A definition of hosting

The most archetypal and universally availed of kind of web hosting is the shared web hosting service. It constitutes a way to host your web page without having to know much about programming and administrating a server. Besides, it's also the cheapest type of web space hosting and it's indeed affordable for everybody. However, what is shared webspace hosting?

What is shared hosting?

As the name designates, the shared hosting solution is a kind of service where numerous customers share the resources of the same web server. This denotes that all web hosting server components such as CPU, hard disk drives, RAM, network interface cards and so on, are shared among the clients whose accounts are on that very same hosting server. This is usually rendered feasible by creating different accounts for the different users and setting specific limitations and quotas for each of them. Those limits are assigned in order to prevent the customers from meddling with each other's accounts and, of course, to hinder the server from overloading. Normally, shared site hosting users do not have full root access to the web server's configuration files, which principally means that they do not have access to anything else on the hosting server but their very own shared web hosting account. The web site hosting features that each account may use are set by the web hosting corporation that owns the web hosting server and by the respective web hosting package. That gives rise to the second vital question:

How are the shared hosting web servers shared among the customers?

Hosting providers that deliver shared web hosting packages normally have various webspace hosting plans. Those plans contain diverse amounts of hosting features and specifications, which in fact fix the limitations that a web site hosting plan will include. The user may pick between the separate web hosting plans and sign up for the one that he deems will fit him best. The website hosting plan will then define what restrictions the customer's account will involve, once set up. The prices and the specs of the web space hosting plans are defined by the particular hosting corporation. Depending on the policy of the provider, the shared hosting service can be divided into two categories - the free hosting solution and the standard shared solution, currently very famous among "cPanel hosting" companies as a cloud web hosting one. It's not possible to allege, which one is better, since they are quite different from one another and they actually are determined by the marketing strategy of the given company and, of course, the demands of the specific user.

What is the distinction between the free of cost and the regular shared hosting solution?

Of course, the principal difference between the free and the paid solution is in the quantity of resources that they involve. Free website hosting corporations are not capable of maintaining a big number of servers, hence, they simply accommodate more clients on one single web server by reducing the amount of resources provided by the accounts. This will be efficient only if the hosting servers are supervised and handled properly, because the enormous amount of accounts may make the web hosting server crash time and time again. The majority of the free webspace hosting providers, though, ignore the quality of the service and therefore, it's quite hard to come across a free of cost web space hosting solution that's in fact worth the effort. The top free hosting firms commonly offer free technical support even to the free website hosting users, because they want their sites to grow bigger so that they subsequently upgrade to a paid web hosting package, which offers more site hosting features. One such firm, for instance, is FreeHostia.com, which is one of the biggest and eldest free website hosting firms in the world.

At the same time, established shared web hosting firms like Exclusive Hosting, for instance, may afford to maintain many servers and hence, they may afford to offer much more powerful web hosting plans. Of course, that reflects on the cost of the web site hosting packages. Paying a higher price for a website hosting account, however, does not necessarily imply that this plan has a better quality. The best solutions are the balanced ones, which involve a price that corresponds to the concrete service which you're receiving. The first-class web site hosting firms that have been around for quite some time are showing their price tags and plan features in a realistic fashion, so that the customer may familiar with what in fact he is getting. Also, some of them provide a free extra with the website hosting package, like the 1-click applications installer, complemented with hundreds of complimentary website templates that are offered by 'Exclusive Hosting'. Such hosting companies do look after their reputation and that is the reason why if you go with them, you can be assured that you won't get duped into purchasing a package that you cannot actually make use of.

What should I expect from a shared website hosting service?

The shared site hosting solution is best for individuals who would like to host a normal web site, which is going to generate a small or medium amount of web traffic each month. You cannot expect, however, that a shared web site hosting account will be sufficient for your needs, because as your business expands, your site will become more and more demanding. Therefore, you will have to eventually move to a more powerful webspace hosting solution like a semi-dedicated server, a VPS (also known as a private virtual web server, or VPS), or why not a dedicated server. So, when choosing a site hosting distributor, you should also reflect about how they can be of service to you, or else you might end up moving your domain name manually to a different distributor, which can bring about website complications and even continuous downtime for your web site. Hence, choosing a site hosting provider such as 'Exclusive Hosting', which can present you with the needed domain name and hosting services as you grow, is vital and will spare you a lot of headaches in the future.