Shared WebHosting Drawbacks

Shared Hosting drawbacks

Recently I wrote an article about Shared Hosting Benefits. Now let's talk about Shared Hosting Drawbacks

• Resources sharing
  
  The main drawback of a shared hosting is that your web applications share server's resources (cpu, bandwidth, memory, etc.) between other customers, which slows down the server.
  


• Access to server
  
  Another inconvenience is that you don't have access to server, so you can't install any application that you might need.
  


• Limited disk space, bandwidth, etc
  
  
  Disk space, bandwidth are limited on a shared hosting plan.
  


• Shared IP Address
  
  On a shared hosting plan IP Address is shared between customers, so private SSL certificates cannot be used.
  


• Limited ports
  
  Some ports that you might need are closed for security reasons.
  


• Security
  
  E-commerce web sites usually deal with credit cards, I don't recommend shared hosting for this type of operations.
  


• Overselling
  
  
  Many shared hosting providers are oversold.
  

What is WebHosting Bandwidth

What is web hosting bandwidth?

Bandwidth is the amount of data sent to your website visitors at a time.
Transfer (traffic) is the amount of data sent to your visitor in a period of time (usually a month). Notice that for a shared hosting plan, bandwidth is shared among the customers, so for an oversold hosting bandwidth could get very low.


How to reduce your hosting bandwidth?
Make sure your images, pages are well optimized, so that your bandwidth is lower, therefore your monthly transfer is also reduced.

Verify that your hosting has a good internet connection, so your pages will load fast for your visitors.

Also, you should prevent hotlinking. Hotlinking means bandwidth theft. If you have an image (video), and someone wants to use it on his website, it places a link of that image to your website, instead of copying it. This is bandwidth stealing. Imagine if you have thousands of large files, what would happen?

Unlimited hosting bandwidth?
Yeah sure! How can bandwidth be unlimited? Bandwidth has a limit, so unlimited bandwidth is a myth. Unlimited space is impossible to offer to.

For video hosting or image hosting, bandwidth needs to be as high as possible, and also the disc storage and monthly traffic need to be high. For example for a 1MB file, with only 1000 downloads daily, you consume 1MBx1000 = 1000MB = 1GB traffic daily. So if your hosting has only 15GB monthly traffic (when you need 30GB/month) there is a big problem.

Hostmonster for example offers 999GB of transfer monthly. This is enough for a small/medium website. If you need more than 999GB traffic, you should consider a dedicated hosting plan.

Shared Hosting Benefits

Shared Hosting Benefits

Here are some shared hosting benefits, for your personal web page, or your small business.

Low Cost - Affordable hosting

This is the main benefit of a shared webhosting. As the server is shared between many users, the price for a shared plan is the lowest.


Don't bother with server administration

Security, software updates, daily backups, etc are managed by the server administrator, he has to make sure that the server is running at optimal parameters.

Look for a hosting the is not oversold

There are hosting providers that are oversold. That means that they host way too many websites, thing that slows down the server, and your website, of course. These are hosting providers that say 'unlimited domains'.

BlueHost, for example, is a hosting provider that allows only 6 domains on one account. Now this is clearly not an overselling hosting.

Multiple hosting packages

This is another great thing about shared hosting, there are multiple packages you can choose from. So think about the resources you need for your website and pick the right shared hosting plan.

Great list of free extra features

Many scripts are provided for free, scripts like: shopping carts, mailing lists, guestbooks, blogs, etc.

Trial period

Most of the hosting providers offer free trial period (30 days is the shortest). If you're not satisfied with your hosting, you can get your money back.

About Shared Web Hosting

You want to make people aware of your business over the internet, so the first step (after you have your website built) is to pick an affordable, reliable shared hosting plan.

This blog will present the best shared hosting plans.

A shared web hosting is a hosting where multiple clients shared the same machine (server). Almost webhosting companies provide shared hosting. This type of hosting is the most common plan, and generally it is used for personal pages, or for small businesses.


If you're looking for a dedicated server, check out our Dedicated Server Hosting section.