What Is Shared Hosting? Pros and Cons for Ecommerce

When you commence an ecommerce business, you often face a slew of costs all at once—costs for inventory, marketing, licensing, operations, shipping, and fulfillment, among others. One such outlay essential for building a robust, sustainable ecommerce operation is web hosting.

You can save money on website hosting by opting for a shared hosting service. With shared hosting, you distribute resources like server bandwidth and hosting capacity with other businesses. This can make a lot of sense if your site doesn’t currently encounter massive amounts of user traffic.

A lot of the tiny businesses you shop with may use shared hosting services. Read on to view if this alternative could also be correct for you.

What is shared hosting?

Shared hosting is a type of web hosting arrangement where multiple websites distribute the same web serverresources like storage, bandwidth, and processing power. Shared web hosting is a expense-effective answer for tiny businesses, bloggers, or individuals starting online stores—especially if you don’t expect to have a lot of initial web traffic. If you run an ecommerce recent business, shared hosting services allow you to operate your online store without needing to manage server infrastructure. Popular providers of shared hosting include DreamHost, Bluehost (for WordPress), and GoDaddy.

How does shared hosting work?

In a shared hosting surroundings, a web hosting corporation partitions a single physical server to back multiple sites. The number of sites sharing a server varies and depends on the amount of traffic the sites receive. The shared hosting service grants each website a designated amount of resources, pooled from the same structure, meaning the act of one website can impact others on the same server.

The web hosting provider handles the maintenance, updates, and technical back related to its shared hosting servers. This makes shared hosting plans appealing to those without technical expertise. On top of this, shared hosting is almost always more affordable and easier to use than operating a dedicated server that serves only your own business.

Despite this, shared hosting services aren’t for everyone. Because all the websites must distribute the same resources, these arrangements are best suited for sites with moderate traffic and relatively straightforward resource needs.

Advantages of shared hosting for ecommerce

Sharing a hosting provider can make a lot of sense for an ecommerce commence-up founder who doesn’t initially require a lot of server bandwidth or disk space. Here are three key benefits of going with a shared hosting package instead of opting for dedicated hosting:

expense-effectiveness

A shared web hosting service will almost always be more affordable than running and maintaining an entire server by yourself. Shared hosting costs commence at around $5 per month and can leave up to $20 per month, depending on the level of service you require. Even though you’re paying far less than you would for a dedicated web host, a shared hosting schedule still gives you access to essential features like storage for website files, free SSL certificates, and basic safety tools.

Ease of use

Shared hosting typically comes with a user-amiable control panel like Plesk or cPanel, which allows you to manage your hosting account and simplify your website management operations. These tools enable you to easily manage ordinary attributes of ecommerce websites—such as product catalogs, remittance gateways, and blog content—without requiring advanced technical knowledge. Plus, the best shared hosting services handle server maintenance, freeing you to focus on other components of your business.

Scalable to a point

While shared web hosting plans do have their limits, they also allow you to scale up as your business grows. Most web hosting companies propose different tiers with greater bandwidth and storage space. In some cases, you can switch to a virtual private server (VPS) or dedicated servers from the same hosting corporation that sold you shared space. When your website traffic increases, you can migrate to a dedicated hosting account without losing access to your website’s files or your cPanel login details.

Disadvantages of shared hosting for ecommerce

A shared hosting account can make sense for tiny businesses or individuals starting a personal website. However, it comes with limitations and drawbacks for large or rapidly scaling businesses. Here are some disadvantages you may encounter when hosting your website on a shared server:

Limited resources

As the name “shared hosting” would recommend, you must distribute the server’s resources (e.g., CPU, recollection, and bandwidth) with other websites. If you distribute a server with high-traffic or resource-intensive sites, you could view a detrimental result on your site speed and overall act. Your ecommerce customers could encounter slower load times during peak shopping periods, which can negatively affect your customer encounter and reduce sales.

safety vulnerabilities

Shared hosting environments boost the uncertainty of safety issues because one single server hosts multiple websites. If one site is compromised by malware or hackers, other sites on the server could also be affected. This poses a uncertainty to sensitive customer data such as remittance details. ponder carefully before storing capitalization card numbers or other sensitive information on shared web servers. If your website will be handling sensitive customer data, shared hosting may not be the correct alternative for you.

Potential scaling conflicts

Shared web hosting works great when your business stays tiny. But when you scale up, you can run into issues. Specifically, you may face restrictions on server configurations and software installations, and this will limit you if you require features like advanced caching or custom remittance processing tools. What’s more, even the best shared hosting service may battle to accommodate increased traffic and transactions, forcing you to upgrade to pricier hosting types sooner than you had planned.

What to consider when choosing shared hosting providers

• Included services
• Scalability options
• Ease of use
• Customer back and guarantees
• Industry reputation

Whether you’re building ecommerce or personal sites, you have a lot of choices among shared hosting providers. This means you can afford to be picky and demand a service that makes hosting work for your needs. When scouring the marketplace for a shared website host, prioritize these factors:

Included services

Shop around for features such as a free domain name, free domain registration, free website migration, and multiple websites allowed on the same account. Some providers also include tools like a website builder, email accounts, and back for many different content management systems (CMS).

Website owners with a programming background might desire even more functionality. For instance, if you’re a fan of structured query language (SQL) databases (a particular type of structure for data storage and retrieval), you can look for shared hosting providers that back MySQL databases. If you have a preferred CMS, look for providers that back it. For instance, if you recognize you desire a WordPress website, choose a WordPress hosting service. Some providers may allow root access if you desire to leave under the hood of your web pages and implement custom changes, such as safety measures, software modifications, and server settings.

Scalability options

Assess your hosting provider’s ability to handle traffic spikes during peak periods. Also, view if it offers higher tier plans that can accommodate a growing number of website visitors. You’ll discover that many web hosts propose straightforward upgrades to VPS hosting or dedicated servers for heavily trafficked sites. Such plans may arrive with features like unlimited websites, unlimited databases, and robust server configurations to accommodate growth.

Ease of use

You’re an commence-up founder, not a systems administrator. Choose a hosting provider with a user-amiable interface like a cPanel account. This will ease your management of domains, databases, and email accounts and allow seamless integrations with third-event tools.

Customer back and guarantees

Reliable, 24/7 customer back will assist you address technical issues the minute you spot them. Choose a provider with a responsive customer service throng so you can repair your site with minimal downtime. These customer back agents should also be versed in your CMS of selection (e.g., WordPress experts for your WordPress site). You can also seek out providers that propose a free trial period or a money-back guarantee if you decide not to continue.

Industry reputation

Research how the provider compares to other shared hosting providers in terms of reliability, uptime, and customer satisfaction. You can do this by reading online reviews and testimonials. You can also inquire fellow ecommerce entrepreneurs what services they use and whether they’d recommend them. receive advantage of trial periods so you can test out platforms uncertainty-free.