You often hear the term "Shared Hosting". What exactly does this mean? Who do you share hosting with? What are the pros/cons of shared hosting? Keep reading to find out more!

Shared Hosting Explained

The term "Shared Hosting" refers to a specific type of web-hosting, in which you "share" space with many other clients. Every client gets his/her own directory, databases, mail space, and cgi-bin folder; all of which are kept isolated, and closed to other clients. Thus, you are effectively "sharing" only the processor, and bandwidth of one large server - all other aspects are independent and private.

While many hosts try to  place hundreds of clients onto one server, we limit the number of accounts. The reason for this, is that the fewer clients there are on one server, the lower the load on it, and the faster pages will be executed and loaded. Our policy is that server load is kept below a 0.75 (56%) average which allows for extremely fast page loads, and highly responsive applications.

The Pros of Shared Hosting

For beginners, or small to medium sites, shared hosting is an effective, and economical way of creating an internet presence. We are often asked if being hosted on a shared platform is secure; the short answer is yes. Since all clients are isolated from one another, and are unable to view / alter / remove / add files in any other users' directories, you are perfectly safe and your data is kept confidential, and out of harm's way. Another advantage of the shared platform, is the full management which we provide for it; you do not have to worry about server updates, httpd configurations, php compilation, or any other low-level server issues - all you need to worry about is running and promoting your website!

The Cons of Shared Hosting

Because of the shared nature of this type of hosting, larger communities, Web Applications that require special configurations, high-load environments, game servers, and web-based games are not suited to a shared platform. For these types of applications, it is best to look at higher-end solutions, such as VPS, and Dedicated services. If you require SSH / Shell access, then shared hosting is also not for you, as we do not under any circumstances give such access, because it can cause catastrophic damage to other clients, and yourself.