As your websites expands, your hosting needs will grow. There are different types of hosting plans available on the market, each offering a contrasting mix of options. Sometimes companies mix in the lows and the highs, top it off with a bargain price and try to induce you to avail that package. While the low price may be tempting here, you may not be reaping the best results here, rather bottlenecking your network’s true potential. Shared hosting has long since been the optimal choice for many web owners, read on to find out if it is reliable and fitting for your needs.
Before going into the benefits and reliability of shared hosting, let’s put some common types of hosting up in contrast. This will help you see why people do or not incline towards shared hosting when it comes to reliability.
First off comes free hosting, this has tons of limitations like limited space, domain name choice, bandwidth, scalability, flexibility of software and platform and so on.
Next up comes shared hosting. Here your site is hosted on a server which is also running other sites. According to the plan you decided on with your provider, you’ll be getting the requisite space and bandwidth allocations. Reliability isn’t much of a problem and at times you can even include a 99% uptime guarantee clause in your agreement. Sometimes you don’t have to ask for the addition of this clause either as the companies guarantee it openly for all. The downsides here are that you can’t go too far with space and bandwidth capacities, but that is because you’re getting exactly what you’re paying for.
Of course there are issues of database support. Not all systems are compatible but this hurdle can be overcome by choosing a provider which caters for at least that specific platform you require, if not others.
All in all, considering whether you need shared hosting or dedicated hosting or free hosting is like going to a doctor and telling him instead of asking him what treatment you need. The doctor will inspect your situation and accordingly decide on the most cost/health effective treatment. Similar is the case here, based on your scale of operations (capacity, security, debugging and so on), provider will help you choose the right package for your needs. If you have a behemoth of a website, they’ll suggest dedicated hosting which is the king of reliable hosting solutions. Or if you’ve got something like the Huffington Post then you could even go for collocated hosting. This type involves providing your own hardware to a provider. You’re just using his premises and facilities such as a fast internet, air conditioned environment and so on.
As a whole, shared hosting is reliable when considered in proportion to the costs it incurs. But for maximum protection you’re better off with dedicated hosting. A good company usually has a 99% uptime record to show for. Choose a similar company for the best results.