A definition of web site hosting

The most fundamental and frequently utilized form of web hosting is the shared web hosting service. It constitutes a means to host your web site without having to understand much about programming and administering a server. What's more, it's also the most economical form of web space hosting and it's indeed affordable for everyone. However, what is shared web space hosting?

What is shared site hosting?

As the name denotes, the shared website hosting solution is a kind of service where numerous customers share the resources of the same web server. This indicates that all web hosting server components such as CPU, hard disk drives, RAM, network cards etc. are allotted among the clients whose accounts are on that same server. This is mostly made possible by opening separate accounts for the different users and setting specific restrictions and resource usage quotas for each of them. Those restrictions are imposed so as to prevent the customers from interfering with each other's accounts and, of course, to prevent the hosting server from overburdening. Typically, shared web space hosting users do not have full root-level access to the web hosting server's configuration files, which basically indicates that they cannot access anything else on the web hosting server aside from their own personal shared web hosting account. The web page hosting features that each account may utilize are set by the web hosting corporation that possesses the web hosting server and by the particular web space hosting plan. That brings about the second vital question:

How are the shared hosting servers shared among the customers?

Web hosting corporations that supply shared web site hosting packages typically have different website hosting plans. Those packages involve diverse quotas of hosting resources and specs, which in fact determine the restrictions that a web space hosting account will include. The client may pick between the individual web hosting plans and sign up for the one that he thinks will fit him best. The hosting plan will then define what restrictions the customer's account will have, once opened. The costs and the specs of the web site hosting packages are chosen by the given web hosting provider. Depending on the politics of the distributor, the shared hosting service can be divided into two categories - the free hosting service and the standard shared solution, currently very popular among "cPanel hosting" traders as a cloud web hosting one. It's impossible to announce, which one is more preferable, since they are quite different from one another and they actually are determined by the business strategy of the particular vendor and, of course, the requirements of the specific user.

What is the contrast between the free of charge and the typical shared website hosting service?

Of course, the chief difference between the free of charge and the paid service is in the amount of resources that they include. Free website hosting vendors are not capable of maintaining an immense number of hosting servers, hence, they merely accommodate more users on a single web hosting server by decreasing the quantity of system resources provided by the accounts. This will be efficient only in case the servers are supervised and maintained appropriately, since the large amount of accounts may make the server crash frequently. The majority of the free web hosting providers, however, neglect the quality of the service and therefore, it's quite tough to stumble upon a free of charge web space hosting solution that's in fact worth the time. The top free hosting providers commonly offer free technical support even to the free website hosting users, since they want their web pages to get bigger so that they subsequently migrate to a paid web space hosting account, which includes more website hosting resources. One such provider, for instance, is FreeHostia.com, which is one of the biggest and eldest free web hosting suppliers in the world.

On the other hand, established shared web hosting companies such as Free Hostia, for instance, are able to keep multiple servers and so, they may afford to offer much more feature-rich site hosting packages. Of course, that affects the cost of the hosting plans. Paying a higher price for a site hosting account, though, does not necessarily mean that this solution has a finer quality. The most optimal services are the balanced ones, which offer a price that matches the actual service which you're receiving. The first-rate web site hosting corporations that have been around for quite some time are exhibiting their prices and package specifications in an objective fashion, so that the customer may be aware of what exactly he is obtaining. Furthermore, some of these give a free extra with the web space hosting package, like the 1-click applications installer, accompanied by hundreds of free-of-charge website layouts that are supplied by 'Free Hostia'. Such webspace hosting vendors do worry about their good name and that is the reason why if you select them, you can be calm that you won't get duped into buying a plan that you cannot actually avail of.

What should I expect from a shared website hosting solution?

The shared web site hosting service is best for persons who desire to host a standard site, which is going to generate a small or medium amount of traffic each month. You cannot anticipate, though, that a shared web page hosting account will last you a lifetime, because as your business grows, your site will become more and more demanding. So, you will have to ultimately migrate to a more feature-rich hosting service like a semi-dedicated server, a VPS (aka a virtual web server, or VPS), or why not a dedicated server. Therefore, when selecting a web hosting company, you should also consider how they can be of service to you, or else you might end up transferring your domain name manually to a different distributor, which can create site problems and even continued downtime for your web page. So, picking a site hosting provider like 'Free Hostia', which can supply you with the needed domain name and hosting services as you grow, is essential and will spare you a lot of inconveniences in the long run.