Definition of Shared Web Hosting

Shared web hosting is a service that hosting suppliers offer so that you can upload your site online.

How can people notice your web site?

When you set up a site and you wish other individuals to access it, you will need to publish (or upload) it to a hosting server. If you attempt to render the web site reachable on the Internet by shared web hosting it on your own computer, there is no way for you to keep it always up and running, which is why hosting services came into being.

How does shared web hosting work?

Hosting vendors offer you content storage space for your site on their high-power computers (hosting servers) and ensure constant Internet access. When somebody types your domain name (for instance www.my-best-domain.com) in their web browser's address bar, they will be connected to the web hosting server where they can take a peek at the content of your website.

Types of web hosting

With the development of Internet technologies, several types of web hosting services have come into being to meet the different demands of website possessors, among them shared website hosting services, private virtual server hosting services and dedicated server web hosting services.

Shared hosting

Shared website hosting is the most commonly used form of hosting, and is also the easiest to commence with. It is a service where a single web hosting server is shared between multiple web hosting clients who are restricted by the CPU, web traffic and web server hard disk storage space quotas that they have been allocated. This form of website hosting is typically less expensive - you don't have to buy the entire web hosting server in advance, as it is shared between multiple hosting users, and the hosting vendor can afford to offer much lower prices. It is also easier to use - the server is pre-configured with all the required software and the web hosting services provider handles all server maintenance procedures and security updates for you.

The weakness of the shared hosting solution is that you share the web hosting server's resources with other customers and if a given web site becomes really popular it may affect (and slow down) the rest of the websites on that web hosting server, but the majority of web hosting distributors, including us at BestServiceCloud, have protection systems at work that prevent that from occurring.

A description of a web hosting service

Because shared website hosting is the most popular form of web hosting, most web hosting vendors and hosting clients simply refer to it as hosting or website hosting. As there is a huge competition on the web hosting market, most web hosting suppliers strive to offer affordable prices and gifts with their web hosting services. We, for example, offer different website hosting plans and two invoicing options - monthly and annual, depending on your resources. If you select the annual invoicing cycle, you will obtain a present - one cost-free domain name registration.

VPS web hosting

VPS is an acronym for Virtual Private Server. The VPS web hosting solution is essentially the middle ground between the shared hosting solution and the dedicated web server hosting solution. If your site grows beyond the resources offered by your shared website hosting plan, a VPS web hosting plan is an excellent option. private virtual server web hosting account holders still share the hardware resources of the physical server with other private virtual server web hosting clients, but the disk space is split up using special virtualization software so that each partition has its own dedicated system resources and can be configured practically like a real dedicated hosting server. The upside is that the CPU and the memory on a virtual server are not shared. In addition, the virtualization software offers you much more freedom to configure your VPS, but it also presupposes a higher level of technical competence.

Dedicated Server Web Hosting

With the Dedicated Server Web Hosting solution, the user gets an entire physical server and can utilize all its resources. The dedicated server web hosting solution is the most reliable of all website hosting solutions and offers a myriad of configuration options - the dedicated hosting users can choose the hardware and software specifications that will match their needs. Dedicated resources and no-holds-barred performance are among the reasons why a dedicated server hosting plan is a perfect solution for a resource-consuming corporate portal, for example - you will not share the dedicated web server's resources with anyone else and will get full root-level access. You will have full authority over the web hosting server, which will allow you to make any configuration changes that you might need. The weak side of the dedicated web hosting solution is that a more advanced degree of technical knowledge is required - unless you engage an IT specialist, it will be your responsibility to administer and configure the server. The dedicated server web hosting solution is also far more high-priced, since the cost of the physical server isn't shared among any other customers.

A website hosting tip for novices

If you are just starting to set up your website and need a hosting solution to commence with, the shared website hosting solution remains the most sensible choice. If your site grows beyond your website hosting account's resources, you can normally upgrade. With us, for instance, this is very easy and does not necessitate migration of your files, since only the features of your web hosting account change. You can also upgrade your website hosting package to a more powerful one at any particular time without having to worry about the time left until expiration. Additionally, if you finally reach the most powerful shared website hosting package and still need more system resources (which is great sometimes - it implies that your web site's popularity has increased!), there always is the possibility to switch to a VPS hosting platform or a dedicated web server hosting platform without the need to swap hosting providers.