While shared hosting is, in a technical sense, the most modest type of web hosting, it is typically enough for most small businesses and sites that don’t need a lot of resources. In most cases, it can deliver more than enough for all your needs, and you’ll get shared hosting at an affordable price.
Learn more about shared hosting to decide if it’s your best option.
What is Shared Hosting, and What are its Advantages?
Shared hosting describes a type of hosting environment where at least two websites share the resources of a single server. In reality, there are typically hundreds of sites on the same hardware.
If you’re starting a new business or looking to build a new website, you’ll need some form of hosting. Shared hosting is the most affordable option. Your website will be stored as data on a server, which is essentially a specialized type of computer running dedicated software. Because most sites don’t need the full power of the hardware, multiple sites are hosted to improve efficiency. The result is an affordable solution, but it comes with limitations.
Before we talk about the limitations of shared hosting, let’s consider the main advantages…
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- It’s the ideal solution for low-traffic websites.
- If your site is efficient and resource-light, shared hosting could be the best option.
- There are no major technical requirements to get set up with shared hosting.
- Scalability is an option, allowing you to add resources as you need them.
- Management is easy through intuitive cPanel interfaces.
- If you need to build a WordPress website, there are shared hosting plans designed specifically for you.
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The cost and convenience are major advantages of choosing shared hosting. Depending on how much traffic you need, and how heavy your website gets, shared hosting could be all that you ever need.
But, like all things, there is a limit to the potential of shared hosting. If your site runs intensive code and specialized services like web apps for your customers, then you’ll probably want to move to a dedicated solution.
To put this into perspective, consider the most affordable Basic Shared Hosting Plan with HostRound. This plan provides 7GB of SSD disk space and up to 250GB of bandwidth per month. It’s suited to content management platforms like WordPress and has additional features like spam filtering for email, backup and restoration, and support for up to 5 domains/sites. This would be suitable for a basic website with up to 10,000 monthly visits, which is more than enough for most new websites.
What Happens When You Need More Resources?
Even if you outgrow a basic plan, there are options for increased disk space, bandwidth, and performance. Shared hosting options go up to unlimited disk space and bandwidth, so you can scale as your website, or business grows.
However, there could come a time when even the best shared hosting plan is no longer enough for your needs. At this point, you’d need to think about dedicated hosting.
The Advantages of Dedicated Hosting
If you own a large business and need to build a significant web presence, dedicated hosting could be your best option. Dedicated hosting gives you direct access to the hardware of the server. You won’t have to share resources with other users, so your site will always perform its best, no matter what.
If you want to host web apps or large databases, then dedicated hosting will give you the flexibility to do this. There’s an increase in cost, but this is a tradeoff that makes sense when considering the increase in performance.
There are key advantages that you will enjoy with dedicated hosting for your site…
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- Security is vastly improved. You’ll be the sole occupant of the hardware where your site is hosted. This is important if you have special security and compliance requirements.
- Performance is maximized so that load times will be fast, even with heavy traffic.
- You’ll have root access to the server, so you can customize the operating system and software that it runs.
- You’ll have enhanced DDoS protection to ensure uptime.
- 100% of the RAM, storage, CPU, and bandwidth will be available for you.
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Even with the increased price, many businesses prefer or in some cases need dedicated hosting. There are cost-efficient dedicated hosting solutions available with HostRound, including pre-built servers and instant-deploy bare metal servers.
How Do You Make the Decision?
It’s pretty simple to determine the best type of server for your needs. Shared hosting is typically the best option if you’re launching a new site and don’t have an established user base. If you have an established site and are looking for a new host, or if your shared hosting is slowing your site and services down, then dedicated is the better option. If you transfer terabytes of data every month to multiple tens of thousands of users, dedicated is the only realistic option.
Ready to learn more? With HostRound, you’ll find a range of efficient web hosting solutions on the most reliable servers in the United States and Europe. Chat with us today or browse our products to find the best solution for your needs.