A definition of web hosting
The most fundamental and commonly availed of type of web hosting is the shared web hosting solution. It's a means to host your site without having to understand much about programming and operating a web server. What's more, it's also the most economical type of site hosting and it's very affordable for anybody. Nonetheless, what is shared web hosting?
What is shared hosting?
As the name indicates, the shared web hosting solution is a form of service where numerous customers share the system reserves of the same hosting server. This implies that all web hosting server ingredients like CPU, hard drives, RAM, network cards and so on, are shared among the users whose accounts are on that same server. This is normally rendered attainable by creating different accounts for the separate clients and fixing specific limitations and quotas for each of them. Those restrictions are set so as to hinder the customers from intervening with each other's accounts and, of course, to prevent the web hosting server from overloading. Typically, shared site hosting clients do not have complete root access to the web hosting server's configuration files, which basically means that they do not have access to anything else on the web hosting server apart from their own shared web hosting account. The web space hosting resources that each account may avail of are fixed by the web hosting provider that possesses the hosting server and by the respective site hosting plan. That necessitates the second important question:
How are the shared hosting web servers divided among the customers?
Hosting firms that furnish shared web hosting packages commonly have diverse web space hosting packages. Those packages contain diverse amounts of webspace hosting resources and specifications, which in fact determine the limits that a web space hosting plan will include. The user may select between the individual web hosting plans and sign up for the one that he believes will befit him best. The web site hosting package will then define what restrictions the customer's account will have, once created. The costs and the features of the web space hosting packages are determined by the very web hosting distributor. Depending on the politics of the provider, the shared web site hosting service can be divided into 2 types - the free hosting solution and the classic shared service, currently very famous among "cPanel hosting" companies as a cloud web hosting one. It's not possible to assert, which one is more preferable, since they are quite different from each other and they really are dependent on the marketing tactics of the given supplier and, of course, the demands of the given client.
What is the distinction between the free of cost and the regular shared site hosting solution?
Of course, the primary difference between the free of cost and the paid service is in the quantity of resources that they offer. Free site hosting distributors are not able to maintain an immense number of servers, therefore, they just accommodate more users on one single web hosting server by lowering the quantity of resources provided by the accounts. This will be effective only on condition that the hosting servers are supervised and tackled properly, since the big number of accounts may cause the web hosting server to crash over and over again. The majority of the free site hosting distributors, though, neglect the quality of the service and hence, it's very hard to come across a free of cost webspace hosting solution that's in fact worth the time. The top free hosting providers usually offer free technical support even to the free web space hosting clients, since they want their web portals to expand so that they eventually move to a paid site hosting account, which includes more web hosting features. Such distributor, for instance, is FreeHostia.com, which is among the biggest and eldest free hosting providers worldwide.
At the same time, traditional shared web hosting suppliers like NTC Hosting, for example, may afford to maintain lots of web servers and therefore, they are able to provide much more feature-rich webspace hosting packages. Of course, that reflects on the pricing of the website hosting plans. Paying a higher fee for a web space hosting service, though, does not automatically imply that this plan has a finer quality. The most advantageous solutions are the balanced ones, which involve a fee that corresponds to the concrete service which you're receiving. The first-class website hosting vendors that have been around for a long time are showing their price tags and plan configurations in a realistic manner, so that the customer may know what indeed he is obtaining. Besides, some of these provide a free bonus with the webspace hosting plan, such as the 1-click applications installer, complemented with 100's of gratis web design layouts that are offered by 'NTC Hosting'. Such web site hosting distributors do look after their good name and that's why if you select them, you can rest certain that you won't get beguiled into paying for a solution that you cannot actually utilize.
What should I anticipate from a shared web hosting service?
The shared website hosting solution is best for people who would like to host an average web portal, which is going to swallow a small or medium amount of bandwidth each month. You cannot expect, however, that a shared webspace hosting account will be sufficient for your needs, since as your business grows, your site will become more and more resource consuming. Hence, you will have to eventually upgrade to a more powerful webspace hosting solution such as a semi-dedicated server, a VPS (aka a virtual hosting server, or VPS), or why not a dedicated server. So, when choosing a web space hosting distributor, you should also consider how they can be of service to you, otherwise you might end up transferring your domain name manually to a separate company, which can cause web site predicaments and even extended downtime for your website. Hence, going with a web hosting supplier like 'NTC Hosting', which can provide you with the required domain name and hosting services as you grow bigger, is vital and will save you lots of troubles in the long run.