A definition of web hosting

The most fundamental and universally availed of form of web hosting is the shared web hosting solution. It represents a way to host your web page without having to understand much about programming and operating a web hosting server. Besides, it's also the most economical type of hosting and it's indeed affordable for everybody. Nevertheless, what is shared website hosting?

What is shared web site hosting?

As the name hints, the shared website hosting service is a type of service where numerous customers share the reserves of the same web hosting server. This means that all web server ingredients such as CPU, hard disks, RAM, network interface cards and so on, are apportioned among the clients whose accounts are on that very same server. This is normally made tenable by opening different accounts for the separate clients and imposing given limits and usage quotas for each of them. Those restrictions are allocated in order to hinder the users from meddling with each other's accounts and, of course, to hinder the server from overloading. Usually, shared web page hosting users do not have root access to the web hosting server's configuration files, which basically suggests that they cannot access anything else on the server but their own shared web hosting account. The web page hosting resources that each account may resort to are determined by the web hosting vendor that owns the web hosting server and by the respective website hosting plan. That leads up to the second important question:

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

Hosting distributors that supply shared hosting services commonly have diverse web space hosting plans. Those plans contain different amounts of site hosting resources and specifications, which actually define the limits that a site hosting package will have. The user may choose between the separate web hosting plans and sign up for the one that he deems will suit him best. The web site hosting plan will then define what restrictions the customer's account will have, once created. The prices and the specs of the site hosting packages are specified by the very web hosting corporation. Based on the policy of the distributor, the shared site hosting service can be divided into 2 groups - the free hosting service and the common shared service, currently very famous among "cPanel hosting" traders as a cloud web hosting one. It's not possible to assert, which one is more preferable, since they are very different from each other and they really are dependent on the marketing strategy of the particular corporation and, of course, the needs of the given user.

What is the difference between the free of charge and the typical shared web space hosting service?

Of course, the chief difference between the free of charge and the paid solution is in the amount of features that they involve. Free website hosting companies are not capable of keeping an immense number of hosting servers, hence, they plainly accommodate more users on a single server by decreasing the amount of system resources provided by the accounts. This will be effective only in case the web hosting servers are kept under surveillance and administered properly, because the large amount of accounts may cause the web hosting server to crash on a regular basis. Most of the free webspace hosting providers, however, overlook the quality of the service and as a result, it's quite hard to come across a free site hosting solution that's in fact worth the time. The top free hosting providers commonly provide free customer support even to the free web space hosting clients, because they want their web portals to grow so that they eventually upgrade to a paid website hosting package, which offers more webspace hosting features. One such company, for instance, is FreeHostia.com, which is one of the biggest and oldest free website hosting companies worldwide.

On the other hand, traditional shared web hosting vendors such as Lonex, for example, may afford to keep numerous web servers and hence, they may afford to provide much more feature-rich web space hosting packages. Of course, that reflects on the pricing of the web site hosting plans. Paying a higher price for a site hosting solution, though, does not automatically imply that this solution has a better quality. The best services are the balanced ones, which involve a fee that corresponds to the concrete service which you're receiving. The best website hosting distributors that have been around for a long time are revealing their prices and plan specs in an objective manner, so that the client may know what exactly he is receiving. What's more, some of them offer a free extra with the web space hosting plan, like the 1-click applications installer, accompanied by hundreds of free-of-cost site layouts that are offered by 'Lonex'. Such website hosting suppliers do look after their reputation and this is the reason why if you go with them, you can rest confident that you won't get duped into paying for a package that you cannot actually use.

What should I expect from a shared site hosting solution?

The shared site hosting service is best for individuals who desire to host a standard website, which is going to devour a small or medium amount of web traffic every month. You cannot anticipate, though, that a shared web site hosting account will be sufficient for your needs, since as your business grows, your web page will become more and more resource consuming. Hence, you will have to eventually move to a more feature-rich website hosting service like a semi-dedicated server, a VPS (a.k.a. a virtual server, or VPS), or why not a dedicated server. So, when choosing a web site hosting company, you should also ponder about how they can be of service to you, otherwise you might end up transferring your domain name manually to a separate company, which can create web site problems and even prolonged downtime for your website. Hence, selecting a website hosting vendor such as 'Lonex', which can present you with the required domain name and hosting services as you grow bigger, is essential and will spare you a lot of predicaments in the long run.