Choosing a hosting plan is one of the first steps in building a website.
The type of hosting you choose plays a significant role in your website’s performance and user experience. To make a wise selection, you need to look at six areas: cost, scalability, built-in functions, performance, security, and customization. You have to fully understand what you expect from each component.
After you do your research, you might find that shared hosting is your cheapest option. Many shared hosting providers offer cost-effective solutions packaged with different features; one of those bundles could work for you.
Shared hosting lets multiple websites use the same server. The server’s limited resources are based on your chosen hosting package.
Shared hosting is an economical option for websites and apps. However, you have to research shared hosting providers deeply to narrow down the list of vendors you can trust. You may not know who you’re sharing server resources with. Although security risks from others on a shared server are rare, you must follow best security practices to avoid even minute chances of a threat.
To build a website, you choose a domain and a hosting plan. Hosting just means renting space on physical computers where your website lives. These physical computers are known as servers.
When someone types your website URL into a search bar, the browser sends a request to the server that hosts data. The server delivers the content so that person can view it.
For a shared hosting plan, the request still goes to the server, but it also has relationships with other websites and applications. This means lesser cost, but limited bandwidth, customization, and security.
In a shared hosting environment, your website lives alongside other websites and apps on the same server. It’s like taking a public bus. The hosting provider can host hundreds of websites on a single server and comes with several advantages and disadvantages you should understand if you’re considering this option.
Shared hosting requires less money and minimal technical skills to start. It’s a better choice for small websites that don’t need complete control over the server’s resources.
On the other hand, dedicated hosting keeps a single website on a single server to eliminate any competition for the server’s resources. It’s like renting a car. Dedicated hosting means more money, but it offers a website more bandwidth, flexibility, and security.
As of the start of 2024, around 2 billion websites depend on the largest web hosting companies for their infrastructure. Of course, they experience many benefits.
Hosting providers offer base plans starting from $1.99 per month, so you won’t need to spend much money on your site.
A dedicated server can cost as much as $75 per month. The difference in pricing makes shared hosting a go-to choice for many website owners.
Tip: If you expect a lot of traffic and need a hitch-free experience, choose a dedicated hosting provider. It will allocate all server resources to you and your needs.
A shared hosting plan has limited resources, but if you feel you’ll exhaust them, you can always upgrade your plan.
Usually, the shared hosting provider has several packages to help your business when it needs more computing resources. You can choose unlimited bandwidth and storage or go with a plan that fits your business needs.
Shared hosting gives users a built-in control panel (cPanel) like a website settings app, which makes it easier to manage your website. Its web-based graphical user interface (GUI) simplifies management and various tasks related to server administration.
Moreover, the shared hosting service provider takes care of technical maintenance so you don’t have to worry about it on your end. The maintenance process ensures that the server’s software is up to date and it keeps the computer network up and running.
Shared hosting has its benefits, but you need to look out for a few challenges, too.
Since a server shares its central processing unit (CPU), random access memory (RAM), and other related resources with many websites, it takes longer to respond when traffic spikes.
If your bandwidth is low, traffic spikes in high-volume websites directly affect page load time. They overburden the server and slow its response time.
Did you know? A dedicated server may also load pages slowly if requests come from users far from its physical location. Content delivery networks (CDNs) help in these situations. They store your website’s static files on a worldwide network and deliver them to a server closest to the visitor who made the request.
The server can crash if your neighbor is the victim of a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. A DDoS attack sends heavy requests (traffic inflow) to the victim to exhaust the server’s resources.
When this happens, your content stored on the same server might fail to load. In general, there’s always a risk when the server gets compromised.
Further, if your neighbor on the server does illegal activities or spam customers, their IP address gets marked as malicious. If you use a shared IP address, firewalls might blacklist your website. Avoid this by choosing shared hosting with a dedicated IP address.
Shared hosting environments limit your freedom to install custom software or libraries your website might need. Providers manage server configurations and other installations. It makes sure all users on the server are compatible with set configurations, but this leaves little to no space for customization. You might encounter some hiccups as you try to perfect your website’s performance.
Shared hosting is an ideal choice for small and midsize websites. Since you’re only using it for low-to-moderate traffic, it costs you less than other hosting options.
Here are the best shared hosting providers out there right now.
To qualify for inclusion in this software list, a product must:
Below are the leading shared hosting providers from the G2 Spring 2024 Grid® Report. Some reviews have been edited for clarity.
Hostinger offers affordable shared hosting plans with user-friendly tools to build and manage your website. They offer 24/7 customer support to help with any issues you might face. You get a free Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate with some of their plans.
“I have been trying out Hostinger for the past few months, and it is better than all the services I have used. The Hostinger uptime is great, and the performance is the best in the industry. I do not need to tell you about the pricing because everyone knows that Hostinger is famous for its low and competitive pricing point. ”
- Hostinger Review, Rishi P.
“There is no e-commerce support for hosting packages like basic and premium. The premium one only supports a website with ten or fewer products. For e-commerce, we have to buy the business package, which is costly and may not be necessary for a small business or startup.”
- Hostinger Review, Jace J.
GoDaddy Hosting offers reliability paired with a wide range of services. They offer comprehensive security features to protect your website from threats. With Godaddy’s hosting plan, you get a free domain to debut your online presence.
“I like that GoDaddy hosting has great support and many features beyond just hosting a website. Their backend is easy to use and feels very streamlined.”
- GoDaddy Hosting Review, Daniel R.
“Prices will likely go up from the initial domain purchase. Some people consider taking their domain hosting elsewhere because of the increasing cost. Support is below average when it comes to refunds or billing questions.”
- GoDaddy Hosting Review, Andrew K.
HostGator is popular for its flexibility and excellent customer support. It offers a variety of hosting plans with a free website builder, making it easy to create a professional-looking website. HostGator guarantees 99.9% uptime to keep your website accessible.
“HostGator offers the best value for shared hosting WordPress websites. The sites load quickly, have a 99% up-time, and customer service is available via telephone.
Customer service is efficient and stays on the phone until the problem is resolved.”
- HostGator Review, Robert R.
“One area for improvement is the lack of notifications for security updates. There have been instances where I've gone for months without being reminded of necessary updates, potentially leaving my site vulnerable. Enhancing this aspect of their service would contribute to a more proactive and secure user experience.”
- HostGator Review, Carlos C.
Namecheap Hosting provides affordable shared hosting plans that center security and privacy. Users receive free domain privacy with every domain purchase to protect personal information. Their plans also include a free automatic SSL installation to secure your website.
“The most helpful thing about Namecheap is that it provides very cost-effective hosting services. The control panel provided is very easy to use and implement. Also, the customer support is great as they are always available to help you if any technical issue arises. The best feature of Namecheap hosting is that we get 50 free-of-cost SSLs while buying the hosting bundle.”
- Namecheap Hosting Review, Sanjay K.
“Entry-level plans have specific limitations regarding resource and scalability. If your website experiences essential growth or needs more advanced features, you may need to update to a higher-tier plan or explore alternative hosting options.”
- Namecheap Hosting Review, Praveen K.
InMotion Hosting offers shared hosting plans perfect for small and midsize businesses. You can migrate a website for free and their plan includes a free domain and SSL certificate.
“The technical support is excellent. I used InMotion hosting for the first website I created, and they implemented everything for me to get my site live.”
- InMotion Hosting Review, César R.
“There are many services in the cPanel, and finding the proper menu item when making configuration updates can be challenging.”
- InMotion Hosting Review, Geoff P.
You can weigh pros and cons to determine if it’s the right fit for your business, but overall shared hosting is perfect for small companies and websites that require cost-effective solutions for their hosting needs.
Now that you’re a little more familiar with the leading shared hosting providers on the market, study our user reviews to narrow down your choice and select the final contender.
Didn’t find what you were looking for? Check out free dedicated hosting providers for more bandwidth, flexibility, and security.
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