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Article : Advantages and Disadvantages of
Shared Website 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.
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