One of the most talked about hosting plan is known as shared web hosting. Although the bulk of the websites online are on shared hosting plans, many people still do not know what it is they are paying for. If you run a small to medium sized website it will be ideal for you to opt for shared web hosting. If you choose any other plan, you will be overpaying or receiving a minimal amount of resources. Small sites will be perfect on shared hosting accounts, since they do not consume a large amount of server resources. If your website is quite large, you will have to choose a large shared hosting plan, or even switch to dedicated server hosting. The higher you go on the hierarchy, the more you will be paying.

So, what is shared hosting? Shared hosting is a type of hosting solution where you will be sharing a server with hundreds of other clients. Hosting companies will have one server and they will split into various partitions in order give you a set amount of resources. A server usually has a ton of space and bandwidth, and it is too much for a small website. When you go to a hosting company for shared hosting, you will tell them how much space, bandwidth and databases you will require. They will setup the account with your required limits. Since many people are sharing one server, the cost that one individual has to pay will decrease. This is the overall benefit of choosing shared web hosting. Ultimately, there are several drawbacks and benefits.

By choosing shared web hosting, you are being very economical. Companies are decreasing the cost one person pays and at the same time, they will be using few resources. The pricing will vary between various companies, but you can expect the pricing to be around five to ten dollars. The amount of space and bandwidth provided will be around 10GB and 50GB respectively. Due to fierce competition in this market, companies are trying to offer maximum resource for minimal costs. Shared web hosting leaves you free from server maintenance and tasks. The company takes care of the server administration. You have nothing to do with the server’s uptime or maintenance. These plans are very flexible as well, because you can upgrade at any time during your hosting period.

Shared hosting servers host hundreds of websites. This will slow down the server and total response time that you receive. If you are aiming for top notch speeds on your sites, shared hosting should not be at the top of your list. The security level is not high, as many other people use it. Everyday, several other people will be logging into the server, so it is not all that secure. You should not store private data on shared hosting, as these servers are victims to data breaches. If one website on the server gets blacklisted on a search engine, it will affect you as well. The reason is because the search engine will blacklist the common IP address of the server.