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Shared web hosting is a service offered by web hosts wherein more than one website is hosted on a single server. It is an economical option since the overall cost of running and maintaining the web server is shared among many websites.

A real-life comparison can be that of a students' dormitory where all students share the same facilities. Except that in case of shared web hosting, individual website owners do not normally know each other.

Usually small websites prefer shared web hosting to keep overhead cost minimum. It is quite common to find websites from any part of the world availing shared web hosting service from a single provider. For them, ability to host own website is more important than other considerations.

On the other hand, in many large companies every department has its own server which is shared only by department personnel. Clearly then the concept of shared web hosting varies from need to need depending on necessity and ability to afford the cost involved.

In the paragraphs below we will look at the pros and cons of shared web hosting in more details:

Shared Web Hosting - The Pros

If you are dipping your toe in web-world for the first time, shared web hosting will be a good choice. Costs are low since you are entitled to a small portion of the whole pie. More than that, shared web hosting offers unique advantage of many features and software that already come installed in host server. In addition, a system administrator, available 24x7, will be there to help you in case of any trouble with your shared web hosting.

Depending on service provider, typical freebies in shared web hosting include open-source software such as fully-featured shopping cart (like Agora, Oscommerce, CubeCart, Zen Cart, etc.), content management system or blogs (like Nucleus CMS, Drupal, Wordpress, etc.), image galleries (4Images, Coppermine, etc.) and so on.

This apart, most shared web hosting plans come equipped with web statistics facilities like Awstats and Webalizer, and sometimes even with a site-builder so that you can design your website in no time.

Since all hosting-related needs are taken care of, shared web hosting specially appeals to those website owners who want to focus on their web businesses and have no reason to bother about nitty-gritty of host server. In short therefore, with shared web hosting, one gets going without too much of hassle and certainly in shortest possible time.

Shared Web Hosting - The Cons

Not everything is rosy with shared web hosting. The principal concern is lack of privacy. If your website deals in sensitive data, then shared web hosting is not preferable. Since you have no control on what others are doing in shared web hosting, there is no guarantee that your website data will not be tampered with intentionally or otherwise.

It is true that some shared web hosting will offer SSL and TLS shields (SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and TLS means Transport Layer Security) to ensure that all your web communications remain totally confidential. But in practice this is not so. This is because in shared web hosting, all websites have same IP address (Internet Protocol Address) and therefore share the same SSL/TLS digital certificate.

Another issue of concern is when your host server malfunctions. This can happen even if yours is not a shared web hosting. The problem is that since you do not control the server, you will not know what ailed the system and so you cannot take any preventive measure.

Summing Up

Shared web hosting is without doubt the first stepping stone across the turbulence of web world. Once you graduate and progress you will find you no longer prefer shared web hosting for various reasons. You have grown big and have reached a point where it will be a better option to move out of shared web hosting, for good.