Shared web hosting is very common right now; to host personal websites and small business websites; however, it is not a very clear concept for most people. Wikipedia defines shared web hosting as “a service in which many websites reside on a web server connected to the Internet. Each site ‘sits’ in its own partition, or section/place on the server to keep it separate from other sites. This is generally the cheapest option to host, as many people share the entire cost of server maintenance.”

This is a very clear definition of shared hosting; however, it is very difficult to find a company that is right for you and meets your requirements. In this article, I’ll identify the right web hosting company and what to look for when shopping for web hosting.

One of the advantages of shared hosting is that you don’t have to manage the server you are using, unlike dedicated servers where you are fully responsible for the server and ensure all services and applications run on it smoothly. Shared hosting is the starting point for all online websites and most companies provide unlimited disk usage and unlimited bandwidth with their packages. As I explained earlier in the article, shared hosting is the best affordable starting point for your website. Once your site is very popular, you can go ahead and upgrade to a virtual private server or a dedicated server.

One of the important aspects when choosing a company is the operating system they run. Most businesses run cPanel, and cPanel only runs on Linux, so this makes the vast majority run Linux. There are some rare Windows based web hosting companies, however the performance of Windows servers is much lower than Linux based servers. Most of the scripts are also optimized to run in a Linux environment and not a Windows environment. It’s always good to go for a Linux based web host to start with, unless you’re looking to use MSSQL or ASP, in these cases, you would have to. opt for Windows-based hosting, as these technologies are only offered on the Windows platform.

With shared hosting, the provider is responsible for managing and maintaining the servers and ensuring that the servers are up; install any necessary software and make sure the servers are always up to date with the latest software versions to stay safe. On the other hand, if you rent a dedicated server, you are fully responsible for everything from making sure all software applications are configured correctly to monitoring all services and making sure there are no issues on your server. This gives the advantage of shared hosting for beginners as they do not need any professional knowledge to be able to maintain their website. The control panels offered with businesses make everything simple, from creating new email accounts, subdomains, to managing your files.

An important aspect when choosing a hosting company is their support service. Most of the large and established web hosting companies offer full support 24/7/365, either through a toll free phone number, email (support system ) or live chat. It’s important to make sure the provider’s support is very good so you can rest assured when your site is down that you’re going to talk to someone about it.

To conclude, shared web hosting is the best solution for anyone looking to start their first website or a small business looking to create an online presence.