A description of web hosting
The most archetypal and universally availed of variety of web hosting is the shared web hosting service. It's a means to host your web site without having to understand much about programming and running a web hosting server. Besides, it's also the most inexpensive form of web space hosting and it's quite affordable for anybody. Still, what is shared hosting?
What is shared site hosting?
As the name designates, the shared site hosting solution is a kind of service where many customers share the resources of the same hosting server. This goes to say that all web hosting server ingredients such as CPU, hard disk drives, RAM, network cards etc. are divided among the customers whose accounts are on that same server. This is normally made viable by setting up different accounts for the separate users and appointing some limits and quotas for each of them. Those restrictions are appointed so as to prevent the users from meddling with each other's accounts and, of course, to hinder the server from overburdening. Usually, shared website hosting customers do not have root-level access to the web hosting server's configuration files, which basically indicates that they do not have access to anything else on the web server beside their own website hosting account. The site hosting resources that each account may avail of are fixed by the web hosting distributor that owns the web server and by the given web space hosting plan. That paves the way for the second vital question:
How are the shared hosting servers split among the users?
Hosting providers that offer shared hosting services commonly have diverse webspace hosting plans. Those plans involve diverse quotas of web hosting features and specs, which in fact define the restrictions that a webspace hosting package will have. The customer may pick between the different web hosting plans and sign up for the one that he deems will befit him best. The web site hosting package will then determine what limits the client's account will have, once set up. The prices and the specifications of the hosting packages are determined by the particular web hosting firm. Depending on the policy of the supplier, the shared web hosting service can be divided into two categories - the free hosting service and the regular shared service, currently very popular among "cPanel hosting" companies as a cloud web hosting one. It's not possible to claim, which one is better, since they are very different from one another and they indeed are dependent on the business strategy of the specific company and, of course, the demands of the given client.
What is the difference between the free and the standard shared web space hosting service?
Of course, the main difference between the free of cost and the paid service is in the quantity of features that they include. Free hosting suppliers are not able to keep a big amount of web servers, therefore, they simply host more users on one single server by decreasing the quantity of system resources provided by the accounts. This will be efficient only on condition that the web hosting servers are kept under surveillance and dealt with appropriately, because the big number of accounts may cause the hosting server to crash time and time again. The majority of the free web site hosting vendors, though, ignore the quality of the service and hence, it's quite tough to find a free of cost web hosting service that's in fact worth the time. The top free hosting distributors normally offer free technical support even to the free site hosting clients, since they want their web pages to enlarge so that they subsequently upgrade to a paid web space hosting plan, which offers more web hosting features. One such firm, for example, is FreeHostia.com, which is one of the largest and eldest free web site hosting distributors worldwide.
On the other hand, established shared web hosting corporations such as Starlight, for example, are able to keep numerous web servers and hence, they may afford to offer much more powerful hosting packages. Of course, that affects the pricing of the site hosting plans. Paying a higher fee for a web space hosting plan, though, does not automatically imply that this account has a better quality. The best solutions are the balanced ones, which offer a price that corresponds to the concrete service which you're getting. The top-notch website hosting vendors that have been around for quite a while are displaying their price tags and plan specs in an objective way, so that the client may know what indeed he is obtaining. In addition, some of these provide a free bonus with the web site hosting plan, like the 1-click applications installer, complemented with 100's of charge-free templates that are supplied by 'Starlight'. Such hosting corporations do look after their good name and that's why if you select them, you can rest assured that you won't get beguiled into buying an account that you cannot in fact use.
What should I anticipate from a shared web page hosting service?
The shared site hosting solution is best for people who desire to host a standard web site, which is going to generate a small or medium amount of bandwidth every month. You cannot expect, however, that a shared web hosting account will be sufficient for your needs, since as your business expands, your web page will become more and more resource consuming. So, you will have to ultimately upgrade to a more feature-rich website hosting service such as a semi-dedicated server, a VPS (aka a virtual private hosting server, or VPS), or why not a dedicated server. Therefore, when choosing a web hosting provider, you should also reflect 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 bring about web site predicaments and even continuous downtime for your web site. So, choosing a site hosting company like 'Starlight', which can supply you with the required domain name and hosting services as you grow, is vital and will spare you lots of inconveniences in the future.