Tag Archives: hosting companies
Pros and Cons of Shared Hosting
With the growth in the web business, you would also find growth in the demand for good hosting companies. Shared hosting is one of the most popular web hosting available in the market. However, like all types of hosting shared hosting also has got its pros and cons.
The first point that goes in favor of shared hosting is that the price of shared hosting is much lower than dedicated server hosting and this is because here only a little portion of the server is used. Thus if you want to spend less money while starting your web business, then go for shared hosting service.
Another excellent point that is advantageous for shared hosting is the excellent technical support. It is one of the basic foundations for the shared hosting companies and all the companies using shared hosting guarantee their customers superb customer support.
Another positive aspect of shared hosting is that it comes loaded with features like PHP assistance and multiple e-mail. Also you do not need to know the server and hosting management if you choose this kind of hosting.
Along with pros there are cons of shared hosting too. One of the biggest drawbacks of shared hosting is that the level of security is not at all very high. This is because you have to share the web space with various types of websites and your neighbor can be a hacking site.
Another problem of shared hosting is there are limited resources. This is also a result of you using the server space with other users which would lead to restrictions in service. If the site has lots of traffic then it would inevitably be harmful to your site. In shared hosting you would also face the problem of not getting the permission of installing programs. This happens because the server is maintained by another company. You are not allowed or given the authority to download or run any program that you want to have in your server. However, you can find these programs easily in any of your neighbor website.
Still despite the problems shared hosting is the most preferred type of hosting among the website owners.
Pros and Cons of Shared Hosting
With the growth in the web business, you would also find growth in the demand for good hosting companies. Shared hosting is one of the most popular web hosting available in the market. However, like all types of hosting shared hosting also has got its pros and cons.
The first point that goes in favor of shared hosting is that the price of shared hosting is much lower than dedicated server hosting and this is because here only a little portion of the server is used. Thus if you want to spend less money while starting your web business, then go for shared hosting service.
Another excellent point that is advantageous for shared hosting is the excellent technical support. It is one of the basic foundations for the shared hosting companies and all the companies using shared hosting guarantee their customers superb customer support.
Another positive aspect of shared hosting is that it comes loaded with features like PHP assistance and multiple e-mail. Also you do not need to know the server and hosting management if you choose this kind of hosting.
Along with pros there are cons of shared hosting too. One of the biggest drawbacks of shared hosting is that the level of security is not at all very high. This is because you have to share the web space with various types of websites and your neighbor can be a hacking site.
Another problem of shared hosting is there are limited resources. This is also a result of you using the server space with other users which would lead to restrictions in service. If the site has lots of traffic then it would inevitably be harmful to your site. In shared hosting you would also face the problem of not getting the permission of installing programs. This happens because the server is maintained by another company. You are not allowed or given the authority to download or run any program that you want to have in your server. However, you can find these programs easily in any of your neighbor website.
Still despite the problems shared hosting is the most preferred type of hosting among the website owners.
Should You Take Notice of Web Hosting Comments?
There is a temptation to look at web hosting comments, see a few negative items relating to a particular host and dismiss them but this can be a mistake. When reading web hosting comments it is useful to bear in mind the following:
* The services provided by hosting companies do differ. There is no point in complaining about lack of support for a particular technology if this was never promised in the first place.
* Users will generally complain more readily than they will praise so it would be surprising if there were no negative web hosting comments about a host.
* The bigger the hosting company the more negative comments you would expect to see.
* Many negative web hosting comments would not have been necessary if users had read the Terms of Service (although some hosts could make the key terms clearer on their web sites).
When looking at web hosting comments about the major hosting companies I was struck by how many are about financial, contractual and support issues rather than technical issues. These can be:
Cancellations: Sometimes there is a procedure to follow which is set-out in the TOS. Not following this results in delays.
Domain Names (and cancellations): When a domain name is included in the package it has to be paid for if you cancel, even under a money back guarantee. This is spelt out in the TOS but the website may only say that the money back guarantee relates to hosting costs and the implication of this is lost on some users. Failure to get a full refund generates some of the more angry web hosting comments.
Renewals: Most hosts issue coupons/offer discounts but these apply to new customers only. Renewals are charged at the host’s standard rates, some websites do not make this clear.
Definition of “Unlimited”: Most hosts offer unlimited bandwidth, storage, databases etc. but whilst it clearly cannot be taken literally, definitions of “Unlimited” are vague. The use of unlimited does keep things simple and hosting companies know that most users will only use a small amount of resources. However we are talking about shared hosting so if a site does get busy it cannot be allowed to take resources to the detriment of other users. At this point you have to rely on the hosting company to deal with this reasonably. Of course users in this position will see the host as unreasonable and will probably post negative web hosting comments.
Backups: Hosting companies usually state that backups are the responsibility of the user. Whilst they do generally backup their shared servers periodically they do not accept any liability for lost data (not unreasonable given the low costs of hosting). Clearly anyone can suffer a hardware failure so you could be unlucky with any host.
To make sure you do not end up writing negative web hosting comments I suggest reading the TOS of your host thoroughly and taking your own regular backups.