It’s no shock that more and more people are canceling their existing accounts and searching around for more affordable hosting on a daily basis. If you’re looking to minimize your costs and not have to worry about server maintenance, then shared hosting may be the answer for your web hosting requirements.

Tell Me, What’s Shared Hosting?

Shared web hosting provides a convenient, simple way for the average user to start up a website, blog or multiple sites. Being a cheap web hosting solution, it essentially allows more users to share resources on a particular web server. Being that everything is shared, companies often pose limits on things such as: number of email accounts, number of databases, bandwidth allowed, etc. However, in this competitive space, the limits are often of no concern and never come into question.

The idea behind shared hosting is that instead of each person buying their own server to host their sites from, they share one server while still each maintaining individual websites.

Why Shared Hosting?

It’s quite simply, cheap hosting, more reliable and provides better use of resources. The web hosting company is responsible for maintaining the machines and the software in a shared hosting environment. They also have to deal with any security issues that arise and they have to cover the costs of the operating system and other software. You split the running cost of the server with all the other users which knocks back your price dramatically. You end up paying just one tiny, affordable monthly fee.

Shared Hosting. Who Is It Good For?

Honestly, shared hosting is perfect for anyone trying to save some extra money. It is great for the small business owner, or someone who would like to run their own personal blog or website. Large companies such as eBay however, require much more resources for their online presence, that a shared hosting environment cannot benefit them.

Your websites will all look the same on the browsing end of things in a shared hosting environment. For the most part, even the backend area will be quite similar. You just won’t have to deal with the maintenance and the high monthly costs. All you need to be concerned with is the upkeep of your website.

As discussed, large companies like eBay who require lots of bandwidth for their sites cannot even dream of using a shared host. Also, for sites that host humongous files, like large videos, will not benefit from shared hosting for very long. In that case, you may want to venture into dedicated hosting or the like. Really though, people usually host their videos free on sites like YouTube and just embed them into their sites. This puts the onus on YouTube for bandwidth and storage.

If you like a little more control and have customers that you create websites for, you may opt for reseller hosting instead. It is similar to shared hosting in a lot of ways but gives you a bit more control and allows you to potentially earn some extra money or even make a business out of.

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