A definition of web site hosting

The most principal and frequently used sort of web hosting is the shared web hosting service. It constitutes a way to host your web page without having to know much about programming and handling a web server. Furthermore, it's also the most economical type of webspace hosting and it's indeed affordable for everybody. Still, what is shared web space hosting?

What is shared web site hosting?

As the name indicates, the shared hosting solution is a type of service where many customers share the system reserves of the same server. This signifies that all web server components like CPU, hard drives, RAM, network cards and so on, are apportioned among the users whose accounts are on that very same web hosting server. This is typically made viable by opening separate accounts for the different clients and allocating certain limits and usage quotas for each of them. Those limits are assigned in order to hinder the customers from interfering with each other's accounts and, of course, to prevent the hosting server from overloading. Usually, shared site hosting clients do not have complete root access to the server's config files, which basically goes to say that they cannot access anything else on the web hosting server apart from their very own hosting account. The web site hosting features that each account may use are determined by the hosting company that possesses the web hosting server and by the particular hosting plan. That leads to the second important question:

How are the shared hosting web servers shared among the users?

Hosting companies that supply shared web hosting accounts usually have various web space hosting packages. Those packages contain diverse quotas of web site hosting features and specifications, which in fact determine the restrictions that a site hosting plan will have. The client may pick between the separate web hosting plans and sign up for the one that he deems will befit him best. The web hosting plan will then define what limits the customer's account will involve, once created. The prices and the specifications of the webspace hosting plans are set by the specific hosting firm. Based on the policy of the firm, the shared web space hosting solution falls into two groups - the free hosting solution and the normal shared solution, currently very popular among "cPanel hosting" companies as a cloud web hosting one. It's not possible to tell, which one is more preferable, since they are quite different from each other and they indeed are subject to the marketing tactics of the particular provider and, of course, the demands of the given client.

What is the distinction between the free and the typical shared web hosting solution?

Of course, the principal difference between the free and the paid solution is in the quantity of resources that they provide. Free site hosting corporations are not capable of keeping a large number of hosting servers, therefore, they simply accommodate more customers on one single server by reducing the amount of resources provided by the accounts. This will be efficient only on condition that the servers are kept under surveillance and tackled properly, because the big number of accounts may cause the server to crash again and again. The majority of the free webspace hosting suppliers, however, ignore the quality of the service and therefore, it's quite hard to come across a free webspace hosting service that's actually worth the time. The top free hosting suppliers commonly provide free customer support even to the free hosting clients, since they want their web pages to grow bigger so that they eventually upgrade to a paid web hosting package, which includes more web hosting resources. Such vendor, for example, is FreeHostia.com, which is among the biggest and eldest free webspace hosting suppliers in the world.

On the other hand, established shared web hosting vendors like Merlin Internet Services, for example, may afford to maintain plenty of web servers and therefore, they may afford to provide much more powerful webspace hosting packages. Of course, that reflects on the cost of the website hosting plans. Paying a higher price for a website hosting solution, though, does not necessarily imply that this account has a better quality. The most optimal solutions are the balanced ones, which offer a price that matches the concrete service which you're getting. The best webspace hosting firms that have been around for a long time are exhibiting their prices and package specs in an objective fashion, so that the customer may know what in fact he is getting. Besides, some of these give a free bonus with the web site hosting plan, like the 1-click applications installer, complemented with hundreds of fee-free templates that are offered by 'Merlin Internet Services'. Such hosting vendors do look after their reputation and that's why if you go with them, you can rest calm that you won't get tricked into buying an account that you cannot in fact utilize.

What should I expect from a shared site hosting service?

The shared website hosting solution is best for those who wish to host a basic site, which is going to consume a small or medium amount of bandwidth each month. You cannot anticipate, however, that a shared web page hosting account will last you a lifetime, because as your business expands, your web portal will become more and more resource consuming. Therefore, you will have to eventually upgrade to a more feature-rich web space hosting service such as a semi-dedicated server, a VPS (a.k.a. a private virtual server, or VPS), or why not a dedicated server. Therefore, when choosing a web hosting distributor, you should also consider how they can be of service to you, or else you might end up moving your domain name manually to a separate distributor, which can bring about web site troubles and even extended downtime for your site. So, selecting a webspace hosting company such as 'Merlin Internet Services', which can supply you with the needed domain name and hosting services as you grow, is vital and will save you a lot of annoyances in the future.