams that ensure the websites run at optimum performance levels. This makes the entire operation hassle free for an individual who has little website management experience.
Shared Web Hosting – The Bad
A dedicated server, whether its in the form of a VPS or colocation hosting, will give better response compared to a shared one. The reasons behind this is simple; dedicated servers are set up by the website owner from the ground up, including only packages that are required. Furthermore, they host a single website, neutralizing the threat of resource-hogging, which is otherwise common in shared environment.
However, all of this comes at a catch. Setting up web-hosting infrastructure isn’t an easy job. It requires specialized skills, which means investment in a human resource. Moreover, this will add maintenance costs for these resources, not suitable for a new business.
One other issue that may be of concern is the risk of overselling by hosting service providers. Some companies that offer too good to be true pricing can oversell their servers, operating websites under the assumption that full-load will never be achieved.
This becomes an issue if the peak times for multiple websites overlap, effecting all domains hosted on the server. What’s the best way to tackle this? Go for a service provider that has a good reputation and/or has a compensation policy in case such incidents occur. To make it easier, we have listed down some of the best web hosting providers later on.
Shared Web Hosting – Security
Shared web hosting carries certain security risks as well. Since all websites are hosted on a single server, if one domain decides to run unverified or malicious scrips, there is a risk that others may also be affected.
This is one of the most common ways used by attackers to gain access to otherwise secure websites. If you’re running a business that works on confidential contracts or holds financial information, it is very much advisable to shift to a dedicated environment.
Top Shared Web Hosting Platforms
One of the most popular and reliable hosting platforms, BlueHost is suitable for novice webmasters, offering excellent hosting offers and simple site-building software. The customer service is very professional, while the service provider holds a high reputation in terms of guaranteeing site uptime.
To learn more about BlueHost, you can check out my review of Australian web hosts where I go into detail about their performance with Aussie based websites. I also test things such as speed, up time, customer service, price and ALOT more!
The service provider has all the basics covered along with extended security configurations for concerned businesses. There is however lack of telephone support, but this is compensated with money-back guarantees if unplanned downtimes occur on your website.
Another excellent web hosting service, Hostwinds offers shared, dedicated and reseller hosting plans. Setting up a website is easy thanks to a user-friendly toolset combined with helpful customer service.
The service provider holds a reputation for solid uptime, providing both Windows- and Linux-based servers. Furthermore, the company has tightly integrated its email services with Microsoft apps, while even offering managed WordPress hosting, if you need it.
InMotion features easy-to-use website tools along with unlimited email offering irrespective of the plan selected. However, things may get complex as not all plans have month-to-month payment options. Nonetheless, money-back guarantee against unplanned downtime make it a reliable option for hosting your domain.
Alternatives To Shared Web Hosting
Dedicated VPS hosting is the alternative to Shared Web Hosting. You can think of it as a dedicated machine that handles all your website’s needs, hosted within a service provider’s infrastructure. The obvious advantage is greater bandwidth and elimination of risk of overcompensation. But this comes at a cost.
Since, VPS hosting means you get your own machine, the service provider charges a greater fee. This can be stingy for startups and newcomers who only want a basic website setup.
Next comes the cost of maintenance. As stated previously, Shared Web Hosting infrastructure is taken care of by the service providers, with several packages coming pre-installed. With most VPS setups, you get a virtual machine on top of which you need to install all required packages for your website.
This means you either need to learn the skills yourself or hire a dedicated resource. Sure, there are service providers who can do all this, but once again, this comes at an additional cost.
Dedicated hosting obviously isn’t for everyone, especially not beginners. If your website has special needs that a normal shared hosting provider can’t fulfill, then you can think of moving towards dedicated hosting. However, this is highly unlikely. But the role of Dedicated VPS Web Hosting isn’t eliminated, even for beginners. It serves as a good migration option once the initial website starts receiving high number of hits and new, complex functionalities need to be added.
Final Call
The breakdown given above would have given you a clear idea regarding the inner workings of shared web hosting. The simple answer is: yes, shared web hosting is good for beginners. Despite of its shortcomings, it is a good platform for newcomers.
Low cost, lack of complexities, flexibility and extended customer support are some of the most important factors for an entrepreneur who simply wants a solid online presence. The level of convenience provided by shared web hosting is unparalleled, which directly translates into saved time & money.
Once the website takes off and more functionalities need to be added, businesses can shift to advanced plans or migrate to a dedicated server altogether.