Web Hosting Reviews & Ratings

August 19, 2010

The Advantages and Uses of Cheap Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is often seen as the black sheep of the hosting industry, considering it is the least capable and least reliable type of web hosting available. However there are times when shared hosting is necessary and even ideal in some cases. For business uses, shared hosting is frowned upon, but is often one of the only options available for those that are trying to get started online with a budget. If no other option is financially feasible then shared hosting may be the only suitable solution left. Not to worry though, there are some situations when shared hosting could be the most optimal hosting plan available. The following information should help you decide if shared hosting is actually right for you.

Personal Blogging

Shared hosting is perfect for personal blogs, since they do not require a vast amount of server resources. Personal blogs are usually only updated several times each week, and the daily visitors usually do not exceed 200-300. This kind of server load can easily be handled with a shared hosting account. If however you do experience slow page loads and/or site downtime when using a shared hosting account then it may be time to upgrade.

Profile Sites

Another ideal use for shared hosting is a resume or profile site, on which you can host a professional overview of your work history and credentials for your prospective clients, if you specialize in an online service-based industry such as web design or article writing. Profile sites usually only contain 5-10 pages (often less) and are perfect for shared web hosting. There are also no risks associated with hosting a profile site with shared hosting, since there is no sensitive financial data being transferred through the site on a regular basis. Server resources are not a problem for a single personal blog. In fact, you could realistically host hundreds of profiles on a single shared hosting account, (as long as your provider allows for unlimited domains of course).

Low Budgets

Perhaps the most obvious reason to use a shared hosting account would be to compensate for having a low budget. Almost everyone that owns a website started out online with a shared hosting account, and it is quite possibly the most common kind of hosting account on the web. If you are afraid to make a significant investment, or if you are unable to, then a shared hosting account would be ideal in order to give you an affordable entry into the internet. After gaining experience through your shared hosting account, you can then upgrade to a more powerful server plan such as VPS, eCommerce, reseller or even dedicated hosting.

Conclusion

While most people will find shared hosting to be worthy enough to handle their daily hosting needs, many others will have bad experiences due to the simple lack of server power. With shared hosting you are sharing your server resources with dozens (maybe even hundreds) of other people. Since the power of the server is divided up amongst an entire group, the capabilities are often sub par, and the result can be slow page loads and even site downtime if the server is overloaded.

Tags: shared hosting account,  server load,  blogging,  cheap hosting,  Shared Hosting