Shared web hosting is a solution where multiple websites reside on a single physical server. Imagine it like an apartment building where multiple tenants share the same basic infrastructure, like electricity, water, and security. In this analogy, the websites are the tenants, the server is the building, and the hosting company is the landlord.
Here’s a breakdown of how it works:
- Shared Resources: Each website on the server shares resources like CPU, RAM, disk space, and bandwidth. This means that the performance of your website can be affected by the activity of other websites on the server.
- Cost-Effective: Shared Web hosting is the most affordable option for web hosting, making it ideal for beginners, small businesses, and personal websites with low traffic.
- Limited Control: You have limited control over the server environment and software configuration compared to more expensive hosting options like VPS or dedicated hosting.
- Scalability: Shared hosting is not very scalable. As your website grows in online traffic and complexity, you may need to upgrade to a different type of hosting.
Here are some of the benefits of shared hosting:
- Affordable: The most budget-friendly option for web hosting.
- Easy to set up and use: Most shared hosting providers offer user-friendly interfaces and one-click installs for popular applications.
- No technical knowledge required: The hosting provider handles server maintenance and security updates.
Here are some of the disadvantages of shared hosting:
- Limited resources: You can experience performance issues if your website shares the server with resource-intensive websites.
- Limited control: You can’t customise the server environment or install specific software.
- Security concerns: The security of your website can be affected by the actions of other websites on the server.