Daily thousands of websites are born and made available on the internet and you want to be one of them. But you’re not sure where to begin in terms of finding a hosting solution that suits your need straight out of the box. For most first-time website owners, the solution is clear. Shared hosting is still and always has been the most viable option for new website owners.
While shared hosting still reigns supreme not all hosting providers are created equal. You want to be meticulous when choosing a hosting provider for your website. Be keen to find hosting solutions with scalable plans. A robust offering of security measures, backup solutions and much more is vital to fast hosting and a ‘clean’ website. Not sure what we’re talking about? No worries. This guide will help you understand why Shared hosting is still the popular choice and where you can go from there.
Let’s get into it.
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What is Shared Web Hosting?
In a shared web hosting environment, multiple websites share one server and all its resources. This includes sharing the physical server and the software components within that server. The advantage of shared hosting services is that there is an affordable and low price point. This is because the cost to operate the server is shared between you and the other website owners.
Shared Hosting is a great place to start a new website, blog, eCommerce store and more. Many hosting providers offer affordable Web Hosting Packages and if your personal or business website needs to more server space/resources there are other Hosting solutions.
You’re a rookie now, and your personal/business site is in its genesis. However, one day could have tens of thousands of daily website visitors that converts. They could convert to potentially huge revenue for you website. To scale to this size you may need to consider VPS Hosting or even eventually upgrading to dedicated server.
Other Hosting Solutions: VPS and Dedicated Hosting
Logistically it can be an absolute nightmare having to migrate your website from one host to another as your website grows, especially if you’re not necessarily tech-savvy. This is why choosing a capable host with a robust set of features in their arsenal from the onset is the foundation you need.
VPS and Dedicated Servers
- Virtual Private Server Hosting:
VPS stands for a virtual private server and is a virtualized or cloud-based server. A VPS hosting environment imitates or acts as a dedicated server within a shared environment giving you the best of both worlds. With VPS hosting you get the affordability of shared hosting while at the same time giving you more power and control like a dedicated server.
- Dedicated Hosting:
In a dedicated hosting environment, you purchase or rent the entire server, meaning no other website owner shares the server or its resources with you. This result is faster performance for your website, as you have complete access to the physical server and its software components.
Who is Web Hosting for?
Who doesn’t love a great bargain? We all want the option that is the best solution for our wallets. Especially new out of the gate e-entrepreneurs, bloggers and new website owners. Shared web hosting was designed with that in mind. It is for prospective website owners that don’t have a lot of capital or the resources to own their own dedicated server from the start of the business. What’s more is that the resources available within a shared hosting environment cater to the needs of ‘newbies’.
When you begin you won’t have a very huge following and your website will not be inundated with traffic every day. That is why shared hosting is so popular and perfect for small businesses and new website owners.
What’s included in your Shared Hosting Plan
Sometimes people discount the amenities included with shared web hosting and decide not to opt into it at all. The reality is that shared hosting has grown in leaps in bounds in recent years and most plans come with a full arsenal of prime hosting components for plans starting as low as $3 a month.
Hosting plans can start with space ranging from 10GB at its very basic to unlimited at its highest premium. Another great feature of shared hosting is the offering of SSL Certificates for secured websites, and cPanel to help you manage your webpage and CMS. cPanel makes operating your website on its user-friendly interface that much easier. So having it available to you with your plan is a major plus.
Another great feature of shared web hosting is the security features available on each server for the shared websites. A great hosting provider will install the best internet security features on their server to ensure all websites are safe and private.
Pertinent Questions about Hosting Solutions
To help you identify what you need to know before making the choice of a host that will offer you all the scalability resources you need, you want to ask these questions and ensure that the Web Host Provider can answer them.
- What tools and resources are available to you for building your initial website? Do they have templates available, do them support the most popular CMS systems like WordPress or Drupal?
- Do they have VPS or Dedicated servers so you can upgrade as your website grows? And do they have great reviews?
- What are the bandwidth, storage/RAM, and (for VPS/dedicated) CPU allowances?
- Determine how much the resources influence the price? (Resources vs. cost)
- What are the marketing features—free domain, Google AdWords credits, SEO tools?
- Do they have excellent 24/7 Technical Support?
- What type of internet security and monitoring tools do they offer?
- Do their Shared Hosting plans offer free SSL Certificate?
- Are there Cloud-based backup solutions available?
- Do they offer domain services? It is best to have your domain and hosting solution from the same provider.
Conclusion
When shopping for the best hosting solution when first starting out, don’t drain your coffers on a dedicated server to start just because you’ve heard it is the best. Read all the information on hosting first and make an informed decision. Hopefully, this article gave you a lot to digest and consider. A dedicated server at the beginning of your website’s journey isn’t necessary and can waste resources you can invest elsewhere in your business. Shared hosting is the perfect solution when starting out. Plus various shared plans come with different scope of resources plus flexible plans that lets you upgrade at your own leisure. Once your website grows you can upgrade to an unlimited Shared hosting plan or switch to more advanced VPS hosting plan.
Shared hosting is the logical choice for bloggers, small/medium businesses, personal websites, and anyone trying to establish an online presence. Because of its affordable price point, robust resources, fast speeds and reliable tech support behind it Shared hosting will remain the popular choice to those starting out.
