Web Hosting Reviews & Ratings

April 06, 2009

The Pros and Cons of Multiple Domain Hosting

Having the ability to host multiple domains on a single account can help you save a lot of time, money and streamline the process of website management.  The concept of multiple domains has become so popular that most hosts on the market offer this ability as a standard feature.  This is certainly a good move from a business aspect as you can really expand your online presence by tackling your particular market from various angles.  While multiple domain hosting makes sense in many situations, the disadvantages could lead you to wonder if this is actually a wise move.

What's Right with Multiple Domain Hosting

If you have a need to run more than one website, hosting them with the same company only seems practical, especially when looking at it from a cost perspective.  With multiple domain hosting, you simply pay for a single account and have the freedom to add on a give amount of domains at no additional cost.  This allows you to save tremendously in comparison to purchasing accounts from different web hosting providers.  In a sense, all of these domains are independent of one another, acting as individual websites with their own URLs, email accounts, website design and architecture.  Moreover, you have the luxury to manage these domains from a single control panel interface.  So, instead of logging in every time with a different set of credentials, you simply sign on with a single user name and password and have convenient access to all of your domains.

What's Wrong with Multiple Domain Hosting

The very quality that makes multiple domain hosting such a viable option could also make it a disaster just the same.  Unfortunately, web servers have a bad habit of crashing at the most untimely moments.  If this happens to the server hosting your domains, all of your websites will go down right along with the machine.  It doesn't take much explaining to see that this is a bad situation you don't want to find yourself in.  Although some providers utilize a load balancing technology where website data is spread amongst multiple servers to mitigate such risks, not all hosts take such precautions.  Servers are bound to experience issues, but suffering hours or possibly days of downtime is something that could literally kill your business.

The best way to avoid a situation like the one mentioned above would be to spread your multiple domains over multiple web hosting companies.  Then again, that defeats the general purpose of multiple domain hosting.  It requires more time, effort and money on your part to effectively manage these websites.  On the other hand, it will give you a peace of mind by knowing that your entire operation will not be compromised by one unfortunate event.

Conclusion

The benefits of multiple domain hosting are hard to deny and when considering cost savings, difficult to resist.  At the same time, the lingering threat of downtime may not be something you are willing to risk.  Though nothing is guaranteed, you can minimize the probability of disaster by choosing a provider that delivers a reliable service and takes measures to ensure as little downtime as possible.

Tags: multiple hosting,  multiple domains,  control panel,  website management,  oad balancing