Best Shared Hosting Services
Are you looking for the best shared hosting services? Look no further! We’ve compiled a list of top-notch hosting providers known for their affordability, reliability, and exceptional performance. Whether you’re a small business owner, blogger, or an aspiring entrepreneur, our expert-recommended shared hosting services will easily meet your website’s needs. Discover the perfect solution to host your website and enjoy a seamless performance at an affordable price.
Bluehost
+ Recommended by WordPress
+ Easy to use for beginners
+ Packed with security options and features
+ Industry-leading hardware and uptime
+ Generous storage
+ 24/7 customer support
Siteground
+ FREE daily backups, CDN, email, and SSL
+ Top customer support
+ Recommended by WordPress
+ Unlimited traffic
Dreamhost
+ Unlimited bandwidth and generous storage
+ Strong security features
+ Good performance
+ Affordable
Is Shared Hosting Right For You?
When people plan to build a website, confusion may strike when they encounter different types of hosting in the market, such as dedicated hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting, and shared hosting. It is natural to be confused when deciding which hosting type they should go with. Shared hosting is just like what the name speaks, where a server is shared among multiple subscribers. For example, when four people sign up for four separate shared hosting plans, they will split the resources of a single physical server according to their web hosting plan using the same IP address. You may be curious how web visitors can go to the right website if multiple customers in the server share similar IP addresses. When a visitor types the URL on the address bar or clicks the search engine result, the server checks the requested hostname and establishes a connection between the visitor’s browser and the correct website.
Each customer can only manage his/her account and can’t access others’ accounts, although they share the same server. Good hosting providers usually limit the number of customers in a single physical server to maintain an acceptable performance while ensuring a satisfactory profit margin.
A shared hosting plan has its benefits and drawbacks:
Benefits of Shared Hosting
In terms of benefits, shared hosting has a good stand in pricing, as multiple customers share the server cost. The monthly subscription fee for a shared hosting plan can be as low as $3.96/month. The shared hosting plan is the most cost-effective among other hosting plans. If you choose carefully, it is still likely you can find a shared hosting plan with acceptable quality, which makes it a good choice for any novice web owners or sites with static webpages. The quality depends not only on the hardware specification but also on the server management. The hosting provider’s reputation is particularly important when choosing a shared hosting plan as they may strive to maintain an acceptable quality to achieve customer satisfaction. Big hosting providers such as iPage, Bluehost, InMotion, and Hostgator employ proven management methods to ensure the quality of shared hosting plans.
Drawbacks
In terms of drawbacks, multiple customers share a physical server among themselves. Regardless of the powerful hardware configuration and excellent server management, sharing is still sharing. How a customer uses the site may jeopardize the whole performance balance among customers in the server. For example, a customer may have a large database, which draws a larger percentage of processor utilization and a larger amount of RAM.
Because customers and hosting providers often cant do much to solve performance issues during peak hours, shared hosting can be a poor environment after a few years of use. You should be wary of shared hosting plans that offer unlimited bandwidth and unrestricted usage of resources because other server customers may use a large amount of resources and leave you with a little. Some shared web site hosts use fixed resources allocation and a limit on the number of customers that can share a physical server, although they may only provide average or even mediocre performance, the performance level will likely be stable over the years. Dedicated SSL may not work on shared hosting because it can only be integrated with a single IP address.
Despite the above drawbacks, shared hosting remains a favored service among many webmasters, due to the attractive pricing. On normal situations, shared hosting performs pretty much like a dedicated one, except that shared hosting plans cant get unique IP address. A dedicated hosting can be rather expensive, with a monthly fee of $100 or above. If youre not planning to run a resource-intensive and high-traffic website, its preferable to use a shared hosting plan.
How to Choose Web Hosting ?
If you need to create a website for your personal or business needs, it is vital for you to select a right web host that launches your website into the Internet world.
Who is a Web Host?
A web host is a service provider who lets you use their server to link your website to the Internet. With the help of a domain name, your website is accessible to anyone using the Internet from any part of the world.
How to find the perfect web hosting service?
Finding the right web host depends on various factors. Since so many alternatives are available, it is best to keep all your requirements in mind before you go web host hunting.
1. Nature of website
Depending upon the nature of your website, you should see the packages that best suit your needs. Is your website personal with limited viewership? Or does your website experience heavy traffic? Since both types of websites have vast differences, it is best to inform the web hosting companies in advance about the nature of your website before purchasing and if they can upgrade you hosting plan in future.
2. The space:
Usually, users are unsure how much space they need for their websites. As a result, they buy lots of space they do not use. Not only is this more expensive, it is also a waste. Sitting down with the web host provider and describing in detail the different aspects of your site can help in minimizing wastage and getting a better deal.
3. FTP access:
Often when people search for web hosts they already have developed their websites in advance. But if later they need to add or upload more material space constraints may come into play. Having an FTP access allows users to upload more pages to their websites easily.
4. Speed and security:
The most important things to consider when looking for a web host are the speed and level of security they offer. Speed of the server determines the time it takes for viewers to gain access to different content on your website. The better the speed, the faster will be the loading of your website. The security of the website is just as essential as the loading speed of the website is. Often, there is private and confidential information listed on your website. If the servers are not secure, anyone can gain access to it and misuse it in any way possible.
5. Bandwidth:
The size and bandwidth a web hosting company offers you is very important to consider. Since it allows users to transfer data such as emails, it is a good idea to have an exact estimate of the amount of bandwidth offered by the hosting package.
6. Customer Support:
Once a website has been developed, you need to stay in constant touch with the web hosts so that in case you face any difficulties, they can be addressed as soon as possible. Often web hosting companies have a very good customer support system. A 24 hour, 7 days a week help system with expert staff ready to help at a moments notice is ideal.
7. Price:
Last but not the least, the cost of purchasing a web hosting plan and a domain name has to be seen. Since so many web hosting firms contest with each other, a number of lucrative web hosting packages providing great deals are available.
Launching your website is simpler now than before. Just by keeping in mind the basic things, you can get the best deal from a reputable web hosting company.
Advantages & Disadvantages of Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is a popular type of web hosting. It is often considered as the best and most cost-effective choice for many clients. In shared hosting, a server is populated by multiple clients, put differently; each website gets a portion of CPU time, RAM, bandwidth and disk space.
Advantages
These advantages explain why shared hosting is highly popular in the hosting industry
Low cost: It’s quite reasonable for a consumer to seek the best service at cheapest possible price. From many types of web hosting, shared hosting offers an acceptable level of service at an affordable price. Cost is definitely the greatest advantage of shared hosting. Just like in any industry, equipments and resources cost money; and often they are not cheap. Maintenance can also be expensive and when equipment reaches the end of its useful life, it must be replaced. Because multiple clients use a server, webhost can lower the price of a single hosting account. A dedicated server may cost about $150 per month, while a shared one can be as low as $5 per month.
Convenience: Shared server is cheap and convenient because clients are not burdened by the server maintenance, which is already taken care of by webhost’s experienced and skilled staff. Shared hosting offers enough time for clients to concentrate on important parts of their business and delegate most issues related to hosting management to the professionals. Although the server is shared, clients get an autonomous hosting account; consequently they can use cPanel, a back-office facility for website management. Some shared hosting plans even allow multiple domains and you can create a domain easily with cPanel.
Better support: Because shared hosting plans are the bread-and-butter of many hosting providers, clients with shared hosting account can often get good customer service quality. Clients with shared hosting vastly outnumber those with dedicated hosting; in some company the ratio can reach 9 to 1. If you choose a reliable company, you may get all the support and service you need, although you choose a basic hosting plan.
Fast setup: Web hosting companies have allocated slots for shared hosting in their servers. Activating a shared hosting account is very easy; it often only involves adding client’s personal information and assigning a server slot to a client’s identity. After payment, client can start working with the new domain in an hour or less.
Disadvantages
Although clients commonly purchase shared hosting plans, there are a few disadvantages you should consider:
Limited resources: Because multiple hosting accounts share the same server, resources are often very limited. There are possible bottlenecks during peak hours, especially when some sites temporarily become resource-intensive. Although bottlenecks are rare, they eventually happen from time to time. A dependable hosting provider, consistently watch for bottlenecks and try to balance server resources to maintain an even flow of data.
Not appropriate for large websites: Some sites such as video sharing service, a large online store and a very active forum often requires plenty of database interaction. Consequently, website owners should limit the resource usage. You should understand the nature of your website and whether it will require much more resources in near future. Dedicated and VPS server is more appropriate for websites with intensive resources.
Dynamic IP: While you can get static, dedicated IP in sharing hosting account, it needs an additional monthly fee. When you purchase a shared hosting, it’s very likely that you get a dynamic IP, which can be inappropriate in some cases, for example to implement SSL in your website you need a dedicated IP.
Security risks: Some people consider it as a major disadvantage, as the result they choose VPN or dedicated hosting instead. However, for many people this may not be of a concern because security breach happens rarely and often can be contained very quickly.
Questions That Can Help You Avoid Web Hosting Scams
Many unscrupulous web hosts intentionally defraud unsuspecting individuals by offering cheap, attractive offers, only to scam people out of their money, as the plan offered often lacks essential features. It happens so many times. For example, you are offered a free domain name only to find out later when you want to switch to another web host, that you don’t really own the domain name. Because domain name is an essential online identifier, victims are forced to purchase it at premium. This is a common method of scam and many people are fooled because the web host initially offers unbeatable price and a 30-day guarantee.
Often problem starts to appear on day 31 and the customer service no longer available for you. The web host may offer an upgrade to “premium” status for a premium price. However, there are key questions that you can ask to your web host and help you identify scammers in the industry.
However, there are no proper answers for these questions and they are essentially catch-all questions that can help you to understand a web host. When talking to the representative of a web hosting company, you may sometimes need to talk using jargons. If possible ask the web host all these questions, even if these words are completely gibberish to you and you have zero idea about what is being said. These are questions that potential customers will not regret asking later on.
1. How many uploads and downloads allowance users get each month? For an average blog, 10GB upload and download each month is acceptable. However, for a big e-commerce website, you should get unlimited allowance of download and upload. While text in your website may not amount too much; photos, videos and ads may cause you to use up your bandwidth allowance much sooner than you think.
2. How much storage comes with my account? You should go with unlimited disk space, as videos and photos can quickly eat up your remaining storage.
3. Can I host more than one domain names account? Wait a minute! If you are just starting out why would you need more than one domain? Actually, the ability to host multiple domains in a single web hosting account can make things easier for you in the long run. Once you’ve some success with your first website, you may plan to develop one more website to expand your online kingdom. You may buy a new domain at a different niche that interests you. Some people can have 10 domains in a single account; however you should avoid overwhelming yourself by working with too many websites at the same time. It is preferable to choose a web host that allows unlimited domains in a single account.
4. Can I have multiple emails in a single account? How many users/administrator/ editors/employees do you expect to have? If the web host offers you 15 emails, but you have only 3 employees, it is easy to think that you have more emails than you ever need. But, if you want to run a business professionally, you often need plenty of email addresses, for example, each for management, customer service, sales, hiring, purchasing and others; then everyone will have to use their names on the email address ([email protected]). Also, you can’t disable an email address if the employee leaves because old clients and contacts will still send offers and purchase orders. Add to this no response emails, emails for newsletters, project accounts, special emails and temporary employees and soon you no longer have email addresses available. For a small business, 15 email addresses should be adequate, but for larger businesses, you may need hundreds. If you are not sure, choose only web host that offers unlimited email accounts. Also make sure the web host offers webmail, which allows you to access email account using only browser, not an email client. If you travel a lot, webmail access is essential. You can access your email using the smartphone’s browser if you don’t bring your notebook.
5. Can I use FTP? It is an essential feature for many websites. You should avoid choosing a web host that doesn’t include a free FTP account.
6. Will I be protected from spam and malware? Without proper spam protection feature, you’ll wade in a sea of weight loss and Viagra ads. Also, the web host shouldn’t only have anti malware mechanism in place; the provider should update it and perform daily scan for malware on files in your account.
7. Are there features for e-commerce websites? If you plan to sell products online, you should choose a web host that offers a shopping suite, which includes, catalogue, shopping cart, payment, all and others. An online store is more complex than a CMS-based blog, so you should get a hosting plan with proper tech specs right now to save yourself from so much headaches and troubles later on.
8. What kind of tech support will I get? A standard web host should offer 24/7 toll free number. Make sure it’s not a sales line, make sure that you do get a working 24/7 tech support. Even if you haven’t purchased the plan yet, try to call the tech support at the middle of the night or during the holiday season, to find out whether tech support team is reliable. Trust me, when the website is almost launched after so much hard work and then everything comes crashing down, the last thing you want is a dead tech support line. You’ll wish desperately for a working line, if only to unleash your rage and curse on someone.
9. Can I get money-back guarantee? You shouldn’t only have the opportunity to get your money back, but also to cancel your plan
More than anything else, these questions can help you to get smooth hosting experience. A web host that loses a client or two may not work hard enough to provide the best level of service. A good web hosting provider is all about balanced service, so the next time you find a web host that offers unlimited bandwidth and disk space at a low price, you can arm yourself with a set of question that can help you to identify scam attempts.
