A definition of web page hosting

The most elemental and frequently used type of web hosting is the shared web hosting solution. It constitutes a way to host your website without having to understand much about programming and running a hosting server. Additionally, it's also the cheapest form of web page hosting and it's in fact affordable for everybody. Nevertheless, what is shared webspace hosting?

What is shared site hosting?

As the name implies, the shared hosting service is a kind of service where plenty of users share the reserves of one and the same server. This denotes that all web server constituents like CPU, hard disks, RAM, network interface cards and so on, are apportioned among the customers whose accounts are on that very same web server. This is usually made accomplishable by setting up separate accounts for the separate users and allocating given limitations and resource usage quotas for each of them. Those restrictions are fixed in order to restrain the clients from interfering with each other's accounts and, of course, to hinder the server from overloading. Usually, shared hosting customers do not have root-level access to the server's configuration files, which principally means that they do not have access to anything else on the hosting server aside from their own shared web hosting account. The site hosting resources that each account may avail of are set by the web hosting firm that possesses the web server and by the respective web site hosting package. That paves the way for the second important question:

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

Web hosting suppliers that furnish shared hosting packages normally have different hosting plans. Those plans involve different amounts of web site hosting features and specifications, which in fact define the limitations that a web hosting package will include. The customer may choose between the different web hosting plans and sign up for the one that he thinks will suit him best. The site hosting package will then determine what limits the user's account will include, once opened. The prices and the features of the web site hosting packages are chosen by the very hosting distributor. Depending on the policy of the provider, the shared web space hosting solution falls into two categories - the free hosting solution and the standard shared service, currently very popular among "cPanel hosting" retailers as a cloud web hosting one. It's impossible to tell, which one is better, since they are very different from each other and they indeed depend on the business strategy of the particular vendor and, of course, the requirements of the given user.

What is the distinction between the free of charge and the regular shared hosting service?

Of course, the primary difference between the free of cost and the paid solution is in the quantity of features that they provide. Free web hosting providers are not capable of keeping a huge amount of web servers, therefore, they just host more clients on one web server by reducing the amount of resources offered by the accounts. This will be effective only on condition that the servers are monitored and maintained appropriately, because the big number of accounts may cause the web hosting server to crash again and again. Most of the free web space hosting suppliers, however, neglect the quality of the service and as a result, it's very hard to find a free of cost site hosting solution that's in fact worth the time. The top free hosting distributors usually provide free client support even to the free web site hosting clients, because they want their web sites to get bigger so that they eventually move to a paid website hosting account, which includes more webspace hosting resources. Such vendor, for instance, is FreeHostia.com, which is one of the largest and oldest free web space hosting firms worldwide.

On the other hand, traditional shared web hosting distributors like Free Hostia, for instance, may afford to maintain lots of servers and therefore, they are able to provide much more feature-rich website hosting packages. Of course, that affects the cost of the website hosting packages. Paying a higher fee for a web space hosting account, however, does not necessarily denote that this package has a better quality. The best services are the balanced ones, which offer a price that corresponds to the real service which you're getting. The top-notch hosting distributors that have been around for a long time are revealing their prices and plan features in an objective manner, so that the client may familiar with what in fact he is obtaining. In addition, some of these provide a free extra with the hosting package, such as the 1-click applications installer, accompanied by 100's of free-of-charge skins that are supplied by 'Free Hostia'. Such site hosting vendors do worry about their reputation and this is the reason why if you pick them, you can rest confident that you won't get deceived into paying for a plan that you cannot actually avail of.

What should I anticipate from a shared hosting service?

The shared webspace hosting solution is best for individuals who are looking to host a standard web portal, which is going to generate a small or medium amount of web traffic every month. You cannot anticipate, though, that a shared hosting account will last you a lifetime, because as your business develops, your website will become more and more resource consuming. Therefore, you will have to eventually migrate to a more powerful web site hosting solution like a semi-dedicated server, a VPS (also known as a virtual server, or VPS), or why not a dedicated server. So, when picking a website hosting supplier, you should also consider how they can be of service to you, or else you might end up migrating your domain name manually to a separate distributor, which can create site complications and even continued downtime for your web site. So, choosing a web space hosting supplier such as 'Free Hostia', which can present you with the needed domain name and hosting services as you grow bigger, is crucial and will save you lots of nuisances in the long run.