A definition of web hosting
The most archetypal and frequently utilized sort of web hosting is the shared web hosting service. It represents a means to host your website without having to understand much about programming and managing a hosting server. Additionally, it's also the most economical form of site hosting and it's very affordable for anybody. Nevertheless, what is shared web page hosting?
What is shared webspace hosting?
As the name indicates, the shared site hosting solution is a form of service where numerous clients share the reserves of one and the same web hosting server. This signifies that all server components such as CPU, hard disks, RAM, network cards etc. are allotted among the users whose accounts are on that same hosting server. This is typically made viable by setting up separate accounts for the separate customers and applying some limitations and quotas for each of them. Those limits are assigned in order to hinder the clients from meddling with each other's accounts and, of course, to prevent the hosting server from overburdening. Typically, shared site hosting users do not have root access to the server's configuration files, which essentially denotes that they do not have access to anything else on the web server aside from their very own web hosting account. The web page hosting resources that each account may resort to are determined by the web hosting supplier that owns the server and by the respective site hosting package. That causes the second vital question:
How are the shared web hosting servers divided among the users?
Hosting firms that supply shared web page hosting plans commonly have different web space hosting plans. Those packages contain diverse amounts of web hosting features and specifications, which in fact set the limitations that a hosting package will include. The user may pick between the different web hosting plans and sign up for the one that he believes will suit him best. The web space hosting package will then determine what limits the client's account will include, once opened. The prices and the features of the website hosting packages are determined by the actual web hosting firm. Depending on the politics of the vendor, the shared web site hosting solution falls into two categories - the free hosting solution and the normal shared solution, most recently very popular among "cPanel hosting" retailers as a cloud web hosting one. It's not possible to allege, which one is better, since they are very different from one another and they actually depend on the marketing strategy of the given supplier and, of course, the needs of the given user.
What is the contrast between the free and the standard shared site hosting solution?
Of course, the principal difference between the free of charge and the paid service is in the amount of resources that they involve. Free web space hosting vendors are not able to keep a great number of servers, hence, they simply host more customers on a single web server by decreasing the amount of resources offered by the accounts. This will be effective only if the hosting servers are kept under surveillance and maintained properly, because the enormous amount of accounts may make the server crash on a regular basis. The majority of the free web site hosting vendors, however, neglect the quality of the service and therefore, it's very hard to come across a free of cost webspace hosting service that's actually worth the time. The top free hosting providers typically offer free client support even to the free web site hosting customers, because they want their web portals to enlarge so that they eventually upgrade to a paid web hosting plan, which offers more website hosting features. Such company, for example, is FreeHostia.com, which is among the biggest and eldest free web site hosting providers worldwide.
At the same time, established shared web hosting providers such as Free Hostia, for example, may afford to keep a lot of web hosting servers and therefore, they are able to provide much more powerful web hosting packages. Of course, that affects the pricing of the website hosting plans. Paying a higher fee for a webspace hosting package, however, does not necessarily signify that this account has a better quality. The best services are the balanced ones, which offer a fee that matches the real service which you're receiving. The first-class web hosting vendors that have been around for quite some time are listing their prices and plan specifications in a realistic way, so that the client may be informed of what exactly he is obtaining. Besides, some of them offer a free extra with the web hosting package, such as the 1-click applications installer, accompanied by 100's of free-of-charge web page layouts that are supplied by 'Free Hostia'. Such site hosting vendors do care about their reputation and that is the reason why if you select them, you can be assured that you won't get deluded into purchasing a plan that you cannot in fact avail of.
What should I anticipate from a shared webspace hosting solution?
The shared website hosting solution is best for people who would like to host an average web page, which is going to consume a small or medium amount of bandwidth each month. You cannot expect, however, that a shared web hosting account will be sufficient for your needs, because as your business develops, your web page will become more and more resource consuming. Therefore, you will have to ultimately migrate to a more powerful web space hosting solution such as a semi-dedicated server, a VPS (aka a virtual private web hosting server, or VPS), or why not a dedicated server. Therefore, when selecting a site hosting provider, you should also consider how they can be of service to you, or else you might end up migrating your domain name manually to a separate vendor, which can create web site complications and even prolonged downtime for your site. Therefore, going with a site hosting supplier like 'Free Hostia', which can present you with the needed domain name and hosting services as you grow, is crucial and will save you a lot of annoyances in the future.