Is Shared Website Hosting Still a Viable Solution?

Shared web hosting is the least expensive of all the hosting options for your website. This is because server resources are shared among multiple clients, and thus, the expense is distributed among all these accounts. However, this is also the reason why shared hosting is the least desirable option.

The division of resources among multiple accounts means that your website only has a limited amount of resources at its disposal. Furthermore, your site may be affected by what happens on other websites on the server. For instance, if one website on your shared server gets a sudden spike in traffic, this could affect your site’s performance. Additionally, your website might not handle high traffic efficiently because of the small number of resources, such as RAM and CPU available. Finally,shared web hosting also doesn’t leave much room for expansion. This means that if you intend to grow your site, you will find it challenging to do so with this hosting option. For these reasons, we suggest that only small blogs or websites with minimal traffic choose shared hosting. But we have to ask ourselves if you’re investing time and energy into building a site, would you not want it to grow? Therefore, does it really make sense to use shared hosting?

Reasons Why Shared Hosting Isn’t a Viable Solution

Security

Arguably the biggest concern for most site owners is the safety and security of their data. Unfortunately, shared hosting is not known for its security. This is because if an account on the shared server experiences a security breach, all the sites on the server are at risk. Additionally, if the server gets hacked, all the accounts on it will go down. Even though hosting providers try to isolate websites on a shared server, they can’t achieve 100% isolation. In other words, you have to hope that every site owner you share a server with has taken the necessary steps to secure their sites.

Root Access

Having root access to your server allows you to take complete control of your server. This means you can edit any files you want, change the system, offer and remove permissions to accounts and install software server-wide. However, since shared hosting requires sharing a server, most hosting providers do not allow you root access with a shared account. Therefore, you are limited in how you can configure your account.

Site Functionality and Performance

As we’ve explained, shared hosting offers limited resources to each account on the server. Consequently, you’re restricted to adding functions to your site that conforms to the number of resources you have available. Additionally, this lack of resources may result in your site performing sluggishly. In fact, it’s possible that your site may stop working altogether. This is because hosting companies often put controls in place to start killing processes if a site is utilizing more server resources than it should be. As a result, if your site suddenly becomes popular and starts getting a lot of traffic, it may just be shut down. All your hard work will be wasted if people can’t access your site, and why take that chance?

Even if you’re 100% certain your traffic will remain small, your site’s performance may still get disrupted. This is because the traffic that other sites on the server receive can slow down your site. Consequently, you may lose the small amount of traffic you have when people become frustrated with the loading speed of your site. Therefore, even small sites with minimal traffic should consider other hosting options to ensure that their site’s performance remains optimal.

Paying for SSL Certificates

If your site doesn’t have an SSL certificate, it will be labeled as “Not Secure,” which may discourage people from visiting. It will also affect your search engine ranking. Needless to say, you’re going to want to ensure that you get an SSL certificate for your site. Fortunately, you can get one for free from companies like Let’s Encrypt. However, you will have to pay to have this certificate installed through your shared hosting account. Therefore, the cost of shared hosting increases.

Summary

Although shared web hosting is the least expensive hosting solution, it really isn’t worth the price when you consider the disadvantages. Even if you are 100% certain that your site will receive very little traffic, your website’s performance may be negatively affected by the actions of the accounts sharing your server. And you want your site to perform optimally, regardless of the number of expected visitors. Otherwise, why even have a website in the first place?