There is always some support needed from the hands around if you wanted to run a business may that be an online one or offline. For an online business, the web hosting plays an important role in deciding the fate of it in the long run.

When you are starting up with a website for your business, it is wise to have it hosted on a simple shared hosting initially if you are not someone who is expecting to attract loads of visitors online and earn from it. But, the shared hosting isn’t the best option if you are looking to have more than just an online base in the portfolio. Because Shared hosting typically is a server being shared by several users and thus, there is a limitation for everything including the disk space, the monthly bandwidth limit, number of email accounts and add-on domains.

Below we share the various advantages and disadvantages of hosting a website on shared hosting.

Pros of shared hosting

Low cost

This is one of the major reasons why one would go for a shared hosting. The plans are cost-effective and for someone who is starting up with the Internet stuff, the shared hosting doesn’t burn the pockets, thus is an easier option to choose. A single server is shared by several users, and thus the cost is cut down. You can use web hosting coupon codes to redeem price of hosting.

No technical maintenance needed

When it is a server being run by the company and you are getting your own cPanel account, there is no maintenance needed to be done by you except for setting up the website. Everything else about the server is the web host’s headache. The Linux server administration skills are important when an actual server is rented by the user, but here in the Shared hosting, no such knowledge or skills are needed.

Multiply features

The paid shared hosting options come with features such as Multiply e-mail, MySQL, PHP etc. and thus, a user doesn’t have to look around for alternatives or extra hosting packages when the same shared hosting account is able to get that from the host.

Easy options for script installation

This is often noticed that the scripts such as WordPress can be easily installed through the cPanel that is provided in Shared hosting, but for the higher-end server owners, they have to manually upload all the script files and run the installer from their own side to install it. This is again a case of skills needed for script installation, which is not needed when the user has the Shared hosting.

Cons of Shared hosting

Limitation

You won’t get everything in the cheap shared hosting plan. There are limited resources available, and if the user wants to get more than this, there has to be a payment made for each of it or the user has to shift to a better plan or use the other options such as Re-seller hosting, private or dedicated server.

Handling huge traffic is not possible

When it’s shared, the traffic load is also shared. A single server being used by multiple users obviously comes with a lot of limitations and if you are expecting hundreds of visitors online at the same time, it might not be possible with most of the web hosting companies. The servers could take a hit, and thus the company can suspend the website due to overuse of resources.

Limited bandwidth and disk space

The only solution to the limited bandwidth and disk space you are provided in the shared hosting, is by upgrading. This becomes a hassle when you are trying to shift from one plan to the other, because this limit cannot be lifted in the shared hosting plans which you purchased.

Security

The security of the website is not at the levels of security the dedicated servers and private servers come with. Thus, the website sometimes can be compromised and hacking is a possibility, unless you are taking your own measures to keep the website secure.

Downtime and Reliability

The shared hosting is not that reliable, and the user can face a lot of downtime especially when the other websites in the same server are using a lot of resources, and this effects almost all the websites in the server.

Even when you talk about SEO, the search engines check for the websites which are hosted on the same server, and sometimes you could be sharing your hosting with some spammy websites, which might cause your website to lose the credibility and rankings.