A definition of web hosting
The most elemental and frequently utilized kind of web hosting is the shared web hosting solution. It's a way to host your site without having to understand much about programming and handling a server. Besides, it's also the cheapest type of web site hosting and it's very affordable for everybody. Still, what is shared web page hosting?
What is shared hosting?
As the name designates, the shared web hosting solution is a form of service where many users share the resources of the same hosting server. This signifies that all web server constituents such as CPU, hard drives, RAM, NICs and so on, are divided among the clients whose accounts are on that same web server. This is typically made viable by setting up different accounts for the different customers and applying some limitations and quotas for each of them. Those limits are set in order to restrain the clients from intervening with each other's accounts and, of course, to hinder the web hosting server from overloading. Usually, shared web site hosting users do not have root-level access to the web server's config files, which essentially implies that they cannot access anything else on the web server apart from their own personal shared website hosting account. The web site hosting resources that each account may avail of are set by the hosting distributor that owns the server and by the respective site hosting package. That brings about the second important question:
How are the shared web hosting servers shared among the users?
Web hosting providers that deliver shared web space hosting plans normally have different web space hosting packages. Those packages include diverse amounts of website hosting resources and specs, which actually determine the limits that a website hosting package will have. The client may select between the different web hosting plans and sign up for the one that he believes will befit him best. The hosting plan will then determine what limitations the client's account will have, once created. The costs and the specifications of the web hosting packages are fixed by the actual hosting company. Based on the politics of the company, the shared site hosting solution falls into two categories - the free hosting solution and the normal shared service, currently very famous among "cPanel hosting" sellers as a cloud web hosting one. It's impossible to tell, which one is more preferable, since they are very different from one another and they indeed are subject to the marketing tactics of the particular vendor and, of course, the needs of the given customer.
What is the distinction between the free of charge and the normal shared web hosting service?
Of course, the primary difference between the free and the paid solution is in the quantity of features that they offer. Free webspace hosting suppliers are not able to keep an enormous amount of servers, hence, they simply accommodate more customers on a single web hosting server by reducing the amount of resources provided by the accounts. This will be effective only if the web hosting servers are kept under surveillance and administered properly, because the huge amount of accounts may cause the hosting server to crash again and again. Most of the free web space hosting distributors, though, neglect the quality of the service and as a result, it's very hard to find a free hosting solution that's actually worth the time. The top free hosting corporations typically provide free customer support even to the free web site hosting clients, since they want their web pages to expand so that they eventually migrate to a paid hosting account, which includes more web site hosting resources. Such provider, for instance, is FreeHostia.com, which is one of the biggest and eldest free web space hosting companies worldwide.
At the same time, traditional shared web hosting vendors like Web Planet, for instance, are able to maintain plenty of web hosting servers and therefore, they are able to offer much more feature-rich web space hosting packages. Of course, that influences the pricing of the site hosting packages. Paying a higher fee for a webspace hosting plan, though, does not automatically mean that this service has a finer quality. The most advantageous solutions are the balanced ones, which offer a fee that corresponds to the actual service which you're receiving. The best web hosting corporations that have been around for quite a while are listing their price tags and plan specifications in a realistic manner, so that the customer may know what exactly he is getting. Moreover, some of these give a free bonus with the web site hosting package, like the 1-click applications installer, complemented with 100's of gratis templates that are provided by 'Web Planet'. Such hosting distributors do care about their good name and that's why if you select them, you can rest confident that you won't get beguiled into paying for a plan that you cannot in fact make use of.
What should I anticipate from a shared web site hosting service?
The shared web site hosting service is best for people who desire to host a basic site, which is going to use a small or medium amount of web traffic each month. You cannot anticipate, though, that a shared site hosting account will last you a lifetime, because as your business grows, your site will become more and more demanding. So, you will have to ultimately upgrade to a more feature-rich web site hosting solution such as a semi-dedicated server, a VPS (also known as a virtual private web server, or VPS), or why not a dedicated server. So, when choosing a webspace hosting provider, you should also ponder about how they can be of service to you, or else you might end up moving your domain name manually to a separate company, which can bring about site predicaments and even extended downtime for your web page. So, selecting a webspace hosting vendor like 'Web Planet', which can supply you with the required domain name and hosting services as you get bigger, is essential and will save you lots of inconveniences in the long run.