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There are many different types of web hosting. Shared hosting is the most popular among all of them. This is mainly because shared hosting is cheaper and it usually offers quite decent hosting parameters. Shared hosting is a web service, that allows multiple clients to host their websites on the same server. You can use a limited amount of resources, defined by the hosting package.
For most people that are just starting their online presence, this type of service could be a great choice. However, if you want to host a larger project with advanced security and guaranteed uptime, you should consider using another plan.
In today’s article, we are going to cover some questions regarding the speed and security of shared hosting, and also give you some valuable tips on how to make this service faster.
Also Read Top Advantages and Disadvantages of Shared Web Hosting
Is Shared Hosting Good?
Yes, it is. Shared web hosting is the most budget-friendly way to get a site online due to the fact that many other people contribute to the costs. For that reason, the individual prices for users are kept low.
This type of service is really good for a small website or а blog that doesn’t require advanced configurations or high bandwidth. Reports on the entire market show that this type of service is currently at $18.7 billion worldwide. It is the second-fastest-growing segment of the industry with a growth rate of 10.4%
Due to CDN ( Content Delivery Network ) and cache technologies, shared hosting can deliver fast and easy more and more without any downtime. Find a list with Top Shared Hosting Companies or use Hosting Finder for web hosting providers perfect small traffic websites
Distinct Features of Shared Hosting
Shared hosting as one of the most popular and most bought service packages has improved over the years. In this area, web hosting companies always innovate and bring in new features, additions, and optimisations to improve the product. Many of the top companies allocate the required resources using sophisticated control software that are similar to the ones that manage the VPS installations. In this regard, users can expect the level of service delivery that they pay for.
In addition to this many of the hosting plans that we have reviewed add extra services that are included in the price such as specific speed optimisations, coupons for marketing and advertising, as well as enhanced support — knowledge base articles, tutorials, videos, how-to guides, etc.
In terms of specific advantages, many of them now add in cloud network deployment — this makes sites load much faster across the world. The resources will be uploaded to the cloud servers and distributed across the globe.
Is Shared Hosting Slow?
The issue with this type of service is that you share the same physical server with many other users. And you may not know what is happening on the machine.
With that being said, your server can become seriously overburdened by some of the other sites that it hosts. And thus your website can experience slowdowns, lags, and maybe downtimes.
Another problem that can occur is that your website may experience performance issues. This can be caused by increased traffic among the other websites that are hosted on the same server.
So with that being said, no matter if your website has 5 or 50 visitors, if some of the other sites, hosted on the same server, register increased traffic, it will definitely affect the performance of your website as well.
Is Shared Web Hosting Secure?
Vulnerabilities and slowdowns in some of the websites that are hosted on the same server can also lead to problems. It is quite possible that your website can get infected by some of the viruses that came to your server through any of your neighbours who haven’t secured their websites effectively.
And that is pretty bad because you can never be 100% sure that your data is protected. This can also lead to slowdowns because of server overloading, caused by some malicious code.
With all of that being said, we would recommend making this choice only if you are about to start a small website with a few pages, that are not made to accumulate serious traffic on daily basis. If you plan to invest in something reliable and big, we suggest going for a dedicated server.
Why Is Shared Hosting Slow?
This is not a very hard question to answer. There are a few reasons why shared service is sometimes slow. Let us explain.
Imagine that this type of service is a hostel that accommodates 30 families. Every family every day invites a lot of people to visit their apartment interior, some families have better looking and bigger apartments than the others, therefore these families have more visitors than the ones with smaller and less nice flats. Day after day the number of visitors are increasing and start to make a crowd in front of the hostel door. And when your visitors come to visit your apartment they have to wait a little bit before going in.
In reality, it is the same as with shared service but in bigger numbers and the crowd is not pushing that much, but sometimes happens exactly the same. The hostel is shared web hosting, the apartments are the sites, the families are the people working behind the websites, and the visitors are potential users of these websites.
Tips and Tricks to Make Your Share Hosted Website Faster
Now that we reviewed all the advantages and disadvantages of this popular web host service, it’s time to show you some easy tips and tricks, which will help you to speed up your website, while you are using these host services.
Use Cache Plugins
A really good tip to optimize the speed of your WordPress website is to install a proper cache plugin. If you are not familiar with what exactly is a cache plugin and how it works we are going to introduce this information.
A caching plugin generates the HTML code of your pages and saves these pages on your server.
Every time a user loads a page from your website the caching plugin goes and takes the lighter HTML page code of a certain page from your server and instead of processing the PHP WordPress code. This process really speeds up your website.
After you already know what is Cache Plugin and how it works, the next questions is: Which is the best cache plugin?
There are thousands of similar plugins available in the networking space.
Avoid Too Many Plugins
If You Are Using Shared Hosting, do not overload your website with too many plugins. Before you install a plugin be sure that you have checked its quality and you have read a review about the plugin. It’s is also very important to check the compatibility between the plugins of your website. If there are ones, which are not compatible with one another, this can really slow your website.
Shared Hosting FAQ
What Is Shared Web Hosting?
Shared hosting, just like its name suggests, allows you to share one server with other customers of the same web hosting company, in other words other users of this server.
This means that all of your different websites data is on the same server, which maintains other clients as well. When using shared web hosting, bear in mind that the amount of your resources are only limited, due to this same exact reason.
This means that every time your website exceeds a certain resource, like bandwidth or drive space, you may be charged extra, depending on the web hosting company.
How to Choose the Best Shared Web Hosting Plan?
Choosing the correct shared web hosting plan really depends on your requirements. Generally, these kinds of plans are suitable if you want to:
- Begin a small website for your business or blog.
- Are on a budget and want to keep low operating costs.
- Have a start a project and you wish to show it to your upcoming potential customers.
- Are a beginner with lack of extensive technical knowledge about networking and hosting.
- Are not an experienced web programmer.
- Want to study how WordPress, Joomla and other CMS platforms work.
- Wish to learn web design and coding in real life.
Based on this criteria and other factors, such as price, features, support, hardware (RAM, CPU, Bandwidth, etc.) you can use howtohosting.guide’s Hosting Finder, to easier compare that latest deals and find the best plan for you.
What Are the Pros and Cons of Shared Web Hosting?
When it comes to shared web hosting in particular, you could say that the following are its main benefits and drawbacks:
Pros:
- Prices are cheap and you can stumble upon good deals.
- User friendly control panels and interfaces, designed for beginners.
- Loading speeds are generally fast.
- Backups are often offered by companies, providing high-reliability.
- Tech support for most top companies is outstanding.
- Most servers are very well secured, with the latests standards in this sector.
Cons:
- Limited resources, compared to dedicated hosting.
- Sometimes, load times are slow, especially from far away locations.
- Shared directory means risks of security standpoint in case there is a problem with the server.
- Shared resources means slower performance on web traffic surges.
- You only get access to standard features, unlike when compared to VPS hosting.
What to Do If I Have Already Chosen My Shared Hosting?
In case you have done your research and have already chosen the right web hosting company to begin your project, then the following steps should help you start:
- Make sure the idea of your project is clearly understood.
- All of the research for the project should be fully done beforehand.
- Research the right domain extension to choose from (.com, .io, .net, etc.).
- Choose if you will have a custom site or will use a CMS platform, like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc.
- Select the right theme and plugins that will benefit your project, keeping functionality and simplicity in mind.
- Select different categories for your website or project.
How Are Servers Shared?
In shared hosting, the server is divided into multiple segments, with each segment allocated to a different website. Each website is allocated a certain amount of resources such as memory, storage space, and CPU time.
The websites on the server are usually hosted on a single IP address, so they cannot access each other’s data. The main advantage of shared hosting is its affordability.
Since multiple websites are hosted on the same server, the cost of hosting is shared among them. This makes shared hosting a cost-efficient option for businesses and individuals who don’t have the budget to get dedicated hosting.
Who Needs a Shared Hosting Plan?
Shared hosting is a great choice for those who are looking for an affordable and easy way to get their website or blog up and running. It’s ideal for those who don’t have a large budget, don’t require a lot of features, and don’t need a lot of customization.
Shared hosting is best for small businesses, personal blogs, and hobby websites. With shared hosting, your website is hosted on a single physical server, along with multiple other websites.
This helps keep costs down as you are only paying for the resources you need, rather than dedicated resources for your website. Shared hosting is also extremely easy to set up and maintain, making it perfect for those who don’t have much experience with web hosting.
It is also a great choice for those who need a quick and easy setup. Most hosting providers offer a one-click and drag and drop installation process, which makes it easy to get your website up and running in no time.
Is Shared Hosting Worth It?
The answer is yes, but it depends on your specific needs. Shared hosting is a good option for small businesses or website owners who don’t have high traffic or need many resources.
It is also a good option for businesses who don’t need a lot of customization or don’t need the server to be managed by an IT specialist.
However, the downside is that you are sharing the server resources with other users, so you may experience slower loading times and more downtime.
How Can I Find Proper Shared Hosting Easily?
By using the Hosting Finder Tool, for less than a minute, you can filter web hosting brands by traffic volume, CMS (WordPress, Magento, Drupal.), Server Location and current discounts. All results are based on analysis of customer reviews around the web.
Hi , My wordpress website is very slow in last few weeks.. I see I eve lose google position.. I have removed most of the images and videos. Also I remove some of the plugins and now they are 43. Is this ok number.. Can you please let me know how to test the speed and let me know if there are some free speed optimization plugins. Any suggestions will help a lot. Thanks
Hi Franz, if you read our article once again you will find out that if you are using shared hosting 43 plugins are too much. It is good to decrease the number to 20-25.
To optimize the speed of your website you can install WP Rocket – cache plugin, you can find a link and review in the article. Thanks for trusting us!
Well in my case, a shared plan is definitely slow. I am using a shared plan for 2 websites but they are both pretty slow. I could not configure lot on a shared plan and I’m wondering if there is a way to increase the speed of a shared hosting server..
Hi Harry, Thank you for sharing you experience. We would recommend you to consider using (Cloudflare) service. You can first start with free plan. Let us know if that change you sites speed.
Here you will find How to Install CloudFlare on WordPress Website – https://howtohosting.guide/how-to-install-cloudflare-on-wordpress-website-illustrated-guide/
Here you can test your speed before and after – https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
What I don’t like with shared hosting is that I do not have any control on server’s resources, so when I notice changes in the speed of my site all I can do is to contact my hosting provider – Hostinger, but nothing else..