Shared Hosting and Its Features
Shared hosting is a system where many websites exist on a single web server connected to the internet. This system is very cost effective as the cost of server maintenance is amortized over many web owners. Due to the huge size of the market for shared hosting services, new customers usually get confused about the shared hosting plans to purchase. It is therefore critical to understand basic hosting technical processes in order to find the perfect hosting solution.
Consulting a web master is the ideal solution to getting the best shared hosting provider. This is because they will explain the exact features you need for your particular need. However, if you do not have a specialist to consult, this article will help you to understand some major facts about shared hosting plans. At the end of reading this piece, you will be able to make the decision about the right hosting solutions for your project.
Important Features of Shared Hosting
Below are some of the most important features to check when you plan to buy shared hosting packages.
Traffic and Disk Space
To host a website, you will need some disk space for stuffs like media, code files, and data bases. When you host data on your website, you will want customers to access the files. This is where you need bandwidth. It works like a tunnel and how wide the tunnel is will determine the size of information that can go through it. A lot of shared hosting providers offer their clients unlimited bandwidth with restricted traffic speed. This will definitely affect the performance of the website. It is important to pay attention to the traffic speed and bandwidth when looking for shared hosting.
Uptime Period
This is the time when customers can access your site without any issue. Uptime is often calculated in percentages of total expected uptime which is 24 hours, 7 days a week. Usually, if you buy cheap shared hosting, your project is not probably too heavy and you will not require 100% uptime.
Support System
This is very important to web hosting. When buying shared hosting services, it is important that you read reviews about supports from your potential providers. In addition, check forums where users discuss about web hosting to get more information about providers.
Pre-Installed Applications
Many web hosting providers offer pre-installed apps, unlimited options and extra fee services. However, focus more on the pre-installed app. These are special widgets that help in creating and managing a website efficiently. One of such basic application is the control panel. Control panel enables you to control the most intricate server processes via a convenient interface. cPanel is the most popular of the control panel but there are some other alternatives offered by other providers.
Bonuses
These are used to attract more customers. Some bonus offers include website transfer, free domain name, site building tools and some other cool features. Getting great deals are part of shared hosting but you have to be mindful of the ‘renewal fees’ of such bonuses.
In summary, choosing a shared hosting package is quite subjective. So you have to take time to check the requirement for your site vis-à-vis the features offered by the provider.