A definition of web site hosting
The most principal and commonly availed of variety of web hosting is the shared web hosting solution. It represents a means to host your site without having to know much about programming and running a server. Besides, it's also the cheapest type of hosting and it's very affordable for everybody. Still, what is shared web hosting?
What is shared hosting?
As the name denotes, the shared web page hosting solution is a form of service where numerous customers share the system reserves of the same hosting server. This signifies that all hosting server constituents like CPU, hard disks, RAM, network interface cards etc. are shared among the users whose accounts are on that very same web hosting server. This is normally rendered attainable by setting up separate accounts for the different users and imposing specific limits and usage quotas for each of them. Those limitations are appointed so as to restrain the clients from interfering with each other's accounts and, of course, to prevent the hosting server from overburdening. Normally, shared web page hosting clients do not have root-level access to the hosting server's configuration files, which principally indicates that they cannot access anything else on the web hosting server but their very own shared web hosting account. The web page hosting resources that each account may resort to are determined by the web hosting firm that possesses the web hosting server and by the particular web site hosting plan. That brings about the second essential question:
How are the shared web hosting servers divided among the customers?
Web hosting corporations that distribute shared site hosting packages commonly have different web space hosting packages. Those packages involve diverse amounts of webspace hosting features and specifications, which actually set the restrictions that a web space hosting package will include. The customer may choose between the separate web hosting plans and sign up for the one that he thinks will fit him best. The web space hosting plan will then determine what limits the customer's account will include, once created. The costs and the specifications of the site hosting packages are chosen by the particular web hosting supplier. Based on the policy of the vendor, the shared web space hosting solution falls into two groups - the free hosting solution and the standard shared service, currently very famous among "cPanel hosting" traders as a cloud web hosting one. It's impossible to affirm, which one is more preferable, since they are very different from one another and they indeed are determined by the marketing policy of the particular firm and, of course, the requirements of the given customer.
What is the distinction between the free and the popular shared web space hosting service?
Of course, the main difference between the free of charge and the paid solution is in the quantity of features that they provide. Free web site hosting suppliers are not able to maintain a great amount of hosting servers, hence, they just host more customers on one web server by decreasing the amount of resources provided by the accounts. This will be effective only on condition that the web servers are supervised and maintained properly, because the huge number of accounts may make the hosting server crash over and over again. The majority of the free hosting suppliers, though, overlook the quality of the service and as a result, it's quite hard to come across a free of charge site hosting solution that's in fact worth the effort. The top free hosting suppliers normally provide free customer support even to the free web site hosting clients, because they want their sites to grow so that they eventually move to a paid web site hosting package, which includes more web space hosting resources. Such supplier, for instance, is FreeHostia.com, which is among the biggest and eldest free web hosting corporations worldwide.
On the other hand, established shared web hosting vendors such as PNG Web Hosting, for example, are able to keep plenty of servers and as a result, they may afford to provide much more feature-rich web hosting packages. Of course, that reflects on the cost of the web space hosting plans. Paying a higher price for a web hosting account, however, does not automatically signify that this account has a finer quality. The most advantageous solutions are the balanced ones, which offer a fee that corresponds to the concrete service which you're getting. The best web space hosting firms that have been around for quite some time are displaying their price tags and plan specs in an objective fashion, so that the client may be informed of what indeed he is getting. Furthermore, some of them provide a free extra with the web site hosting plan, like the 1-click applications installer, complemented with hundreds of charge-free web site skins that are provided by 'PNG Web Hosting'. Such hosting companies do look after their good name and that's why if you select them, you can be assured that you won't get beguiled into paying for a solution that you cannot in fact avail of.
What should I anticipate from a shared site hosting service?
The shared web space hosting solution is best for people who desire to host an average web site, which is going to consume a small or medium amount of web traffic each month. You cannot anticipate, however, that a shared site hosting account will last you a lifetime, since as your business grows, your web portal will become more and more resource consuming. Hence, you will have to ultimately migrate to a more feature-rich webspace hosting solution such as a semi-dedicated server, a VPS (a.k.a. a virtual web hosting server, or VPS), or why not a dedicated server. Therefore, when choosing a web space hosting distributor, you should also ponder about how they can be of service to you, otherwise you might end up migrating your domain name manually to a different provider, which can cause site complications and even prolonged downtime for your web page. Hence, picking a site hosting distributor like 'PNG Web Hosting', which can provide you with the required domain name and hosting services as you grow bigger, is crucial and will spare you lots of problems in the long run.