Shared web hosting is a great way to get started online. If you are able to find a reliable service, you’ll get a decent amount of resources and guaranteed uptime, all for one low price, usually less than $10 per month.
And with some of the latest promises of unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage space, unlimited databases, unlimited email accounts, unlimited add-on domains and more, you might be wondering why anyone would opt for other more expensive options, such as dedicated web hosting or VPS (virtual private server) which can cost over $100 per month.
As we mention below, there are limits to ‘unlimited’ resources. So if your website is large, or if you receive a lot of traffic, it might not be best to use shared web hosting.
The Myth of ‘Unlimited’… Stuff
Many web hosts boast low-cost hosting packages featuring an endless amount of resources. Unfortunately, this is too good to be true.
Shared web hosting means that your website is on a server along with hundreds — or even thousands — of other websites! So each website is given only a small allotment the server’s resources.
If, and when, a website exceeds it’s allotment, it is usually shut down for a period of 1-5 minutes, and all visitors to the website will see a notice explaining that the website has exceeded the maximum resource limit. And for websites that repeatedly exceed their quota, they are often shut down.
Clearly, this is false advertising at it’s best! In shared web hosting, there is never a true ‘unlimited‘.
Shared Hosting Does Have Its Pluses
Either way, shared web hosting does have its benefits. For small websites, you can pay a low price and avoid the hassle and expense that comes with managing a dedicated server. Additionally, shared hosts regularly backup all files and data on their servers. So you can be assured that you will not suffer data loss.
source http://www.velvetblues.com
